Difficulty levels for casual players

[iycgtptyarvg]

I've had a ton of fun with CW1, but with CW2 I'm really stuck at level 13: Horror.

I understand that there are people out there that really want to be challenged, but I would like there to be difficulty settings so I can progress. Replaying the first 5 minutes over and over and over has taken the fun away for me to the point I'm no longer playing the game. By introducing difficulty levels you allow everyone to experience the full game (not just the people who have more time to get good at it). After having done all the levels, you could always go back and try to beat your own time, or increase the difficulty level.

Please don't advise me to go to Youtube to learn/copy a walkthrough or use one of those CheatEngine trainers. I have very little free time, so I play (mostly) casual games for fun because of accessibility.

Thanks.

[Kamron3]

There are plenty of videos of Day 13: Horror for you to watch. The map is VERY easy...

[Kithros]

Well, I know you said not to give a walkthrough, instead I'll just give some general advice that would apply for almost all maps - First you want to take the gem and technytes of course, I recommend getting -20% building cost whenever you can get technytes at the start of a map. After that you want to pause and then place as many reactors as you can without getting into a deficit - from there you want to build a defense for the creeper that will be threatening you at the top and bottom (in this instance, all you need is 1 shield and 1 blaster for the top in front of the decaying wall, and 1 repulsor for the bottom - you are not trying to nullify the emitter yet, this is just to buy time while you save the capsules). When  you start building towards the middle, you should start building a maker first, once it's half finished start building a blaster next to it (this is so they both finish at the same time). Keep building more reactors whenever you can, and build more weapons once you can afford them - but keep attacking from the middle even before building more weapons.

As very general advice, wait as long as you can before building weapons when defending (the top and bottom in this instance), they should start firing almost as soon as they're built. When attacking your weapons should almost always be either moving or firing (even while you're waiting for other weapons to finish building). Avoid big deficits, never let your energy cap out at 20/20, and keep building more reactors whenever reasonably possible.

[UpperKEES]

Replaying the first 5 minutes over and over

You can save the game any moment you like (click the Game-button on the bottom right). In your case I would save the same map every minute in a different slot, so you can always go back to the point that everything was still going fine.

introducing difficulty levels

I think I won't spoil too much when I tell you that the upcoming code maps indeed will feature various difficulty levels. :)

[pixlepix]

The trick in this level is to master the art of holding the creeper back, not totally eradicating it. For the top chamber, get the pod then build a blaster
take care of the bottom chamber the same way. The, advance right as fast as possible, using good creeper and blasters. Rescue that survival pod and destroy the emitter. Then, use a single launcher to hold back the creeper that forms a ring around the next pod. Blast your way through the last chamber, then mop up all remaining creeper.

Also, if you don't like to be challenged, then don't play the story. Within the next week, (hopefully) code maps will be released, and you can play easy difficulty ones until you get to the point where you can beat horror. Also, try playing the bonus maps. Pretty much all easy.

Btw, how would the proposed difficulty levels work? Could cause some major problems with fields(On day 18, for example) or on custom maps with elaborate field setups.

And also, why not look at a walkthrough?

[Grauniad]

I've had a ton of fun with CW1, but with CW2 I'm really stuck at level 13: Horror.

I understand that there are people out there that really want to be challenged, but I would like there to be difficulty settings so I can progress. Replaying the first 5 minutes over and over and over has taken the fun away for me to the point I'm no longer playing the game. By introducing difficulty levels you allow everyone to experience the full game (not just the people who have more time to get good at it). After having done all the levels, you could always go back and try to beat your own time, or increase the difficulty level.

Please don't advise me to go to Youtube to learn/copy a walkthrough or use one of those CheatEngine trainers. I have very little free time, so I play (mostly) casual games for fun because of accessibility.

Thanks.

This is a tough one. I don't want to sound hostile or confrontational, since you are asking a question in a considered and rational way, but I feel compelled to point out that there were a number of hardish levels in CW1 as well - think Tucana. Many people complained about "The Bowl" in the training sim even.

Realistically, there won't be a difficulty setting in the basic and bonus missions - there are just too many issues surrounding that. We play-tested the levels with a number of players from all levels during beta and Virgil tweaked them a couple of times. The consensus from the beta was that people didn't want it to be just simple - that would be too boring and players would lose interest if there was not a bit of challenge in later levels.

Since I don't believe that Day 13 is all that hard, I think you have two options. You can either not play them, hang around a short while until Virgil releases the Code map upgrade when an abundance of dead easy maps will hit the game, or you can spend a few minutes (shouldn't be more time than dailing at the level twice) looking at the walkthrough to get an idea of how you can improve your game. The latter would be analogous to a golfer spending a few sessions with a pro to improve his swing and then have a better time on the course in general.

That would be my suggestion.

[iycgtptyarvg]

@Kithros
Thanks for the tips, I'll certainly try and use them. Not withstanding that, I'm sure I'm not the only one who likes to play at low/medium difficulty levels to make progress. The first 12 levels were fine. But I haven't been able to continue since (there is no level skipping AFAIK).

@UpperKees
I didn't know about the save option, so I'll look into that.
Thanks for the 'spoiler' that this feature is already in the upcoming patch/update. I bet that makes quite a few folks happy. I'll wait until then and let you master CW'ers handle the tougher difficulty levels.

[Ebon Heart]

am I the only one who didn't think tucana was hard?? Anyways, just use one blaster to keep the pit by your city down, as well as one to keep the top upside down test tube thing contained, and go after the two survival pods right away. By flying the LS a little, you can easily grab the top survival pod within 30 seconds.

[iycgtptyarvg]

Btw, how would the proposed difficulty levels work? Could cause some major problems with fields(On day 18, for example) or on custom maps with elaborate field setups.

Why not simply lower the amount of added enemy creepers per second, say to 0.75 for lower level and 1.25 for very hard level?
Sorry, I don't know what 'fields' are.

Realistically, there won't be a difficulty setting in the basic and bonus missions

?!? UpperKees thinks there are going to be difficulty settings in an upcoming patch/update ?!?

[UpperKEES]

Realistically, there won't be a difficulty setting in the basic and bonus missions

?!? UpperKees thinks there are going to be difficulty settings in an upcoming patch/update ?!?

For code maps only....

[Grauniad]

am I the only one who didn't think tucana was hard?? Anyways, just use one blaster to keep the pit by your city down, as well as one to keep the top upside down test tube thing contained, and go after the two survival pods right away. By flying the LS a little, you can easily grab the top survival pod within 30 seconds.

Once again you manage to pull another thread off-topic.  You may also be the only one that confuses Tucana with some other map - there are no survival pods on Tucana.

In general, however, not everyone thinks the same map is hard. Some people have no difficulty with any map in the entire game, others have issues with different maps.  

[pixlepix]

Fields:

Spoiler

Essentially, a map feature that manipulates creeper. Many things and elaborate contraptions can be made with them. For example, if a field depends on a certain amount of creeper in a location, difficulty levels can break a map.

[close]

I would advise taking 5 minutes to look at some strategy tips.

btw Grauniad, all but the first sentence of EH's post was about day 13, not tuca

[Ebon Heart]

am I the only one who didn't think tucana was hard?? Anyways, just use one blaster to keep the pit by your city down, as well as one to keep the top upside down test tube thing contained, and go after the two survival pods right away. By flying the LS a little, you can easily grab the top survival pod within 30 seconds.

Once again you manage to pull another thread off-topic.  You may also be the only one that confuses Tucana with some other map - there are no survival pods on Tucana.

In general, however, not everyone thinks the same map is hard. Some people have no difficulty with any map in the entire game, others have issues with different maps.  

The part at the begining was random, the rest was referring to day 13 in creeper world 2. Tucana is the one with 4 pits around your city at the diagnals, and small terrain walls to the north, east, south, and west. Other than that, I honestly was talking about day 13.
EDIT: thank you PP... and they're capsules in cw2, not survival pods, my bad. I think I see where GR got confused.

[Ytaker]

I considered this issue. Many players, myself included, enjoy the difficulty level of the games levels yet newer players may find them challenging. The best solution would likely be advanced training sims. They'd go over the specialist use of new weapons, and some advanced tactics. That way if a player got stuck they'd be able to run a few training sims to help them.

That would give us more stuff to do, and make the game more accessible to new players.