They Are Billions - Zombies Meet AOE

Wait, is it possible to withstand the final wave? I assumed that was some sort of piling up failstate that would eventually kill you.

But I definitely agree with you whatever the case. I like the idea of building something that will inevitably get knocked down, and I look forward to ways that can be more accessible when the game actually comes out.

-Tom

It’s definitely possible, you can only unlock Map 4 by completing Map 3 at 100% score or above.

There have been requests for an endless mode, which is what I think you’re getting at. It would be awesome but considering the final wave nearly slows my PC to a halt that may not be good for CPU longevity.

http://www.numantiangames.com/2018/03/01/development-update-the-incoming-wonders/

Dev update

Six new end game buildings including the Tavern
New music
How scoring works
Campaign info

Bleh, still struggling with the 2nd map.

The waves should be the biggest threats in the game, but those sudden mini-spawns of 4-6 fast zombies (from doom towns I’m guessing) are a far bigger threat than any wave (save the final one).

My failure breakdown is something like:

70% - bad map restarts
15%- early lone zombie spawns out of nowhere right on edge of fog and wanders in hidden behind terrain
10%- fast mini-wave spawns and I don’t notice them because the attack notice was busy telling me about non-threat attack on opposite end
4%- final wave
1%- non-final wave that only got me because the pathing had them attack a point that was nowhere near the direction it came from

Not only possible but potentially “easy”. This is where the skirmish time setting plays in. With highest popultion settings, at least pre 6.0, if you survived into mid game your economy just gets so strong that you wind up with a massive impenetrable base. Layers of turrets, Thanatos groups to patrol walls (horde cleanup is where they shine). It’s possible to go without a full breach of the outer defenses (you need Executor turrets interspersed with the occasional Shock turret, second layer of Executors/Ballista if you couldn’t afford it, and then some Thanatos behind that layer).

Shorter games than 150 of course make it harder (I find the last few weeks of the 150 game is me mostly twiddling my thumbs). I had several 120 wins but not on the highest zombie density settings, pre .6. Harder, more interesting games than the 150s, for sure.

The game has gotten noticably harder since .6, and I haven’t been to a late game to say how that might have changed.

I’ve never found shock turrets to be worth it unless you can build defense around a VERY narrow chokepoint that the entire horde has to cram into next to your wall. If they’re not group up like that, then ballistas work just as well and executors are better.

Has anyone found a situation where titans are worth it? Cost wise, they’re worse than Thanatos on defense, and worse than Lucifers on offense. They could target high level special infected but a bunch of snipers could do it as good for a lot cheaper. The only thing Titans have going for them is worker efficiency (more bang for a single worker), but worker shortages aren’t a problem beyond day 15 or so. In fact they’re the least likely bottleneck beyond that point. You’re much more strapped for oil and gold which Titans are terribly inefficient with.

Executors don’t do what shock turrets do, and I find they (Shock) work excellently. But their use is specific (and their power draw means you shouldn’t bother until your economy is fully up). They do their job much better than another executor would in that position (which is basically 1 shock, flanked by executors to the sides and then behind in the second layer, although sometimes 1 or more of the execs is a ballista), and certainly much better than a balista. They thin hordes bar none while you can have some executors target highest (not all; I also use ballista for that purpose sometimes). And frequently end game hordes didn’t even penetrate the outer defense (in fact I’ve had quite a few maps end like that). I’ve had outer defenses with just occasional Shock Turrets and mostly Ballista (with some executors) do super well. Choke points don’t matter (and in fact sometimes they can be a detriment; if you can spread a horde out more turrets can target it). The jumpers won’t hurt them. Spiters might but a turret on targeting highest can help with that.

I don’t build more than 4-6 across the entirety of my base and I only start them in the late stages of a map. But the ones I build tend to be super effective. I doubt they would work in an 80 day game but I’ve had them perform great in a 120 day game.

Nope, rangers, snipers, then Thanatos for the end game. Don’t like Lucifers overmuch. I had success in one game taking blobs of them and setting them on whatever the aggro wander setting is, after I had cleared a good bit of the map. But never replicated it. They seemed to die to spitters to much. And I’m too lazy to baby sit that. I just blob snipers and they do a great job. Well pre .6. Not sure any more on that. I am also expecting them to start playing with the composition of end game hordes, which should be interesting.

Shock towers are good for tight chokepoints/corners that Executors can’t see because of line of sight since they apparently ignore it. If you have the horde pathing around a corner before they hit a choke point putting a shock tower on the point of it behind some walls will thin them out before they come into view of your Executors/Thanatos. Other than that they’re not worth the amount of power they use.

I’m hoping that the next update mixes things up becuase I find the Sniper/Executor/Thanatos spam very dull and boring. But there’s no reason to build other units because you’re handicapping yourself.

Yeah I agree on the shocks. They LOOK impressive when they go off but you have to take in their cost and rate of fire. What damage could have been done by something else in the same time in takes a shock to charge up, and for the same cost and use of space.

Does anyone bother with traps? It’s hard to tell how much they’re doing since it’s hard to tell if it’s my units/towers doing my damage or the traps. I haven’t run a test of pure trap damage.

Shock towers are great for the last wave, other than that you don’t really need them. The greater the mob density, the more worthwhile they are. There are a lot of things you can shut off/sell for the final wave, you can bail on all your mines etc, and by end game it’s pretty easy to budget the power for them. /shrug. You can certainly do without them, but they are really good at massive crowds. I use the shock towers for the general horde, and set my turrets to priority targets. It’s a pretty big waste of power having a executor plunking away at 200 lowbie mobs. Shock towers for me = shotgun, Executors = assault rifle. That being said, you can always just make more Thanatos, which are pretty much awesome for any stage of the game.

Shock towers are just another one of those things you can do to enhance the number of units you can turn out, and if your economy is good enough, it’s better to be producing both thanatos and shock towers, than just one of them.

Traps are also really good, not for the damage they do, but because they slow things down, which is really a lot of the final wave game. You’re usually swimming in wood at that point, so even if you use the lowest traps, I find them very useful, especially in between multiple walls/turrets/units.

Thanatos OP

That’s very interesting & stupid at the same time. It shows that this “tower defense” and building walls is a stupid losing proposition. Walls actually cause the zombies to group up in larger & larger numbers, where allowing them to trickle in allows the troops to dispatch of them.

I would go so far as to say that is probably the easiest final wave I’ve ever seen.

So glad I uninstalled this months ago. I think it has a lot of promise, but the latest dev update gives me little hope and I really don’t think they are getting what people find so interesting about the game (HINT: expansion and base building for me!).

I picked this up recently and I’ve been playing around with it. Lots of really interesting ideas, but flawed execution. I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that a lot of devs don’t understand the appeal of ironman or roguelike games. This game is a particularly fine example of this lack of understanding.

Roguelike games, where challenge is high, death is frequent, and there’s no save/reload to fall back upon, can be fun. They work because the gameplay is fun and games are typically short. This game doesn’t meet those criteria, because the game is long-winded builder.

More traditional ironman strategy games work because the ironman mode adds an extra edge of excitement and danger to a game that might otherwise be a game that would be too tediously easy with save/reload functionality. This game doesn’t meet those criteria either because it’s laughably easy to get overwhelmed and lose even with relatively solid gameplay and planning.

So in short, this game attempted to combine roguelike and ironman games, and managed to snag the vices of both while missing most of the virtues.

That complaint aside, I find the game reasonably satisfying. As long as I savescum. It’s annoying and tedious, but it works. Just disable steam cloud sync, and then manually alt-tab and copy the savegame files elsewhere each time the game autosaves.

I made the comparison before, but being way too long for a roguelike was where Darkest Dungeons whiffed big time. I SO wanted to love that game. It was just too repetitive and grindy though.You want me to grind through 20+ hours and my character aren’t any different by the end (except for numbers going up)? Bleh. That artist needs to be put to work on better games (their new space hulk game looks awful; darkest dungeons as a deck builder???).

I wouldn’t mind it as much in They Are Billions if so many of the losses weren’t so cheap. I’ve NEVER lost to a non-final wave, except the one time that the pathing made them attack in a totally different spot than where they came in. Every other loss has been to some cheap sudden spawn, with half of those breaking through because the awful warning system was too busy telling me about a lone zombie on the opposite end smacking a wall instead of the big threat about to break it down.

I am enjoying this game quite a bit. I am playing at 100% difficulty, which really doesn’t seem that difficult, but I still seem to keep losing. I always know what I am doing wrong, expanding quicker than I can defend) but still manage to screw up it up by doing so. I kind of like the long build up as well, that’s the fun part for me, I just wish I didn’t suck so much at it.

My main complaint is the graphics. While I get what they are going for, it’s all too dark and bland. Nothing stands out, making it too difficult to find what I need quickly. The color palette needs a little bit of pop.

Big update coming 5/5! I look forward to picking this back up then.

http://www.numantiangames.com/2018/04/25/they-are-billions-update-development-progress/

Apparently a ton of balance changes, new Inn stuff (more and better mercs based on how many people live in radius), 30 new Mayors, Flat Mode and better map and building-placement UX, new Chase Mode behavior. Good times!

Tried the inn. Wasn’t very impressed by it. It’s just a super expensive bank that lets you buy a veteran unit every once in a while.

Yeah I’m very disappointed by it. Flat mode is the most useful update they’ve had a in a while.