Getting past level 15 shouldn't be too painful. Occasionally i might get wiped out depending on the map. I find Moon the toughest because it's pretty tight and there's no fortification wall. 20 to 25 should be tough. 25 to 30 should be very hard 30+ should be rock hard - I was very impressed to see you hit those waves so early on at release.
Also I'll let you into a bit of a secret (In case you haven't noticed)... survival waves work in chunks of 5. Every 5th wave you will hit a peak point which will either include a larger monster spawn pool and sometimes multiple boss or elite types. If you keep that in mind it will help you plan a head a bit so you know when your down time is to start focusing on upgrades.
Thanks for the info with waves in the survival mode. While I was aware of periodic big waves, I didn’t notice it was every 5 waves. One of the reasons I didn’t notice the spike being every 5 waves is that I barely care about the wave #, because there is no clear boundary in between waves like other TD games do. I prefer the current seamless transition between waves over intermittent waves because it provides immersion that I am up against a huge army of demonic aliens. As of using various turrets, I do use turrets aside from the lightening turret... I mean I don’t see myself beating the hard mode if I am dealing with meat clouds only with lightening turrets. About the EMP howitzer, I do use them, but I still need to figure out which turret location consistently fire shells near the base for each map. It’s quite frustrating to see an EMP, or howitzers in general, firing at zombies that just entered the map when the base is being munched. As I mentioned some time ago, it would be great if turrets in general prioritize targets that are closer to the base, or have a target mode that does that.
I get to reach wave 20 on the moon, but haven’t passed it yet. Played around with the EMP on this map, found a spot that the turret fires near the base...but it was kinda meh. The AoE stun is nice, but I am not sure if its worth trading off with the firepower that is already lacking.
What targeting mode did you have the EMP turret on? When assigned to smart targeting turrets should prioritise monsters attacking the commander centre. If that isn't the case then I might need to raise a bug report. Selecting either low or high health targeting will override this function and the tower will not focus on monsters closest to or that are attacking the command centre and instead priortise the designated enemy. Regarding the EMP, bare in mind that the cool down on the charged attack is fairly quick and the extra time it buys you gives your other turrets more time to focus fire. Also it stops enemies from attacking at the same time. I think we might need to provide a bit more info via the tactical database.
Also we've just released a small update. Patch Notes: Update 1.0.7 It's been a fantastic few weeks since launch seeing everybody get stuck into the campaign and we appreciate the time that players have made to report their experiences and feedback - it means a lot to the dev team! We have been paying close attention and this update contains changes that directly respond to player feedback. Some of the later maps have been tweaked to be a bit more forgiving as we appreciate that the difficulty curve was a little bit steep. Your continued feedback and suggestions are welcome and appreciated so please let us know you you get on with the new balancing changes. Changes Towers - Gatling gun base damage increased slightly against all enemy armour types - Gatling gun charged attack damage slightly increased against weak/tough/reinforced Audio - Increased the volume of the lightning turret attack SFX Balancing (normal / hard) Asteroid Mining Facilities - Reduce frequency of zombie spawning on final wave - Slightly increased the time between some waves - Other minor tweaks to the waves Earth Defence Platform - Slightly increased the time between some waves - The number of hunks that spawn during later waves has been reduced - Other minor tweaks to the waves -- Good luck Commanders!
The only turret type that I set the priority is the plasma turret, so I believe howitzers were on the smart. I will play around with howitzers more to see if they consistently prioritize enemies that are hitting the base.
So I played around with howitzers, and you were right. Turrets do prioritize enemies that are hitting the base. However, if a turret’s range is short even for a few meters from the base, turrets just starts firing everywhere.
When you say a turrets range is short, do you mean the minimum range? (orange circle). Towers that have a minimum range include: Gatling gun All artillery turrets Railgun Plasma Lightning Turret When monsters go within the minimum range these towers cannot attack incoming enemies. I sometimes set one artillery to engage high health targets and one left on smart depending on map and the location I build them. If you have only one in range of the command centre then it might be best left on smart targeting so that it will switch to engage enemies piling up at the command centre.
No, not the minimum range. The maximum range is sometimes a few meters short. I think what I want is howitzers to fire at the general direction of the base even if the maximum range doesn’t cover the base.
Ah I see! - As in, it would be useful if the artillery prioritised targets that would not necessarily receive direct impact but that would still bit damaged by the impact explosion. I'll make a note of this. I know you also mentioned the possibility of a ground attack function and this is something I've made a note of. My only concern with implementing this is that it could make artillery very over powered. Imagine if you had 3-4 just constantly bombarding the same location next to the command centre! It's possible but would need testing thoroughly and likely involve a re-balance of the turret to compensate. The charged attack for the delepted uranium variant is a balanced way for us to implement ground attack as it only offers limited firing at a targeted location directly set by the player.
Not sure if the ground attack would break the balance. I had 3 lvl3 howitzers firing at the base on the Carrier survival, and they couldn’t stop spawnlings.
Imagine the nuke cannon charged ability. Instead of selecting an enemy, you target a location on the map. That is the ground attack. I am suggesting howitzers to have the ground attack capability not only for the charged attack, but for default attacks as well.
Oh yes that makes so much sense. You're not actually changing the ability of the turrets, just the targeting, right? That would be so awesome. I also hate it for example when my rocket turrets get distracted by some minions instead of just going after the meat cloud.
Your understanding is correct. As an alternative to the ground attack, I am suggesting howitzers to attack the enemies that are closer to the base.
Just to clarify, I am not a developer. I was a bit worried with your comment that sounds like I am making changes. I am just merely suggesting those features to Caatalyst.
Of course I completely understand. You've made some great suggestions and a ground attack system would be something I'd like to test out
Next boot camp video is up! I wanted to get this one out quickly as this map is causing the most headaches
Thanks! We went at this totally different, lol. I had lots of plasma to soften up enemies when they entered. Funny, I also don't remember there being a fortification wall. I was so annoyed at that point in the map in your video when the hounds were against that wall and the flamethrower was shooting somewhere else!
