Defense Grid - The Awakening

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Carpet_pissr
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Carpet_pissr »

I am still stuck on Waste Disposal, and refuse to look at a guide (but I am weakening, as I want to see the other levels).

A few questions:

1) Shouldn't command towers be placed near the beginning so it can scout out cloaked creeps early?
2) If lasers and infernos are not effective against shields, I assume they should only be used mid to late level placement (after other gun types have ground down the shields)? I have been using these at the beginning to try to take advantage of the "grouping" effect (esp for inferno), but this one is just useless against shielded foes.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Zaxxon »

Carpet_pissr wrote:1) Shouldn't command towers be placed near the beginning so it can scout out cloaked creeps early?
Not necessarily. They only reveal enemies while those enemies are near the command tower. Also the other ability--increasing resource collection--is the more powerful one IMO. Placing the command towers near your best kill zone will quickly pay for itself.
2) If lasers and infernos are not effective against shields, I assume they should only be used mid to late level placement (after other gun types have ground down the shields)? I have been using these at the beginning to try to take advantage of the "grouping" effect (esp for inferno), but this one is just useless against shielded foes.
Also not necessarily. Shields aren't the only thing that come through. For the speed bosses, I like to have lasers spread around the level (including at the beginning) so that 1) there are enough lasers to hit all the speed bosses when they come in multiples, and 2) they're being burned throughout the level rather than just around a single tower. Infernos early can decimate the weak enemies so that they're not progressing in large numbers through the level and taking your big guns' focus off of the bosses that you probably would rather have them focus on.

Your thoughts are logical, but I think there are multiple ways to look at these issues. One suggestion I would make is to perhaps focus on larger numbers of weaker towers. It sounds (forgive me if I'm misreading you) like you're focusing on one fully-upgraded inferno/command. Perhaps 2 yellows might do the trick better?
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by theohall »

Grey Fox wrote:I've finally finished writing the guide for mission 3, you can find it here: http://greyfox.me/2010/05/06/defense-gr ... -research/" target="_blank

I've worked some on the structure of this one and the last article. I'd appreciate any feedback :)
This is only a year late. Wound up ranked 416th in story mode following your guide. So it is excellent.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Carpet_pissr »

Zaxxon wrote:
Carpet_pissr wrote:1) Shouldn't command towers be placed near the beginning so it can scout out cloaked creeps early?
Not necessarily. They only reveal enemies while those enemies are near the command tower. Also the other ability--increasing resource collection--is the more powerful one IMO. Placing the command towers near your best kill zone will quickly pay for itself.
2) If lasers and infernos are not effective against shields, I assume they should only be used mid to late level placement (after other gun types have ground down the shields)? I have been using these at the beginning to try to take advantage of the "grouping" effect (esp for inferno), but this one is just useless against shielded foes.
Also not necessarily. Shields aren't the only thing that come through. For the speed bosses, I like to have lasers spread around the level (including at the beginning) so that 1) there are enough lasers to hit all the speed bosses when they come in multiples, and 2) they're being burned throughout the level rather than just around a single tower. Infernos early can decimate the weak enemies so that they're not progressing in large numbers through the level and taking your big guns' focus off of the bosses that you probably would rather have them focus on.

Your thoughts are logical, but I think there are multiple ways to look at these issues. One suggestion I would make is to perhaps focus on larger numbers of weaker towers. It sounds (forgive me if I'm misreading you) like you're focusing on one fully-upgraded inferno/command. Perhaps 2 yellows might do the trick better?

Well, I FINALLY beat it last night, using some of your tips. Mostly using more, weaker units. Also, I tried hard to let the credits gain "interest", but I only had one Command tower at level 2, and it was painfully slow (interest gaining) compared to how quickly I felt I needed to keep upgrading/adding relative to the threats coming down the pike.

I had bull headedly been placing high cost units (non guns mostly) at the beginning (lasers, command, others), but most importantly, was routing them through that first turn (instead of diverting).
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Zaxxon »

Carpet_pissr wrote:Well, I FINALLY beat it last night, using some of your tips. Mostly using more, weaker units. Also, I tried hard to let the credits gain "interest", but I only had one Command tower at level 2, and it was painfully slow (interest gaining) compared to how quickly I felt I needed to keep upgrading/adding relative to the threats coming down the pike.

I had bull headedly been placing high cost units (non guns mostly) at the beginning (lasers, command, others), but most importantly, was routing them through that first turn (instead of diverting).
Cool. One thing I like to do is keep the entryway relatively light and inexpensive (eg lots of low-level guns) and let high-powered meteor towers pound away to weaken shields before the caravan of creeps gets further in, where I'll have my real killzone set up.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Pyperkub »

Beat the standard campaign over the weekend after picking this up on the Summer Sale - damn that final level was hard - it took me a number of tries, but I finally got it with about 3 cores left.

First game to get me to pull an all nighter in quite awhile (I finished around 6:30 am Sunday). Now to see the other things the game has to offer.

I'm pyperkub on steam (joined the OO group awhile back, but DG doesn't seem to show 'friends' scores from groups, I guess.

I used the command towers near my missile launchers on many missions, as the flyers became instant cash. That actually saved me on the final level, as it allowed me to upgrade a lot of my laser towers against those damn rumblers.
Black Lives definitely Matter Lorini!

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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Lyno »

Pyperkub wrote:Beat the standard campaign over the weekend after picking this up on the Summer Sale - damn that final level was hard - it took me a number of tries, but I finally got it with about 3 cores left.

First game to get me to pull an all nighter in quite awhile (I finished around 6:30 am Sunday). Now to see the other things the game has to offer.

I'm pyperkub on steam (joined the OO group awhile back, but DG doesn't seem to show 'friends' scores from groups, I guess.

I used the command towers near my missile launchers on many missions, as the flyers became instant cash. That actually saved me on the final level, as it allowed me to upgrade a lot of my laser towers against those damn rumblers.
Try blocking off access routes so all the creeps come down the same path. Then you can concentrate on upgrading those towers only. Be sure to have several missile towers to kill the final wave of flyers. Probably need 3 upgraded missile towers to take them out before they can get to your core. Spread out the missile towers so they're not all shooting at the same flyer.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Effidian »

So, playing Orcs Must Die I got the urge to play a real tower defense game and reinstalled this.

All my scores are gone. :( I guess they must have reset all the scores at some point.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

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Effidian wrote:So, playing Orcs Must Die I got the urge to play a real tower defense game and reinstalled this.

All my scores are gone. :( I guess they must have reset all the scores at some point.
Thank goodness! You were number one in all of them. :wink:
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Effidian »

:) I was thinking you guys had probably beat my scores and was going to go about rectifying that. I'm not sure I'm up for doing them all over though. I played the second level a couple times to see what kind of score I could get and have definitely forgot everything.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

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I'm not very good but I am persistent so I have a lot of time (540+ hrs) and high overall scores.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

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I can't add Effidian to my Steam friend's list. I'd like to see these high scores.

Add me please: http://steamcommunity.com/id/lhychong" target="_blank

-Lyno
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Effidian »

Lyno, it said you were already on my friends list. And, unfortunately, none of my scores are on there anymore (other than the second level that I tried yesterday, which isn't great). It looks like they reset the leaderboards when they switched the leaderboard hosting. Or something...

dbt... 540 hours. Wow. I'm at 80 according to Steam.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Lyno »

Effidian wrote:Lyno, it said you were already on my friends list. And, unfortunately, none of my scores are on there anymore (other than the second level that I tried yesterday, which isn't great). It looks like they reset the leaderboards when they switched the leaderboard hosting. Or something...

dbt... 540 hours. Wow. I'm at 80 according to Steam.
How long ago did you play Defense Grid? My scores are still there. I think I replayed it earlier this year, so I could improve some of my scores from my first playthrough.

-Lyno
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Effidian »

Judging by previous messages in this thread, it was 2009. According to this thread, they moved leaderboard hosting to steam in March 2010 and reset the scores.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Zaxxon »

Defense Grid plus GLADoS? This coming Wednesday? I'm in.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by hepcat »

I will play this like there's no tomorrow.

Man, I loves me some Defense Grid. I've literally put in about 60 or more hours into the game.
Covfefe!
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Zaxxon »

I'm a little annoyed that it's $8 for 8 levels and (I think) no new towers, which is a distinctly lower value proposition compared to the original's $10 for much more. But they've earned their success, I suppose.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Lordnine »

Awesome. But to be fair you can already encounter Glados in Defense Grid if you play the potato levels. Her and the regular AI guy actually argue with each other.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

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Lordnine wrote:Awesome. But to be fair you can already encounter Glados in Defense Grid if you play the potato levels. Her and the regular AI guy actually argue with each other.
True. This looks like a whole different level of Portalfication, though.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Blackhawk »

Ooh, this makes me happy.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

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I know they downloaded a whole bunch of new stuff the other day. I haven't tried it out yet tho.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Carpet_pissr »

I think I must have been playing the game when the new stuff hit since when I tried to click on it, I didn't see any new content...I saw the splash page for the MONSTER bit, but when I went to an actual purchase page (I think it was in game?), just the old DLC's were listed.

Whenever I can figure out how to buy it, I will, damn the cost. Freaking love this game, and for some strange reason I have not gotten tired of it after 70+ hours?! WTF.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

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Carpet_pissr wrote:I saw the splash page for the MONSTER bit, but when I went to an actual purchase page (I think it was in game?), just the old DLC's were listed.
It comes out on the 7th.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

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That would explain it.
And I have 563 hours in it.
I expect to win the first scenario any day now.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

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:lol:
Covfefe!
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Lordnine »

You Monster is now out for $4.99 or you can pick up the full game plus all DLC for $7.99.

GLADoS doesn't play fair! Only played the first mission so far; it starts out pretty easy and then GLADoS changes the rules!
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Pyperkub »

Defense Grid: You Monster question - if I haven't played/finished Portal, will this spoil it for me? In other words, do I need to jump into Portal first in order to avoid spoilers, etc?
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Lordnine »

Can’t speak for the whole expansion but so far, no.

Difficulty ramps up in these levels fast. It really prevents you from playing the game the way you could in the base game. It’s fun but if you are a control freak with tower placement you’re going to go mad.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Lyno »

Pyperkub wrote:Defense Grid: You Monster question - if I haven't played/finished Portal, will this spoil it for me? In other words, do I need to jump into Portal first in order to avoid spoilers, etc?
No Portal spoilers are in the levels. Just GladOS being GladOS.

-Lyno
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Lyno »

Grr, I can't get gold on Interference Pattern (the 4th new mission). Anyone have any suggestions?

-Lyno
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Lordnine »

Finished the new DLC with silver or better on all of them. Steam tells me I've played it for 5.6 hours so not a bad price considering the levels are well-done and quite unique from the ones in the base game. Taste will very but the story adds a lot to the experience for me as well.

Surprised that the last level was the easiest for me. I got a gold medal on the first try and didn't have to rewind once. Game currently says I'm ranked in the top 150 players for that level. I'll just claim luck considering the trouble I had with the level before it. :D
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

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Lyno wrote:Grr, I can't get gold on Interference Pattern (the 4th new mission). Anyone have any suggestions?

-Lyno
I figured it out.
Spoiler:
Don't bother building anything once GladOS starts cheating, Orbial Laser only from that point on. Be sure you have a Command Center nearby to collect bonus pts.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Paingod »

This thread has made me break out my old copy on Steam and get into it again. I distinctly recall being very irritated with one stage where you finally get SAM turrets, and they're a requirement - but I haven't gotten back there yet. It was on that stage that I quit last time, methinks.

Right now I'm moving through fairly easily, getting Gold half the time, and Gold after several attempts for the other half. It irks me when I'm 30-100 points from the Gold rating on my first playthrough and I *must* redo it to get there.

I also don't remember seeing so many game modes for each level - so I'm guessing Steam quietly updated my game over time without warning me. That's fine - all the more to play.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Zaxxon »

Paingod wrote:I also don't remember seeing so many game modes for each level - so I'm guessing Steam quietly updated my game over time without warning me. That's fine - all the more to play.
They've been there for a long time, but there was an interface change recently that made them and your progress in them much more visible.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Zaxxon »

I'm 89 golds into my 100 Awakening gold medal achievement... This last one was fun.

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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by IceBear »

I may or may not have received a key to a beta related to this
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Zaxxon »

IceBear wrote:I may or may not have received a key to a beta related to this
I may or may not have, as well. And if I did play the first level, I would probably say that more DG is a good thing even in rough form.
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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Lyno »

Zaxxon wrote:
IceBear wrote:I may or may not have received a key to a beta related to this
I may or may not have, as well. And if I did play the first level, I would probably say that more DG is a good thing even in rough form.
+1 for both of you!

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Re: Defense Grid - The Awakening

Post by Pyperkub »

I'm just starting to go through 'You Monster' for the first time. Having GladOS around is fun, but...
Black Lives definitely Matter Lorini!

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