Thanks, OM -- we'll at least add it to our list of things to consider for later. And never worry; we're not planning on ever nerfing the gem output!
no need to change anything, i'm not confused, just curious. probably nobody else cares. and i know i'm on the 'Pocket Edition' forum but i have an ipad (no activity on that forum). when you say things will be patched/updated on this forum, will it apply to the ipad version as well?
Yes -- we're stair-stepping the versions at the moment. Most important is the 1.1 patch for the iPhone, which we're submitting tonight if all goes well, because lots of people are getting crashes on iPhone 4-level devices. It has some of the various other fixes and add-on content, as well. After that will come the 1.3 iPad patch. For that, we're finishing up several additional levels with new monsters, along with a set of new cards and abilities; it'll probably take us about one additional week before we release that to Apple.
Well I am a doubler sucker so I'd vote for it. I don't think it would be looked at as greedy but that's me. As long as it didn't cut in to people buying gems(causing you guys lost profits) I don't think it would but... Might even make a cool card that costs zero to put in your deck. Sweet fancy art on it. Can't be sold I can't recall if someone answered the question on what a gem doubler is so.... A gem doubler in this case would be a one time buy and then you get twice as many gems from monsters. If you play a level and get 100 gems, you would instead get 200. Over a period of time, you would really make out more cards, more combines...woot.
Game Impressions I bought the HD version of the app. While I really like the card aspect of the game as a new twist on the tower defense genre, I find the actual TD game play rather mediocre. To me, the action is way too hectic to be applying sufficient strategy. As I progress a bit into the levels, it is often a race trying to keep up with placing the towers and lacking time to consider the best spots and towers for each placement. Also, the rather small size of the enemies and offensive elements make it hard to get a feel for which tower types are doing the most damage. There is a lot to like about using the cards as the upgrade element. The game offers a number of cool options and ideas here. However, there is a lack of in-game instructions, and the interface for working with the cards could be much better. For instance, it seems like there should really be a good mechanism for directly comparing two cards besides just inspecting them one at a time. In summary, after playing a half a dozen levels I am dissapointed in that I am finding this to be just an OK TD game with a promising but perhaps unfinished card upgrade system. I have enjoyed pretty much all of the other iPad tower defense games I have recently played better then Men at Arms. However, I am encouraged by the developer's presence here and their eagerness to respond to our impressions.
Hey there! Sorry you're not too fond of the game, but thanks for trying it out and giving your feedback, regardless! For the visual enemy size, we've definitely been trying to follow in the footsteps of some of our favorites, like Kingdom Rush, but it certainly does mean they're smaller than they could be. Most of your issues -- unit size, play speed, etc. -- are pretty much locked in by now, obviously, but some of the things like better card comparing, etc., we will hopefully get in on later updates!
Tricket: thanks for the honest and measured response to my impressions. You mention Kingdom Rush. That and the sequel are certainly two of my favorite IOS TD games. I don't remember having any issues in them getting a feel for how well the various offensive towers were doing for me or being overwhelmed by the speed of play. Also, the size of the units seemed fine in KR; perhaps due to a difference in the art style and detail.
Well, we're game players as much as we are game designers, so we try to keep in touch and see what people like and don't like about our games. We know we can't make everyone happy all the time (one of our other popular games, Fingerzilla, tended to have people either love it, or despise it in a Flappy Bird sort of way), but we've found the forums here a great way to get feedback on things we might actually change or fix for later patches.
just goes to show ya, you can't please everyone . this game is hands down better than KR. upon release, KR was different, 'cute and fun' (which ALWAYS attracts the tweenie majority of iphone gamers) but after a while it becomes very repetitive, same thing different day. in this game you're able to manipulate cards to assemble offensive and defensive decks and thus strategically affect each level you play, not just react to more waves as it is with KR. and being overwhelmed is more a matter of play style than poor design. but to each his own as i don't want to get into a shouting match over the merits of each game. i'm glad you at least tried it out. maybe give it another try and you'll come to your senses.
I'm with you in this one, this is the best tower defence game I've played, the card system is a brilliant addition to the game and for me personally adds a whole lot to the game.
Game Impressions it's a fun game, but I don't get to play it much, because it crashes pretty much after every map. I don't have the latest iphone, I am still on a 4s, so I don't know if that is the problem or not. I've basically stopped playing because it crashes 6-7 times in a row trying to load a map. I've never had a game crash this much.
I'm using the touch 5th gen and I've given up on it for now because of the crashing. I know the devs have said they're working on it so fingers crossed it gets fixed soon as when it works it really is a great game.
Hi, Bizzy, We did find a memory issue that can cause the game to crash often on some model 4 and 4S phones. We've submitted the patch to Apple, and they usually take about a week to approve stuff. We're hoping the 1.1 patch, which should be a lot less crash-prone on your phone, should appear in the App Store by early next week!
Ok, I'm back with another 'what the heck is this' question. I just got the Offensive Deck capability. When I select the stacks, each individual card has 2,4,6 (more?) little red markers? meeples? things? on it. What do those represent? The more there are the higher the deck cost but beyond that I have no idea. Also, I've seen little green things 'standing' in this group of 4 small boxes. I only have seen this on Iron Gruff. Is that just card design? Or does it mean something? Thanks...
The little red markers on the monster cards are the formation of guys the card will generate. So you might have a "Little Gruffs" card with a 2x2 group of monsters, or 2x3, or 2x4, or whatever ... the more monsters in the group, the more the card is worth. The pattern they're in on the card is also how they'll show up on the map (2x3, or scatter of 6, or single row, or whatever). The little image of "guys standing in box" is definitely a confusing one. In this case, it means that monster will affect nearby monsters (usually positively). So, for example, a "Fel Gruff" (the dark grey ones) will buff their nearby fellows with a health or damage boost as they travel. When the main guy is killed, the buff for everyone goes away.
got it, thanks! I notice now the green guys in the box is (sorta) explained on the back of the card. I guess you don't know what kind of buff effect is happening as that's not mentioned on the card, just that it's a positive effect, right?
Yeah -- it's also why the icon was so unspecific ... we tried to make something to just be "guy affecting other guys with spells" and couldn't come up with much. I may go in and try to hard-code some more specific information later -- like a heart with a + on it or something, and text of "Increases ally health" or that kind of thing.
or if you want to get fancy, mouseover help and the ability to toggle it off. then again, maybe it's just me. by the time you write any documentation i'll have already asked about all i wanted to know. if no one else is "complaining" about docs then maybe just concentrate on more levels! i haven't read the entire forum but it seems that i'm the only one asking for clarification on things, so maybe it's just me. ah well hell, i have a couple more questions! speaking of the offensive deck icon, the only reason i create offensive decks is to use them with the scenario editor as waves of monsters, correct? which brings up a follow up question. can i play those scenarios i create myself or must they always be exported and played by someone else?
Offensive deck is not used in the level editor. You get everything to wrok with in the editor. Offensive deck is only used when people defend a level online, it then grabs someone's offensive deck to use. Or if your gamecenter friends play, you can select their deck and play against it. You can play your edited levels, even while building to test them out. You also get gems when playing your own levels which is great.
