Release Pandora Microbes!

[_wb_]

Thanks for the link - you just made me waste several hours playing that game


Good for inspiration! I just don't know how much of that kind of stuff I want to implement - it is basically huge amounts of boring not-very-challenging coding. And while grinding to level up stuff can be somewhat fun and satisfying, I don't really like how it tends to eliminate the puzzle/skill aspect of the game, because with sufficient grinding, you get powerful enough to make anything easy. So you very carefully have to balance stuff to make sure that the upgrades don't let you become too strong, while they should still have a significant effect (nobody wants to grind hours for a 0.1% HP increase). So that's not very easy.


Of course, what I could do (and this has been suggested before), is make the unit tech tree not completely accessible from the start, and make you have to unlock its branches by collecting some kind of points (in a way this is already the case in a small way: the tutorial levels give you only part of the full tech tree, to avoid overwhelming you in the beginning). That would be a good idea - but for the current players it may be a bit silly since they already know what's coming and now they have to "earn" those units they already had in earlier versions It would also be a good way to slowly introduce each unit, perhaps having an info screen per unit that highlights its strengths and weaknesses.

 

[b_o_b]

Of course, what I could do (and this has been suggested before), is make the unit tech tree not completely accessible from the start, and make you have to unlock its branches by collecting some kind of points (in a way this is already the case in a small way: the tutorial levels give you only part of the full tech tree, to avoid overwhelming you in the beginning).

I assume you can hide parts of the tech tree when you create level packs? If so, I do not really see the point in adjusting the current approach.


Tutorial levels are already pretty nice to get the hang of the game and it will be fun to have these kind of restrictions in level packs as well.


Only one thing I keep wondering, is it possible to beat level 3 'microbes' on level hard? Just a yes or no will do. Don't spoil the fun...... yet

 

[PowerGod]

I think too that the possibility to hide units/upgrades in the level itself is sufficient, so you can have both levels used for tutorials/campaigns and single levels to just play with all the things...


So you can maintain the actual gameplay, but there can be added campaigns or single levels with those limits.


For example if we take Starcraft, you have the limited levels in the campaigns (even story driven, but maybe adding triggers can be tricky) and single levels (even made with the editor) without limits.

 

[_wb_]

Yes. I just tried that level on "hard" and succeeded with 10 lives left on the first try. Still struggling with "very hard" though, pretty sure it must be possible but haven't succeeded yet. No idea about "insane"...

 

[b_o_b]

Yes. I just tried that level on "hard" and succeeded with 10 lives left on the first try.

Probably helps if you have created the algorithm in beating it


Have tried a lot of approaches but the last 3 waves are just killing me. Love it though and I am glad I know now it is possible to succeed and I just need to try something else. Thanks.

 

[_wb_]

In any level, you need to focus on healing, boosting, slowing and multi-attack mode to get the microbes killed, and underclocking (speedup) for energy. It often helps to play first in non-realtime mode, so you have all the time you need to determine optimal unit placement.

 

[_wb_]

Here's Microbes 1.0 rc2 (release candidate 2). I hope the bugs mentioned above are gone.


You get 10 days or so to stress-test this release candidate; if no serious problems are found, it'll become the first non-beta release. I want to upload Microbes 1.0 to the repo by mid-October.

OK, I spectacularly missed my own deadline

The original plan was to do a feature freeze after I implemented the in-game level designer, get a stable 1.0 version on the repo, and then slowly continue development. However, since I was too busy with RL stuff and System Info, that never happened. I released a release candidate 1 to some testers, and a rc2 in this thread, but never got around to actually releasing a 1.0 final version. So when the compo was announced, I decided to ignore the feature freeze and add enough extra features to be able to submit it as a compo entry. Many of the ideas for those extra features are from this thread (and from pm's some people sent me), so thanks for the inspiration!

Here is the compo thread: http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php/topic/11182-dragonbox-compo-microbes/