It’s been a little while since my last blog so I thought I’d just write a little bit to talk about where we are at with development and go through another of the big new features in Sentinel 4: Dark Star!
The main campaign has been extended since the last blog update, mostly to make sure that I fitted everything in that I wanted. We now have a full 26 levels, each with its own unique map that can be played in Endless Mode once it’s been beaten! I’ve been spending a lot of time balancing, bug fixing and tweaking the campaign levels so that they play nicely before we unleash it onto some beta testers.
There is still work to do in balancing the endless mode for the levels, as well as plenty of new graphics, animations, sounds and FX to put in. Once we are approaching a stage where we can prepare for a full beta test, we will post details on how to apply if you’d like to help us shape the game.
Onto our exciting new feature…
Uber Towers
Work in Progress ‘Colossus’ tower
For the first time in Sentinel 4: Dark Star we have some towers that are 2×2 or even 3×3 grid squares as you can see from the picture. These towers are built and controlled like normal towers except they are far more powerful than their smaller equivalents!
One of the things that I’ve talked about before is allowing for more strategic choice for towers, especially in the later stages of a game. Having larger towers, and thus only having some areas of the map on which they can fit, really allow me to design maps around defensible areas that may not even be very close to the path. Everyone loves defending those barriers, but now with the free roaming enemies, and the ability for enemies to damage your towers, you can’t just build a long range uber tower and expect to win the match. They need to be defended from flying enemies (or possibly other more sinister alien attacks) with smaller, cheaper, more versatile towers.
One of the biggest criticisms in Sentinel 3 was the fact that once players got a screen full of sniper and beam towers then there wasn’t much else you could do. In Sentinel 4: Dark Star, the Sniper and Beam Turrets make a return, but this time they are 2×2 turrets, restricting their usage somewhat. The player must also take into consideration how close to the dangerous path enemies you are willing to put these powerful, expensive turrets. It may wreak havoc to put a fully powered beam laser right next to the main enemy entrance, but if it is unable to take down the entire wave by itself, it will surely be overwhelmed and perish.
Shields up!
So, once you’ve set up your enormous towers and backed them up with some smaller towers, what else can you do to make sure they stay in tip-top condition, and earn that valuable Tower XP which is lost if the tower gets destroyed.
As well as the tried and tested method of using your Repair Drones, I’ve introduced a new shield system. The booster tower (as well as some other things) will now shield towers around it. These shields will take some damage, and recharge automatically if they stop getting damaged for a few seconds. This is a great way to strategically alleviate your drones from their busy schedule and increase your towers chances of survival by spending your cash on boosters instead of more damaging towers.
Top Upgrades
The top level upgrade for each turret adds a special ability to the turret, similarly to Sentinel 3. However, in keeping with the choice and balance for long endless games, they are now far more expensive and powerful. So, the standard laser tower may be cheap to place, but it’s top level upgrade is expensive and devastating.
As always, feedback and discussion is most welcome. It’s hard to stop work and find the time to write these blog posts, but I hope to make them more frequent as we get closer to the imminent beta test and release!
Cheers,
Paul
