Due to the RTS nature of OTTTD's gameplay, I'm not so sure a 2x speed option is wise. Many TD's have a 'set it and forget it' design, where you build towers and maybe cast a few spells, but in OTTTD, you're constantly involved with the action, mainly due to the presence of multiple heroes and their expanded roles. A 2x speed button in OTTTD would get in the way of that.
On PocketTactics, they just wrote an editorial about why they don't trust games such as Castle Doombad which I think also applies to OTTTD: http://www.pockettactics.com/news/ios-news/weekend-price-drops-state-love-trust-edition/ I'm at level 10 in OTTTD and had no problems so far, felt the game is fair but I wonder if I hit a level I can't pass, will it be because of the game wanting me to buy those dual currency IAP packs or was my strategy bad. Can I trust the game design and balancing? Actually just having both currencies along with IAP packs raises these concerns and I feel this ultimately hurt sales, I personally was very hesitant in buying the game for solely this reason after watching gameplay videos.
I dislike dual-currency IAPs for the same reason (as I posted a few pages back). However, plenty of people so far have said that the game doesn't really need them, and have completed the given levels already. If anything, they seem like an unnecessary way of brute-forcing the game, which just cheapens it, making up for someone being bad at it.
It's rewarding to see people's experience in the game (for the most part) in tune with the type action we set out to create. We didn't want any part of OTTTD to be passive. We wanted to create gameplay where, like any good RTS, every moment in time is valuable, and every moment can be used. It's not an easy thing to do necessarily, and if we can keep tweaking to get that better we will. But that's the intended design. It's a good question - does it hurt sales. We don't know. We're certainly listening carefully to sentiment and feedback. I'm confident there's enough evidence in this thread (I hope, at least) that you should be perfectly fine without touching the iAP button. We've (at SMG) all reset our data countless times and played through the entire sequence of levels without shortcuts. It's optimized for iPhone 5, and you'll no doubt notice that while playing on an iPhone4s, but it will run it. We made the Recon's Air Support ability significantly more badass, the Assault's heal wave radius doubled, the Bombardier did get some adjustments on bomb numbers but nothing we'd consider a nerfing. We're looking at starting a wiki, any suggestions for best site please feel free to recommend. -- For those who are seeing slowdown, we're working on that now as part of a content update in the near future. Again thanks for all the feedback and comments! It's really awesome to see people engaging with the game and we're working hard to drop a bunch of new levels (possibly modes) very soon.
For what it's worth, we've de-doged our screens in the latest submitted update. We've had every different kind of reaction to them, including just enough hate They were initially a joke placeholder from our artist internally, but then we thought yep, that'll do.
Ahh yes I see now. You can't trust that we're not gaming the system to extract more revenue... mmm not a simple solution. Even the Tempa-Death system which is meant to make you NOT want your heroes to die and to make you rotate through the roster can be seen in this evil light too. It sucks as there will be people who want to pay for that to go away. And others who want it there as punishment for letting their squad down. We'e discussing internally how to please both parties. It sucks that so many games have ruined experiences for a lot of people and created this level of mistrust. I just hope that there's people like yourselves that will play through and see we're on the straight and narrow with this. But I wonder what will happen if we start to make the future levels hard because we expect people to have beefy heroes by then. But I think by that points we've either removed the IAP options or made them even less "untrustworthy" haha. Ash@SMG
I'm enjoying this one. Thanks SMG! You might want to make weapon sounds a bit sharper though . More color wouldn't hurt either
I had hit a minor (MINOR) setback at level 10 due to being under leveled. With your soldier gaining levels and skill trees I just treated it like any action rpg and grinded previous levels a bit to earn exp, gold, and gems. With the increase in player power that I earned, I was able to finally beat it. Lost a hero (first KIA, RIP engi) but it felt rewarding. I'm sure it's more a psychological impact of seeing dual currencies, but in no way does it feel as though they are there to buy to win. 3 starring previous levels is a lot easier once you get a full squad, gearing them up, leveling them, and picking who to bring immensely increases replayability and reduces boredom imho. v/r
SMG: thank you for taking the time to reply to annoying pricks such as myself. Just to make it clear, I'm enjoying the game and completed the initial 10 levels. Even if I do hit a paywall, which I have a feeling I won't as you guys said, in any case money well spent and I will recommend it to my TD lovin' friends. So far it seems though that rockets are really powerful compared to the other towers, but I will wait and see if, as you commented previously on this thread, it does become more strategic later on. Oh and I also don't think a fast forward button is necessary, I'm quite busy throughout. And the gem currency seems still more as a negative than a positive to me. But I'm an annoying prick, what do I know.
I'm really enjoying the game and I'm happy to support the developers especially since they have been answering everyone's questions in the thread. I think the game is balanced so far, I'm at level 13 but the shark level kicked my butt numerous times!
haha not an annoying prick it's good to get constructive feedback. I personally spammed the rockets too but later levels you'll see more fire resistance so they'll become less effective. Dual currency is an issue from perception. An extra reason was we wanted a reason to 3 star levels (to earn gems) and thought that would be a better way rather than tying everything to "stars". We need to cater to the large spectrum of players and there are players that want a pay to win element. It's a delicate balance. If we made the game $6.99 and gave you unlimited coins there would be no incentive to play or reward for unlocking. If heroes didn't tempa-death there would be no care to keep them alive. Also there will be no FFWD button as Pat@SMG thinks this will mean we havent made the game dynamic enough and wants to avoid the "sit back and watch" TD game vs "lean forward and play" type of game we tried to build. This is our first major release so we're learning a lot here. Our main goal is to also build trust in SMG so when we release future games you know that it'll be quality. So hence the reason we're concentrating on tweaking the game for the better.
I got it and I´m liking it a lot ... I would love to play it with my son...any chance it would get a "non bloody" way to play? thanks!
Such philosophy SMG Studio! I totally agree with you on putting dual currency. The reason is I farmed on the shark level and got more than 300 gems. But one thing I thought I would find in the game is trading gems for coins, and I will admit that I was disappointed when I found out that the function isn't available. Also you said that it gets strategic on later levels, but I'm currently on level 16 and all I need to think about is where to put my rockets and my shields. What I'm suggesting is add enemies that are 30-50% or completely immune to fire, so it will force players to reconsider before building rockets. Or reduce the rockets' damage. All that I said above isn't trying to criticize the game, because this game is my #1 game. It's just that if you can make it more strategic and add the gem to coins convert, it will be awesome.
Game Impressions Pretty good game so far, the rockets weren't as overpowered as the other posts have said it was. The only problem i have with the game is that its laggy at times. When i play this it is the only app running and I'm playing it on an ipod touch 5, and it only happens when there is tons of stuff on the screen at once. is there any way to fix this though? Its not a gamebreaker to me, but if you could help, it would be appreciated Keep up the good work
Which heroes are your favorite? I still have 3 to unlock before I decide which heroes to max out and spend my hard earned money for weapons upgrade. Not sure thats the way to properly do it though. Still no paywall going to level 14. But only 2 stars for level 11 up.
I have 2 more to unlock. So far my favorite by far is the Assault guy (Thunder McBane). Got him the best weapon (Blamhammer). It shoots electricity zapping masses of enemies. Second favorite guy is the Engineer. He does almost nothing in combat, but I need him for remote tower repairs. The skill that lets his repair ability jump between towers is useful as it will jump from a nearby tower a fair distance but only if they're all damaged. Tied for second is the Bombardier (Slammer Manvil). His AoE attack is very useful when placing him near the slow down zapper towers. I've only bought a weapon (best weapon) for the assault guy. Like you I'm saving the next purchase but want to know what the last 2 guys do. Grinding money is getting difficult because each time you beat a level you earn less. The Scientists abilities are cool but he requires a lot of micromanagement, don't think he beats the bombardier for overall usefulness. I like the Recon (Sniper) range, but feel with a choke point AoE attacks are better. My engineer is level 24 with 34 skill points. Haven't been able to decide on what to spend them on. What have you all found useful? I have Remote Repair maxed and Repair range 7/20. Everything else just 1 point until I know what's best.
