I really think linking difficulty to shadow cores is an exploitative idea. The rest of the shadow core thing is fine, but this completely restricts the game and puts a money gate on playing it.
Moving this to support since that's not what it's becoming. Speaking to the Paypal issue, if your country doesn't allow Paypal could you please leave a message on my profile as to which country it is? I'll talk to the team about getting this addressed.
Yeah I'm partially withdrawing my "can't mana farm" blanket statement and saying "can't mana farm nearly as easily."
You really need a high skill cap, and holy CRAP the gems I was able to create with poolbound/orange/red... I mean I had enough mana to upgrade gems to the 30s, with trillions of damage after amplifiers were factored in. I got tired of hitting 'n' so I x'd all my gems at wave 200 on endurance with something like 1.5m xp for that run.
So there is potential here, but I gotta say, the monster buff that causes beacons to appear is a big pain after wave 100, they have insane health.
The white-red-orange gives billions of mana easily that can kill a billion(trillion) HP monsters and beacon instantly. I think it is unbalanced for the game. Maybe GIAB should use a curved power line to make the game more difficult yet challengeable.
True, but if you're still hoping for a gem augmentation shrine (whatever it's called)... those need buildable space too. =(
But yeah, I realized I could prevent beacons from appearing by peppering the map with towers.
Beacons can spawn either inside tower range, where they die quickly, or outside (near farming traps) where they don't matter that much. But covering the entire map with towers is relatively inexpensive, and you can just destroy one when a shrine comes up...
Now that the game has been out for a few days, maybe we can dump all the exchanges about the missed deadlines, etc., and talk about the game? I'm with InThrees: I'm blown away by the look of GCS but frustrated and disappointed at the gameplay. Maybe I'm overly comparing CS to Labyrinth, which took me a while to figure out how to play well. But CS so far just feels like a grind--skill levels inversely proportional to mana pool, stunningly small ranges and speeds for gems, AGONIZINGLY strong monsters even in early fields, the dreaded giant/swarm combos over and over, etc. And more than anything else, there are actually few reasons to work hard to win a battle most of the time: in Lab, you had the battle amulets for stuff you accomplished during the battle. Here, nothing--this Shadow Core thing is bizarre, and the battle traits even when they're not set that high produce overwhelmingly high levels and strengths of monsters.
In short, the thing just feels too **** hard with too **** little payoff as you go along--there's this sense of making no progress. A lot of people are already talking about how they're getting level 35 gems and making millions of mana. I don't believe it--when Regnes chimes in and says how s/he does it, I'll believe it. But I just don't see how the game is anything other than a total grind--it's a lot less fun than I was hoping for, that's for sure! I'm not spending any money on it until I feel that the enjoyment is worth it (which isn't to say I don't think GIaB deserves $5 for his/her work).
You are doing it wrong then. GC2 is a GC0 with some of GCL features and performance.
But CS so far just feels like a grind--skill levels inversely proportional to mana pool, stunningly small ranges and speeds for gems, AGONIZINGLY strong monsters even in early fields.
Wow, just like GCL until you get wild gem.
the dreaded giant/swarm combos over and over, etc.
You sound like total casul. Lrn2priorities. Making "[insert type of enemies] only" as difficulty setting was a big mistake of GCL, because faster enemies are always way harder to manage than slower ones, and a mix of both is even harder.
in Lab, you had the battle amulets for stuff you accomplished during the battle.
Funny, it required to do useless things like "build 20 towers" EVERY level, unlike GC2, where these are one-time achievements.
In short, the thing just feels too **** hard with too **** little payoff as you go along--there's this sense of making no progress.
