What would you like to see in terms of a unique element in a new coliseum level? Also if you could, what would you add to sink (something simple and easy) to make it more enjoyable? Is it the mushrooms, the small confined layout, the look, or something else that makes Tree Stump more fun?
I'm going to jump in and add my opinion on the whole MG debate. The real problem is that there really isn't any substitute for MG turrets. FF turrets and zapper turrets, don't do damage. Firecracker turrets are a joke and can't be relied upon, along with Bug Bombs.Magnifiers are great turrets, but you can't have more than one or else you'll be roasted at night. This leaves us with just lasers and snipers. Lasers are great on Pond, but not on Yard or playroom, where they can't align up with any bugs. Sniper turrets can't handle the onslaught of fleas and grubs, despite outputting massive damage. As I had a kitchen save at round 130+ with >30000 cash, I sold all my MGs and bought maxed-out Snipers. I was swarmed by the thousands of small and and medium bugs and my Sniper turrets could rarely get a lock on the fast moving bugs. Damage wasn't relevant at all at that point, but turning speed and firing rate was. The problem is that there is nothing but MGs to use. Try nerfing power instead of range, because damage is really the more important variable. And for another turret to compete with MG turrets, maybe a laser gun that has the same range, but medium damage per shot with one shot per second. TL;DR: All the other turrets are optional, but MG turrets are necessary because they are te only thing to handle small bugs.
^ This is pretty much everything that I've been saying, especially the part about MGs being a necessity regardless of the situation. I don't think nerfing it will solve the problem. Another thing is that 1 MG doesn't do much on its own, so in my experience, you need at least two in every game. Multiple MG turret setups are excellent because they provide a balance; they're effective against all types of bugs short of heavily armored ones. If we had turrets that specialized in eliminating small bugs, then we can have turret setups that don't involve more than 1 MG. Like, let's say, if we had a hypothetical flame thrower turret that had a nice AOE effect on small bugs, we would then be able to replace the necessary 2 MG turrets with 1 flamethrower (which would suck against medium and heavy armored bugs, so they wouldn't be abusable), and could focus on building turrets that do other cool stuff. I hope I'm making some sense here.
-One with random powerups! Damage boost, invulnerability, exp, regen, invisibility...etc. I know, it's been done a million times in other games, but that's only cuz it's a fun concept. -One with a magnifier glass turret in the middle. You can't directly interact with it or upgrade it, but you take advantage of it during the day, and save up your cooldowns for night-time. Hey. This might be a little too much, but it occurred to me: Mini-games would be so fun in this game! Like ones where you play with a centipede and try to eat as much food as possible, or a cat...etc. I guess we have dedicated iPhone games for these though, but still. Tree Stump is the ideal battleground for people to test out their skills without all the visual and physical obstructions in Sink. All these narrow passages in Sink make it less pleasant to play in, especially because you don't have all the utilities of all 3 heroes (like teleport). You're more prone to get yourself trapped and ambushed in Sink without being careless. Coliseum is already extremely challenging without these annoyances.
I'm testing a few tweaks. Firecracker turret has been weakened again, but it shoots almost twice as fast now... seeing how something with a moderate firing rate + AOE works. And trying out the removal of hero knock Also I'm testing zapper turrets with more damage to be more of an "anti-small" alternative. They have a small AOE so they should be better at giving support damage to small hordes of enemies in addition to slowing down and stunning. Obviously they won't provide the raw dps that an MG turret does, but they do decent damage... im liking it so far from what i've tested. Also, there lies the problem with coliseum... people want new levels but to be honest, Tree Stump is probably the epitome of a coliseum level... sink was designed to be claustrophobic and have corridors and narrow passages on purpose, to offer something in contrast to the wide open tree stump. What would have been the point in just having a tree stump clone?
Coliseum Current levels: - Tree Stump: I think its perfect as is to be honest. It has almost a dojo or training grounds feel to it(a serene feel). Its set up very simple, love the mushrooms, level is not cluttered, and the detail of the wood/level all-round is PURE eye candy. If I were to add anything to it currently...I would test out possibly increasing the size of the level a small bit, because in the later rounds when you have enemies coming at you from all directions...you wish you had a little more real estate to navigate through. As said, adding more frequent(smaller) food drops from either kills or at the beginning/end of the rounds may make up for the smaller sized map, but to be honest I love the level as is. Very well executed for spec'ing skills and honing your characters overall. _________________________________________________________________ Sink: - Make it to where you can walk around the sink so your characters dont get pinned. - Either get rid of the night cycle or add part of an open window in the background that both shows the day/night cycle and/or add an enemy spawning point that bugs can come from(i.e. ants can spawn during the day, fall off the window sill and Mosquitoes, moths, and other nocturnal bugs can fly/come in through during the night cycle). - Make it less cluttered around the main area or decrease the sizes of certain items so you have a little more room to navigate. I do like that there are obstacles, but sometimes it feels cluttered in the later levels when more enemies/types start to show up or just get stuck/pinned in too often. - Add a unique item that spawns like the mushroom but with a different effect(i.e. the sink can splash water drops to random places on the map to create a mold spore(s) that grows in size as well as potency to add an hallucinogenic effect that can slow time on enemies for the duration+ a random effect or more than one randomly like attack+ defense+ immunity+ invincibility+ depending on the set sizes of the spore. The larger the spore, the longer the effect or effects). _________________________________________________________________ New coliseum level ideas: - A twin sized child's bed(racecar frame) or mattress: with a unique bug like a bed bug, some toys. - Doghouse: Ticks, fleas, chew toys, treats, a puppy thats sort of like the cat in the yard level. - Coffee Table: rectangular shape, half eaten food, snacks, crumbs, drinks, video game controllers, red bull or energy drink spills/leak/droplets from time to time for speed+ damage+ effects. Some smaller coliseum levels ideas: - Bookshelf or entertainment center: books, cd's, dvd's, gaming consoles, fish tank, etc... a thinner linear level - Birdhouse or nest. - A large cereal box laying on its side. - A large board-game board with game pieces as people left in the middle of the game. Sorry for the length if its tldr but those are some of my thoughts.
The point in having a tree stump clone is that it would be fun. Being claustrophobic with corridors and narrow passages is no fun for Coliseum. But I don't even mean a clone, just something that lets you move around without such tight restrictions. Tree Stump is the epitome of a coliseum level so why drastically change what works? Subtle changes would do just fine and make for more good Coliseum levels. Like I said before when you made the sink level, you should be able to walk into the sink. That alone will make it that much better. Godson seems like he would agree and many other people probably would as well.
Well, I wouldn't mind Zappers' cost being raised in return for serious damage to small bugs, such that I could rely on 1 machine gun and 1 zapper to take care of the small bugs in the long-term, and the other two turrets for other functions, like laser + sniper, or something like that. Yeah. I suppose you could do with some funky ideas.
Couple questions. Do you think adding the Lucky shot and Static Discharge effects to the shoulder turret would make having the skill more appealing or effective? Iirc the damage is smaller than your normal gun(understandable) but carrying your upgrades over to the shoulder turrets would make it a lot more useful. I could see myself using it a lot more if it did for Coliseum(and some adventure levels). Also how much more damage does the goggles stack? Does it also stack to the shoulder turret? One last thing...is there a set duration for food when it spawns and no other bug eats it? Mainly asking for Coliseum when I'm at full HP and food has spawned.
My thoughts exactly. Also, why not have some pills scattered around on the counter? It's already rated 12+ Also Jamie, I really like the idea of zapper turrets with damage, but I feel that they just wouldn't be as useful as MG turrets. Like, would they be able to manage the thousands of fleas and such? If they're strong enough, then I'm all for them.
That would probably overpower it quite a bit... for less cost, it already gives about the buff that upgrading his standard weapon does, on top of having an active ability which does even more damage. Goggles only affect Ant's main weapon. Yeah having powerup pills is what i was thinking of adding actually... No different then eating mushrooms powerups I suppose. And remember that Zappers are not meant to replace MG turrets. Don't forget that their usefulness primarily comes in being able to control masses of enemies with slow and stuns, not necessarily kill them. They are a great support turret, now with the added benefit of some nice support damage... their damage won't be ridiculous, but it will be noticeable. I just did a couple tests deleting my MG turret and going 2 zappers... its not too bad
Completely understand and thanks for pointing out the automatically active+added effect when the skill is active. I guess it would be a bit of overkill. I keep trying to fit shoulder turret in with different skill combos but I tend to prefer Burrow mines a lot more due to the aoe and higher damage. When fitting in shoulder Turret in the mix, the best setup for Ant that got me to level 17(normal) on the stump was Life Support+Shoulder+Porta+Howitzer. I did switch out LS for goggles but the lack of food spawns killed me. Still a fun session. I get can higher rounds using Life support+Porta+Howitzer+Mines(sometimes using teleport over life support). I agree pills in the sink level sound like a good fix as well. If I were able to walk around the sink, I wouldn't mind the clutter as much.
Regarding MG turrets vs. others. I don't think nerfing MG is the answer, rather other turrets should be more useful. I realize there are few outliers here who positively rock at this game even on hard difficulty, but for us mere mortals out there, I can say I'm not seeing a great deal of the content in terms of character upgrades because my games are over before I get past round 15 or so on normal, and given that this is still ranking me in the top 30, I'm not that bad. Yes, some of it is my relative newbness, but I don't think my general impressions are too far from the more experienced: If you go for other turrets instead of MG you get overwhelmed by smaller bugs, which says the problem isn't the MG turrets, it's the other turrets and/or the swarm patterns. Yes, we should eventually get overwhelmed and buy the ant farm in the sky, but with the current balance of turrets, heroes, and enemy swarms, it's definitely not the MG turrets needing nerfing, it's just that they are the only generally effective turret. With only 4 slots, every turret has to serve a solid role and waiting to fully upgrade a firecracker turret or putting up with the 50% downtime of the magnifying glass just doesn't work well even on Easy. I like that it's a fun and very challenging game, but please don't make the mistake I've seen devs in other games make: you can't balance a game around what the top 1% of the game population does or you make it worse for the other 99%.
Agreed. I just lost a game that was going very well until I got a pop-up notification from another app, and lost control. The game didn't pause or anything. Good thing I've overcome my anger issues, or I may have had to break something. Have you found out what's causing my difficulty accessing the leaderboards?
I underestimated the power of ant's entrench weapon. On the office map level 19 ( normal mode)I used it to kill a elephant snail, bumble bee & a centipede. Before that I never knew it packed such a punch. What a surprise
YES!!!! I made it to round 30 on easy Yard! Best round ever! (I know for a huge feat for you pros but still )
Game looks increadble on iPhone 4 I just had to comment on how beautiful this game looks on the iPhone 4. I have always loved this game but I just got the iPhone 4 the other day and I didn't realize what a difference there would be. You guys made the lighting and shading and just the whole game overall look so crisp. Very impressed! I can't wait to see what the next update will bring. And I wish I had a multimillion $ company because I would pay you guys in a instant to make a console game useing the bug heros world you guys have built. It puzzles me why a game like this one is not number one? Yet a game like doodle jump was such a craze. Guess this game may be a bit much for people. I would gladly pay for DLC for this game via a IAP store. You guys should make a ton of content with a store for purchasing it. You guys deserve the money. And thanks for all the support you have given the game and for being so responsive on the threads.
Had a really long 3 hour game on Pond Easy, reaching round 102 and 28 quests completed. Also a question to Foursaken: Have you considered having an option to upgrade heroes with a extra slot for an ability? With all the new abilities it's difficult to pick just 4 so perhaps you could pay £1000 to unlock a 5th slot to use.
