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[JT the Ghost]

well might as well show you guys what i have learned since yesterday after playing with the new prices

The cannon firing price may have to be lowered slightly to an intermediate price of 15, as i found that when extremely low on cash (80ish, one 1 teir house) 20 a shot was wayyyy too much. however on the other end, it balanced cannon rushing more, though i think it -might- just be a bit too much as you use about as much as you gain that way, so its harder to save up to use a better weapon.

since you guys changed the buying prices for the first teir home, i can no longer just buy every weapon right off the bat, which i feel is better.

The power of these weapons is balanced in the fact that they are all "overpowered"

Scatter/Cluster bomb
Castle
Cannon
SAM
Jury trial thing
Flamethrower
Jetpack
Airstrike/Iowa

This leaves one weapon unbalanced: meteor

This weapon is far to weak, does about a 1/3 of the damage a full on accurate airstrike will do, which seems ridiculous when you compare them.

Next up we have the range-o-meters

When you are on the right side, i -think- this still happens, the range is exactly the way it looks when you are on the left side, even though it should be mirrored. Also, i think airstrikes and meteor should take account what direction you are facing, sometimes this would help greatly. if that does happen, the range should reflect the direction you are facing.

Lets see...i don't think anywhere it mentions that you can stop jury trial things by walking over them(since it is "legal" damage which you have more influence over if you are right there). Also health restores faster standing on a town, and towns build faster when you are standing there. There also either seems to be a walking speed difference between the dinosaurs, if not than the right and left distances on the map are not balanced correctly.

There is a need for different height maps than the one that is used, just in different places. i think this should be apart of a "match options" feature, which would set the rules of a match(which weapons you can use, what map to play on etc) I would love to play on some of the maps the tutorial shows, man that would be awesome. I believe not all maps should be mirrored to both sides, but balanced as much as possible though.

Stats screen needs to be easier to find. performance issues for most people of course tend to be a problem, good luck fixing that one. THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE RAINBOW ITEMS!

Castle starting price may need to be increased slightly, zero is very cheap for that weapon. i  believe SAMs should also cost something like 50 to purchase, since 0 is ridiculous(all at teir 3)

If i think of anything else, i'll be sure to tell you guys. It's been fun so far beta testing this game.

[godatplay]

Thanks for your feedback JT!  I changed several of the things you recommended.

• Cannon shot cost now at 15
• Meteor slightly more powerful
• Airstrike slightly less powerful

Let me know how these play out.  We're also working on making the strike weapons change directions.  It's a little tricky because simply changing the direction without doing anything else can lead to some exploits.  But I think we have a good solution now, so we'll be working on that for the next update.

And of course performance and disconnections, which is #1 priority.

How observant of you, I did change the speed of the dinos.  I'm trying to balance their size, speed, and health and still keep them different from each other.  Let us know if one feels unfair compared to others.  And we'll figure out a way to make their attributes clear to the player.

In general, changing the cost, power, speed, etc of the weapons is very easy to do, so don't be afraid to suggest things.  We can also try different maps, although right now when we change maps, it changes the map for everyone for every game.  So when we test maps it should be like a "map testing party" where we all go at it and try to figure out how it went.

[aeiowu]

yea awesome review, thanks for that JT!

we don't want to give all the expert tips away in the tutorial, such as you build faster at a village and etc. but we ought to make that a bit more apparent perhaps, also we should probably put some kind of brief about each weapon somewhere, since lawyers can be pretty frusterating if you don't know what they are doing to you, or your don't know how to use them. etc.

[pachuco]

This weapon is far to weak, does about a 1/3 of the damage a full on accurate airstrike will do, which seems ridiculous when you compare them.

I'd have to disagree, because airstrike is 3rd tier while meteor strike is only 2nd. Third tier should be stronger than second. Also we've had problems in the past with the meteor being too powerful, and I think the way it is now is better than what it was before.

The cannon firing price may have to be lowered slightly to an intermediate price of 15, as i found that when extremely low on cash (80ish, one 1 teir house) 20 a shot was wayyyy too much

Cannons won't seem as expensive if you don't fire so many at once

i think this should be apart of a "match options" feature, which would set the rules of a match(which weapons you can use, what map to play on etc)

I'd make a match of Castle + Meteor on Winterland map to be an equivalent to Shotty Snipers on Snowbound... I don't think this could work well, though. It's too limiting for a 1v1.

THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE RAINBOW ITEMS!

Castle starting price may need to be increased slightly, zero is very cheap for that weapon. i  believe SAMs should also cost something like 50 to purchase, since 0 is ridiculous(all at teir 3)

I agree with raising the price, but only on tier 3. Tier 2 and 1 prices seem alright. Just lower the discount of tier 1 weapons at tier 3 and it should be good.



Excellent review! You pointed out a ton of aspects of the game that I had not thought of yet. Looking forward to testing with you further. And by testing, of course, I mean fighting!

[JT the Ghost]

So, since the last time i posted, i figured i'd comment on a few more things. I really like how the dinosaurs are balanced between speed health and size. This helps perform different strategies much more efficiently. The "new" map is pretty awesome in the fact that you have to be much more conservative, i'll get back to that later.

So about "match" options, i believe there should be public games and private games, private games would be set up between to players to fight each other, and you could change the rules to modify what kind of battles you might want to have. I believe the actual terrain should be pickable here, at least if its something abnormal like the map we were using today. While in public matches, however there would be default rules set and anyone could randomly join, depending on the "quickmatch" Al Gore rythm you guys plan on implanting. Default rules would be like, a certain timelimit(something like 20 minutes), random pick from a certain set of "normal" arenas which have two of each 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tiers(not like the map we played today). This way, normal matches were not as restrictive as a private match where you know your opponent and can agree on things. This of course would be further down the line, since you need to fix performance.

I have yet to test out the meteor, but i managed to test out the airstrikes, which seem to be still decently powerful, but not overly powerful. we'll see how it compares to the meteor when i get a match where i have enough money

I think there needs to be CROUCHING! Or something similar anyway, that way like the largeneckasaurus can pull his neck and tail in or something maybe. Maybe this is a terrible idea. Yeah. now that i think about it i should probably delete this paragraph but i'm too lazy.

Once again, thats all i can think of for now. OH YEAH. I'm all for map testing parties SIGN ME UP!

[godatplay]

Thanks JT, this is great feedback.  We do plan on having a manual match mode, where you can challenge someone specific to a match.  We've also discussed treating your stats differently for this mode.  It's interesting that you bring up a timer, Chris brought that up to us earlier.  We weren't sure what we thought about it.  However, only having a timer for the automatch but not for the manual match is interesting.

I still like the idea of having some sort of "Final Jeopardy" mode better instead of a strict timer.  Something that would make the game more fast-paced at the end to cause it to finish sooner, like everything half-off or something.

[JT the Ghost]

I agree that the auto matches should be much faster paced then a manual match, which is why not having a third tier on a map for automatch wouldn't work well, since it makes you need to be conservative which can slow down the overall power factor of a match. I'll think up more stuff as i actually get to play some matches, not many people on today so haven't played any.

[CCM333]

after 20 min, since we can assume its a stand off since its lasting that long, there should some kind of shift of power... but a timer that just ends the game would be horible because then we would hear all the "Oh it was about to win" and "i could have won if it wasn't for the timer" and the "1/5 game timer to short"

I think something like a half off would be nice but that wouldn't exactly break the standoff I don't think... because you'd still have to be paying...
i would suggest having all be free after 20min, weapon and price, but i think that would actually be more bad than good...

maybe each person get a random boost in either dino health, dino speed, money growth, price goes down and since each player would have something different it would be based on who can you use their 'super power' the best... ... now that i think about it... I actually really like that... even just not as a after 20 min thing but as having an option to choose before game starts, superpowers on or off...

[godatplay]

I was thinking that the special event would be at the 10-15 minute mark, so that you'd still have some time to finish the game.  It wouldn't have to be a discount on weapons, it could be other stuff, too, like what you're talking about.

Dino speed will probably not change (lag effects will only get worse), but maybe we could mess with other stuff...

Keep thinking on it and let us know if you come up with anything specific. 

[CCM333]

ooo something did come to me...
the villages should start deteriorating, starting with your 3rd... thus you would have to destroy less to 'finish him off'

[godatplay]

Yeah, that's a good idea, I like it.    It kinda goes with the extinction and war theme, too.  Things are getting destroyed, so there's less to fight for and now it's easier to win.

[CCM333]

so there's less to fight for and now it's easier to win.

exactly.

[JT the Ghost]

i agree with this course of action, around the 10 minute mark. at 20 minutes i believe that all houses be destroyed, each player given $300, all villages destroyed and unbuildable, and each player be dealt a flamethrower, which is free to fire. SUDDEN DEATH YES!

That's a bit complicated though, so dunno if thats possible D:

[CCM333]

i agree with this course of action, around the 10 minute mark. at 20 minutes i believe that all houses be destroyed, each player given $300, all villages destroyed and unbuildable, and each player be dealt a flamethrower, which is free to fire. SUDDEN DEATH YES!

That's a bit complicated though, so dunno if thats possible D:

whats the point of the $300 if everything is free? And I thnk sudden death at 20 min is a good idea... but no flamethrowers... just what ever weapon you have you get to use, and your money keeps growing as if you had 3 tiers

[JT the Ghost]

Because the game is over if you have less than 200 and no teirs left, 300 would be safe though.