Finished it, my thoughts

[Nucreum]

Just finished it, some levels made on hard and others on normal.

It was really nice experience, but I would like more levels in the campaign, or maybe challenges (levels you have to complete with restrictions).

The only thing in my opinion is Russia, which should come later. With more technologies points, it is fine, but without it's the hardest level of the game (not a surprise if that many people complain about it). Other ones are fine.

The laser weapon on the ship is pretty useless, bombs/missiles are ten times better.
The first weapon and first charge attack are quickly useless too, that's sad.
During the end of the game, upgrades are not satisfying enough has we have everything we need to finish without problem, so the feeling of unlocking something new and useful is not there anymore.

Anyways, your Schmetterling engine is impressive!
The visuals of the game are really nice, the gameplay is smooth and precise. Well done!

[ChooHeHimLVL3]

I find the plasma gun kind of useless, but the charge shot of it is one of my favorites. I drop a charge bomb, and then swap to plasma, start charging. Rush at the enemies to absorb shots faster until you have a level 3 charge (takes almost no time), and then fire. It can wipe out whole waves of medium tanks and lighter units. It's also great against the healing units.

I agree concerning the laser on the ship. It's underpowered IMO, though the singularity mode can be awesome, especially when combined with some towers.

The idea of challenge levels is great too. Or simply an expansion.

[DaPhuuLz]

incoming Community workshop (doesn't seems to work at the moment. still Beta)

Also Agree with you that the game looks gorgeous and run very good, the debris, the blast and all those explosions are mesmerizing, though i'm still stuck Half-way into the story.
Love the game.

[PROSATANOS PL]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

[Warlord]

Also, it's a darn shame that most of the towers are worthless in favor of a conecntrated artillery kill-box. The plasma turret basic is pretty weak (duh, base tower!), and incapable of taking on anything that has healer support.

I'd like more tower variants. Upgraded alternatives to each tier, similar to how the AA has 2 distinct variants. The laser and a multi/fast target tower (flamethrower? plasma-machinegun?) already seem like upgrades to the base plasma tower, unlike arty and AA. (I dunno. Spin off artillery and AA into their OWN base towers? That seems like a lot of work though....)

Laser towers are nice, but have a nasty tendency to concentrate all fire on a single target. With the damage ramp-up and the significant re-fire delay, it discourages use of them unless you spread them out so they do not overlap firing arcs. This is a problem as well with AA laser, making you spread them out all over the map. This makes collection of debris (already a PITA staying in ghost mode for) hectic, or you are forced to give that debris up and focus elsewhere.

I'd like a change to being able to fast-skip the tutorial sections of campaigns at will. Holding shift to fastforward is a great start, but some conversations take 10 seconds even with that on. And some "cutscenes" cannot be skipped, with you staring at a few planes flying in for over 10 seconds before you gain control and can shoot them down in half a second.

Look, don't get my wall of text wrong. This game is fantastic. In fact, I'm usually only this vocal and nit-picky over games that I feel are close to perfection and I love a lot. I drill down into what might be minor points mostly because they are the only issues I find. And maybe you can ignore a lot of them. I'm sure my idea of a perfect game would cause nitpicks for others too, but who knows, maybe others will agree with me.

P.S.: I lost of a lot of points on the last map because I killed the Jaeger bot in Japan immediately after it fired off a barrage of ~20ish nukes. I was laughing at how the core kept taking hits (CORE AT 75% HEALTH! CORE AT 50% HEALTH!) while I could do nothing in the final cutscene. :D
Ended up sitting at 28% or so once the score screen came up.

[Nucreum]

Originally posted by Warlord:

Laser towers are nice, but have a nasty tendency to concentrate all fire on a single target. With the damage ramp-up and the significant re-fire delay, it discourages use of them unless you spread them out so they do not overlap firing arcs. This is a problem as well with AA laser, making you spread them out all over the map. This makes collection of debris (already a PITA staying in ghost mode for) hectic, or you are forced to give that debris up and focus elsewhere.

That's what I like, because it remains you active compared to other lazy Tower Defense games :)
The China level was the most overwhelming with paths everywhere, massive air support and tons of healers to manage quickly, at the end I was like "phew, that was hell of a game, great !"
It's rare to see tower defenses games that forces you to spread instead of pack.

Originally posted by Warlord:

I'd like a change to being able to fast-skip the tutorial sections of campaigns at will. Holding shift to fastforward is a great start, but some conversations take 10 seconds even with that on. And some "cutscenes" cannot be skipped, with you staring at a few planes flying in for over 10 seconds before you gain control and can shoot them down in half a second.

+1 !
And a checkpoint should be placed after these cutscenes, not before.

[Warlord]

Originally posted by Nucreum:

That's what I like, because it remains you active compared to other lazy Tower Defense games :)
The China level was the most overwhelming with paths everywhere, massive air support and tons of healers to manage quickly, at the end I was like "phew, that was hell of a game, great !"
It's rare to see tower defenses games that forces you to spread instead of pack.

Well, more that I was annoyed at having to stay in ghost mode to do it at all, rather than be allowed to blow crap up. The pressure to suck it up for the score is probably the main reason I do it (It is satisfying to suck up, but I doubt it accounts for more than 1 or 2 towers total by the end of a map). I almost want an auto-collector tower. No attack, but sucks up debris in a large radius around it. I'd be willing to weaken my overall defense in exchange for being able to stay out of ghost mode and doing some fighting.

But yeah, being able to zip around the battlefield and assist in locations that are leaking much worse than I thought they would is a hell of a lot of fun. What isn't fun, is holding down right-click over a spot where a hundred hummers are charging to their doom.

[BlackjackGT]

What isn't fun, is holding down right-click over a spot where a hundred hummers are charging to their doom.

Exactly, this -- I do try to keep track of whether I have resources to build towers during combat but it can be awfully difficult to even see where to place it, much less to tell if I'm clicking properly for the upgrade I want, when the screen's full of enemies and explosions.

I don't know if I have a solution for it, other than maybe giving us a press-to-highlight toggle key, so that the placement point is in some obnxious highlighted color that's easier for us to see and interact with during frantic battles.

[LotusBlade]

Laser is particulary good against bosses parts, cus other weapon just woo weak. We just need to have some new enemy type who can be killed only with lasers.

[Warlord]

Originally posted by LotusBlade:

Laser is particulary good against bosses parts, cus other weapon just woo weak. We just need to have some new enemy type who can be killed only with lasers.

The behemoth tank and the heavy chopper/bomber is what I use the laser on. The only problem with it is the laser won't lock onto and track some things (boss parts), and if ANYTHING blocks the laser for an instant (missile, drone, hummer) the laser power resets to low damage. It's part of the mechanic where you focus down one enemy, but since missiles are everywhere it is very easy to get reset multiple times. Not sure how to fix it, unless it is changed to not lose its potency if you change target then back in less than a second.

[Nucreum]

Originally posted by Warlord:

Well, more that I was annoyed at having to stay in ghost mode to do it at all, rather than be allowed to blow crap up. The pressure to suck it up for the score is probably the main reason I do it (It is satisfying to suck up, but I doubt it accounts for more than 1 or 2 towers total by the end of a map). (...) What isn't fun, is holding down right-click over a spot where a hundred hummers are charging to their doom.

Oh yeah, I totally agree with you. I wonder why I forgot to tell it in my first post. That's one of the major issues of the game!

[Nucreum]

Originally posted by LotusBlade:

Laser is particulary good against bosses parts, cus other weapon just woo weak. We just need to have some new enemy type who can be killed only with lasers.

Mmmmh for all bosses except tank, I used missiles and it worked fine. For the tank I used bombs.

[PROSATANOS PL]

Originally posted by Warlord:

The behemoth tank and the heavy chopper/bomber is what I use the laser on. The only problem with it is the laser won't lock onto and track some things (boss parts), and if ANYTHING blocks the laser for an instant (missile, drone, hummer) the laser power resets to low damage.

The thing that rockets reduce the power of the laser is actually a bug that we already fixed and will be coming in the next patch (probably today or tomorrow). We'll also try to make some adjustments to the laser because we also fees it is somewhat underpowered.

[Till]

Wish there was a demo to get a feel for it before I buy.

[Warlord]

Originally posted by PROSATANOS PL:

Originally posted by Warlord:

The behemoth tank and the heavy chopper/bomber is what I use the laser on. The only problem with it is the laser won't lock onto and track some things (boss parts), and if ANYTHING blocks the laser for an instant (missile, drone, hummer) the laser power resets to low damage.

The thing that rockets reduce the power of the laser is actually a bug that we already fixed and will be coming in the next patch (probably today or tomorrow). We'll also try to make some adjustments to the laser because we also fees it is somewhat underpowered.

That's nice, but the laser power is still reset if you laser a missile that belongs to another target. Such as if you are lasering one of those large helis that follow you around, and a missile from a buggy or another heli crosses the path. I'd like it to only lose power if you change target for more than about half a second.

[LotusBlade]

Originally posted by Tiller:

Wish there was a demo to get a feel for it before I buy.

Trailer tells pretty much everything about game. It feels like super polished movie, yet its tower defense merged with bullet storm.