Weekly Challenge, other Questions and Suggestions

#1

hi @InterAction_studios,

I don’t know if this is a bug or not, but there hasn’t been a new weekly challenge yet. The last one was on December 14th (9 days ago). Is that intended?

Also, i have some questions:

  • Are daily and weekly missions fully automatic, or do you have to “validate” them?
  • Do the UI elements adapt to screen size in a way that it wont get harder to see UI elements and text on small screens?
  • Do stats of celestial bodies (mass, axial tilt, …) affect something, or are they there just for fun?
    – Also, the mass of planets and stars are unrealistic. I found a star that has a mass of 1091 kg, which is more massive than the entire universe. Is this intended?

Also, I have a some suggestions:

  • On favorite missions, it would be nice to add a note/reason why it is a favorite mission (for example “cool bossfight” or “challenging”, basically any text). This way, I can remeber why they’re in my favorites
  • Maybe the point HUD item could show the point texts at the source where the points come from instead of the player? (as an toggleable option)
  • Add hint text to all mission bonuses for keys and score (in the mission complete screen)
  • Maybe daily and weekly missions could give a key and score bonus the first time you play them? This way you get encouraged to try them!
#2

You mean “weekly”. Daily missions are generated normally AFAIK. Yes, weekly missions are generated at the end of Sunday. Last Sunday the server had problems and generation was missed. A new weekly mission should be generated tonight.

  1. Fully automatic
  2. No. In fact, we’ve made some of them bigger than what they could be precisely so that they will also work on smartphones.
  3. Just for fun, although they are generated semi-realistically. 10^91 is way too much, we’ll look into it.
  4. Noted.
  5. Noted (although would that not interfere with the damage indicators?)
  6. Noted.
  7. Hmm… no. :stuck_out_tongue:
#3

Good to know. Currently I sometimes have a hard time finding difficult missions. Also I haven’t found any mission with a length rating over 3 i think. Maybe there could be something like “difficulty fluctation” where you can find 8/8 difficulty missions easier?

Also, regarding skill levels, are you thinking about adding skill levels over SSH? I think on the hardest skill level you should be able to get those “epic waves” at least once every 5-10 waves.

Also, what just came into my mind: I have found the Egg Cannon and Henterprise a few times, but they are so weakened that they’re no threat at all to me.

Also, do or will different special properties of planets and suns (electric, massive, heat) affect missions? I can think of things like:

  • electric: more electric related weapons and enemies appear, thunderbolts in the backgrounds like on that ice planet in CI5
  • heat: weapons overheat much faster
  • massive: harder enemies appear (more and harder barrieres, more chickenauts and egg ship chickens)
  • wormhole missions could affect timeflow = global game speed (?)
#4

“Also, regarding skill levels, are you thinking about adding skill levels over SSH? I think on the hardest skill level you should be able to get those “epic waves” at least once every 5-10 waves.”
Have you tried SSH?

#5

Yes, but iA said that they will rework skill levels in a way that they boost mission difficulty instead of enemy health. Regarding that, I think that skill levels should unlock by reaching a certain tier instead of buying them with keys, or make them all unlocked right away.

#6

Duration rating was based on a maximum of 100 missions (because that was the length of the weekly challenge). Has now been changed to 40 missions (which is the planetary limit).

Wait until the next update (where SSH will change), play it on SSH, and if you think if still needs to be harder, let us know then.

Boss health will be better calibrated in the upcoming update.

The rest of your ideas have also been noted.

#7

I also have questions about the known bugs & upcoming features thread.

  • Are the things listed in upcoming features already implemented or subject to be added?
  • Why is the thread not pinned and why could I reply? I think I shouldn’t, right?
#8

Difficult missions (with 8/8 orange squares) are plentiful enough, you don’t need to visit more than 10 planets to find one. True, there aren’t missions longer than 40 waves, those that have 3 green squares. Difficulty fluctuation is already a thing, since missions are generated randomly, some 8/8 missions have easier waves, while others have more of the “epic” waves. The planet environment should not affect you, since you have already bought a shield to be able to enter its orbit.

#9
  1. Already implemented.
  2. Topic is now locked. If you need to comment on something you see on the list, just create a new topic. If you care to follow developments, you can pin the topic yourself.
#10

With difficulty fluctation i mean that there are certain regions in the galaxy where you find hard missions more often

take this as a hypothatical map of the galaxy, but showing difficulty fluctation instead of stars and nebulas:

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#11

Oops, i totally forgot to mention that this thread should also be pinned so I can always see it…

#12

Thought about this, but decided against it because creates a problem if a new user is spawned in a ‘hard’ area, or if you wander by accident into a harder area than your skills can handle.

I think this problem will be alleviated with the new skill system, because you’ll effectively be able to add 1-4 squares to EVERY mission you encounter.

P.S. You can pin any thread yourself.

#13

Dont hestitate to limit possible difficulty. I want a real challenge as I never lost to a single mission, and I already almost only play hard missions.

#14

@InterAction_studios, i have some more things to think about:

  • the unoriginality penalty kicks in way too early and is too high, maybe you could make it so that, if you play a certain mission 3 times in a row, that penalty grows by -10% each time, up to -50%
  • right now, you spend many keys replenishing extra lives and superweapons. There could be ways to approach that (if necessary):
    – extra lives and superweapons cost less
    – permanent lives and superweapons: much more expensive, but not perishable
    – maybe the player could start with 3 base lives instead of one? This way, buying extra lives might not be necessary for experienced players
  • infinite upgrading for weapons
    – I dont know how the upgrade scaling is right now, but what about infinite upgrading of weapons? The price would rise exponentially to create a “soft cap” but not a hard cap on upgrading, see the image below:

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  • right now you can only mark missions as favorite on the mission complete screen. If you forget it, you either need to replay the complete mission again or surrender
#15

Is it really necessary to upgrade them beyond :zap:8?

#16

I am a fan of infinite upgrades, and I don’t see any downsides to this. In the end, it’s your decision if you want to upgrade further.

#17

Though, power is capped at 20 :zap:, so practically buying upgrades to level 20,25 or at most 30 is neccesary. I think 8 :zap: is good, because not only does it even the playing field on leaderboards, it also encourages to play well and not die.

#18

You’re aware that the unoriginality penalty is not permanent, right? It gradually fades out over a period of 24 hrs.

#19

Yes, but getting an instant -50% point penalty after playing a mission once is quite harsh.

#20

Well… it incentivices exploration over one-spot grinding