Best Runs

NUDNUDNUDNUDNUD

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lightstriker
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Best Runs

Post by lightstriker »

Post your best runs here on various maps. Give:
Wave reached
Rounds you had most trouble with (3 speeders, boss, triplers etc.)
Survival or Normal
and the course.
If you have any suggestions for build order, various maze structures, as well as just hints on what towers are best and what... well, aren't, feel free to post those as well. To start:
not a great run, but not horrible (I think)

Image
Wave Reached: 38
Hardest round: 3 speeders. The maze was basically ineffectual against them on the later rounds.
Survival
Baby Steps

please note that you could easily turn this into a basic level creep bouncing layout by filling the gaps between the two blocks, and selling the 3 nuds that fill the outside lanes (I'm sure you can figure out where to place nuds to bounce) I didn't wish to do so, but it might work well.

General suggestions (my observations, so feel free to argue):
My attempts so far with creep bouncing:
Seems like it could work decently. Small mazing area means that you don't waste as much tower efficiency as you normally do. However, the small size, and the spaced out spawns, means that you have to be EXTREMELY precise with the timing of the bounce. Basically impossible on just build, gets hard to do very quickly on baby steps. Haven't reached switchback yet (kept accidently doing survival mode ) :?

Warp towers: Either build your maze around them, or don't use at all. They combo well with lancets, however, whenever they activate your mono towers end up missing most of their shots. Upgrades are not worth it, unless you're far into a round of survival (post round 30, probably)
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M123
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Post by M123 »

Image
(Sorry about the weird resolution, I had to scale down the screenshot so that it wouldn't take up too much space.)
Wave Reached: 32
Hardest round: Wave 31. :P The relatively slow-moving, circular enemies with ~3000 HP just glided straight through after wave 30.
Survival
Just Build
Image
Image
Nyme
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Post by Nyme »

Image

NUD v3
Wave reached: 38
Hardest round: speeders, lancers were not effective against them
Survival
In Out

I tried it with lancet/warp setup, and ended up doing pretty well (haven't tested yet with just mono/dyo/tri towers). Lancers smashed the 3-groups pretty well (until I ran out of space), and the game ended with all available towers fully upgraded, so if there was more space I could have survived a bit longer.
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Post by thacannon »

In my opinion, there needs to be two separate types of your best run: Juggled runs and Normal runs.

Juggled run would be a run where you have more than one path that leads to the exit so that you can 'juggle' the creeps (creeps would get toward the end of one path and suddenly, you build a NUD and it blocks off the path, forcing the creeps to go the other way around and ect.)

And a normal run would be a run similar to Nyme and M123's run. a straight path.

This is because Juggled Runs tend to last much longer than normal runs. Some even consider it as cheating despite the fact that no cheating software was used.

Then again it's just my opinion. :roll:
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Post by Bad Boy »

Image
Wave Reached: 35
Troublesome Rounds: 35 or the previous one like it (slow but tough singles)
Survival, Just Build.

I'm not sure if this really counts as a best run, because it's the first time I tried survival, but since I made it to a decent wave I figured I might as well post it.
As Is probably apparent, I actually reached wave 35, and lost there, I just forgot to take a picture. I would have made it further if I had changed my maze's design earlier to make it more efficient in terms of adjacency bonuses.
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Post by Skasi »

NEW RECORD

I am honored to be allowed to announce that I accomplished to reach WAVE 45 on the map BABY STEPS today! (v0.03)


Image
MORE IMAGES CAN BE FOUND HERE


possible layout upgrades
If I moved the left warp tower one tile south and one tile west, added a warp tower on the tile north east of its current position and did the same thing on the eastern box, I may have reached even higher waves.


tips for others
The most important thing is to create boxes as big as possible, so that no bonus on nearby towers is lost.
As for warp towers: they have a range of 2 fields, so they should be placed in the middle, to be able to warp on both sides of your box.


other records
I have also reached wave 37 on the map just build. (v0.03)
Image


my needs
I'd be glad about feedback. Oh and please tell me: Are those boxes called "NUDs"? If not: what are nuds? :roll:
Last edited by Skasi on Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:55 pm, edited 3 times in total.
lightstriker
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Post by lightstriker »

@thacannon: Well, maybe. On some TD's this is certainly true, although Nud's cramped style, as well as very rapid, continual spawning doesn't lend itself well to creep bouncing (or juggling, w/e). But, if it gets too bad, i could seperate them (not that their actually IS a high score table (yet?) but w/e)


@Skasi: very nice :). I was mostly sticking with the 3x3 box as central nuds start to lose some efficiancy beyond that, however, you're probably correct that the 4x4s are better (as the entire right-hand area in my maze is basically worthless). Very nicely done. (for the record, I would like to state all my attempts were made on the old version. That's my excuse, I'm sticking with it)

General note: I'm going to be posting some demo-layouts for completing "normal" mode on various maps. (except for baby steps)
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M123
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Post by M123 »

Skasi wrote:Are those boxes called "NUDs"? If not: what are nuds? :roll:
The turrets are NUDs - "MONONUD", "WARPNUD", etc.
Image
Image
Skasi
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Post by Skasi »

TWO RECORDS ON ONE DAY

I've been able to reach WAVE 49 on the map IN AND OUT with 10'040 credits left! (v0.03)


Image


résumé
It is very hard to create the perfect defense on this map. You can either use thin two thin horizontal boxes, or two thick vertical ones.

The horizontal way allows your Lancets to use their full potential, if fully upgraded (if you have two of them behind each other without using a Warpnud, the range is much too long for this map).
I've used vertical boxes before I did it this way and didn't even reach wave 35 as far as I realized. Maybe it would work, if you only use Mononuds.


lancets & warps
The range of that Warpnuds that have been sticked between two fully upgraded Lancets is with 80*1+(2x0.3)=128 (one tile got a range of 33) enormous and the Warpnud added the needed critical chance to my Lancets (as Lances can hit several units with one shot the double damage is very powerful!).

Generally I do only build Lancets at positions that enemies are facing to. If the enemies are running in the same direction, that the shots are flying, then they may escape the shot, by either getting out of range, or turning off.
Maybe I should have built them on positions that enemies are heading away from anyways, because I had so much money lying around useless.

All in all I think, that these two nuds are the best partners one could imagine. Range is most useful and very important for Warpnuds, so plant some Lancets nearby, whenever you can. Critical hits, on the other hand, make your Lancets hit half a dozen or even more units with two times the normal damage. Your Lancets will get an average 500% damage boost (if they hit 3 units per shot) and even more, if fully upgraded and placed at the end of a long line, while your Monos would only get a bonus of 100%. (these numbers do only fit, if you compare Lancets with Monos damage - Lances do, of course, only deal 2x the damage per target with a critical hit)

However, Mononuds would decrease the reload time of level three Lancets from 40 by 24 to, if you have four of them around one. This means an additional 150% damage they can deal per second.


Whatever. Enough maths for now. :)
Last edited by Skasi on Fri Jan 09, 2009 12:36 am, edited 4 times in total.
Nyme
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Post by Nyme »

The following is not a record. As I promised, I made an In Out run with just Mono nuds used, with same layout (two thin horizontal).

Image
NUD v3
Hardest: normal creeps, because Monos were not concentrating on a single target

So, with the same maze layout, I achieved 8 more waves with Lancet/Warp setup than with pure Mono setup. While the DPS (damage per second) of tri might seem larger than Lancer's DPS, the Lancer can hit many targets, which raises its DPS above the tri's.

About Lancets and piercing: just checked, Lancets pierce even without a critical hit. I'm not sure how many creeps they can with without crit, but I could say it's two. However, the full potential of a Lancet lies in critical, and that is why Skasi's setup worked so well.
Skasi
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Post by Skasi »

oh.. I really thought, that only crits would make lancets pierce.. mine didn't pierce single targets some times.. gotta rewrite my stuff X)
(edit: done!)

(the crit description that goes like "doubles damage, or causes other special effects" made me believe in the fact that only crits pierce.. aww)
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Post by duestchland1 »

I think that though this game is on a solid foundation, it simply lacks the variety that you would find in most TD's. A missile turret or such would be appreciated.
lightstriker
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Post by lightstriker »

firstly: wrong topic.
secondly: he has stated that he will be adding 3 more towers

@Skasi- Very well done. Although, I do NOT believe that I will be doing anything regarding most money left over any time in the future. As well, a future note, please post what version of the game you are using, as various versions can cause large disparities.

Also, I would recommend replacing your VERY bottom tri-nud with lancet (the one in the bottom right corner)

I will start activly keeping track of accomplishments once a "stable" version has been released. Feel free to keep posting in the meantime though.
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Post by Skasi »

lightstriker: do you mean the nud at the very buttom right?
as I said: I do only build lancets where units are heading for them and not running away.. and as I also said: it maybe would've been better, if I placed Lancets there anways. But then there needs to be in the middle left too :P

as for the versions: I am adding the version always - it's located the very first sentence every time. :D
lightstriker
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Post by lightstriker »

I know about you posting the version, just saying in general :). As well, I do get what you're saying about creeps outrunning lancet shots, however, the shots generally move fast enough, and the bottom alley is long enough, that it shouldn't really matter. Your way might be better though, dunno
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