Offtopic: Desktop Tower Defense

[Chandrasekhar]

Need to space freezies through the whole thing, I think. I tried to make a maze out of pure squirters... didn't work so well as the game went on, didn't have the gold to upgrade them. Simultaneously trying to find a better arangement/write up the final paper for English that's due tomorrow. Kael, I'll be blaming you if I fail this class.

Honestly, as if screwing over my social and academic life with FfH wasn't enough...

 

[BCalchet]

Since I managed to get the best scores in the group so far, my mazes might help someone:

Spoiler :

That got me to the second-to-last level on hard, barely beating Kael's score. (By 40 points!)

This one somehow got me the top score on normal, though I did hurry the levels up quite a bit for bonus points.

I'd suggest never using anything other than the cheapest towers for mazing, and concentrating upgraded squirts to the middle of the map in order to help take out air units. An early maxed-out dart tower will make all non-boss land levels a breeze for a long time, and they're pretty cheap. As far as freezing goes, putting fully upgraded ones near the north and west entrances lets them do some good against air - for the rest of the maze, fully upgraded ones are overkill, just go with many level 1-3ish freezers.

Finally, air bosses are extremely scary.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

Thanks. I think designing the mazes overall is the easy part, knowing what and when to upgrade is where the strategy is. I usually died around level 30 on normal.

 

[subzerox2]

Man, so close...died on the last(?) flying level on hard. I think the key was focusing on getting at least one fully upgraded squirt, then adding more when funds allowed.

Spoiler :

 

[BeefontheBone]

4339 on normal. The flyers right before the end finished me off.

 

[Yoshi2942]

Just played the first game where not a single flyer got through on me, whoo hooo! Only used 2 AA guns too.

And that includes the Flying Bosses.

 

[Ringtailed]

this game is addicting~!

I just managed to complete my first game on normal difficulty where none of the enemies made it through. Freeze towers were the cornerstone of my maze design; they're quite useful. I didn't use any of the ICBM towers... I think if I played on hard I'd probably need a few though, because on the last level with the IMMUNE critters, some almost made it through.

Spoiler :

 

[drekmonger]

On my 6712 point game, discovered that if you construct a maze with two exits, then selectively open and close an exit (via erasing and redrawing a pea shooter) you can manage a huge horde of creeps. The creeps will go for the shorter distance, so as they are less than halfway through the long way around your maze, open the short way and they'll turn around. Close the short way just before they reach the exit, and they'll turn around back through the long path.

So, you can rush an infinite number of levels and will eventually kill all the creeps. The stumbling block is the flying monsters -- obviously their movements can't be managed using this method.

I stumbled a bit and let a fast boss and a flying boss through, but I think this might be the method (probably with a few other techniques) the top players use to get their inflated scores.

The map:
http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/ViewMap.asp?scoreid=87927

Notice the bottommost PE. That's the block I erased and recreated to control enemy movements. Note the upgraded PEs -- at the fifth level they become sniper towers and can hit across a wide area.

 

[Yoshi2942]

Yes, I like the sniper towers a lot.

I have been using a similar technique - but your one block method is MUCH better than what I've been doing (opening one block and closing another somewhere else... it takes me too many clicks against fast creeps).

 

[Yoshi2942]

Just thought I'd mention that I found a minor bug with the game - there is atleast one place where if you place two towers diagonally, some creeps go between them.

 

[Chandrasekhar]

Hah! Finally beat Normal mode. Now time to tackle Hard... ICBM towers are my bestest friend.

 

[Yoshi2942]

Bah, one of the Flying bosses got through on me! I am amazed at the high scores though - I aggressively rushed the creeps and still I'm beat by a couple hundred points!

 

[Yoshi2942]

Ok, I know everyone is tired of this little game; off-topic as it is.. but just thought I'd mention that I finally got my first 20-life Normal game under my belt. I realize one timing mistake which I made that would have given me a few more points; but I'm pleased with the maze I used. (hint: as soon as the final flyers hit the table, you might as well hurry the final bosses -- they are so slow that every thing else will either get through or be dead with plenty of time for you to manage the big boys' movements)

 

[Gunner]

Wow, this game is really good. Thanks for introducing it here Kael

I'm also starting to do the opening/closing tactic. It seems that if you just build two anti-aircraft in the middle you can essentially just send as many levels as you'd like.

 

[Yoshi2942]

I emailed the maker of the game to tell him/her that it is great and to mention the bug that I found - I recieved a prompt response and apparantly a new updated version is coming out soon.

 

[Kael]

Cool, I heard the new version is going to punish juggling.

 

[Bringa]

For a second I didn't realize that this was in the TD thread, and I thought, was, punish juggling? Nerf Perpentach?

 

[Lord Yanaek]

YEAH, i finally managed to get my "funnel" maze to work
Got the 3rd rank on normal in the group, until someone does better

Spoiler :

I was able to rush lots of levels with this one, it's basically a funnel to my darts tower, i build one with the first 80 golds. Not shown on the map are my 3 swarms near the center, i deleted them after last flyers wave to get more typhoons in order to stop the last bosses. NO JUGGLING

 

[daladinn]

ok keal , you totally suck , finally beat it on normal with a score of 5438 after playing about 16 hours..... man its addictive

and damn , i am only 75th in the group , i must just be slow .... but i had 18 lives left ...lst 2 bosses got past me.

 

[QES]

Through Theft and chicanery - I've gotten into the mid 6000s
-Qes