Correct, with many user-made maps to download if you prefer those over a generated one.
How do you figure that metagame would even work? And you “clear hordes” hmmm. Zombies? Guns? post apocalyptic? Strategy? I wonder … maybe I should experiment with this genre (I should add, I guess, “tower defense”?)
It is not really tower defense IMO though I could see someone calling it that though.
I believe it is far closer to turtling in Age of Empires. Wall yourself in, set up choke points and strong defensive positions, build your army and raid the countryside for resources / to thin out the ranks of the enemy. Just in this case the enemy will always be overwhelming so you have to win from a defensive posture.
I generally dislike Real Time Strategy games but I quite enjoy Billions because of the concept (turtle-RTS), theme (true zombie hordes + steampunk) and execution (various strategies and ever-looming chance of defeat).
Awesome, I’ll probably pick this up when it launches then.
No! You are supposed to be making video games!
That’s all really well said. I agree on all points.
Your parenthesis in your post made me love it.
Has anyone looked at Marz: Tactical Base Defense? Looks like it might be a similar type game.
Yep , its been mentioned here :
And there is a Demo for it on Steam.
I played the heck out of this game over the weekend and like it a lot.
It has been some time since I played and there were a few changes. For instance, some of the new Wonder buildings are probably great but I could never gather enough resources to both research and then build them. They are far too expensive even for the substantial benefits they provide. Other than that not much has changed beyond balancing. Spitters no longer wipe an entire group of soldiers in two seconds which is nice.
The game play is still gripping even though I truly suck at the game. On one attempt I expanded into a new area. I took my wood fence down and started building before I put up the new fence.
I AM AN IDIOT.
Of course one zombie - just one - got through. The first thing it ran into was a residence. Even with troops just a few yards away the chain reaction was inevitable and unavoidable. Game over. Cue the Homer Simpson “Doh” sound.
So finally last night I got a game going that I thought I could win. It had been a while since I played and so I expanded too far and had too much ground to cover when the final zombie rush came. The real issue is that the rush came 14 days early. Uh-oh. In the immortal words of Illidan, “you are not prepared”. No shite, Sherlock. I am left trying to cover far too many openings and do not even have my final defenses up for the 30,000 zombies descending on me with half the troops I wanted to have. I had left up many of the old walls and gates and those ultimately saved me. It ended with 4 Than(at)os units covering an approach to the town square vs a couple thousand zombies left while I demolished buildings to get back enough cash to keep them paid so they would not leave me. The entire town was destroyed BUT the community center remained as one of only a handful of buildings that survived. That may be a win but it was not a success. The survivors, if there are enough of them, should use my scrotum sack as a dartboard for my mismanagement.
Did I mention I really like this game?
I am nearing 100 hours on this game (Steam and pre-Steam time) which makes this probably my most-played RTS ever. I rarely enjoy games from this genre and get frustrated with the combat. So while I played Age of Empires 1&2 an awful lot, games like Warcraft never quite grabbed - never mind Dune 2, Command and Conquer and the like.
I love the ability to turtle, the tense exploration of the map, the panic of the early waves and finally the tension as I wait the final onslaught. Given I purchased this for somewhere about $20, this is one of my better gaming buys over the last couple of years.
Sweet!
Nice. I have put over a hundred hours into TAB this year already and it is the front-runner for my GotY. The campaign sounds really cool with a mix of mission types and challenges. They are estimating that it will take someone 60-80 hours just for the campaign. They are also releasing two new maps in the Deep Forest (easy mode) and Caustic Lands (which will be the hardest and have a Doom Colony that can take up about a quarter of the map). The research looks interesting with things like trains, research labs, climate control and the ability to craft your own weapons to do this:
So yeah, I am excited. Nuke 'em from orbit. It is the only way to be sure.
That looks amazing. I hope they start you off slow and easy because my early attempts in EA have ended badly.
I believe you will start in the Deep Forest and that map is made to be the easiest of them all. Food and wood aplenty.
Where does it fall apart for you currently? I would be happy to provide a couple of pointers if it helps.
Thanks, I haven’t made a real serious attempt because it was in EA. I just grow too big without building up my defenses enough. I think I try to expand too slowly.
I find that I have the opposite problem. I try to capture too much territory at once, especially around day 25 or so. By then I have my base largely set up with double wood walls, choke points, a warehouse, research buildings and enough guards to fend off anything short of brutal-level waves. Then I get together 10 soldiers and try to claim new land. But sometimes I get too greedy, either going too close to the edge of the map and getting overwhelmed by a horde or - more often - getting them too far away from the base to assist when a wave does hit.
Because of this tendency I have started trying to create 2 small groups of soldiers or rangers (5 in each group) to station at each end of my base. They never venture outside the walls. This gives me my rapid response team in case I get stupid and take my main force too far from the walls and are unable to get back in time to defend. After I build those 20 soldiers and a handful of rangers (or more rangers and fewer soldiers on higher population maps to avoid the dreaded chain swarm) I switch over to almost entirely snipers. I keep that soldier/ranger exploration group populated by removing soldiers/rangers from the walls and replacing them with sniper, who end up becoming the bulk of my army. 10-15 snipers backed up by 10 soldiers is a great clearing force that can take down almost anything, including mid-sized Doom Colonies). When there is something too large to take out I wait for a few Titans and then clear the rest of the map with those.
Does this still have the “one zombie gets through and you’re fucked” snowball effect going on? Not the end of the world or anything, but kinda sucks how you just get fucked completely because of one dumb little leak.
Yes, it does if your defenses are ill-prepared. You can build in firebreaks in your defenses in order to try to prevent the cascade effect but the whole point of the game are the severe consequences for that one dumb little leak.