[Beta 6] Observations and feedback. (long post)

[Guest Screamingtoast]

Well, here are a few observations I've made on the beta. I've played about 7 solo games all the way through (to defeat, in most cases ) so here's my take on some things. I have not played multiplayer as of yet.

First off, difficulty and difficulty settings: The harder difficulties are definitely more difficult. Once I get the hang of the new towers, I might be able to beat very hard, but as it is I haven't been able to beat hard yet. Also, I've been trying out a wide variety of towers instead of just massing powerful towers, so most of the time I wind up with a less than ideal build.

Tower Cost: The increased prices seem fitting since the powers seem to be stronger than before on 3 element towers. No complaints.

New Round Spawn: I don't like that new rounds spawn right after a leak, as this can lead to a vicious circle of unstoppable leaks. Leaking more than just a couple creeps in a wave can make it very difficult to recover.

Resurrecting Undead Creeps: I like this. It adds a little more variety and challenge to the creep waves.

In any case, I like the new difficulty scale. The higher difficulties definitely present a better challenge, and normal difficulty is no longer a cakewalk. Also, I like that the number of creeps per wave is the same, meaning you don't lose out on a ton of gold on lower difficulties.

Earth waves: I don't know what it is, but I've noticed the same thing with 3.0. I don't mass light towers, but for some reason the earth waves, particularly 43, Dune Worms, seem more powerful than the waves before or after. Maybe it's just me, but I always seem to leak on earth waves.

Build Tooltips: I like that they show more info on AOE, damage, speed, etc, but not being able to see what a tower's power does until you build it kinda sucks. If you don't put that info in the tooltips, at least you should put it in the quest menu. As it is we're building blind.

Slowing Towers: There seem to be fewer effective slowing towers, I was on random every time I played and I could not rely on just being able to slow the creeps to a crawl and take them out em masse like I could in 3.0. Probably better balace in this respect than 3.0.

Ronalds: I like the ronald kill counter. Gives a better idea of actual build quality than before. Also, the Ronalds don't seem to stack or stall at all. Ronald level is 1000% better now.

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Alright, now to the towers. These are just my observations, and I could be mistaken on some things, since at later levels the game tends to get a little chaotic and it can be difficult to see what tower is doing what.

QUANTUM: Decent damage, and the teleport ability is handy. I had some difficulty in precisely positioning the tower.

GUNPOWDER: Nice tower. It's damage, speed and range makes up for the fact that it has no other powers. Good damage tower for early in the game.

TRICKERY: Usefulness is limited early in the game, but once you have some three element towers it can come in handy for a cheap boost to your defences.

LASER: Good damage, possibly a bit overpowered, but it's limited range slightly offsets that.

POLAR: I like this tower, since it's effectiveness scales well with the levels. Overpowered? Naah, since you can't win by just spamming this tower, and the more you have, the less effective they are in theory.

MUCK: Good... no... great slowing tower. This is a very handy slowing tower.

HAIL: Does not work, but this has been discussed elsewhere.

LIFE: Seems more effective than 3.0 version, which was really a pretty weak tower.

ENCHANTMENT: Well... I wish there were more towers to buff your own towers, so losing the best one from 3.0 kinda sucks, but it is definitely a handy tower to have harassing the creeps, and it seems well balanced to me.

BEEF GOLEM: Good tower, but a couple of bugs I noticed in my game... First off, when I didn't have them fenced in they had a tendency to wander off when in a two pass spot (6) After the first pass they would wander off towards the upper right side of the map, and away from creeps. Also, when I built a second tower after the first had leveled up a bit, the second started out huge and the first shrunk to starting size. Damage and leveling stayed the same, but the second would grow whenever either tower gained a level, resulting in one tower that was so big I could not select any of the towers behind it, and one tower that stayed at starting size the whole game.

TIDAL: Very nice tower to put a couple at the (5) spot. Great for that one big hit per level that damages just about every creep. The necessity to micromanage them makes using them a bit of a chore, though, but I don't see how they could be automated and still be used to maximum effeciency.

WINDSTORM: Doesn't slow as much as 3.0, which is a bit disappointing. The damage the tornadoes does makes up for that a bit, though. I still think this tower needs a way to turn off autocasting so you can keep it from casting on the second pass of a two pass build if you want to.

KINDLE: I like that the damage from these stacks. An improvement over the steam tower and nicely balanced.

ROOTS: I love this tower. It's a great slowing tower and the DPS is nice, but not terribly impressive. Wouldn't change this tower.

FLAMETHROWER: Much improved over the 3.0 version. I like that it also takes on the magma tower power. A very handy tower, but possibly just a tad overpowered. Perhaps lowering the speed just a hair would balance this tower a bit.

NOVA: Don't fix it if it aint broke, eh? Seems the same as 3.0 version, though I may be mistaken. Still a solid tower.

QUAKER: Good tower, not clear on whether it does it's aoe damage at the point of impact or from the tower itself though, as I got it late in the game and things were too hectic to tell, really.

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Anyways, keep up the great work. This looks like it's shaping up to be a definite improvement from an already excellent game. In general, the game feels fairly balanced to me, though there still a couple of towers that are a bit overpowered.

[Guest Sancdar]

WINDSTORM: Doesn't slow as much as 3.0, which is a bit disappointing. The damage the tornadoes does makes up for that a bit, though. I still think this tower needs a way to turn off autocasting so you can keep it from casting on the second pass of a two pass build if you want to.

It does significantly less damage than it did in 3.0. The only great thing I can see about Windstorm is that it's the only slow that still functions on Mechanical waves.

[Guest Screamingtoast]

Ahhh... alright. Never realized it did damage in 3.0, I always had it with a bunch of other, meaner towers. In any case, this tower seriously needs a way to turn autocasting off. Either that, or reduce the duration of the tornadoes. That bugged the hell outta me in 3.0 and it still bugs me.

Also, after another runthough, it seems that the slow from the tornadoes is severely nerfed. Way too nerfed... This tower now pretty much sucks at slowing, it seems...

[Guest Sancdar]

All of the AoE slows do an equal percentage, so Windstorm is technically the best at slowing of all of them because it covers a large area and works through invulnerability.