End Game comments

[shnuggles]

Well Iv been playing this game for a good while now. Im at a point where I kinda need new maps. My brother and I had finished the maps ages ago however we keep trying to beat each others scores. These days we can't even beat our own scores. Lots of fun for those who haven't done that. Really pushes you to get a high score and master a level. .

Iv been playing games since the Commadore64. I worked in the 3D industry as a QA, Head Character Animator and a modeler. Lots of good times. Thought I would comment on a few things as my bro and I really like this game. .

1. Great game.

2. Inferno Towers have a target problem when other towers block their turning circle. They are the only tower that seem to stop shooting or "spit fire". .

3. GRIND mode is really terrible. This could have been the best mode out and most challenging. Unfortunately its just really easy. There needs to be serious changes to it to make it a challenge. Brother and I gave up on it quickly as we have to hold the Fast Forward button for 60+ levels just to see it finish and get our scores. Build a few red towers and its game over. .

4. If possible please remove cheaters and hacked gamers from Leaderboard. I got rank 70 in one map and would love to have seen my place without all the cheaters. .

5. Some levels you can allow a tower to be right on the edge of a high section platform. Unfortunately if an alien walks right next to that gun it will stop shooting. Doesn't seem right. Might want to check this in future maps. .

6. The best maps my brother and I liked where the ones that where very open and you had to plan where to build to move the aliens around the map. Barrier to Entry, Turnabout and our fav Lockdown (I still play this). .

7. The maps my bro and I didn't like the most where the beginner maps (because I am a DG god) and maps where there are two separate alien armies getting there own cores (or even two starting points such as the end map that both went for the one cores). We preferred the one alien army going for the one set of cores. Also we found maps can get to big. The end map (Last Stand), although challenging for a while, was rather tedious and annoying. We left it forever after we finished it. .

8. To be really picky, I didn't like the aliens too much. Personally I would have made some of them look better (guns on an alien that doesnt shoot?) and maybe even made them funny (although, if done wrong could be annoying I guess). Still, you guys did great considering. Large, multi million companys stuff up on games like this big time. .
9. More advanced maps please. WE NEED MORE!!! .



You guys did really well, thanks for a great game.

[jeff]

Thanks for your comments, we appreciate them.* The XBLA version of the game should have better leaderboards because of the closed system.* It is quite difficult to accurately identify amazing scores on the leaderboards from some of the cheaters (some of the cheaters are obvious and we ban them every so often).* It would be horrible if we banned someone with an actual top score they earned.





The XBLA version will also have some new maps and modes.* Hopefully it can offer you something new while people purchase the game in stores and on Xbox and that revenue will give us the opportunity to revisit this universe and create more content and features!





Jeff

[virdicyer]

1. Agreed
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2. Some towers don't fire if targets aren't in range long enough for their current rate of fire, not just inferno towers. You can see this easily by testing out attacking flyers: put a tower within range so that targets are within range for a brief period, watch it do nothing as they fly by, upgrade it so it's rate of fire increases, watch it shoot all that passes.
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3. Agreed -- too easy. Speeding up the rate of difficulty increase by 2 and shortening it to 50 waves would be one way to make it better.
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4. Not one of my things.
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5. I never saw this problem.... what I did see was that sometimes it looks like a tower can shoot next to it, but when you change the camera position, the tower is actually above the spot.
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A suggestion for improvement would be to show the range of the lower levels in slightly different shades so we know exactly where its range is on different elevations without having to check the range, move the camera around, repeat, and guess. I don't think it's much of a problem with flying ranges, but land elevations would be helpful.
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6. I preferred the more linear levels. Favorite puzzle map was Turnabout.
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7. The beginning maps are good for teaching you how to play. I agree about the dual core map -- I don't like it. I still have 3 maps to complete everything on and that's probably going to be the last one I do... if I do it at all. I thought Last Stand was the easiest puzzle map of them all.
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8. I wouldn't know -- I played it on lowest detail setting to get the most fps.

[shnuggles]

Thanks for a reply!! Awesome.

2 - About flame towers not shooting, I did find this a bug. They tend to fire at the monster in front of the alien group. If they start shooting at their 45" angle due to a tower being next to them, instead of continuous fire they start to "spit" or just don't shoot much. Any other tower keeps shooting (although it cant turn anymore, there is still aliens to choose from). Hope that made sense. I also find they tend to stop firing when choosing a new target, even if its at the same angle.
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I still like this tower but will only use 1 on a level if I find the right spot for it.
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3 - Grind Mode. I hope this is being upgraded in a near patch.
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4 - Leaderboard is fun. I try to beat my score often. Otherwise this game won't last too long for a player I feel. I got 2nd place on Lockdown (challenge) and the 1st player has clearly cheated. LOL.
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5 - Shooting down from a raised position (eg. Lockdown map) can make a tower stop shooting if the enemy is right next to it. Not just little aliens but the really big ones too which just looks weird. Im not too bothered by this at just take it as "realism".
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7 - You on Challenge mode yet? Its all I play.
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8 - Im on highest setting. Runs super smooth (Im not gloating). I don't think you would need super FPS on this game.

[Dachannien]

One thing you could do is have the game log every tower that's built or upgraded, along with a timestamp (e.g., inferno tower upgraded from level 1 to level 2 at 8 minutes 32.381 seconds into the level). Have that data uploaded to the high score server whenever the score puts them in the top however many players. Then you could have it play back the high scoring game for you and see whether it results in the high score they claimed to have.



If you were to do this, keep in mind that there does seem to be a slight random element to the game (I haven't figured out exactly what has randomness in it, but I'm guessing damage and alien pathing), and occasionally it can cause different results with the same exact towers in place (as evidenced by use of the backspace key). So if a playback game made you suspicious, you might want to run it a few times to make sure.

[virdicyer]

I stopped using inferno towers after halfway. Cannon and concussion dominate when you can build a long path that has the aliens walk past them several times.
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@ shnuggles: 5. Lockdown raised levels are on corners, so if you put a cannon or meteor there, it won't shoot a alien that's next to it as they are long range only towers.
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7. Just got gold on everything now. The last few maps were too easy once I started making better trails and using the command tower. Five minutes on practice mode made the dual core level too easy. It's still my least favorite though.
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8. I exceed all requirements but only meet CPU. It's that way with most games now... seems CPU is the main thing. I use lowest settings on everything and I still chop insanely on GoW.
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@ Dachannien: That's what Starcraft 2 is doing. I'd bet it'd take a lot of work to implement. I'd rather have more content than replay and more stat tracking.

[ginzero]

@Jeff

"The XBLA version will also have some new maps and modes..."

Will the PC/Steam version get these new goodies??

[virdicyer]

This has been answered in another topic more relative to your question. Yes, but they'll remain exclusives for a very long time.

[matthewsancho]

Seeing your description of the game would really comment that it would be fantastic. I have tried several games online and have found out one interesting game called as Qbeez online (http://www.playedonline.com/game/59499/qbeez-online.html) which is just hell lot of fun like we have in End Game.

Thanks for bringing such content into our notice.