"Orcs Must Die!" Catch-All

Robear wrote:

Minor spoiler:

Spoiler:

I'm a big fan of blowing orcs back over the traps they've just struggled over. Very useful in thinning the ranks.

Absolutely, stumbling over a new solution because of a new mechanic is one of my favorite things in games. Another example is

Spoiler:

the level you get the barricade. I blocked off the path that the teleport's on, and later going through the teleport thought about placing my archers behind the barricade. Great line of sight and they're out of reach from melee attackers.

Tamren wrote:

How do I tell when I change from act 1 to act 2? I got a cutscene, was that is?

I'm having tons of fun with the game. I have barely 25% of the unlocks and I'm already finding some pretty deep strategy. Surviving a level isn't super difficult but getting a high score and eking out as much efficiency as possible requires a lot of planning.

Couple things I've discovered:

1. The Wind Belt, Crossbow and Bladestaff have an alternate attack. I didn't discover them until level 11. Makes me feel dumb... I won't spoil the effects though.
2. Archers shoot arrows that can get blocked by other archers and the player, try not to stand in front of em.

The game will actually say "End of Act 1."

Ah ok then. I must not be there yet. I just picked up the weavers and the flame bracers. And now I'm fighting in a map called The Arena. Looking at the list, there is still tons of levels yet.

Tamren wrote:

Ah ok then. I must not be there yet. I just picked up the weavers and the flame bracers. And now I'm fighting in a map called The Arena. Looking at the list, there is still tons of levels yet.

If you already have the weavers then you are already are in Act 2.

Having a ton of fun, but I'm not sure how I feel about tower defense game that doesn't penalize the player for selling traps and minions.

Also regarding barricades:

Spoiler:

Placing archers behind them is good, but be careful of them getting killed by enemy archers that get close enough

jollyeskimo wrote:

Having a ton of fun, but I'm not sure how I feel about tower defense game that doesn't penalize the player for selling traps and minions.

I know about I felt.

"Really?! Awesome!"

KrazyTacoFO wrote:
Tamren wrote:

Ah ok then. I must not be there yet. I just picked up the weavers and the flame bracers. And now I'm fighting in a map called The Arena. Looking at the list, there is still tons of levels yet.

If you already have the weavers then you are already are in Act 2.

Okay I must have missed it then. I'm 100% sure I never saw act 2 mentioned anywhere, I got the "You have Weavers!" screen and then the cutscene and then game.

Not a big issue anyway. The specific act you are in is only important in regards to achievements.

I have recently discovered the joys of push traps in enclosed corridors.

cyrax wrote:
jollyeskimo wrote:

Having a ton of fun, but I'm not sure how I feel about tower defense game that doesn't penalize the player for selling traps and minions.

I know about I felt.

"Really?! Awesome!"

+1

Let's me reevaluate placement after each round.

I love it, even if only so that I can re-do my misclicks and reposition stuff. Its possible to abuse the system a little by recycling everything to fend off separate waves but it only works at the very beginning. Once I have a good plan in mind I almost never find myself selling stuff anyway.

EDIT: Holy crap! My progress just hit a wall. I reached the level called "killing fields" and its anything but! Its basically a mirrored double map. And even when spending my entire gold budget I can barely defend one side while leaking badly.

The main issue is probably my strategy. After I got the weavers I've been using the perk that gives you more money when your traps kill orks. So instead of using my crossbow all the time I've been mostly wind-pushing orks into traps repeatedly because they are worth 25 gold instead of 15 that way. I'm getting a strong feeling that I'm playing it the wrong way and making it harder for myself. However the sheer amount of money you can get this way allows you to do some funny things. (12 paladins!)

What I'm going to try this time is to heavily trap one side of the zone and go to town on the other side with crossbow and fireball.

Have any of you tried barricades much? They seem really weak to me, and they don't regenerate.

Tamren wrote:

Have any of you tried barricades much? They seem really weak to me, and they don't regenerate.

Barricades are best used to redirect traffic, not to actually prevent orcs from getting somewhere. i.e., If the orcs have an alternative path, then they won't destroy the barricades. You're basically making them take the scenic, trap-filled route.

Great game but man i wish it had hotkey configuration.

Tab works for switching

ebarstad wrote:
Tamren wrote:

Have any of you tried barricades much? They seem really weak to me, and they don't regenerate.

Barricades are best used to redirect traffic, not to actually prevent orcs from getting somewhere. i.e., If the orcs have an alternative path, then they won't destroy the barricades. You're basically making them take the scenic, trap-filled route.

I feel like an idiot now. I never tried leaving a path open.

There are also some cases where they will smash down your barricades even if they have an alternate route. Certain parts of the paths are invisibly flagged as "we must go this way" and they will break through to get there. Also, the kamikaze kobolds do not redirect, they always follow their original path and blow up anything in their way.

After a bit of testing it seems that you can't use barricades to block chokepoints. You can however make any passage more narrow.

Oh my, I think I just discovered the most evil combination ever.

Spoiler:

Find a passage 2-3 tiles wide with one wall 2 tiles high. Put spinning blade traps on the wall. Put steam traps under the blade traps and fill the rest of the passage with springboard traps. Orks walk into the blades and turn into salsa. If the blades are recharging they hit the steam and get thrown into the air where they hit the second blade. If they don't walk close enough to trigger the blades, the springboards throw them onto the blades! If you get the Steel Weaver perks it even works on Ogres!

Tamren wrote:

Have any of you tried barricades much? They seem really weak to me, and they don't regenerate.

I use barricades all the time, even spent skulls on the upgrade. Orcs won't destroy the barricades so long as there is a valid path of travel to the rift. If you block the rift, they will destroy the barricade. At least, that has been my experience. On several levels, barricades come in really handy for blocking all the chokepoints but one and setting up a killing field in the remaining path, preferably a narrow hallway. Much fun can be had.

Spoiler:

Another great use for barricades is using them near lava or acid in combination with the wind belt. Create a narrow corral that the orcs must travel and stand on the other side of the corral where they can't hit you. Blowing 10 orcs into the lava at once gives me great joy.

Just finished the game. Never had a wipe, though I did get the 1HP left achievement, once. Used Steel Weavers, and never used a barricade - just lots of spiked floor traps and wall mounted arrow traps, and then used upgraded palladins to keep orcs from going where i don't want em to. One thing I learned a bit into Act 3, the flyers go down very easily to your Frost item. Always equip it when there are flyers on a level.

Very fun game, and it's tempting to go back and play those levels where other Goodjers just eclipsed my score :-P.

I feel like I'm nearing the end of Act 2. On the level called "The Tower." I was doing alright until

Spoiler:

they decide to throw 5 or 6 ogres at me! Got massacred by their meatiness.

Speedhuntr wrote:

I feel like I'm nearing the end of Act 2. On the level called "The Tower." I was doing alright until

Spoiler:

they decide to throw 5 or 6 ogres at me! Got massacred by their meatiness.

I got wrecked first time on that level too. This is how I beat it:

Spoiler:

Put three swinging maces lengthwise on the top level, and immobilizers/slows on the floor beneath

I picked this up on XBLA, and am having a blast.

I just got to the second level in Act 2 (level 11 I think), where there are three doors that open all at once, and just got overwhelmed. I am thinking that I will want to avoid spending money on the weavers in this level and somehow block some of the routes.

jollyeskimo wrote:
Speedhuntr wrote:

I feel like I'm nearing the end of Act 2. On the level called "The Tower." I was doing alright until

Spoiler:

they decide to throw 5 or 6 ogres at me! Got massacred by their meatiness.

I got wrecked first time on that level too. This is how I beat it:

Spoiler:

Put three swinging maces lengthwise on the top level, and immobilizers/slows on the floor beneath

Spoiler:

swinging maces? do i have those? lol.

I barely scrape by sometimes and still finish with 5 skulls. And then I go and see the leaderboards and some people have TRIPLE my score! What do people do to maximize score ratings? All I know is that player kills are worth less points than trap kills.

Tamren wrote:

I barely scrape by sometimes and still finish with 5 skulls. And then I go and see the leaderboards and some people have TRIPLE my score! What do people do to maximize score ratings? All I know is that player kills are worth less points than trap kills.

I'm not very far yet, but I've found that Archers + 3000 spent on Weaver upgrades to get the +money earned, healing, and flaming arrows as early as possible means insane combo scores.

Tamren wrote:

I barely scrape by sometimes and still finish with 5 skulls. And then I go and see the leaderboards and some people have TRIPLE my score! What do people do to maximize score ratings? All I know is that player kills are worth less points than trap kills.

I read in a review that the leader boards don't distinguish between normal difficulty and nightmare difficulty, so the high score are probably from people who beat the level on the hardest difficulty.

Tamren wrote:

I barely scrape by sometimes and still finish with 5 skulls. And then I go and see the leaderboards and some people have TRIPLE my score! What do people do to maximize score ratings? All I know is that player kills are worth less points than trap kills.

My guess would be combos.

Ogres aren't that bad once you get the frost ring. Freeze em, and your damage output on them goes sky high. Get the timing right on the refreeze, and they basically stop being a problem. Frost ogres can still be hard, but they generally don't come out until later in a level, when you're traps are well developed.

Bullion Cube wrote:

Ogres aren't that bad once you get the frost ring. Freeze em, and your damage output on them goes sky high. Get the timing right on the refreeze, and they basically stop being a problem. Frost ogres can still be hard, but they generally don't come out until later in a level, when you're traps are well developed.

Fireball also rapidly de-problemises the frost ogres.

I hope my poor mouse is going to survive this game....

Tamren wrote:

I barely scrape by sometimes and still finish with 5 skulls. And then I go and see the leaderboards and some people have TRIPLE my score! What do people do to maximize score ratings? All I know is that player kills are worth less points than trap kills.

And the thing is, I'm pretty sure your high scores are consistantly blowing mine out the water, I clearly need to refine my strategy.

Still, I haven't completed the game yet, looking forward to going back and refining my strategy on the earlier levels with all the traps unlocked.

I've been playing on easy, but it's a two skull max reward per level. However, to earn more skulls, you can take all your upgraded traps back to earlier levels, turn up the difficulty, and earn more skulls. I love that they allow you to go back with all your upgrades -- I wish more games did this.