I do want to mention I like the writing a lot. It's exactly as good as writing in this sort of game should be. I never want to skip any scene and it's surprisingly funny. I'm particularly noticing because I'm playing Just Cause 2, which has little scenes before missions and I find myself pounding every key to see how fast I'm allowed to escape. Also I just tried it with the new patch and daaaaaaammmmn that's some awesome work on tightening up the graphics on level 6 man.
This is really the only example of tower defense I've seen outside of Defense Grid that has resonated with me.
This reminds me a lot of Soulcaster, a neat little game I got in some indie game bundle. It was a bit more free flowing - moving hero and monsters tracking you vs preset routes.
All in all your demo is solid so far. I don't care for the story so much, but hey, there is a skip option. Upgrading multiple characters and managing them is cool.
I don't know about the demo, but at least for whatever content is in the real game, I strongly advise you not to skip anything, just because you will miss the hilarious exchanges between the characters.
Yeah. The writing is pretty much my favorite part.
Also, I both like and hate the fact that priests are nessesary for shadow enemies later on. Both like it because they were basically useless before. And dislike it, because now that's points I have to spend on them instead of upgrading my murder archers.
Yeah. The writing is pretty much my favorite part.
Also, I both like and hate the fact that priests are nessesary for shadow enemies later on. Both like it because they were basically useless before. And dislike it, because now that's points I have to spend on them instead of upgrading my murder archers.
1) Yeah, the writing is solid all the way through (so far).
2) I think I'm at the first level where the priests are necessary. The enemies are covered with a cloud or something? I'm having issues with that, any advise?
3) I had mostly used archers as support, with Berserkers as the main damage dealers. Then I unlocked the first Challenge level or whatever it's called, and upgraded basically all my units to max in it, and got to see the epic carnage that archers will deal out. I will be using them more from now on :P
So, as I mentioned, I grabbed this game a couple days back (incredibly classy of you, thanks!) and have played to the point where I've gotten the 4th character class.
Ice mages.
As mentioned by others, the writing is pretty spectacular - the characters are engaging and entertaining, although they can be a bit one-note at times (so far). Still, it's fantasy, and archtypes exist for a reason. Additionally, the "talky" bits are very well-paced, providing just enough of a break between the action without dragging.
As far as balancing goes, I've one-shotted at "perfect" every normal mission up until this point sans two:
First big boss battle at the monestary with Ozimal (sp?) and the first battle where you get to use your ice mage.
... but scrap seems to be pretty tight. I've recruited 2 each of the first two classes (total of 3) and 1 each of the second two (total of 2), which doesn't seem excessive, but my troops' equipment seems to be lagging behind pretty badly. I'm not 100% clear on if the expected path is to go back and redo some of the earlier missions on a harder difficulty in order to keep up with the difficulty curve, or if that's for even later. One of the issues is that monster level and character level don't align particularly well (e.g., I have a mix of ... 2 - 5, IIRC, but the monsters in the current mission are 7 - 12 or something like that), so it's hard to figure out when you'll be capable of going back and trying the ealier missions at the higher difficulty levels without experiementation (so, honestly, I just haven't tried it yet. I might look into doing some of the earlier missions on harder modes tonight.
You start with a different amount of Psy as you progress through the battles, but it's not clear to me how that amount is determined and whether or not I have any control over it.
Troop skill trees allow you to review the items that they have unlocked via mouse-over, but you can't look at the abilties coming down the pipe, which would be nice (unless they're hidden for a reason I cannot appreciate yet since I haven't made it very far into the game).
I like the boost mechanic (equivalent to increasing your tower level), and how it plays out against unlocked abilities vs. static traits as your troops level up.
All in all, I really enjoy the game so far, and it definitely has a bit of the ol' "one-more-turnbattle" Civ appeal.
Yeah, perfecting the normal missions isn't too hard. I just go until I reach a hard point or feel my equipment is too far behind (because your right, scrap is minimal... Or rather, equipment is expensive!), then go back and do harder difficulties on the previous missions. It's actually felt really really fluid to me. Whenever I end up going back to do the harder difficulties, I can usually do about 3-5 of them before it starts to get too hard, and in the process get equipment that is just balanced right enough to be stronger than anything else I have, but not overpowered. As well as get lots of cash.
A fun challenge is to try to perfect the hard versions of a mission before getting the next unit type. Typically the next unit type in any given hard mission will trivialize it; doing so prior is incredibly difficult, but a good challenge. There are a handful that are all but impossible to do so on, but it's really obvious when that's the case.
Thanks for the feedback guys! I'll be monitoring this forum, and I'm actively working on the next patch - we'll be supporting this with frequent updates for as long as we can afford to.
For instance, not being able to see upcoming skills in your skill tree that haven't been unlocked yet is a straight-up bug, you should be able to preview what those do, I need to fix that. That's on my list of things to fix for version 1.0.2, and that patch is due out next week. Other things I've already fixed that I'll be rolling out soon are:
1) Fixed a bug with the knight's "cleave" animation,
2) Fixed some minor bugs in mod support,
3) Fixed bug: was incorrectly counting how many "stars" you've earned for the sake of unlocking bonus challenges (only affected NG+ mode).
Also: if you feel that the balance is a little off, we give you some tools to manually adjust that should you so choose. You can set global scrap and XP multipliers in the accessibility menu under options, as well as the penalties for outright failing a battle, or for defenders who didn't participate.
These are the defaults:
XP: 100%
Scrap: 100%
Failure penalty: lose 50% of scrap/xp earned
Absence penalty: characters not summoned at the end of battle only get 50% of XP
So if you disagree with any design decisions there, you can fine-tune it for whatever works best for your playstyle. I've discovered most hard-core types feel "honor bound" not to touch the settings, but it's been helpful for some people.
Yeah. The writing is pretty much my favorite part.
Also, I both like and hate the fact that priests are nessesary for shadow enemies later on. Both like it because they were basically useless before. And dislike it, because now that's points I have to spend on them instead of upgrading my murder archers.
1) Yeah, the writing is solid all the way through (so far).
2) I think I'm at the first level where the priests are necessary. The enemies are covered with a cloud or something? I'm having issues with that, any advise?
3) I had mostly used archers as support, with Berserkers as the main damage dealers. Then I unlocked the first Challenge level or whatever it's called, and upgraded basically all my units to max in it, and got to see the epic carnage that archers will deal out. I will be using them more from now on :P
Re: Clouds, I'm about to load up the game to play through again with all the new stuff, but unless it was changed it's an evasion thing. Fast attackers will 'expose' them and let them be damaged, but they avoid most attacks; so slow attackers are worthless against them (i.e. Knights).
Again, it's been awhile, but yeah, archers were the solution to them; their specials attack really fast and they have a huge range. Berzerkers are good against them too, but their range is so limited that you're risking relying on them for those guys.
2) I think I'm at the first level where the priests are necessary. The enemies are covered with a cloud or something? I'm having issues with that, any advise?
Yup. That's them. It took me awhile to figure it out too, but you NEED to upgrade your priests to level 2, and have them use Ether Flash.
... but scrap seems to be pretty tight. I've recruited 2 each of the first two classes (total of 3) and 1 each of the second two (total of 2), which doesn't seem excessive, but my troops' equipment seems to be lagging behind pretty badly. I'm not 100% clear on if the expected path is to go back and redo some of the earlier missions on a harder difficulty in order to keep up with the difficulty curve, or if that's for even later. One of the issues is that monster level and character level don't align particularly well (e.g., I have a mix of ... 2 - 5, IIRC, but the monsters in the current mission are 7 - 12 or something like that), so it's hard to figure out when you'll be capable of going back and trying the ealier missions at the higher difficulty levels without experiementation (so, honestly, I just haven't tried it yet. I might look into doing some of the earlier missions on harder modes tonight.
I think the intention is to go back and re-fight earlier battles on Advanced (or even Extreme) once you have a few more levels/recruits under your belt. Once you've gone through the first, say, 10 battles, go back to the first few and try them on Advanced and/or Extreme. You'll be able to pick up generous amounts of Scrap and XP without grinding the (generally too easy) Normal version of the same battle(s) over and over. You can also get some unique equipment that is generally better than the current store-bought stuff (and becomes important much later on).
Scrap will always be tight - tight to the point of you never being able to keep your army fully equipped - if you only move from battle to battle, doing it once or twice on Normal and never doing any earlier stuff on Advanced/Extreme. Trust me, I tried doing a "Normal Only" run once, and while it made the Normal Battles later in the game a real challenge, it never felt like I was doing things as the game intended me to - you're always short of everything (Levels, Scrap, Gear, unlockable bonus stuff) at all times.
You start with a different amount of Psy as you progress through the battles, but it's not clear to me how that amount is determined and whether or not I have any control over it.
Your starting/maximum Psi is determined by Azra's Level. Like any good Mage-y Type™, she gets more Psi/Mana as she levels up. This is one of the (many) reasons why you can go back and do earlier maps on harder modes when you couldn't before: a higher level Azra can "afford" to place more Defenders, and Boost them up to higher levels, than what you could do when you first did the battle on Normal at a lower Level.
I've never done a level more than once after I've completed it (referring to each difficulty on each level). If you keep all the rewards at the standard settings, I think it's paced such that you should always have new stuff to do without getting stuck.
I just got to the part with the unique sword to buy. I want it so much! Just for the sentimental value, of course.
The second Endless map (the 90 star one) isn't saving. Or something.
I got to wave 134 and when i finished I didn't get any rewards; when I checked it on the bonus menu it said I hadn't played it at all. Gonna try again and just hop out after wave 60 and see if it gives the rewards.
Also I've been crashing a lot more with the new patch than I had at launch. The game frequently gets up to ~2gb memory used and then just locks up entirely; have to task manager end process.
Also Also the game doesn't know what to do with the steam overlay. It just goes nuts. If the game is coming to steam ya'll should take a look at that.
I jumped out at about 70 waves, and it gave me the reward.
Enjoying the New Game+. I like the Purple stages, they're a nice change of pace. I remember suggesting back when the game launched that there should be more stages that are more 'puzzle' in that they limit your unit options and stuff.
Good times.
Minus the crashes.
EDIT: Yeah, some of this stuff is unplayable. The Magic Sheep on a New Game+, even with a fresh load, I can't get through the map without the game locking up and the memory just going nuts. It's too much for it to handle or something; there's clearly a memory leak somewhere. I can sit there and just watch the memory usage in my task manager just go up and up and up.
Ok @larsiusprime Here's exactly what I'm seeing on the Magic Sheep map, specifically on New Game + (didn't have the problem on normal). It's interesting in that the way it works allows me to reliably crash the game, and I think I've figured out why.
First of all, I play the game exclusively in 4x and pause when I need to make a change; this seems to add to the problem.
Anyway, so there's a queue system apparently (or something similar) for damage in and damage out. The sheer amount of damage and attacks directed at a single enemy, on top of the fact that enemy has a 'thorns' effect, at 4x is too much for the game to handle. I can see this because on that map when I pause, damage will just keep going for a good while after I pause and the game is clearing its 'queue'. This system is eating up memory like a mofo; and pausing a lot, instead of dumping memory by clearing the queue, seems to compound the problem, as if the buffer used for the damage queue isn't actually clearing as it should. The result is every time I get the thing down to ~1m hp left, is when the game just gives up the ghost and can't handle it anymore.
Another interesting problem that results from this damage queuing on that map specifically. If I have a Berzerker going at the sheep, its attacks can get so far back into the queue, that when they are processed, and then the thorn damage results from it; I've had Berserkers die long after the Sheep has passed, once the game finally catches up. Interestingly other units can't see through the queue and Healers can't heal the Berserkers when this happens. Apparently the game isn't communicating the place in the queue to everything else; and everything is functioning independently. So, instead of the healers being able to see what I can't, the damage happening in order in the queue, and keeping the Berserkers alive in the order they are taking damage; when the game spits out the thorn damage the berserker takes, it does it all at once, and the Berserker is effectively dead without the healer ever even seeing that it took damage. I've even had Berserkers die after awhile when the game is paused as it is clearing out its damage queue.
This, of course, makes me wonder what else is being missed; for instance are the bleeds not stacking properly? Is the damage already gone by the time the queue figures out there is a bleed in the queue? Is the 'expose' effect that berserkers and archers have that allow more damage from all sources being ignored entirely? I suspect it is, based on the healers behavior with berserkers taking thorn damage. If the healers can't 'see' the thorn damage, than it's highly likely that the game can't 'see' the expose in order to apply the damage increase when it should.
It's waaaaay too late now, but tomorrow I'll try the map on normal speed, as I suspect that most of this is purely a result of playing at 4x and the game simply can't handle it for that specific map. I'll be curious if there is a noticeable difference in how fast the sheeps health goes down compared to at 4x if my speculation about the game not being able to handle the secondary effects for that particular map on 4x. or if it's simply something systemic in that map; i.e. will healers be able to heal Berzerkers at all, is it a problem with how the game processes the thorns, and everything else is ok.
We shall see.
EDIT: oh, and for the map I use mainly archers, with a healer to give them inspiration; and then I just 'follow' the sheep around, moving units when necessary, and as I build up Psi I build Ice Mages and Knights along with the movement of the sheep. I'd prefer berserkers to knights given that it has no armor, but they can't survive. By the end of the map (well, I can't beat it on new-game plus because it crashes ~1m hp) I usually have 6 archers, 4 or so healers, 4 or so ice mages and 2 knights; all capped. If anything, it's the archers that are the problem, as so many of their attacks, focused on one thing, given their already high attack speed results in just an absurd amount of attacks for the game to process and it all just gets backed up and falls apart.
Also: if you feel that the balance is a little off, we give you some tools to manually adjust that should you so choose. You can set global scrap and XP multipliers in the accessibility menu under options, as well as the penalties for outright failing a battle, or for defenders who didn't participate.
These are the defaults:
XP: 100%
Scrap: 100%
Failure penalty: lose 50% of scrap/xp earned
Absence penalty: characters not summoned at the end of battle only get 50% of XP
So if you disagree with any design decisions there, you can fine-tune it for whatever works best for your playstyle. I've discovered most hard-core types feel "honor bound" not to touch the settings, but it's been helpful for some people.
Wow! That's an epic repro case there. Thanks so much! Can you send me your relevant save file so I can try this for myself? We really want to fix this bug and have a patch out for it next week, since it seems to be causing so many problems.
We're going to try to fix the feedback for challenge maps, and get to the bottom of the challenge that doesn't give the right rewards. New patch should be coming soon. Thanks for the feedback!
If someone's name has more than one word, like @The Dude With Herpes, you have to put quotation marks around it and use the full name to get the notification to work correctly.
If you don't care about that, you don't need to use @, but it doesn't really matter if you want to anyways :P
I'm glad I haven't been having any slowdown issues. Although I haven't gotten as far, so that's probably why.
@larsiusprime how do you want me to get you the save file?
I've played a bit more today and just some more observations:
I've crashed on every single bonus map now. I can't complete challenge 3 on New Game+ for what appears to be similar reasons as the Magic Sheep map.
I went back and did Magic Sheep on 1x and it didn't crash; but judging from where the memory was going, it was probably awfully close.
Any map, too, that has a 'boss' with a ton of HP, runs into similar issues. I'm more and more convinced it is something related to how you have the game handle damage overflow that it needs to handle past what the game can process each 'cycle'. Memory is being dumped after a map (I can go from 1.7gb use on a boss stage, to about 700mb), but there needs to be some way to dump data periodically during the course of the map. Since you can't reload waves, there's no real reason to have all that info stacking up, just lose it now and then.
Probably related, another place I have crashed semi-frequently is on the load between the end of a map and the load to the rewards page. When it happens, it is usually after one of those 'big' maps.
EDIT: Oh, and not really a big deal, but as far as I can tell the game isn't tracking my time played on a newgame+. I copied my playthrough before I started it and they're both stuck at 8hrs 37m. Kinda weird. Since it was like my 4th+ time going through the game I just jacked up XP, Scrap and blew through the first playthrough. EDIT2: Though, come to think of it, I haven't 'properly' exited the game on the NewGame+. It's always via a crash that I stop playing. I'm not sure if that matters though, because even with a crash the game keeps track of my most recent completed map/acquired whatever. So yeah.
1) Either email it to me at (leveluplabs [at] gmail [dot] com) or post it on the Defender's Quest forums (www.defendersquest.com/theforum)
2) I've fixed the "weird damage queue bug," we'll test it over the weekend and hopefully upload the patch on Monday. I *think* this fixes the worst crash bugs.
3) I'll look into the time thing
Man, some of the later NewGame+ maps get super difficult on Extreme.
That's not a bad thing. Even with most of my units capped out and with most of the best gear (including many of the upgraded uniques), stuff isn't just a walk in the park. I actually had to respec all my berzerkers for regen and evade because they were just dying too easily.
I do think the damage on the mad cultists is a bit much though, either way. For their level of armor and health, having them do as much damage the do as fast as they do, even with two healers covering an area, Berzerkers just go down faster than you can handle.
midway through newgame+. I have the xp jacked up though, as I said. i was about 45ish after finishing the first playthrough. Part of the reason I was so high, raised xp or no, was because despite having played through several times already, I was unaware if you played through on Expert you'd get the hard reward too. So I effectively played through each map three times. :rotate:
Knights and Dragons still aren't capped out though, they're about 55, but everything else is. I was gonna turn off the increased xp for the newgame+ but ran into a few stages that were more difficult than I expected and just said 'screw it' so that I could have capped stuff to do it with. Honestly some of the Expert maps I'm not sure how you could do below the cap as they're pretty tough even then.
EDIT: Though I notice you said xp was supposed to scale up pretty steep post 40; however that was not really my experience. I was getting about a level each map (granted, with 3x XP), and it didn't seem to really slow down. Proportionally it seemed like the same amount needed per level. Pretty much throughout both playthroughs I was getting a level per map; there didn't seem to be any steep scaling as you said.
@The Dude With Herpes : Cool, thanks for that info. I'll double-check with Anthony - he's the guy in charge of balance, I just write the engine code. If necessary we'll bump up the level cap a bit
0
Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
I played this for a good while last night and got hooked. It reminds me of Clash of Heroes (a great game) with tower defense combat (which I actually enjoy more than the CoH combat). My only complaint after several hours is I would like a way to either "boost all" or set a boost level that a unit is put in at. It gets kind of tedious going around and boosting everyone once after placing them.
I doubt you'd ever see a 'boost all" option, as 'tower' management is an important aspect of TD games. A set level to place something at could work; as long as the cost is the same either way. However, it seems like that'd be a lot of work to just save a few button presses.
Make sure you're using keyboard shortcuts. It makes management of your units a lot more efficient.
1-6 selects spells
Q-Y selects unit type
A-H selects units in the type
B boosts
Del recalls
One thing I'd still like is an option, like a checkbox, on recruits to have their skill upgrades match the 'main' unit of that type. I know, it'd be hard to manage with differing levels, but it is tedious to click the skills of 30-some odd units ever other map.
I doubt you'd ever see a 'boost all" option, as 'tower' management is an important aspect of TD games. A set level to place something at could work; as long as the cost is the same either way. However, it seems like that'd be a lot of work to just save a few button presses.
Make sure you're using keyboard shortcuts. It makes management of your units a lot more efficient.
1-6 selects spells
Q-Y selects unit type
A-H selects units in the type
B boosts
Del recalls
One thing I'd still like is an option, like a checkbox, on recruits to have their skill upgrades match the 'main' unit of that type. I know, it'd be hard to manage with differing levels, but it is tedious to click the skills of 30-some odd units ever other map.
Boost All could only be done before any enemies arrive. But no, I haven't been using the keyboard. I'll try it.
It's just rare, for me anyway, that I'd ever want to jack everyone up at the same time to the same level. Psi management off the bat means that I'll place some at 5, some at 3, some at 2, and some I'll just place to have them on the board since the 'placement' cost is usually trivial for the benefits of even a level 1 unit (sometimes).
Hey Lars, just wanted to thank you for being so active in your responses with the community (both here and through your website) because it is something a lot of devs either don't "get" or have time for. It's awesome you keep everyone updated as much as you do.
Aside from that, I played the demo a loooong while back and it was pretty great before all the additions you guys have made since.
When it's released on steam I will be buying it for sure.
Thanks! I do try to keep in touch, and I want to make sure we handle all the immediate bugs as soon as we can so we can stabilize everything before we open the floodgates on Steam. We have a pretty active community on our forums, and some of the upgrades in gold edition have resulted directly from fan suggestions.
We'll be releasing patch version 1.0.21 on Monday with some fixes to some of the bigger bugs people have been mentioning, and I'll keep patching/upgrading for as long as I can afford to do so.
Glad you liked the game!
0
Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
It's just rare, for me anyway, that I'd ever want to jack everyone up at the same time to the same level. Psi management off the bat means that I'll place some at 5, some at 3, some at 2, and some I'll just place to have them on the board since the 'placement' cost is usually trivial for the benefits of even a level 1 unit (sometimes).
Well dang, i guess if you don't need it, it's not worth messing with
With my current level, I boost everyone once before the enemies start. It gets tedious having to do that 16 times, every battle.
Posts
This is really the only example of tower defense I've seen outside of Defense Grid that has resonated with me.
All in all your demo is solid so far. I don't care for the story so much, but hey, there is a skip option. Upgrading multiple characters and managing them is cool.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
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Also, I both like and hate the fact that priests are nessesary for shadow enemies later on. Both like it because they were basically useless before. And dislike it, because now that's points I have to spend on them instead of upgrading my murder archers.
1) Yeah, the writing is solid all the way through (so far).
2) I think I'm at the first level where the priests are necessary. The enemies are covered with a cloud or something? I'm having issues with that, any advise?
3) I had mostly used archers as support, with Berserkers as the main damage dealers. Then I unlocked the first Challenge level or whatever it's called, and upgraded basically all my units to max in it, and got to see the epic carnage that archers will deal out. I will be using them more from now on :P
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
As mentioned by others, the writing is pretty spectacular - the characters are engaging and entertaining, although they can be a bit one-note at times (so far). Still, it's fantasy, and archtypes exist for a reason. Additionally, the "talky" bits are very well-paced, providing just enough of a break between the action without dragging.
As far as balancing goes, I've one-shotted at "perfect" every normal mission up until this point sans two:
... but scrap seems to be pretty tight. I've recruited 2 each of the first two classes (total of 3) and 1 each of the second two (total of 2), which doesn't seem excessive, but my troops' equipment seems to be lagging behind pretty badly. I'm not 100% clear on if the expected path is to go back and redo some of the earlier missions on a harder difficulty in order to keep up with the difficulty curve, or if that's for even later. One of the issues is that monster level and character level don't align particularly well (e.g., I have a mix of ... 2 - 5, IIRC, but the monsters in the current mission are 7 - 12 or something like that), so it's hard to figure out when you'll be capable of going back and trying the ealier missions at the higher difficulty levels without experiementation (so, honestly, I just haven't tried it yet. I might look into doing some of the earlier missions on harder modes tonight.
You start with a different amount of Psy as you progress through the battles, but it's not clear to me how that amount is determined and whether or not I have any control over it.
Troop skill trees allow you to review the items that they have unlocked via mouse-over, but you can't look at the abilties coming down the pipe, which would be nice (unless they're hidden for a reason I cannot appreciate yet since I haven't made it very far into the game).
I like the boost mechanic (equivalent to increasing your tower level), and how it plays out against unlocked abilities vs. static traits as your troops level up.
All in all, I really enjoy the game so far, and it definitely has a bit of the ol' "one-more-turnbattle" Civ appeal.
Also, I bought the soundtrack - totally worth it.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
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Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
For instance, not being able to see upcoming skills in your skill tree that haven't been unlocked yet is a straight-up bug, you should be able to preview what those do, I need to fix that. That's on my list of things to fix for version 1.0.2, and that patch is due out next week. Other things I've already fixed that I'll be rolling out soon are:
1) Fixed a bug with the knight's "cleave" animation,
2) Fixed some minor bugs in mod support,
3) Fixed bug: was incorrectly counting how many "stars" you've earned for the sake of unlocking bonus challenges (only affected NG+ mode).
Also: if you feel that the balance is a little off, we give you some tools to manually adjust that should you so choose. You can set global scrap and XP multipliers in the accessibility menu under options, as well as the penalties for outright failing a battle, or for defenders who didn't participate.
These are the defaults:
XP: 100%
Scrap: 100%
Failure penalty: lose 50% of scrap/xp earned
Absence penalty: characters not summoned at the end of battle only get 50% of XP
So if you disagree with any design decisions there, you can fine-tune it for whatever works best for your playstyle. I've discovered most hard-core types feel "honor bound" not to touch the settings, but it's been helpful for some people.
Re: Clouds, I'm about to load up the game to play through again with all the new stuff, but unless it was changed it's an evasion thing. Fast attackers will 'expose' them and let them be damaged, but they avoid most attacks; so slow attackers are worthless against them (i.e. Knights).
Again, it's been awhile, but yeah, archers were the solution to them; their specials attack really fast and they have a huge range. Berzerkers are good against them too, but their range is so limited that you're risking relying on them for those guys.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
I think the intention is to go back and re-fight earlier battles on Advanced (or even Extreme) once you have a few more levels/recruits under your belt. Once you've gone through the first, say, 10 battles, go back to the first few and try them on Advanced and/or Extreme. You'll be able to pick up generous amounts of Scrap and XP without grinding the (generally too easy) Normal version of the same battle(s) over and over. You can also get some unique equipment that is generally better than the current store-bought stuff (and becomes important much later on).
Scrap will always be tight - tight to the point of you never being able to keep your army fully equipped - if you only move from battle to battle, doing it once or twice on Normal and never doing any earlier stuff on Advanced/Extreme. Trust me, I tried doing a "Normal Only" run once, and while it made the Normal Battles later in the game a real challenge, it never felt like I was doing things as the game intended me to - you're always short of everything (Levels, Scrap, Gear, unlockable bonus stuff) at all times.
Your starting/maximum Psi is determined by Azra's Level. Like any good Mage-y Type™, she gets more Psi/Mana as she levels up. This is one of the (many) reasons why you can go back and do earlier maps on harder modes when you couldn't before: a higher level Azra can "afford" to place more Defenders, and Boost them up to higher levels, than what you could do when you first did the battle on Normal at a lower Level.
I just got to the part with the unique sword to buy. I want it so much! Just for the sentimental value, of course.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
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It is quite good though, the little I've been able to play of it with the demo version.
"ahahahahaha....no."
The second Endless map (the 90 star one) isn't saving. Or something.
I got to wave 134 and when i finished I didn't get any rewards; when I checked it on the bonus menu it said I hadn't played it at all. Gonna try again and just hop out after wave 60 and see if it gives the rewards.
Also I've been crashing a lot more with the new patch than I had at launch. The game frequently gets up to ~2gb memory used and then just locks up entirely; have to task manager end process.
Also Also the game doesn't know what to do with the steam overlay. It just goes nuts. If the game is coming to steam ya'll should take a look at that.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Oh. It MIGHT be because I've already finished that one. But it would be nice if it was a bit less misleading.
Enjoying the New Game+. I like the Purple stages, they're a nice change of pace. I remember suggesting back when the game launched that there should be more stages that are more 'puzzle' in that they limit your unit options and stuff.
Good times.
Minus the crashes.
EDIT: Yeah, some of this stuff is unplayable. The Magic Sheep on a New Game+, even with a fresh load, I can't get through the map without the game locking up and the memory just going nuts. It's too much for it to handle or something; there's clearly a memory leak somewhere. I can sit there and just watch the memory usage in my task manager just go up and up and up.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
First of all, I play the game exclusively in 4x and pause when I need to make a change; this seems to add to the problem.
Anyway, so there's a queue system apparently (or something similar) for damage in and damage out. The sheer amount of damage and attacks directed at a single enemy, on top of the fact that enemy has a 'thorns' effect, at 4x is too much for the game to handle. I can see this because on that map when I pause, damage will just keep going for a good while after I pause and the game is clearing its 'queue'. This system is eating up memory like a mofo; and pausing a lot, instead of dumping memory by clearing the queue, seems to compound the problem, as if the buffer used for the damage queue isn't actually clearing as it should. The result is every time I get the thing down to ~1m hp left, is when the game just gives up the ghost and can't handle it anymore.
Another interesting problem that results from this damage queuing on that map specifically. If I have a Berzerker going at the sheep, its attacks can get so far back into the queue, that when they are processed, and then the thorn damage results from it; I've had Berserkers die long after the Sheep has passed, once the game finally catches up. Interestingly other units can't see through the queue and Healers can't heal the Berserkers when this happens. Apparently the game isn't communicating the place in the queue to everything else; and everything is functioning independently. So, instead of the healers being able to see what I can't, the damage happening in order in the queue, and keeping the Berserkers alive in the order they are taking damage; when the game spits out the thorn damage the berserker takes, it does it all at once, and the Berserker is effectively dead without the healer ever even seeing that it took damage. I've even had Berserkers die after awhile when the game is paused as it is clearing out its damage queue.
This, of course, makes me wonder what else is being missed; for instance are the bleeds not stacking properly? Is the damage already gone by the time the queue figures out there is a bleed in the queue? Is the 'expose' effect that berserkers and archers have that allow more damage from all sources being ignored entirely? I suspect it is, based on the healers behavior with berserkers taking thorn damage. If the healers can't 'see' the thorn damage, than it's highly likely that the game can't 'see' the expose in order to apply the damage increase when it should.
It's waaaaay too late now, but tomorrow I'll try the map on normal speed, as I suspect that most of this is purely a result of playing at 4x and the game simply can't handle it for that specific map. I'll be curious if there is a noticeable difference in how fast the sheeps health goes down compared to at 4x if my speculation about the game not being able to handle the secondary effects for that particular map on 4x. or if it's simply something systemic in that map; i.e. will healers be able to heal Berzerkers at all, is it a problem with how the game processes the thorns, and everything else is ok.
We shall see.
EDIT: oh, and for the map I use mainly archers, with a healer to give them inspiration; and then I just 'follow' the sheep around, moving units when necessary, and as I build up Psi I build Ice Mages and Knights along with the movement of the sheep. I'd prefer berserkers to knights given that it has no armor, but they can't survive. By the end of the map (well, I can't beat it on new-game plus because it crashes ~1m hp) I usually have 6 archers, 4 or so healers, 4 or so ice mages and 2 knights; all capped. If anything, it's the archers that are the problem, as so many of their attacks, focused on one thing, given their already high attack speed results in just an absurd amount of attacks for the game to process and it all just gets backed up and falls apart.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
I wish more games would do something like this.
Steam Support is the worst. Seriously, the worst
Wow! That's an epic repro case there. Thanks so much! Can you send me your relevant save file so I can try this for myself? We really want to fix this bug and have a patch out for it next week, since it seems to be causing so many problems.
@Heenato:
We're going to try to fix the feedback for challenge maps, and get to the bottom of the challenge that doesn't give the right rewards. New patch should be coming soon. Thanks for the feedback!
If you don't care about that, you don't need to use @, but it doesn't really matter if you want to anyways :P
I'm glad I haven't been having any slowdown issues. Although I haven't gotten as far, so that's probably why.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
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So, like this?
@The Dude With Herpes: (See above post).
I've played a bit more today and just some more observations:
I've crashed on every single bonus map now. I can't complete challenge 3 on New Game+ for what appears to be similar reasons as the Magic Sheep map.
I went back and did Magic Sheep on 1x and it didn't crash; but judging from where the memory was going, it was probably awfully close.
Any map, too, that has a 'boss' with a ton of HP, runs into similar issues. I'm more and more convinced it is something related to how you have the game handle damage overflow that it needs to handle past what the game can process each 'cycle'. Memory is being dumped after a map (I can go from 1.7gb use on a boss stage, to about 700mb), but there needs to be some way to dump data periodically during the course of the map. Since you can't reload waves, there's no real reason to have all that info stacking up, just lose it now and then.
Probably related, another place I have crashed semi-frequently is on the load between the end of a map and the load to the rewards page. When it happens, it is usually after one of those 'big' maps.
EDIT: Oh, and not really a big deal, but as far as I can tell the game isn't tracking my time played on a newgame+. I copied my playthrough before I started it and they're both stuck at 8hrs 37m. Kinda weird. Since it was like my 4th+ time going through the game I just jacked up XP, Scrap and blew through the first playthrough. EDIT2: Though, come to think of it, I haven't 'properly' exited the game on the NewGame+. It's always via a crash that I stop playing. I'm not sure if that matters though, because even with a crash the game keeps track of my most recent completed map/acquired whatever. So yeah.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
1) Either email it to me at (leveluplabs [at] gmail [dot] com) or post it on the Defender's Quest forums (www.defendersquest.com/theforum)
2) I've fixed the "weird damage queue bug," we'll test it over the weekend and hopefully upload the patch on Monday. I *think* this fixes the worst crash bugs.
3) I'll look into the time thing
Man, some of the later NewGame+ maps get super difficult on Extreme.
That's not a bad thing. Even with most of my units capped out and with most of the best gear (including many of the upgraded uniques), stuff isn't just a walk in the park. I actually had to respec all my berzerkers for regen and evade because they were just dying too easily.
I do think the damage on the mad cultists is a bit much though, either way. For their level of armor and health, having them do as much damage the do as fast as they do, even with two healers covering an area, Berzerkers just go down faster than you can handle.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Knights and Dragons still aren't capped out though, they're about 55, but everything else is. I was gonna turn off the increased xp for the newgame+ but ran into a few stages that were more difficult than I expected and just said 'screw it' so that I could have capped stuff to do it with. Honestly some of the Expert maps I'm not sure how you could do below the cap as they're pretty tough even then.
EDIT: Though I notice you said xp was supposed to scale up pretty steep post 40; however that was not really my experience. I was getting about a level each map (granted, with 3x XP), and it didn't seem to really slow down. Proportionally it seemed like the same amount needed per level. Pretty much throughout both playthroughs I was getting a level per map; there didn't seem to be any steep scaling as you said.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Steam Support is the worst. Seriously, the worst
Make sure you're using keyboard shortcuts. It makes management of your units a lot more efficient.
1-6 selects spells
Q-Y selects unit type
A-H selects units in the type
B boosts
Del recalls
One thing I'd still like is an option, like a checkbox, on recruits to have their skill upgrades match the 'main' unit of that type. I know, it'd be hard to manage with differing levels, but it is tedious to click the skills of 30-some odd units ever other map.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Boost All could only be done before any enemies arrive. But no, I haven't been using the keyboard. I'll try it.
Steam Support is the worst. Seriously, the worst
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Aside from that, I played the demo a loooong while back and it was pretty great before all the additions you guys have made since.
When it's released on steam I will be buying it for sure.
:^:
Thanks! I do try to keep in touch, and I want to make sure we handle all the immediate bugs as soon as we can so we can stabilize everything before we open the floodgates on Steam. We have a pretty active community on our forums, and some of the upgrades in gold edition have resulted directly from fan suggestions.
We'll be releasing patch version 1.0.21 on Monday with some fixes to some of the bigger bugs people have been mentioning, and I'll keep patching/upgrading for as long as I can afford to do so.
Glad you liked the game!
Well dang, i guess if you don't need it, it's not worth messing with
With my current level, I boost everyone once before the enemies start. It gets tedious having to do that 16 times, every battle.
Steam Support is the worst. Seriously, the worst