The Sentinel 4 Suggestion Symposium – Towers

[barry92_fc]

Something I’d like to see is more different powerful options in the endless games. Theres lots of towers with different effects that are really useful in the normal levels like the bombs and lines and flamethrowers. But when I’m playing on endless they get obsolete really fast. Once you get past the first few waves it’s all about filling the screen with boosted snipers, well, that’s what always works best for me *lol*. And it gets a bit boring after a while. It’d be ace to have some more strategies that work.

[TheAwesomer]

I’d love some more powerful towers too! And it would be great to have a bigger armory where you can unlock and upgrade loads more stuff in between matches..

[pmcgregor]

A Tower that earns you extra cash would be cool! I have stated before a similar view to the two posts above and think that this is right on also. The more upgrades and more powerful increases the better!

[Paul]

Thanks for the feedback so far. I can confirm that there are more powerful towers, and more upgrades in the armoury in Sentinel 4.

 

The tower that earns you money is a nice idea, but Sentinel 4 already has Factory buildings which do this job 😉

[T0AStyWombat]

Hello, I have been an avid fan of Sentinel since the original one. I loved the advances the second one made with orbital powers and the third one blew me away with the number of orbital weapons, turrets, and commander abilities.

The only problem I had with the third installment was that when I would play on endless modes I would always just use slow and boosted sniper towers because they were the only effective weapons (most range and damage output by far). So I would end up finding myself with over a million dollars in the late, late game on maps such as 12. The Cave.

I feel like a really good fix to this problem would be to introduce tier 4 towers that must be purchased outside of combat (with credits in the armory) and they would cost quite a hefty amount. Then, in-game, they would provide an even greater boost than the tier 3 towers do but would cost around $10,000 to $50,000 as opposed to less than $1,000.

That being said, I really hope the towers LINE LASER, MISSILE, both slow towers, SNIPER, BOOSTER, FLAMETHROWER, and ARTILLERY make it into Sentinel 4. Artillery is amazing for anti-ground, Missile is amazing early/mid game for anti-air, and Sniper just destroys everything until level 200+ on Endless modes. Flamethrower and Line Laser are AWESOME ideas. They are actually two of my favorite tower ideas. Unfortunately, they just are not very strong except in the early game, but at that point they are too expensive to buy. I was thinking tier 4 for these towers would be Greek Fire (flame) and Pulsar Beam (laser).

For Sentinel abilities I really want NAPALM, MISSILE, ATTACK DRONES, SUPERCHARGE (?), RESURRECT,  and ORBITAL LASER to stick around. I could do without the ion cage and slow beam because I have NEVER used them. I used them back in Sentinel 2 and they just were not that good. Slow Beam was worthless because I built slow turrets, and Ion Cage just wasn’t good enough because if I wait for 2 more energy squares I can use orbital laser and kill everything. I know ATTACK DRONES is being moved to the Stronghold so I am really hoping you guys give the Sentinel an ability something like Combat Drones Mark III or Gunship in which a more powerful version of the Attack Drone comes down and uses both an energy beam and an explosive missile to attack its target. Anyways, I’m really hoping to see some great new weapons on the Sentinel for Dark Star. My one suggestion would be a plasma barrage ability similar to the Commander Aurora’s plasma rain that hits the entire map for a short amount of time.

Hope you guys think about it. If it doesn’t happen it won’t break my heart but I think it would be really cool if you guys went along with it. The Stronghold idea sounds awesome. Keep up the great work guys!

[Paul]

Hi T0AStyWombat, thanks for all the feedback!

 

Yes, endless mode in Sentinel 4 is going to be balanced very differently. The idea is to have a choice of towers rather than one tower which is the best in all situations in the late game. You’ll be pleased to know there is also a LOT more to unlock with credits in between games such as higher level tower upgrades and special moves as well as being able to upgrade basic tower statistics like damage and range.

 

There are loads more Sentinel abilities too, including ones to fill the gaps left by moving the drones to the stronghold as you suggest. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed with the array of weaponry in Sentinel 4 🙂

[pendell]

Hello, I’m not quite finished with campaign 2 of sentinel (still need to do mission 15) but maybe some feedback could be useful:

 
>- Turret power balance – are there any that you think are too good, or any that you never use because they’re too weak or situational?

 

I’ve pretty much given up on the flamethrower and disease weapons. They are expensive for what they do and by the late game they don’t do much more than tickle the enemies.  I recommend improving these and the laser turret so they remain viable.

 

It would be nice to make the booster’s effect more obvious. It’s not always easy to tell what benefit it gives, and therefore why I should be buying it.  It’s only really useful in late game when I need to boost a large cluster of towers, it doesn’t give us anything at lower upgrades or with fewer turrets. Suggest making it more practical at the lower levels.

 

I disagree with the previous poster — the line laser, on a map it is situated for, is AWESOME because it hits everything in a row repeatedly.  It’s a thing of beauty to see a line of enemies getting hit from both sides by fully upgraded line lasers. Your later enemies have too much health for your lasers? Answer : MOAR LASERS.   And it works on air and ground enemies both.  And it’s the prettiest weapon effect in the game, like a light show.

 
If anything, it might just be a bit too powerful in some situations.   But then, this can be overcome with clever map design rather than nerfing the weapon. The line laser only works well when it can repeatedly hit a long, long line of enemies. Take away those long single file lines and it isn’t nearly as useful.

>- Is the range of towers available too broad, too narrow or just right?

 
I think we’re a little deficient against air threats. Also, while the game is supposed to prevent you from depending too heavily on one turret, as I said earlier the flamethrower just isn’t enough of a contender in the late game to warrant a place  just because laser-resistant mutants exist.  It’s easier for me just to rely on laser weaponry and use napalm when a laser-resistant wave shows up. Need more and better non-laser options.

 
>- What do you think of Sentinel 3′s Armory system?

I like it a great deal. Free choice of what weapons I can employ and the ability to unlock slots is a very pleasant change of pace compared to other games.

>- And of course, do you have an idea for a new tower type that you’d love to see?
How about something that temporarily causes enemies to  fight each other? Same mechanic as the disease or flamethrower. Anything touched by it stops in place, turns around and starts fighting the neighbor behind it until the effect wears off.  Have it spread like disease. Gives you the effect of slow turret and a damage turret all at once.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Paul]

wow thanks Brian! Some great feedback and ideas there. I really like the idea of the tower that makes them fight each other 🙂

[pendell]

You’re welcome! 🙂

 

Okay, just finished campaign 2.  The farming strategy here made all the difference. Where it took me 8 tries to finish the pit, I got through the Last Stand first try. I viewed the early bosses as opportunities , using slow turret to hamper them, then allow the resource drones to harvest while I use repair beam to keep the barrier up. The energy drones could recharge my repair faster than the boss could knock it down, so saved up 8000 credits this way.  Then it’s just a matter of a rich man’s war.

 

So … additional feedback.

 

1) The sniper turret is overpowered for what it does. It’s good against all comers land and air. The drawbacks — expense and long reload time — are overcome at the end of the later scenarios with a metric ton of cash, allowing you to cover the board with them.

 

2) The sad thing is that the board NEEDS to be covered with them.   In wave 149 of Last Stand, I was doing my level headed best to cover every available space on the board with either a sniper tower or a booster and it still was just barely enough!

 

That’s a problem, I think. Game balance breaks in the higher levels. Only large quantities of sniper towers will bring down the boss enemies , and zerg enemies will be simply mowed down by 20 or 30 sniper towers. All the other wonderful towers, with the exception of the beam, simply fall by the wayside as they simply don’t have the firepower to bring down the last enemies.

 

I would suggest that steps  be taken to ensure that all towers remain viable throughout the game.     “Farm a bunch of money and then cover the planet with snipers, boosters, and beams” should be *a* viable strategy, not *the* viable strategy.

 

One possibility would be to extend the upgrade cap — instead of just 3 upgrades, you can have additional upgrades.  Each one brings an exponential increase in effectiveness, with an exponential increase in cost.     So this would give the user the question of whether he wanted to upgrade his level 3 line laser or flamethrower to a level 4 UBER WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION AND DEATH (for the low, low price of $5000)  or spend that money on 2 or 3 level 3 sniper towers instead.

 

Do you see what I’m getting at? At present most of the towers top out at a certain point and become obsolete. Extending the upgrade path would allow players to mix and match tools to fit their playing style, rather than forcing them to steadily discard turrets in favor of the one  or two models that actually have a prayer of bringing down a late-game warrior.

 

Also … I’ve never played endless mode (I prefer scenarios I can win) , but it might also make endless more interesting. Am I correct in guessing that in every wave, the enemies continue to strengthen in health and numbers, but there is a finite limit to the number of turrets you can place on the board and a hard cap on how much damage each turret can put out, even with a booster.  Which means there is a MAXSTRENGTH the user can have,  which  the enemy will eventually exceed and the player will slowly lose. While possessing tons of money the player can do nothing with, because there’s nothing more to buy, and nowhere to put it if they did.  Extending the upgrade path would keep the game interesting by allowing the user to continue to make choices even when the board is totally full.

 

3) Speaking of endless — I don’t like losing. How about an option which would allow you declare “victory” at a wave and take however much XP you’ve earned up to that point?   Say, set a personal goal to make it to wave 50, then stop the scenario, collect XP, restart at level 1. Do it again to level 60. Collect, restart. And so on. As it is, I think the user only has the option to play until defeat , which can take a very long time indeed.

 

4) Wasn’t there supposed to be a fast regen orbital ability? I never got it.  At any rate, the commander heals quite slowly.  How about a “vampire” commander ability, allowing the commander to generate a field which will replenish his/her health at the expense of the nearby enemies?

 

5) A bit of a silly thing … In the 1978 short story “Mr. Jester”, by Fred Saberhagen, now made available in the public domain by the publisher here , an alien robot drops a custard pie on the planet, probably the most unusual orbital bombardment in the history of fiction.

 

Food for thought.  If you guys are ever in the mood for an easter egg, I would like a no-cost joke orbital weapon I can drop on the bad guys as a last FU just before I lose.  A flock of chickens.  A birthday cake.    A kitchen sink (you’ve thrown everything else …) . Something to relieve the tension.

 

Respectfully,

 

Brian P.

[Paul]

Thanks again! As I mentioned in my blog, I’ve tried to rebalance and address the late game balancing for the towers so that you have more choice and strategy. There is no longer a ‘best’ tower.

There was no ‘fast regen’ for commanders in Sentinel 3. There is actually a vampiric move for one of the new commanders in Sentinel 4 you will be pleased to know 🙂

[gzbum]

All of the suggestions above are similar to what I would want, but what about a way to clear out blocked squares to build towers?  What I mean is that on most of the maps, there are only certain parts of the grid that we can build a tower.  How about some way to make unusable terrain usable?  How about weather effects such as fog or complete darkness for some parts of the map with towers that would benefit/help during these conditions? Maybe some towers work better in the rain/lightning/sunshine/darkness. 

Something that is a little off topic is that I suggest a map editor.  I would LOVE to build my own maps and share them online. 

-g

[Author]

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