I take that back. I had one or two other previously-stable apps crash, too, so I suspect that it may have been a lack of memory. Also, sorry for the four posts in a row!
It's not a video review, but there is a review on Pocket Gamer here: http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Space+Harvest/review.asp?c=18894
Version 1.1.3 update is out: What's new - Fixed graphical glitches and significantly improved display quality on iPad - Updated for iOS4 - Harvesters can now be ordered to harvest from a different area even if they are already harvesting - Bats will abort landing if their spaceport is destroyed - Levels 1-4 are now unlocked by default - Minor performance enhancements - Added Appirater ratings dialog - Added PlayHaven support
I just bought the game and it's pretty fun, but why is there a lag between the moment you tap, and the moment the tap is registered by the units...? I'll tap a unit, it takes a split second for it to be registered. If I send them somewhere, it takes another moment for the movement reticule to show up on the screen, and another for the units finally move. Why is that?
Many thanks for the feedback! I'll certainly see if there's anything I can do to reduce these delays in the next update.
I haven't posted any promo codes here in a while, so here are a few more: NEWKAXNTKT9L L7EFP79RXJNT 9L43NM7TLFEF YKHHPTXLM9MN NWNF3K36KJ7A 7NAPM6RXJ733 LE4E6X7AA6MX RX6XXM9KLK7H M7JYP7ANYFXH AEJP6R6679LM If you take a code, don't forget to leave a rating!
I have a few comments in the iPad version: 1. Would it be possible to make the graphics more crisp when you zoom out? 2. You should have an in-depth tutorial level, because even though I figured out the game, I was a bit confused. 3. They might already Be in, but difficulty levels would be great for new players to the game who might not be familiar with the genre. Otherwise, the game's great. I'm glad it's universal.
First off, I think the kind of difficulty balancing you're talking about is a very difficult problem to avoid. I don't know if you've ever played Master of Magic, but it's a great mid-90s strategy game. Anyway, I generally found that for me, the way I'd win was to eventually have a large enough empire that I could whittle away at my opponents after there wasn't really any possibility of them winning. Before that, it was mostly a matter of hoping they wouldn't bother me. Thusfar, that's how I've won the first few campaigns in Space Harvest as well. Space Harvest is a lot more confined though, and I'm really bad at defending against an opponent that always has considerably more power than I do and starts on my doorstep. I can see how going defensive initially would be the best way to go, and that's what I'm inclined to do. However, I'm having some difficulty understanding the way the game interprets range. If I wall off choke points with turrets, what usually happens is that a bunch of enemies come up to them only one of them fires back while they take it out. They proceed to do this to all of them eventually. I also find the gate placement a bit iffy. Sometimes I can only put a gate down perpendicular to a wall, which defeats the purpose. I think maybe you should have given turrets better range than ground units so that when units attacked one turret, they'd at least get hit by the ones next to it too. What's been happening to me lately is that I can block out the enemy after continually rebuilding turret arrays, but by then I don't have the funds, nor the shrooms left in my enclosure to generate them, to launch any sort of counterattack worth mentioning.
I haven't, but it looks neat - I'll have to track it down! As far as I can remember (it's been a few years since I wrote this code ), turrets, bumblebees and tanks all have the same attack range. They can attack any valid target in that range, as long as they have line of sight to it. For tanks and bumblebees, walls, turrets and buildings can all block line of sight. For turrets, only buildings (not walls or turrets) block line of sight. Units do tend to attack as soon as they get in range of their target, so it's likely your other turrets are just out of range of the attacking units. If you want to wall off the enemy (the most reliable strategy on a few of the levels), remember that turrets are a lot more expensive than walls. If you just want to keep the enemy busy, building thick walls several deep can really slow them down. Gates try to guess at the best position and orientation based on the locations of the walls around them, but they sometimes get it wrong if you have other walls nearby, or there isn't enough space for a gate in a particular orientation. I agree that a mix of different ranges for attacking might have been better, it's something I'm playing with in the next game. The best strategy for most levels is to reinforce your base or block routes to it before launching an attack. However, as the game progresses, later levels give you less time before enemy forces will start to overwhelm you, so you can't postpone your attack too long. If there's a particular level you're stuck on, I'm happy to provide hints.
I'm not too far. I'm stuck at Chapter 4 where Li is trying to destroy the large mushrooms. What I was planning to try next time is to rush her base early on, take out the mushrooms she has inside it and then go back on the defensive for awhile until it's likely I have more money than she does. Also, do the opponents in the game follow the same rules the player does in terms of making money, or do they get phantom resources on top of those?
*Spoilers follow* Walling off both enemy gates and biding your time while you build a decent-sized attack force is the best approach on level 4. Take out the units attacking the mushrooms (you don't have to save them all to win, but it's best to save as many as you can), then build walls with a few turrets. Build MrChoppy as soon as you have 5 or so harvesters, then build a refinery close to each batch of mushrooms when you have enough cash - this will speed up mushroom collection. Keep repairing your walls and turrets after each attack wave. You'll generally find Li only attacks one side at a time. Build the Power Tools upgrade, then build another spaceport and start building tanks in both. You can sell your starting refinery and science lab once you're done with them for more cash. By the time mushrooms start to run out, you should have 10 or so tanks, which should be enough to take out the turrets by the gate. You can probably preserve some of your starting bumblebees too if you build a recharge pad to repair them. I don't think there's a big advantage to attacking from one side or the other, but don't attempt to attack both gates at once. Focus all your units on one turret at a time to take them down as quickly as possible. Once you break through, focus on taking out the solar stations at the top of the enemy base. Taking these out will disable most turrets and a couple of the enemy spaceports, so she can't build any more units near you. At this stage, build bumblebees to mop up enemy units. After that, it's pretty easy. AI players have the same restrictions as you (earning power, attack power, fog of war etc), so they can't cheat. However, they start every level with more buildings and units than you, and often more cash too, so you're always at a disadvantage at the start of a level. On the larger levels, it is possible to force the enemy to run out of money. On the smaller ones like level 4, by that stage you'll already have overwhelmed the enemy base.
It's really interesting that people seriously don't have 2.99$ to spare but you obviously have an iPhone/touch/iPad and an Internet connection? Really? I mean really? I think I'll just buy this game, and then delete it just for fun.
