ForumsGamesGemcraft 2 CS "Random Events" *SPOILERS*

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ArchlordPie
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ArchlordPie
150 posts
Jester

When I'm talking about "random events," I'm referring to the following:

--Apparitions appearing and existing for a bit
--Spectres trying to steal your gems
--Shadows spawning in
--Spires spawning in
--The Forgotten angering waves
--The Forgotten freezing the interface temporarily
--Anything else like this that might activate once I get farther in the game (currently stuck on field X2, every other available tile has been completed on Looming)

If anyone's beat the game already, can you tell me if these things go away or get even worse once that's done? I'm not looking for details on the fight or anything, I just want to know if there's a way to make them go away. I've had good runs ruined by Spire spawns or "getting frozen" happening at exactly the wrong time, resulting in incredible frustration on my end as a hugely successful (and lucrative in terms of XP) run gets halted by something that's seemingly out of my control. (It doesn't help that you can't make your gems ignore Spires, but that's a different problem entirely.)

I know that the screen borders flicker whenever one of these things is coming, and if there's a way to distinguish between which one's coming then I haven't figured it out yet, but each one of these things requires something different to deal with (Apparitions - ignore them unless it's safe, Spectres - Let them get close then freeze + empower the relevant gems -> watch the fireworks, Shadows - Beam empower an armor shred gem and freeze the Shadow near it while building towers near the orb, Spires - Trail of towers between its spawn and your orb, fill with low level gems, pray it doesn't get near your main gems, Forgotten angering - Maybe upgrade your gems or get ready to do some empowering, hopefully you haven't already angered too much, Forgotten freezing - Hopefully you're not in trouble...) and it's fairly hard to make sure I'm prepared for ALL of them while still keeping my main gems relevant in the 70+ wave levels I'm dealing with this far in the game...

tl;dr: Do these random things go away eventually? If not, how could I better deal with them?

  • 12 Replies
buldozeer
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buldozeer
9 posts
Nomad

Spires - Trail of towers between its spawn and your orb, fill with low
level gems, pray it doesn't get near your main gems


offtopic, but try putting one or two mid-tear gems(i use one from amplifier) with beam on them - they melt spires very fast
Oktavia_witch
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Oktavia_witch
56 posts
Blacksmith

Do these random things go away eventually?

No.
If not, how could I better deal with them?

Build at least two attack gems, one set at "special" priority. That way it will shoot down specters if they show up during possession. If you see Spire coming, put attack gem near it asap and enhance it with laser.
Scarcon
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Scarcon
8 posts
Blacksmith

>Do these random things go away eventually?
Someone mentioned in another thread that the Forgotten will no longer anger waves or lock your UI after beating X5, unless you're playing on Haunting.

Can't remember seing her since I beat X5, so that might be the case.

Nemenemenes
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Nemenemenes
24 posts
Shepherd

I think my understanding of fun is different from you. For me, it is these random events that make the game a lot more fun. I lost on some maps because of that random events and that only made me want to get better in the game and try different strategies in other words, play dynamically. Want to beat all maps at first try without any difficulty or surprises? Want to beat endurance on autopilot? Then GemCraft CS is not the game. If Gemcraft CS didn't have these random events, it would be a plain boring linear TD grinding game. That's my personal opinion.

darkumbra
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darkumbra
8 posts
Peasant

@ademmeda - I'm with you on this one in THIS type of game.

I hate random events in something like simcity, but for some reason, in a TD game it makes sense to me. Perhaps because my investment per map is

Oktavia_witch
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Oktavia_witch
56 posts
Blacksmith

darkumbra was taken by specter.

darkumbra
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darkumbra
8 posts
Peasant

Pretty much... Bad Internet connection will do that - at least it didn't take my scotch!!!!

ArchlordPie
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ArchlordPie
150 posts
Jester

I think my understanding of fun is different from you. For me, it is these random events that make the game a lot more fun. I lost on some maps because of that random events and that only made me want to get better in the game and try different strategies in other words, play dynamically. Want to beat all maps at first try without any difficulty or surprises? Want to beat endurance on autopilot? Then GemCraft CS is not the game. If Gemcraft CS didn't have these random events, it would be a plain boring linear TD grinding game. That's my personal opinion.

Honestly, I'm glad that these things exist, because like you said, this game would be really boring otherwise. I just have a problem with them when they turn what would've otherwise been a successful run resulting in over a million XP gained into a loss and a replay of a rather lengthy level. This is why I asked if there was a way to get rid of them; when playing the game to advance the story and unlock levels, I'd leave them on because I'd be bored otherwise, but when doing XP runs (Glaring difficulty with multiple traits maxed) or playing a level I've been stuck on for a while (CURSE YOU X2) I'd turn them off to make sure that if I did manage to figure the level out, I'd be able to beat it and move on.

I'm stuck on X4 now after grinding up 30 wizard levels yesterday and barely beating X2. It's good to know that I'm only two maps away from getting rid of the worst of these (the interface freeze)... seriously though. Randomly taking control of the game away from the player, even if there is a warning, is a serious no-no in my book, and it's precisely this event that's caused most of my losses. (The Spire targeting thing is fixed BTW; if you're having trouble with Spires stealing your gem aggro and letting all the mana-burn reavers through, set the game to 1x speed and manually target the normal monsters. Your gems will listen to that now.)

Speaking of mana-burn reavers, they're a perfect example of something I really hate in this game but that I'd NEVER ask the developer to get rid of. If you're playing optimally (meaning not letting the monsters reach your orb) then they aren't any more threatening than a normal reaver, so the proper response to them is "get better". You can't exactly "get better" at dealing with a sudden loss of control, aside from recognizing the tell (which can and has blended in with other tells [most notably the Specter's, at least in my experience]) and preparing for it ahead of time (which may or may not set you back in other ways).
Hyppy
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Hyppy
59 posts
Peasant

I'm not sure what people mean by the interface freeze going away. I'm done with every level in the game and halfway through replaying everything on haunted, and I still get the UI freeze curse once a map or so. I think sending more than 5 waves at once triggers it, but I could be wrong.

Hyppy
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Hyppy
59 posts
Peasant

Correction, it doesn't require any skipping to trigger it. I got the UI freeze on F1 Haunted with max battle traits somewhere around wave 55.

Scarcon
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Scarcon
8 posts
Blacksmith

I'm not sure what people mean by the interface freeze going away. I'm done with every level in the game and halfway through replaying everything on haunted, and I still get the UI freeze curse once a map or so
It doesn't happen on looming and glaring anymore after beating X5. Same with the Forgotten angering waves.
ArchlordPie
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ArchlordPie
150 posts
Jester

It still happens on Haunted. Goes away on Looming and Glaring though, from what I hear. I can't C/D that though; still grinding up wizard levels for X4.

Just had another grinding run ruined by the random events; the game spawned a Shadow, Spire, and wave-anger all at the same time. Not a good thing to have happen right before your powerspike... I was only ~20 waves in though so I'm not mad. Just slightly irritated.

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