A bit over a week ago, I issued a warning: Desktop Tower Defense Considered Harmful, saying:
Whatever you do, please DO NOT click the link and start playing that game. You may find yourself in the very same time warp that I did...
Several days ago, as I approached the lunch table (yes, it's a specific table), a co-worker said (roughly) "I haven't had any spare time since you posted that damned link to Desktop Tower Defense..."
That was followed by a discussion of Tower Defense strategy that taught me two very important things:
- far more people than I realized are playing this as much as I am (or... more!)
- fully upgraded squirt towers really do kick ass
And, if my outbound click stats from MyBlogLog's analytics are any indication, I've been aiding in the spread of this game to the tune of ~250 victims per day!
Well, given the amount of my time it has consumed, I've decided to put an end to the madness. First, a screenshot of my most recent win on the "normal" level:
I've won it about 5 times now and am sufficiently bored with it that I think I can stop. I could try for the next harder setting, but that'd be like cracking open a new bottle of scotch after an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
So, that's it. I'm done. I quit. I've beat the damned thing on two levels multiple times.
But don't let that stop you. Feel free to keep on playing. I'll be the one trying not to download a copy of Silent Wings.
Posted by jzawodn at April 04, 2007 11:12 PM
I'm completely addicted, as is my wife, co-workers, and several family members...
oh god, it's a straight-up productivity killer. My high score: about 5500 ;)
Top tip: instead of going for a fully levelled-up squirt tower, level up an ICBM tower (the third one in) first. They are *insane* against ground-based creeps. After that, the squirt towers come next. Also, be v aggressive about skipping to the next level at the early stages -- it gets good bonuses.
Also, "juggling" is a good trick -- by demolishing and rebuilding blocks in strategic places, you can turn around the creeps and keep them walking back and forth along one patch of towers. That seems to be the only way to beat the last 2 bosses.
Of course, as you probably know, you should always level up one tower to max strength at a time. ie. instead of going 1 1 1 -> 2 2 2 -> 3 3 3 -> 4 4 4 -> 5 5 5 -> 6 6 6, you should go 1 1 2 -> 1 1 3 -> 1 1 4 -> 1 1 5 -> 1 1 6. this is because the max strength towers are *massively* overpowered compared to even the level-5s.
what a game!
Well thank you all, some of us only play a game or two in the evening, and were only at level 45 experimenting with diagonals, but now you've gone and spoiled^d^d^d^d^d helped me by telling me how to do it, oh thank you thank you thank you, I am sooooooo indebted to you all for your helllllpppfuullll advice.
Thank you Justin Ladidah Mason, thank you Jeremy Zawodniskovichovskiyspoilysporticus.
/sarc
I guess I'm back to Bejeweled now. Couldn't you have put the word 'spoiler' in the title?
www.x-plane.com if you haven't discovered it already-- best flight dynamics available anywhere.
Squirt towers don't scale. 1-2 Dart towers, plus a sufficient maze, allows you to demolish three ground levels at once (sending at the same time) and thus maximize points.
An example config (whipped up hurriedly) which can get you to lvl50, with 20 lives intact, and a few grand worth of bonus points for sending levels early: http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/9751/towerdexamplemd1.gif
Another thing I love about this game is that the programmer behind it continually tweaks it, adding new things like the bash towers, or the new creeps... EXCELLENT!
Yeah, that makes it even harder to give up. PLEASE don't tell me when he adds another set of creeps or new towers.
The point is not to win, but to win with maximum number of scores which is harder.
I've earned enough points to get in the all-time highscore table this week. :) This is much harder result to achieve, because you need to send waves early. :)
Yah, You got me and my 6 year old daughter hooked on that. After about a week I decided that I wanted to stay married, so I magically forgot about it.
From what the forums indicate, a setup like yours can kill the challenge level. I am glad that the forums where out there otherwise It would have taken me a lot longer to get bored.
You, my friend, are a bastard (and I mean that in the nicest way possible). I started yesterday morning and just the mere mention of it makes me act irresponsibly. Here I go again.
Yours truly and soon to be unemployed,
Randy :-)
Hey Jeremy, I know what you mean I just started playing and now my wife is also addicted as well! now I can't get her off my computer. I think I'm going to have to get another one just so I can play! It's fun though I can't stop playing! want to play more. don't you just love it? maybe I should stop before it's too late
Woohoo! I finally beat Jeremy on my planetmike group. :) And I did it in a wonderful way. No creeps got through! A perfect game. 6,852 points. My map is here: http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/ViewMap.asp?scoreid=635871 . Spoiler alert next paragraph:
I had to juggle at the very end for the final spawn babies. So the top right corner, and the bottom exit look very odd. And there was a fully upgraded swarm tower near the center of the screen (it was in the middle location of the three quirt towers) that I replaced with a squirt tower after the final flying bosses died.
I have beat the game numerous times. The problem is... the kids at my school have a group that everyone posts their scores in. So everyone just keeps trying and trying to get the top score. Its rather addicting :-/
