Game speed feature.

[J]

I don't want to cheat.

I beg to differ, making the game run faster is not cheating. It doesn't become any easier, just less time consuming. :)

I can't stand the heat to cheat more, so I'm never cheating.

I like the speed feature in very long maps like RIDGE TO RIDGE, whiteout the speed feature I going to sleep or stop playing.

[Cronnix]

I personally don't think that if the speed feature will be made, it should only be available after you complete the game.. Imho, as good as the game is, it have little replay value, and one will probably move on to fanmade maps after completing the game. Imho it should be available from the start of the game, but maybe be unlocked after certain amount of time on each map? For example if you survived for.. 10-15 minutes, then it gets unlocked and you can speed the current map up.

[knucracker]

So I could unlock it after the final story mission (loki) is complete I suppose.  This would at least allow a player to enjoy the story maps the way they were meant to be played, but not require the player to complete the all of the conquest and special ops missions first.

I'm also considering making this a keyboard activate/deactivated function.... as in there won't be a gui element to it.  Players would have to read these forums (or maybe the faq) to know about it and which key to press to toggle acceleration.

Lastly, the way it is implemented it will almost always be to your score disadvantage to accelerate the speed.  The game already has frame locked logic and this just increases the virtual frame rate by a factor of 2.  So everything calculates twice as fast while still rendering on screen at the same FPS.  This doesn't intrinsically change your score, it just makes it so that you most likely won't play as efficiently as you otherwise would. 

But for players that like to pause the game, build a network, then let her rip.... the acceleration will let it run at 2x the speed.

[Blaze]

I'm also considering making this a keyboard activate/deactivated function.... as in there won't be a gui element to it.  Players would have to read these forums (or maybe the faq) to know about it and which key to press to toggle acceleration.

Yes. Because then it's like.... "This map took me forever!"

"This map took me only 5 minutes."

"How?!?!?!?!11?!"

"The speed up button of course!"

"Speed up button?"

etc.

[Karsten75]

So I could unlock it after the final story mission (loki) is complete I suppose.  This would at least allow a player to enjoy the story maps the way they were meant to be played, but not require the player to complete the all of the conquest and special ops missions first.

This is the attachment syndrome. :)  Your game, you want it played the way you want. That does not factor in that once you release the game, you are not really in control of how we play it. I've seen one guy being so upset that he never wrote the sequel to a game - just because we figured out how to score almost in the trillions on a single game level and he intended for the game to be played in total for about 60,000 (He thought game levels should take - like most flash games - 20-30 minutes at most and some of the top players devised ways to make a level last multiple days, for instance).

I'm also considering making this a keyboard activate/deactivated function.... as in there won't be a gui element to it.  Players would have to read these forums (or maybe the faq) to know about it and which key to press to toggle acceleration.

Lastly, the way it is implemented it will almost always be to your score disadvantage to accelerate the speed. 

Now here's the rub. In most flash games, the speed up factor does not impact anything in the game.

Here is an example of a well-implemented speed-up factor (White House TD).

Bloons TD(especially 3)  is a game where the game starts discriminating against the player as more and more boons enter the fray. 

The game already has frame locked logic and this just increases the virtual frame rate by a factor of 2.  So everything calculates twice as fast while still rendering on screen at the same FPS.  This doesn't intrinsically change your score, it just makes it so that you most likely won't play as efficiently as you otherwise would. 

But for players that like to pause the game, build a network, then let her rip.... the acceleration will let it run at 2x the speed.

Not sure how that discriminates.

I think what players are asking ofr is to cut down the waiting time during a construction phase.  Many of us play the game with an early, and rather boring, phase where we devote entirely to building more and more energy units - first one at a time, then two, then three. And it is franly boring to sit there for 15 minutes just building energy units. Now again, I know you did not intend for players to build so much energy, but the paradigm has shifted. Many of the maps are extremely resource intensive (perhaps you should not have allowed emitters to go to 1,000 intensity? ;)) and can only be played if we have the maximum energy production.

[UpperKEES]

Many of us play the game with an early, and rather boring, phase where we devote entirely to building more and more energy units - first one at a time, then two, then three. And it is franly boring to sit there for 15 minutes just building energy units.

The only time I am bored, is when I have to wait for walls to decay. Even if I need to build up to 32 units of energy per second (which rarely happens), it's is a matter of minutes (max. 8 I guess, not 15), as the growth is exponential.

[Cronnix]

Many of us play the game with an early, and rather boring, phase where we devote entirely to building more and more energy units - first one at a time, then two, then three. And it is franly boring to sit there for 15 minutes just building energy units.

The only time I am bored, is when I have to wait for walls to decay. Even if I need to build up to 32 units of energy per second (which rarely happens), it's is a matter of minutes (max. 8 I guess, not 15), as the growth is exponential.

I think that UpperKEES captured the issue which made me ask for the speed feature. I personally dont think it should take over a hour to complete a single level, even thou virgilw seems to have other visions. It has little to do with that I would value the buildings less, but I would greatly appreciate to be able to speed up that building phase KEES mentioned, where you just build more and more energy generators and storage..

Having the feature unlock only after you complete the game would defeat the whole purpose in having it imho.

[Echo51]

No it wouldent, its the custom maps that take so damn long..

[J]

BTD4 has olso a well-implemented speedup button in te newest version. In the old versions it will not work so you can see it's hard work.

[UpperKEES]

I personally dont think it should take over a hour to complete a single level, even thou virgilw seems to have other visions. It has little to do with that I would value the buildings less, but I would greatly appreciate to be able to speed up that building phase KEES mentioned, where you just build more and more energy generators and storage..

Having the feature unlock only after you complete the game would defeat the whole purpose in having it imho.

Virgil doesn't have other visions as you can read here. He intends maps to be played within 5-30 minutes. I can finish all story maps in 1 to 9 minutes, so you should really work on your efficiency when building structures. I can't think of any in-game map that requires more than 10 units of energy per second; an amount that you should be able to reach within a few minutes if you can build reactors. Only some custom maps will demand more energy, but as you can see at the custom map page there is only 1 map that takes more than 1 hour to finish (and that is because you have to wait for walls to decay).

[knucracker]

Yeah, make no mistake.... anybody can play the game however they most like and that is cool with me.  Different people playing the game differently is a success story IMHO.

What I do care about is the initial experience with the game.  Frankly, I have sales in mind when I think about these things.  First time players often have no idea what they are doing, so they need to be shown a more guided and structured experience.... something that leads them to the promised 'fun' land.  Once there, they convert to sales and everybody wins.

If I had a big glowing "speed up" button too early in the game the experience gets cheapened for new players and the game seems both shorter and more shallow.  That's what my play testing revealed anyway.

The story missions were all designed to be played pretty quickly (5-30 minutes).  Some people burn through them and some can take longer.  Once a player is experienced, they become pretty short exercises.

Custom maps have changed this and some custom maps are just about plain crazy.  :)
This is why I have reconsidered adding speed control.  I have no doubt that I should probably add a 2x speed button for custom maps.  It's a question if I should add the button for conquest and special ops.