Manual guns also reload to full now when entering, allowing you to start whacking dudes faster. Doubled target lock speed for missile launcher. Fixed a few other visual and performance issues, but still a lot of performance tweaking to go, later levels still slow things down too much.
Again, thanks for feedback guys.
Ok, still alot to do, but posted a new version with some fixes. Fixed effect when entering manual gun. Added dynamic music (still needs tweaking on energy level). Added menu for adjusting audio, resetting, and returning to main. Reduced enemy power scaling, now it's actually likely a bit too easy unless using creep bait, but likely more fun overall. Fixed some issues with enemies stalling, and some issues with special attacks. Manual guns now do 2X normal damage in continuous mode.
About target priority, the commanders favor a certain enemy type, which can be seen if you hover over the commander panel (yet another thing I'd love to explain in a campaign). For instance, putting a high powered gun at the end of paths with some snipers around it will often do a good job of taking down high health enemies, since Sam's turrets favor high health targets. However, I think that's likely not enough, and perhaps just left clicking any enemy will prioritize that target for all structures, I don't think there's any real downside to adding that. Also, having a gun turret/missile turret in sight of all parts of the path should let you manually take down anything.
As far as a campaign, I wanted to try to get as much of the basic gameplay nailed down in this small version of the game, then develop something bigger. It does have a very different flow with the inclusion of so many things to do, and although I like the potential, there are a lot of little things that need testing/tweaking before building a campaign around it. I'm hoping I can make this enough fun to get enough feedback, and then step towards that 'bigger' game.
Good feedback. I agree about manual turrets being underpowered in continuous mode, the game does get too frantic right now (which would be good for last level in a campaign, but not first :)), and you just don't have sufficient time for them. I'll do a combination of reducing the volume of enemies towards the end, as well as likely doubling manual turret power in continuous mode.
The flash when entering turret mode needs work, but what is happening there that might not be obvious is it's slowing down time when you enter it, so you get time to orient the thing, but the screen blur persists for way too long, kinda killing the benefit of the slowdown. I'll fix that.
Micro structures get benefits from manually controlled guns. Placing a level 1 artillery gun surrounded by Powersellers can generate some nice extra cash if you use a manual gun on it occasionally (manual turrets are not scaled by the power of the underlying gun, they are normalized to enemies).
Enemies on a path have to 'follow' eachother, slowing enemies in front will slow the ones behind them, when they get close enough. Also, slowing enemies so they are bunched up for some explosive attack can be quite effective.
You get bounty for enemies whether they are killed or not, so letting enemies get by and rebuilding your shield might be a good strategy for a higher score if it allows you to use Creep Bait earlier.
The upgrade tool is a wicked fast way to upgrade structures, structures are colored from green to red when you mouse over/use the tool, indicating their relative strength vs your other turrets, so at a glance you can see underpowered structures, and upgrade with one click.
Enemies take heavy damage from running into buildings/eachother. Freezing enemies slows their movement and control, so using freeze and Katrina's special attack can be quite devastating (ramming enemies into buildings will kill almost anything, take note of the position of building on left size of map).
Thanks for comments. Yea, it's kinda tough to get the concepts across without a real campaign that eases you into it while keeping it fun, but I wanted to get something in by the 15th, and wanted some general feedback anyways. The commander/structure relationship is not explained well, but again, text gets a bit boring to read and I thought I'd lose people's attention with too much of a wall of text explaining stuff. But let me know what you guys think needs explaining, and what is maybe explained more than it needs to be.
It's definitely a weird TD game with a different flow to how it plays, but I think when it 'clicks' it works really nice. Other things that are not explained at all now...
 "Sentinels: The First Wave"){kind=icon}