or you could consider having two types of play modes - arcade and strategy?
I think a survival mode would be fun. I’ll get the thing out the door first though.
Cas 
While you’re at it, think you could add some dragons? I like mermaids too. Throw in a few unicorns for good measure, and then include a solar-system-wide economy for trading resources with other players online. Also, a 3D view of the battlefield would be cool, along with a small ship to pilot around yourself. 
Seriously though, you’re being a good sport, and I think the game is coming along great. So don’t ruin it by implementing too many of our ideas.
Fear not, I’ve made that mistake before But some of the best ideas come from forums. Mostly I need to fix the various shortcomings that have come up consistently everywhere. I just got fast forward working (10x normal speed) - took all of 5 lines of code, brilliant
GameScreen gameScreen = GameScreen.getInstance();
if (Keyboard.isKeyDown(Keyboard.KEY_F) && gameScreen.isOpen() && !gameScreen.isBlocked()) {
for (int i = 0; i < FAST_FORWARD_SPEED; i ++) {
gameScreen.tick();
}
}
Cas
I want nukes!! I’d like to be able to nuke those boffing boffins. =)
Ok, I think this thread is like a train out of control full of children high on candy.
that seems to happen a lot
really great game. I wasted quite a lot of time on it.
one thing that I kept wanting was a zoom out function, cause then I can see the entire battlefield, rathat than frantically flinging my mouse around.
btw just curious, what happen to the little solider that were suppose to be protecting your base? think I read about them in some blog post for the game.
Zooming is sadly beyond my feeble abilities. And Java’s as well - at normal resolution there can be 8,000 sprites per frame and it barely keeps up at 60Hz. With 4x that many sprites I don’t think it’d cope.
The little soldiers come from a building called the Droid Factory, which you get on Mars when the aliens start using gidlets to attack you (The gidlets cannot be targeted by turrets, so you have to send the droids to go mano-a-mano to deal with them with their tiny laser guns)
Cas
Er, no.
[edit:]
The games that sell are either easy games where you build something over a long time (sims, nintendogs), or hardcore nerdtastic games (mario, halo, mw).
I don’t think that comparing the retail AAA marketplace with downloadable indies is really a fair comparison… I’ve got plenty of evidence to suggest that easy sells though so I’m going to go on that hunch
Cas
Yea, people are stupid, safe bet. ;D
Wow. I had no idea that the Wii is selling such stupid numbers of games. No wonder they decided just to keep making “Wii XXX” games…
Maybe, release a SuperHardDeluxe addon too? That way, people might even spend more money!
What evidence do you have that easy PC games sell well?
IPhone games, sure.
A lot of successful contacts in the industry Actually “easy” is not the universal rule, but it’s definitely an important factor in certain sorts of games. This, I think, is one of those games. And the build I have currently is actually quite tricky by the time I get to level 10 because I’m really good at it. Must get the difficulty tuning right!
Cas
Do you refer to the build we all played here? For me it was like a walk in the park, right up to level 20.
I tested some of the Farm Frenzy games a while ago, and they use a trophy system (Gold for passing a level quickly, Silver for OK time and then just a pass I think). It works really well for a casual game. Titans is maybe not AS casual, but I think it could work very well. Passing is easy, but if you want gold, then you have to make an effort. Not sure what the criteria for the awards should be for Titans though. Time probably won’t do, but maybe a radius that gidrahs aren’t allowed to pass, and then no damage to home base?
Yes, current build. I’ll upload as soon as we’ve made all the HUD changes.
We’ve got a system of medals planned, earned at the end of the level. The (preliminary) list so far looks like:
[] Each level needs a medal
[] Completed Earth
[] Completed Moon
[] Completed Mars
[] Completed Saturn
[] Completed Game
[] Killed 500 gidrahs
[] Killed 1000 gidrahs
[] Killed 2500 gidrahs
[] Killed 5000 gidrahs
[] Killed 10000 gidrahs
[] Hoarded $500
[] Hoarded $1000
[] Hoarded $2500
[] Hoarded $5000
[] Hoarded $10000
[] Hoarded $25000
[] Hoarded $50000
[] Straight Through - all levels completed in 1 attempt
[] Perfect game - all levels completed in 1 attempt, no damage taken to base
[] Fried 250 gidrahs with the capacitor
[] Fried 1000 gidrahs with the capacitor
[] Survived a level without building any factories (Moon onwards)
[] Survived a level without building any turrets (Moon onwards)
[] Survived a level without building any upgrades (Moon onwards)
[] Lost 10 buildings
[] Lost 25 buildings
[] Lost 50 buildings
[] Lost 100 buildings
[] Lost 250 buildings
[] Lost 500 buildings
[] Short arms and deep pockets - complete a world having never hoarded over $500
[] Shoestring budget - complete a world having never hoarded over $1000
[] Foetid Breath - kill boss within 2 squares of base
[] Close shave - kill boss within 6 squares of base
[] Shellshock - blown up 1000 gidrahs with mines
[] Ultimate weapon - maxed out ammo, scan range, fire rate, and reload rate
[] Failed 5 times at one mission*
[] Failed 10 times at one mission
[] Failed 25 times in one world
[] Completed level in 1 attempt
[] Completed world in 10 attempts
[] Didn’t lose a single building
[] Didn’t take any damage at all in a level
- Repeatable
Cas
I want a pony!
An idea: How about auto-promotion of towers?
In C&C a unit gets promoted if it has destroyed many enemy units. It gets auto-healing, does more damage. That way, a tower on the front-line can get a well deserved promotion.
How about a medal for: destroying all enemy forces with only mines? ;D