Comments about Creeper World 2

[Dasani]

I was a long time fan of the original, though I never registered here on the forums. I waited a long time, checking the development blog on a daily basis usually for any news on creeper world 2 and as a rabid fan, I bought it as soon as I saw it for sale.

Having completed the normal missions and the bonus missions now, i'm just going to make some general observations about the game.

The blasters and launchers of course are still amazing, just as they were in the original. I would say that launchers are superior to their mortar cousins from the original since their missiles kind of go around objects and "home in" on the target but then again mortars could fire over walls and higher elevation terrain so I guess they are about the same. Still both invaluable.

I love the beacons because they are basically like relays except you don't have the little lines cluttering up the screen. I kind of miss watching my packets flow through my network I have to admit, seeing them just float across the screen just isn't quite the same. It's still cool, in a different way. However CW2 doesn't lag nearly as bad as CW1 does when you start ramping up object counts so at least there is that.

I find myself digging little "ant farm"-like paths throughout all the terrain to try to efficiently place as many reactors as possible. Very different, but I like it. It's almost like adding more up front cost to your reactors you choose to build.

I absolutely LOVE the crystals/gems that give you large surpluses of energy you can consume. They give you a great cushion for rapid expansion and are essential in some missions (especially bonus ones).

The anti-creeper is kind of a cool idea, but it just doesn't seem very practical. When I started playing the game, I started throwing up ore rigs and makers and trying to make use of all the ore on the map and such but it just seemed lackluster to me. I see a lot of other posts here saying they love anti-creeper and makers and all that, but I never really found much use for them. You run out of ore extremely fast and it just seems like even dumping all your ore into one massive anti-creeper, it gets burnt up rapidly. Seems that time and energy would be better spent on blasters and launchers, towards the end of the game I stopped using ore and anti-creeper altogether because I just found it to be a waste of time.

I have similar issues with repulsors. On the mission that introduced them, I thought they were like the coolest thing ever and I would throw them up all over the place, but as the game progressed, creeper densities became so ridiculously insane that even several rows of repulsors forming combined beams couldn't hold back the flood of super-dense creeper. So they are only really effective against creeper that isn't "under pressure" so to speak, in which case it seems to me a blaster would do the job better because they can clear up low density creeper so fast and both are equally ineffective against high density creeper. The only times I ever really used repulsors was trying to move around my own anti-creeper and controlling where it was going and what it was doing, but this was before I gave up on anti-creeper altogether as mentioned earlier.

I really like the phantom coils though, the multi-target damage and the fact that they hit rapidly for small amounts of damage makes them no waste any energy when firing, unlike SAMs in the original who could waste enormous amounts of energy firing extra missiles that weren't needed. Very nice change there. :)

Microrifts are amazing and definitely one of my favorites. For me, it has made the increase packet speed tech research rather redundant as you can simply throw up a microrift and solve those types of packet logistics problems. I also find them useful for supplying weapons that are cut off physically from the liberation ship. There was a certain map in particular where I was reinforcing sealed off areas that were surrounded by creeper on all sides, but my rifts kept the weapons firing from inside.

Shields are great. On really deep maps, I tend to dig a 4-block deep hole here and there on the way down, sealing it with a shield, lighting the way with a beacon, protecting it with a blaster, and supplying my mobile force with a microrift. I throw up these little "outposts" here and there as I descend deeper into the creeper. ;)

By the way, I love the fact you can double-click blasters and things to group select them. I don't know if the first one had this or not, but I discovered it by accident and was very pleased. I just wish you could do a group select by clicking and dragging similar to RTS games but i'll live.

Nullifiers are of course great, I always wanted something like that in the original instead of having to post blasters at an emitter to cap it off and simply guard it. I love the new "obliteration" gameplay style the new game has.

Other than that, i'm a little disappointed that the experimentals are only in the final level (and final bonus level). From the blog posts, I was expecting them to be something you could use on any map once discovered and that they would be extremely expensive and situational. They are pretty fun though. :)

I only wish that I could change the graphic of my liberation ship to the gunship that Samus uses in Super Metroid. :D It reminds me of it so much.

[MadMag]

The Maker is very useful as I see in 3 different ways.

1. Flood your own "caves" protecting reactors and stuff from phantoms/creeper.

2. Hold off creeper until you got enough energy to advance. (maybe not yet, but in later updates with other maps)

3. Quickly advance thru the creeper with a backup of some Blasters and Launchers


The Experimentals will come in handy in leater updates.


If someone wanted to see the Gunship :)

[mthw2vc]

As you get better, you will find that uses for both the maker and repulsor do exist... The main reason for each of them is that running them costs almost nothing.

[Grauniad]

I love the beacons because they are basically like relays except you don't have the little lines cluttering up the screen. I kind of miss watching my packets flow through my network I have to admit, seeing them just float across the screen just isn't quite the same. It's still cool, in a different way. However CW2 doesn't lag nearly as bad as CW1 does when you start ramping up object counts so at least there is that.

Yes, many of us miss the networking aspects of CW1.

Virgil has done a great deal of work to improve performance. If you have a multiple cores or a more recent graphics card, I believe AIR will even offload some processing on to that.

The anti-creeper is kind of a cool idea, but it just doesn't seem very practical.

I think you'll come back around on anti-creeper. It is a specific weapon that has its uses. If you run out of it on most missions, I'd suggest that you were not using it right.

I have similar issues with repulsors. On the mission that introduced them, I thought they were like the coolest thing ever and I would throw them up all over the place, but as the game progressed, creeper densities became so ridiculously insane that even several rows of repulsors forming combined beams couldn't hold back the flood of super-dense creeper.

I too have spent a lot of time moving my own creeper around with repulsors, until I realized it was just "entertainment" and hardly worth doing.  There are definite instances where repulsors can push back or hold back creeper more effectively than blasters or shields. Eventually you'll come around to that view.

I will suggest that if you have only played the missions currently released, you are barely off the bottom rung of the learning curve. Hang tight and soon your playing  opportunities will increase dramatically.

By the way, I love the fact you can double-click blasters and things to group select them. I don't know if the first one had this or not, but I discovered it by accident and was very pleased. I just wish you could do a group select by clicking and dragging similar to RTS games but i'll live.

It's actually in the Help, and I'll shortly move over a post from the beta forum outlining some of this.

You can do a group select by holding down Shift key while clicking the units you wish to select.

You can even combine double click and group select by first double-clicking a specific group, and then holding down Shift to either add  or remove individual units from the selected group.

Other than that, i'm a little disappointed that the experimentals are only in the final level (and final bonus level). From the blog posts, I was expecting them to be something you could use on any map once discovered and that they would be extremely expensive and situational. They are pretty fun though. :)

Experimental are somewhat better than Thor in the first game, as you can use them in more situations and they are not the game changer that Thor was. Having said that, they are specific-use weapons and only fun in some situations.

I only wish that I could change the graphic of my liberation ship to the gunship that Samus uses in Super Metroid. :D It reminds me of it so much.

I know that Virgil is looking into the possibility of how people would be able to provide their own graphics for units. It's not straightforward, so you might have to have special skills, but it might well become possible. It has been requested since the early days of the pre-beta, IIRC.