Zombie Slaughter

[Trarman]

Just wanted to let you folks know that I'm working on a new version of Zombie Slaughter which incorporates a lot of your suggestions.
What's coming:
- Walls on top and bottom of screen, and the edge of the town on the left
- Grid placement, so you can easily see placed units
- Upgrades!
- a few other surprises

When it's ready I'll post here again asking you all to play test the game balance and such.

[blastoise466]

good but too hard

[Trarman]

Preview build of Zombie Slaughter v2.0 available here: http://darkshade.homeip.net/zombies2/

Featuring UPGRADES now! Nearly every unit has multiple upgrades you can buy. Just click on the unit on your map to check it out. There may be some balancing issues, so please let me know if there's things you think are way out of whack.

While there's still work to do, what is done is playable. Enjoy!

[fredg999]

I see the tank now only costs 10K$ and that I can't select Infinite cash. There's also a grid during the day, but the the creation of heroes doesn't snap-to-grid while choosing the placement (it snaps after). Those are the main changes, and they were all presented a few posts ago. Nothing's missing.

I have difficulty to kill every zombie on level 11, so my heroes die and I lose the level after. I guess it's not the same for everyone, but I can't seem to see the high-scores board for V2.0 ; it redirects me to V1.3. Also, did you think of having upgrades that increase the maximum HP of heroes?

[Trarman]

There is no high scores for 2.0 specifically.. so yeah, it just goes to the usual one. I disabled infinite cash while we test for balance.

One thing I've noticed is it seems a lot tougher! Which is strange, since all the base units are the same, and I've not changed any of the levels. Maybe it's just the grid placement effecting my play style.

Perhaps I should increase the money you earn, to enable more upgrades faster?

As for increased health, I've so far only done that for the tank. It is its main advantage over bazookas (considering its size and cost), but haven't completely written off the idea for other heroes as well.

[Optimum]

Hey,

I like the game, done very well. The no path idea brings a good defense element and with the different types of towers it goes with the game well. V2.0 is a far better improvement. It would be nice to see the stats of the towers I place down, so I can tell how much a upgrade improves a tower. After wave 15 the lower then the flamethrower towers become useless and all the monsters have a godly amount of health. Maybe more money to make up for this to upgrade? A cool idea would also have a type of zombie raise from the ground. Oh well I like the game and the idea very much, I hope to see more.

[Kos023]

I think I have found a bug:

I clicked on an unit to build it, but then decided no to. I sent the next wave while I still had the unit selected (there was a circle around my cursor) and while the night was happening I couldn't place it (obviously) but couldn't 'unselect' it either. So once the night was over, I tried to place it and couldn't, I deselected it by clicking on it (flamethrower dude) but now I can't start the wave or place new units. I reloaded the page to restart.

Ok, upon further playing I have another comment: I am annoyed at the complete lack of self-preservation the heroes show. By that I mean that they should target attackers that are attacking them and not those that are miles (figuratively) away. It was annoying to see my fully upgraded hangun dudes keep shooting at far-away targets while being eaten by zombies. I rebuilt my defenses on the next level, and the same thing happened, some vermin or something crept up to my heroes and they were busy killing targets in the distance. They all got eaten. I closed the tab.

Also, not sure if this a bug or feature but when using flamethrower dudes, I found that some critters (wraiths actually) would stay away from them, sometimes staying motionless for long stretches. At some point I thought the game had crashed but then the wraith moved in the range of one of my handgun dudes and died. I took a good 30-45 seconds of looking at a completely motionless screen before the wraith got the courage to move forward.

The game is fun, but the fact that heroes let themselves be killed without trying to kill the attacker inflicting damage to them is disappointing. I read your comment that it is a design decision to be able to place units only during the day, but since a single vermin can kill off a bunch of heroes that are busy killing far-away zombies and so on, it makes the game less interesting for me. I completely understand the idea of "think about your defenses and set them up well", but since said defenses can be killed, it sort of defeats the whole "think about your defenses and set them up well" thing. I might appear to be harping on the same point over and over, but am actually amused at the idea of a vermin walking among fully upgraded heroes (handgun, machinegun) and killing them off while they remain oblivious.

Aside from that, it is a lot of fun.

[ShadowRunner]

Also there should be a targeter too. All the time units shoot in random targets. Its just not good to see zombies passing through a unit, getting closer to the end, while that same unit is attacking other zombies who first reached its range limit. Target options like:

Attack the zombie with the smaller health in range (more closer to die)
With the biggest health (more farthest to die)
Closer to the end (almost getting away from the unit's range)
Farthest to the end (first one in range that is the farthest monster in the unit's range from getting to the end

[Kos023]

I would add: unit closest to hero. That would take care of the "2 snipers and a machine gun dude eaten by a rat" problem...

edit: The bug struck again. I was going to put a wall in front of a hero when my cat stepped the spacebar on my keyboard. It sent a wave and when the wave ended, the grid didn't appear and I still had the wall on my cursor. Unable to place, can only unselect and then can't place anything nor send next wave. Am going to keep cat away from keyboard, but still thought you might want to know about this game-ending situation. Only way to get out is to reload.

[The Noid]

How do you guys manage to get that far? I never even manage to get 1000 in the bank...

Hey, I managed

Mosquitos don't kill your population! I would expect every mosquito to kill off one pop and spawn a zombie that attacks your troops from behind

I'd also like the ability to sell crates so you can build walls there

That dragon is mean! :p

Homing missiles follow mosqutos, but they never explode!

Skateboard skeletons? Did you run out of inspiration??

WTF? My tank was killed by a mosquito, but didn't turn zombie. Then the next day I upgraded a bazooka, and my tank re-appeared!

Those flame spewing zombies have WAAY to much range. They out range almost every unit, and you can't protect against their flames.

I guess level 27 really is game-over... Those undead tanks are impossible! But they don't kill much population fortunately.

Ugh, it sucks if your squad is dead, but a few low level zombies are stuck behind walls... It takes 'em ages to get through!

Limited ammo? Cool, but it would be nice to see their ammo-count as a bar beneath their health

You should make sure zombies can't leave the screen on the top and bottom.

Have you ever made a d/s/$ table to see which unit is over or under powered?

Ok, this one is really bad... Bunnies hardly seem to damage walls, and my squad is out of ammo... They're all still frantically pulling their triggers, but no bullets come out, while those bunnies keep humping those walls. Even the music has stopped... The only sound is that of empty guns' triggers
And because of my walls/flame thrower positioning, each time they break a wall, the flames make 'em back off, only to get stuck on the next wall 9 more walls to go