I downloaded the game yesterday, and have already gotten to the boss twice, though he destroyed me both times. It seems like the hardest part of the game is the first two realms and the final boss, with the rest of the game being a breeze to get through. Is there any way you could even out the difficulty of the game a bit?
Hello!
Since I haven't worked on anything after the final boss (no cutscenes and stuff), the final bosses have currently been almost impossible to defeat. In the current version, if you simply get to the final boss you are doing very well already.
In the next update, which is sadly a far ways off, I will be making major reworks. Hopefully in this process, it will smoothen out most of the enemies, even though I will be keeping a close eye out for enemy balance.
Just wondering, what do you think is the cause of the enemies being too easy? Is it their island design or their behaviour that is messing them up most of the time?
Thanks for your feedback!
I thinks it's partially island design, with a big part of the issue coming from the way overkill is handled. Because each shot is blocked equally by a cloud absorbing it or molten rock absorbing it, I might as well surround myself with a layer of clouds, then sand, then dirt, and so on without ever upgrading any of my blocks. This makes enemy islands ineffective against mine when they attack as the first three or four volleys don't hit any of the important structures i have closer to the center. On the other hand, i have no reason to upgrade my weapons either, so I'll have like 10 cannons that hit an entire side of the enemy and after two volleys will have even the 9th realm boss's core exposed. I think if projectiles would continue after destroying a block, and maybe explosives doing splash damage, the non-dreadnought class enemies could do significant damage to island that would require more maneuvering than I tend to need, and there would be more incentive for the player to upgrade blocks and weapons.
I found enemies tend not to understand how to flank and how to use weapon rotation to their advantage. they also do not know how to target weaker or more critical points. they really do not know hot to dodge either nor do they keep their flanks or critical systems away from fire. Last bit is their construction is a bit hodgepodge where shields are in the middle weapons and engines are near the edges and the core is dangling underneath or exposed on the top. I know making a dynamic engine take into where hard points should be and where critical systems should go is a bit tricky. They also do not know how to use guided missiles so you can trick them by blasting up or falling which will cause the AI to retarget to lead the player for a new shot which causes the missiles to veer off away from the player.
and I was able to beat it including the last boss! second life and a quarter island left but it worked barely. Use all your blocks and spykes land on the top of the final boss (keep crashing into it you should have tons of layers) and fire everything you got straight down. If you have the right loadout you should be able to drill through the top and get to its core before it does. The other way is have a very very fast ship and keep its targeting system going in circles. You will need some of the scatter shots for the shields and a decent main weapon.
to fight everything else out there just keep out of their range and take pot shots at them. also you can go from the very bottom to the very top which will usually make them overshoot and take out of bounds damage (you can help this out by firing ontop or below them)