Your opinion about the current state of the game

[_notSoRandom :D]

So, what do you guys think about the game currently? I'll start first: The game is great, however there are still a lot of things to be balanced and added even after more than 2 years on early access.

[Revalopod]

it's fun, and a nice way to enjoy most of the Chicken Invaders game in one package, and has a lot of longevity. I've played it for 50+ hours when most episodes I play for only 6.

However it's also severely lacking in new things. There's only 1 new proper weapon, and a few new bosses, and a few new mechanics and that's it.
Power levels are still only 1-10, & 20 which is the way it's been for like the past 3 or 4 games now.
Look at Bloons TD, this is how many unique upgrades per tower:
BTD1&2: 2 paths and 1 tier each = 2 upgrades
BTD3&4: 2 paths and 2 tiers each = 4 upgrades
BTD5: 2 paths and 4 tiers each = 8 upgrades
BT6: 3 paths and 5 tiers each = 15 upgrades
it basically doubles every 1 or 2 games while the variety also improves exponentially

And then Chicken Invaders:
CI1: 7 upgrades
CI2: 10 upgrades
CI3: 11 upgrades
Ci4: 11 upgrades
CI5: 11 upgrades
CIU: 11 upgrades
yeah it gets quite boring after a while of seeing no new increasing power levels. Each game just feels like a standalone expansion to the last, and not a sequel at least in terms of gameplay mechanics. And then heavy bombers introduce higher power levels, except it works in the most boring and least interesting way possible. It's the same as 2 copies of the same gun that upgrade 8 or 9 times each, so you don't get to see any proper new power levels even though it is more powerful technically.

So yeah, unless CIU or CI6 adds a ton more upgrades and weapons, I'm probably not really going to be interested in the series anymore.

[zel.vya]

Is the gameplay even nuanced or detailed enough to be worthy of an in-depth review in its current state (which, depressingly enough looks like how it's going to look like at the end of Early Access given how little changes we've seen in two years)?

[GgWw1175]

Originally posted by Revalopod:

new increasing power levels

Expanding the firepower range would require most weapons to receive complete overhauls to their progressions. This would be an insane undertaking, and such a change would essentially render the efforts of players (myself included) to get all weapons into a usable state ultimately wasted. Giving an extended power progression to new weapons only is a no-go, as all weapons have to be balanced in relation to one another (a matter that was extensively discussed in regards to Boron and Absolver).

In terms of new weapons, I know a few players who reckon that adding more is unnecessary. The current weapon count is 14, which is plenty enough for the game.
Personally, I think new weapons are definitely a wanted feature by most of the playerbase, looking at how many weapon concepts have been posted on the forum. Since we already have to juggle 14 gifts in missions, adding even more will likely require the addition of some system that limits how many weapons can drop during gameplay (weapon licences at last?).
However, seeing as there are still some improvements that could be made to the current roster, I'd say we should wait a bit longer with new additions.

In response to the OP, I won't be giving my detailed thoughts, but my feelings on the matter are quite similar, if perhaps a bit less enthusiastic.

[zel.vya]

While I do believe the addition of multiplayer is absolutely integral to the game, what I feel is a more pressing problem for the game is the blandness of gameplay outside of missions- the game is played for the sake of gameplay, not for some overarching goal in the galaxy part of the game, other than to get more keys. That's quite literally it, play the game to get more keys, which you use to play the game more, sometimes slightly differently. There's also a galaxy, I guess, which seems to be largely redundant due to the fact that missions can be accessed from anywhere from the inbox and items can be bought from anywhere too, it's huge and it's pointless, and doesn't add anything meaningful to the gameplay.

As for new weapons, I do think that addiing more to the pool arbitrarily for all ships is a bad idea. I think the amount of weapons available in a single session should be limited to 15 or so, but I don't think adding more would hurt, if there's a way to add them all in without disturbing overall balance or having too many weapons at a time (Though, given how Heavy Bombers and Absolver Beam were when introduced, I'm not too optimistic). As for bosses, unless there's a unique mechanic that contributes something to gameplay in the "rpg" aspect of the game, it gets old within three or four replays.

Yeah that's one of my main complaints with the game. Otherwise it's fine.

[zel.vya]

Yeah, I made a topic about it too a year ago, and got this non-excuse [forum.chickeninvaders.com] as a response. Funnily enough, most of the community did vote to reduce it to essentials only at the time, but that was ignored.