Ok, I'm giving it a go...it took me a little while to figure out the whole component thing but I think I get it.... My only complaint is the restrictiveness of the matching...so you are basically looking for a tile that can move into a slot of three? I guess I've been spoiled by the Dungeon Raid style of match where you can connect rows of things in any direction. I feel like it's hard to scan the board to find one or two lucky matches while you're being pummeled, but perhaps I just suck at matching games I can't get close to winning one bounty hunt yet. Also, I think it would be really cool if you made the captain avatar customization free... Really like the art style and overall presentation...I hope lots of people play it! This sure beats all those horrible Candy Crush and Puzzles & Dragons games out there.
Make sure that you fill your ships as much as you can and have all the systems equipped, that way you aren't wasting matches. Your overall health is also tied to how much stuff is on your ship as well. There are some aspects of your avatar you can change from the start- you can change your uniform color, eyes, skin color. You'll be bringing in bounties in no time and have more Commander Credits than you'll know what to do with.
As frustrating as this game is, I am quickly becoming addicted to it. Update from my last post, the only current gripe I have is that I wish I had time between matches to see what I was doing so I could strategize a little more, rather than frantically matching away before I run out of juice. But guess what guys, this game can be played offline!!! And do the ads go away with a coin purchase?
By between matches do you mean between swipes, or do you mean you wish you had more time before a game began?
It does kind of drop you in the deep end - first thing I did after completing the first training ship mission was buy a new ship. At which point I found I couldn't afford more than a single weapon of one type and a shield. Giving new ships a basic loadout (with an appropriately higher price) might be worth considering in an update, so new players don't have as overwhelmingly negative a starting experience. After reinstalling so I could start over and stay in the training ship to grind some credits, I've found that all I'm doing is making whatever matches I can see and occasionally the screen shakes for no discernable reason - the whatever-they're-measuring meters on either side of the ship graphic are so far from the part of the screen that i'm paying attention to that they're just not useful (on my ipad - and having been given no clue about what information is being shown, they're functionally as irrelevant as the ship graphic itself). I could use more noticeable (and more immediate) kind of feedback when I make a match, as all I hear is the background music (which isn't bad) and occasional sound effects that don't feel like they're corresponding to what I'm doing. The upgraded-tile effect is a little too subtle, and I can't immediately tell the orange and red tiles apart - my vision works better differentiating by colour rather than trying to identify patterns when rushed. Incidentally, I can't tell what the upgraded tiles do - is it different destruction patterns for different weapons? (The effect when they're used is so rapid and yet so subtle that I can't keep identify it easily, especially if there's additional matches happening simultaneously) This has potential, but I'm having trouble keeping track of things with the generally-noisy visual aesthetic. The important things are too subtle, and the flashy background stuff is too overwhelming.
Given that I'm a match 3 addict the basic gameplay I have no problem with. You just have to be quick. But when it comes to what each component of the ship does, it's not well explained. I don't know what updating my engine"power" to lvl 2 does. Maybe if I held my finger on it a description could pop up??? Also during gameplay I don't know what the health or shield of my opponent is at, so how do I know when to use plasma vs missile? That data seems hard to find. And having to take all parts off my ship just so I can readjust one part, is lame. Other then that fun game. given more time to streamline and make a bit more assessable It could be great
What I mean is, every time I swipe to make a move, I can't figure out what I've done because Im quickly trying to go to the next swipe. I'd like to be able to take a few extra seconds and plan my moves. See the comments by Kiwi and Predator, they pretty well sum up what I'm trying to say.
Agreed. Maybe a turn based style of battle instead of frantic matching, like Faif? I also never know what I'm doing because I'm so busy matching and scanning the board for matching I don't have a spare second to check what is going on and before I know it I've lost without really understanding why.
The problem I see with the game is that it could have some strategy, but in the end it's a simple match-3 in which you have to match tiles as fast as possible to win...
I tried putting only 2 types of guns on my ship thinking that would keep the amount of different tiles during gameplay down, thus making the frantic nature lessened. I could focus on attacking with only two types BUT even if your ship doesn't have yellow gun on it they will still continue to spawn on the play board. But matching them Does absolutely Nothing. This saddened me, that takes a lot so strategy out of the game for me. Because now all that means is that you have to have every type of gun/etc. on every ship or your wasting turns. Still I'm continuing to play because these type of games are my Kryptonite.
I don't see why this gets so low rating. At first I bought the 3rd ship and couldn't win any bounty so I had to reinstall. Do not do this mistake - it looks like you can afford the ship but in a fact you can't. Someone mentioned grinding with the training ship so you might try that. And you'll have more strategy when you get bigger ships
Nice idea, but there is insufficient feedback on how you are doing. More audio/visual feedback on how much damage you are doing and how much you are taking would be nice. Also, you should never let the player lose their first fight. Having a challenge is good, but you're beating people up here and they're just going to leave.
And even when I win, I don't understand what I did to get there. Other than this issue, I am still addicted. And please let me know if a coin purchase removes ads. Thanks.
Hey Predator8u- You need all systems colors on the board- If you only had 3-4 colors on the match board, you would have crazy cascades and there would be no matching!
Hey KiwiRed- We actually just had a conversation about doing this in an update. I think its a good idea myself. The charged blocks will wipe out a row and a column when they are matched. If another charged block is in the way, it will trigger that one to go off as well, which might be why you are seeing different patterns. The dark blue meter on the left of your ship is your shields. The light blue meter on your right is your power (which is used for Crew). These are restored when you match their corresponding system block if you have components on your ship. When your shields go down, you start to take damage and that is when the screen starts to shake more. Matching the blocks will charge the system and they automatically fire when fully charged. Hope this helps!
I've really been enjoying this game and have worked my way up to the last ship through bounties. I've had almost no luck with online multiplayer though. The game searches but almost never seems to find an opponent. The few times I have been able to find a match the rewards for winning were poor when compared to what I could have won had I chosen to do a bounty instead. Is the top ten ranking the sole incentive to play online opponents or are there other rewards I've just not yet encountered? Also, it was a little disappointing to find myself earning LESS money per match after moving up to the final ship. Once you pilot the final ship you no longer earn any match bonus which makes me wonder why I moved up at all. Shouldn't I be earning more now? Or at least the same? In any case, thanks for an excellent match three game. It kept me up far too late last nite and is my new go-to game.
Hi. I am #1 in multiplayer (TDa). I will be just moving to B ship, tho, so it is about the luck of being matched against someone, but I have 100% wins ;P . There rewards for the same ships are better in multiplayer than in bounty
Quick tip, that I don't remember the game telling you Touch your portrait With the green arrow on it(during gameplay)and that will show you what's your opponents health/etc. The game should tell you this..right??
Earned enough credits in the starter ship to be able to buy a better hull and outfit it with basic weapons: so far so good. Clicked on upgrade, presumably to improve the hull, and all my weapons are gone leaving me without enough credits to buy replacements. As best I can tell there isn't an inventory system (maybe it's there, I just can't see it - or maybe it's just a bug, and the game ate the pre-existing equipment), so it looks like I'd need to restart again to start over. I'm sorry but this game needs more development before it's store-ready. I'm uninstalling.
This happened to me as well, just select the training ship and go to bounty, you can be matched only against other training ship
