Really looking forward to the update with this! I always try to have a '5 minute' game to play when I have some time to spare. This fits that need perfectly.
The game was kick ass before the update. Now, it kicks ass with two feet at once. The new features are fun, devious, and throws in a whole new level of strategy. Those poison skulls.....argh!! This game needs TA front page attention yesterday!
Yep, definitely, the next update will feature Game Center integration, initially for leaderboards and with achievements coming in the following update (ideally along with unlockables) How does everyone feel about the new special monsters? I'll be adding more enemy types & skills for the next update if people feel they improve the game. Also, for anyone who found Normal too easy before, try the new Hard difficulty, it's more challenging than Normal but not as deadly as the old Hard (which is now called Harder)
Just did a short run last night, I'm loving the new update and have yet to stratch the surface. I would classify this game as a "hidden gem" for sure!
Seems like a great update for an already great game so far. Did you tweak the store? We previously discussed artifacts, and you indicated that you like the idea of needing some form of preparation and commitment to buy one, such as using multiple sets of gold to purchase one. I like that idea. Consider adding treasure chests which have normal items in them that are say a random 1-3 upgrade levels above your current item. The treasure chest would need to be attacked to open it, and would have say 2x the health of normal skulls and 2x the armor. Yes, you get an item, but the effort to open one wont be trivial, and a badly placed one could easily mess you up as well, so I dont think it would change the balance of power. Why do I suggest so much armor on it? Well, the armor penetration upgrade was underwhelming in version 1.0. Clearly, bosses help change this a bit in 1.1, and adding heavily armored treasure chests would add yet another use to it. I would also like to suggest a new item enchant for weapons, "Holy" which is enhanced damage applicable only to bosses for each sword. Clearly it would need to be +2 per point in Holy or it would be inferior to the normal +1 weapon damage upgrade. I dont think this would be over powered, and I would still prefer +1 weapon damage. You could also consider making each point in holy add +5% total damage against bosses, rounded up. For a balance tweak, I suggest adding an extra two turns to the poison skill so that it has greater use against bosses. No matter how many turns you add to poison, it will never be better than spikes, so you dont have to worry about it being overpowered.
While not quite what you were getting at, there is a Special called something like the Golden Idol which only appears for about 5 turns (much like the Kamikaze guy) and doesn't attack but if you do manage to best his relatively insane defense and hp you'll get a big gold bonus. I could see tweaking this model for some guy offering a huge upgrade or something but he'll clearly need to be made even HARDER to crack open in that very limited time span.
Game Impressions So the update... FUN!!!!! I had a two hour commute this morning by train, so had some quality time with it. Keep in mind that I only play the hardest level, which is now Harder...and let's just be clear...Harder is now much harder. That said, harder now pays off with more score also...and is very much worth the trade off of being much harder. There are several factors that make harder, well harder. The first being boss/special monsters. They get pretty ouch. And a side note, I keep finding new ones, there is a lot of variety with them, and it is just pure awesome. (I do think Spikey is a little overpowered though. Instead of hitting for full power back, I might have that modified by something, like half. Level 8 on harder and a spikey drops and there is no way you can make it that far by building up health as you need too many other things for survival is pain.) But the special/boss monsters add that level of bonus exp and gold that give you added upgrades and levels that the hardest actually needed, while providing an increased level of danger and doom that is very well balanced. Of the 20 or so games I have played since the update, about 90% have been horrible horrible deaths much sooner than I had been averaging on Hard (pre-update), and the other 2 or so have been my new high scores on the hardest level. That seems about right. The other factor that makes Harder much harder is that when you level, with so many new skills, it is harder to get the core ones that I had been using to slowly push the hardest game play to new levels. So far my two new high scores, hitting level 8 on harder twice have used Dazzle+Magic Sword. Dazzle is in my opinion, still the best board control for late game harder play and after you convert a big screen of coins into swords, you can than start making magic swords to save for when most needed. This update is great, and the game just got more challenging and more strategic. Great update FF!
He has a lot of health, but his armor is not exceptional...he just spawned with 12 armor, 30 health for me, and a second time a level later with 12 armor, 42 health. Anyway, I really had two separate thoughts, one being tough to open treasure chests with items, and two being doing something to make armor piercing something you might actually take. Right now, its just not a useful upgrade, i'd take literally anything over it in literally any situation, and I'm actually not too sure how to fix it. I would probably scrap the stat totally (keep the 50% value as a non-upgradeable base), and start a new stat called armor penetration, which ignores armor, and goes up by 5% per upgrade.
Mr. Spikey is a pain but, remember, unless there is also a Healer also on the scene there is no need to kill him in one blow. Take him down half, heal up, and then finish him off.
All of the specials' stats are relative to where you meet them. They'll all become much nastier as you progress, just like the regulars.
Got a quick run in last night before I went to sleep. Super awesome! I love the new skulls with special powers and the new abilities that I've seen. One area of confusion for me was what some of the skulls actually did. For instance, there seems to be a fire skull that throws up a fire aura to surrounding areas. What exactly does this do? I think a 'bestiary' for this game would help, especially as you add new monsters -- just a list of skulls with their pictures and what their powers are. Can't wait to give it another shot. Got my second highest score on my most recent run
Since he ended my game at level 8 and right around turns 215 twice now, I don't like him. But yes, I had thought about using multiple swipes to hit him with healing in between. I still think your armor or something should mitigate some of the damage. Also, is there any way to reset my scores now? I don't see anything. But as this is a whole new game now to me, I would like to start my scores over. Also, for FF, the Freeze skill should also freeze special/boss specials for 1 turn also. It is a marginal skill that is very situational that would have a lot more value if it gave you 1 turn of freezing boss skills and boss countdowns.
If you tap the special skulls, they have a good description of what they do right there in the screen.
Agree with you about dazzle, its sweet. What does magic sword do again? If teleport works on bosses, that would still be an always take for me, as well. Speaking of horrible deaths, I just took the "create 1 hp skulls next turn" upgrade, imagining that I would combine it with lots of +xp upgrades. Of course, I had to clear most of the board to get a lof of 1hp skulls in one turn, otherwise why bother? Predictably (well I didnt predict it, but I should have), the spawns were not all accessible right away, I spawned the flame boss the next turn, and use of the skill pretty directly led to my death. Dont think I'll be taking that skill ever again unless *maybe* I have some way to mass kill the skulls and still get the XP (does exploding potion yield XP? Think so.) Not every skill needs to be equally good, but this one seems quite iffy. I think the 1 HP skulls need to have their damage nerfed, or nerfed more, for the skill to be useful. Alternatively, perhaps they could yield double XP, so that it might be worthwhile to spawn just a few of them.
Just touch and hold ON the special to get all of their details via a tooltip (like what you see in the fireflame screenshot of the Healer)!
I guess having either teleport of exorcism should be viewed as mandatory to deal with the difficult bosses. Anything else that gets rid of bosses?
