It's not necessarily noticeable if you only call one wave in early. For example, if you called in the first 5 waves early you could potentially generate enough to build a new turret. It will likely make it a bit tougher but if you can get to wave 47 then a few extra monsters during the early game should be a piece of cake. You're also going to get a better score at the end if you're calling in waves early. Making some good progress with survival. It might feel a bit easier during the first 20 waves but a lot of players were struggling to get that far. All maps should feel a lot more viable now, especially with the extra tower platforms and the cost of building them is going to go down significantly (price still TBC).
Probably could have gone slightly further. Accidentally called for shield at the end when my drone was over a turret and not the base
So you and Jstorm are both officially better than me at the game now! I'm having a blast tweaking survival mode for the next update. All maps are viable now when it comes to hitting higher waves. We've made some spawn tweaks, stopping massive monsters spawning out of tiny building entrances (which I'm sad to see go as watching a slug pop out of the Uranus boss structure was entertaining), blocking some spawns on asteroid next to the command centre etc... Survival progression is going to be more gradual, rather than hitting wave 15 and all of a sudden the path is filled with a sea of red monsters. It's not necessarily easier but it provides a bit more breathing room earlier game for players to think about their building / upgrading strategy. As a lot of players are struggling to get past 15-20 I expect it to be a welcome change. I'd also expect you guys to be hitting even higher waves. It's likely that we will run another beta phase aimed at survival mode for this update as the changes are quite significant. If you guys would like to participate let me know and I'll reach out when testing begins.
BTW, it may be worth changing the shield so that it will be activated for the base (after coming onto the map) regardless of where the drone actually is- in my latest run, I activated it accidentally over a turret and that made the shield completely useless. This will also make for more interesting usage of the +30% benefit of the drone imo.
It does in fact block thinker attacks against turrets which is why you can deploy it on them but I appreciate in survival this is mostly useless, especially during later waves where the command centre is constantly getting battered. I'd like to keep it so that it has to be moved back to the command centre as this keeps players on their toes. Maybe we could look at changing the graphic when it flies over a turret as a bit of visual feedback to help accidental shield deployments.
Let me know when you are starting the beta test. Also, I don’t want to sound like an elitist, but I am curious what kind of build a player is doing to struggle to get passed wave to 15-20, unless the player is playing on the current Asteroid or something.
You'd be surprised! There are still players that are having a tough time with normal mode. I think a part of the issue is not that the game is too hard but that we need to make the synergy between towers and monsters clearer. For example, asteroid is still a map that players get stuck on when playing for the first time. I strongly suspect that this is due to players not knowing how to best counter flying units (rocket pods). The next update will contain a lot of QOL additions that address this.
I had no idea it blocks thinker attacks. I always thought to block an attack you just have to hover over it with the drone, and never knew why it didn’t work. Does the thinker move on once blocked or does its attack just continue and have no effect?
Thank you for raising this Jelt. I'm going to make a note that we need to make the effects of the shield on turrets clearer to the player. When applied to a turret, it will stop the thinker from attacking so that it moves on.
Pretty much the same as JStorm, except that I only had one EMP slot on the map- the extra slot next to the base. All other artillery slots were Uranium.
Yup. The current survival comes down to spamming artillery, and how to survive until getting those artillery turrets up. The problem? is that the nuke turret is too effective against everything, minus fresh wings. Even meat clouds are best dealt with the nuke turret.
Am I reading this as a suggestion for an artillery nuke nerf? I was considering increasing the recharge time a little. The artillery turret is designed to be an all rounder when it comes to damage but it's hindered by a very slow rate of fire. We shall see how it plays out during the final testing for the coming update. We're making good progress and should be able to invite folks in to break it soon... Hopefully at the beginning of next week.
Nerfing the arty, or buffing other turrets is your call to make, but when only one type of turret can deal with everything and most effectively, then there is a balancing issue. I would say buff other turrets. For example the minigun could have a cone of fire that hits everything in it, lightening turret procing the lightning every hit, and the rail gun having its shots affecting everything and firing at the maximum range instead of stopping at the intended target.
Hmmm... While I do agree the uranium turret charged attack is particularly powerful and may require some attention, I definitely wouldn't consider it unbalanced or game breaking. It fires very slow making you rely on its charged attack and it cannot directly attack air units. You cannot rely on it solely and other turrets play a role otherwise you'd only build artillery. Yes it's good at dealing damage to all armour types but the trade off is it fires very slow. Regarding turret balancing, what I can tell you is coming in the next update: Rocket pods are now more accurate making them much more effective The rocket pod charged attack when targeted at a reinforced flesh unit, will prioritise it Rocket pods will prioritise air units in general Some fixes to AI targeting making it more effective in some situations Gatling gun base attack increased a bit against all targets and the charged attack has had a slightly bigger damage buff against all targets (except demon flesh) Flame cannon charged attack now fires for longer and can produce a slightly larger flame wall So in a way, most experimental turrets have been buffed except for the depleted uranium artillery which may gets its charged attack time slightly increased. The railgun is very powerful already IMO. When assigned to focus on stronger targets it can slowly chip away at nasty elite monsters before they even get close to the command centre. The charged attack not only deals splash damage to enemies caught in the path of the projectile but it also has a chance to kill shot reinforced. If you place one well on the map when playing survival, the charged attack can murder tons of units in a single charge because of the splash damage.
