Moar Crafty
April 17, 2009 7:50 PM Subscribe
HOT DAMN!
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:05 PM on April 17, 2009
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:05 PM on April 17, 2009
On first impression, it's seeming more difficult.
Maybe I just haven't got the hang of the changes.
posted by juv3nal at 8:10 PM on April 17, 2009
Maybe I just haven't got the hang of the changes.
posted by juv3nal at 8:10 PM on April 17, 2009
Wow, I *just* got over my addiction toGemCraft and I rushed over here to tell everyone about it. Shit.
posted by WolfDaddy at 8:36 PM on April 17, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by WolfDaddy at 8:36 PM on April 17, 2009 [1 favorite]
Dear, sweet Lord, not this. Not now. You've given me dreams, Lord; visions of what I might be able to accomplish if I keep my eyes on the prize and my nose to the grindstone. Have mercy, Lord, on this poor wretched tower defense addict, this twisted shell of a man made hollow by the devil's doings. Lord, give me strength. Amen.
posted by sleevener at 8:37 PM on April 17, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by sleevener at 8:37 PM on April 17, 2009 [2 favorites]
on one hand, i want to wait for this to show up on kongregate because i don't want to replay the game twice ... on the other hand, i'm already playing and its addictive :(
posted by yeoz at 8:49 PM on April 17, 2009
posted by yeoz at 8:49 PM on April 17, 2009
My god, why am I so bad at these games? Every other tower defense game I can fucking own, but I suck at Gem Craft so much. Why?
posted by Caduceus at 10:14 PM on April 17, 2009
posted by Caduceus at 10:14 PM on April 17, 2009
I will return to this in a month. I truly cannot afford to click that link before finals.
posted by The White Hat at 11:01 PM on April 17, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by The White Hat at 11:01 PM on April 17, 2009 [2 favorites]
This one feels WAY harder than the previous. Each level is much more of a puzzle you have to figure out the tricks for. Though like most games with unlocks, I suspect that it's going to get much easier over time as you unlock more skills. I guess that's a satisfying thing to have happen, but it feels like a balance problem to me. I like a continuing challenge, though.
The skill system pricing is inverted; it costs the most for level 1, and less for higher levels. This makes it easier to spec in specific skills. There are also many more skills, which means you'll probably need to play with respecing for specific levels more often.
There seem to be lots more ways to spend mana, although it's all routed through gem creation: making waves angry, using shrines, blowing up the enemy buildings that block your building, gem bombs, etc.
My biggest frustration is that it's not obvious how gems differ in effect between tower and trap until you try it. My general feeling is that the blue (slow), green (poison) work great in traps, but the others aren't so good. I wish the tradeoffs here were more clear.
The cost (in time) of moving gems between towers is much higher. I think this is to encourage not changing the setup, which gets people more kills-in-a-row. It effects the overall pacing, too. You can easily get burned by not having enough time to combine a gem and re-install it before the next wave hits.
All in all, an excellent new version. Much richer than the previous incarnation, and I feel like I'm learning something as I continue to play. In the old Gem Craft, I pretty much had it figured out half way through and none of the levels were a challenge anymore. Once you started with decent high level gems, the game became a joke. I'm a little more confident that this version has enough tricks up its sleeve that I won't be in that position again.
posted by heresiarch at 11:01 PM on April 17, 2009
The skill system pricing is inverted; it costs the most for level 1, and less for higher levels. This makes it easier to spec in specific skills. There are also many more skills, which means you'll probably need to play with respecing for specific levels more often.
There seem to be lots more ways to spend mana, although it's all routed through gem creation: making waves angry, using shrines, blowing up the enemy buildings that block your building, gem bombs, etc.
My biggest frustration is that it's not obvious how gems differ in effect between tower and trap until you try it. My general feeling is that the blue (slow), green (poison) work great in traps, but the others aren't so good. I wish the tradeoffs here were more clear.
The cost (in time) of moving gems between towers is much higher. I think this is to encourage not changing the setup, which gets people more kills-in-a-row. It effects the overall pacing, too. You can easily get burned by not having enough time to combine a gem and re-install it before the next wave hits.
All in all, an excellent new version. Much richer than the previous incarnation, and I feel like I'm learning something as I continue to play. In the old Gem Craft, I pretty much had it figured out half way through and none of the levels were a challenge anymore. Once you started with decent high level gems, the game became a joke. I'm a little more confident that this version has enough tricks up its sleeve that I won't be in that position again.
posted by heresiarch at 11:01 PM on April 17, 2009
This is terrorism.
posted by TwelveTwo at 11:17 PM on April 17, 2009 [4 favorites]
posted by TwelveTwo at 11:17 PM on April 17, 2009 [4 favorites]
How can you have a "strategy" on a level when the gems you get are totally random (within the level's colors)? Sure, the level will go great if I can just put a poison gem in *that* trap, but I never have the mana to buy gems until a green one shows up by chance.
posted by jepler at 5:44 AM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by jepler at 5:44 AM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]
Fuck me. After a long time of suckitude at the first GemCraft and then a breakthrough that enabled me to finish the game and let go of a stupid, painful obsession...now this. Why, oh why, must games that tempt my powers of mediocrity come along?
posted by never used baby shoes at 9:06 AM on April 18, 2009
posted by never used baby shoes at 9:06 AM on April 18, 2009
Hellza. I thought the link was going to point towards something like Gem Magic.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:02 AM on April 18, 2009
posted by five fresh fish at 10:02 AM on April 18, 2009
How can you have a "strategy" on a level when the gems you get are totally random (within the level's colors)?
jepler (and heresiarch--though you've written the comment I would've if I weren't still playing this damn game), y'all should read the strategy guide. It doesn't give too much away, as long as you don't read down too far, and it'll help you grasp some of the new strategies.
For instance, to make more of a particular color gem, create 3 level 1 gems and line them up on one row of your inventory. They will be random colors. Then select the Gem Bomb spell and drag a level 1 gem of the color you want onto that row of random colored level 1 gems. All three of the randoms will change to the color you want, and your original disappears. This comes in super handy once you earn skills that give you specific color gems to begin with; I make a shitton of triple hits and steal manas now.
And yeah, use the blue, green, and orange in the traps.
posted by carsonb at 10:04 AM on April 18, 2009
jepler (and heresiarch--though you've written the comment I would've if I weren't still playing this damn game), y'all should read the strategy guide. It doesn't give too much away, as long as you don't read down too far, and it'll help you grasp some of the new strategies.
For instance, to make more of a particular color gem, create 3 level 1 gems and line them up on one row of your inventory. They will be random colors. Then select the Gem Bomb spell and drag a level 1 gem of the color you want onto that row of random colored level 1 gems. All three of the randoms will change to the color you want, and your original disappears. This comes in super handy once you earn skills that give you specific color gems to begin with; I make a shitton of triple hits and steal manas now.
And yeah, use the blue, green, and orange in the traps.
posted by carsonb at 10:04 AM on April 18, 2009
I'd like to enjoy this, but being unable to control what gems I have available without resorting to arcane procedures makes it pretty frustrating.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:04 PM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:04 PM on April 18, 2009 [1 favorite]
carsonb, I beat the whole first game without using that gem color conversion trick. How you ask? By taking FOR FUCKING EVER
WHERE WERE YOU THEN
WHERE WEERRRRE YOOOOUU
posted by tehloki at 12:12 PM on April 18, 2009
WHERE WERE YOU THEN
WHERE WEERRRRE YOOOOUU
posted by tehloki at 12:12 PM on April 18, 2009
tehloki: I think the colour conversion thing is a new development for this iteration of the game. I certainly don't remember it from the last time round, and believe me, I spent waaaaaaaaay too much time on it.
posted by Jilder at 12:22 PM on April 18, 2009
posted by Jilder at 12:22 PM on April 18, 2009
If that gem conversion thing worked on the first version of this game, then I am even stupider than I thought.
posted by never used baby shoes at 12:41 PM on April 18, 2009
posted by never used baby shoes at 12:41 PM on April 18, 2009
Full screen!
posted by geekyguy at 1:27 PM on April 18, 2009 [4 favorites]
http://cache.armorgames.com/files/games/gemcraft-chapter-0-3527.swfposted by geekyguy at 1:27 PM on April 18, 2009 [4 favorites]
This is bittersweet. I didn't mind that I had a lot of stuff to do a few minutes ago. Now I'm enraged that I can't play this instead. Curses, I'll be back for it.
posted by hypersloth at 4:05 PM on April 18, 2009
posted by hypersloth at 4:05 PM on April 18, 2009
NOOOOOOOO It's the end of my graduating semester! I don't need this!
But I will take it.
posted by cmoj at 5:21 PM on April 18, 2009
But I will take it.
posted by cmoj at 5:21 PM on April 18, 2009
There are a lot of levels to this thing.
A lot.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:40 PM on April 19, 2009
A lot.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:40 PM on April 19, 2009
I ...hate you....so...much.
*clickclickclickclickclick*
posted by The Whelk at 8:47 AM on April 22, 2009
*clickclickclickclickclick*
posted by The Whelk at 8:47 AM on April 22, 2009
Some grinding tips for anyone plugging away at this:
1) You cannot lose "endurance" mode so you always get credit towards any of the amulets which count things (traps built, bombs thrown etc.)
2) on an "endurance" mode with one of the score bonus shrines, the amount of score bonus you get depends on the number of enemies onscreen when you activate it, so if you can rush-send a kerbillion waves and activate the shrine before dying that can sometimes get you a better score than playing the level properly.
posted by juv3nal at 12:26 PM on May 4, 2009
1) You cannot lose "endurance" mode so you always get credit towards any of the amulets which count things (traps built, bombs thrown etc.)
2) on an "endurance" mode with one of the score bonus shrines, the amount of score bonus you get depends on the number of enemies onscreen when you activate it, so if you can rush-send a kerbillion waves and activate the shrine before dying that can sometimes get you a better score than playing the level properly.
posted by juv3nal at 12:26 PM on May 4, 2009
actually, re: (2), it's probably better to play properly until you reckon you're about to die and then do this.
posted by juv3nal at 12:28 PM on May 4, 2009
posted by juv3nal at 12:28 PM on May 4, 2009
« Older Curious Creatures and Beautiful Beasts | Culture & Barbarism Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by carsonb at 8:04 PM on April 17, 2009