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iOS Gaming Thread May 2013: Another board thread, now with 4X the backlog

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sueil

Member
Beat Sorcery. It was a fun adventure but way too little content at 5 dollars an episode. Don't really picture myself going back and playing it again. Wait for a sale maybe.
 

chris121580

Member
I'm having trouble with Star Command. How do you actually hit a target?

Response pasted from Snuggler:

You want to tap right in the middle of the big circle just as the little, moving dot is inside of the little circle. You have a small window of opportunity to hit all three for maximum damage. It seems like pretty much all of us were confused by this.
 

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
Star Command is pretty good all things considered, I knew since quite a long time ago it wasn't going to be the sprawling sandbox game initially envisioned. As it is I think it's a fun, light-hearted ship/crew management game which works really well in short bursts. A pause function would be handy (which it seems they're working on) for better managing the battles though. Visually it's fantastic however.

I also thank the developers for not going the IAP route and I remain hopeful that the game sells well enough for them to support it with updates and additional features.

Another aspect of the game that is brilliant is it's soundtrack, done by a chap named Marius Masalar. The entire 27-track score is for sale on his site for $8.

http://music.mathazzar.com/album/star-command
 

Double D

Member
Here are a few more, most of them ports of PC games. I just wrapped Fester Mudd and really enjoyed it's sharp writing and puzzles that make sense. About to get Fetch and start on that. Hamlet (Which I played on PC) looks brilliant, but it's brutally difficult with a nigh-useless hint system. Just FYI.

The Journey Down: Chapter One (Free right now)
Fetch
Mcpixel
Fester Mudd: Curse of the Gold
Hiversaires
Kaptain Brawe: A Brave New World
Hamlet

Thanks! Just grabbed The Journey Down and Fester Mudd since it's currently $.99.

Been playing nothing but Michael Vick's Gametime lately. Really captures the art of quarterbacking well. Is there a better football game on the App Store?

Same. Pretty great little game. And great for when you just need to kill a couple of minutes. There's NFL Flick Quarterback which is pretty good. I remember it not having a lot of depth though once you got through the handful of modes.
 

krYlon

Member
Beat Sorcery. It was a fun adventure but way too little content at 5 dollars an episode. Don't really picture myself going back and playing it again. Wait for a sale maybe.

The next three will be a lot longer, if it helps. The last one, Crown of Kings, is an absolute monster.
 

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
Beat Sorcery. It was a fun adventure but way too little content at 5 dollars an episode. Don't really picture myself going back and playing it again. Wait for a sale maybe.

It's hugely non-linear. It isn't just about "getting to the end."

Rewind and explore all the forests, mines and towns you skipped.
 

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
For those of you undecided about Talisman Prologue HD, it's latest update removes another obstacle in that mental debate:

What's new

***** Thanks for your continued support *****

**** New in 1.1 update: ****

- Fixed crash at startup for some languages
- Italian text fixes.
- User can now play their own music in the background.

Some new games lost in the last few days / Sorcery-gasm / Star Command goodbad/good? excitement:

NORTH & SOUTH - The Game (Pocket Edition) wat, this came out April 30th.

RELIVE THE NORTH& SOUTH CULT GAME REMODELED!
An absolute must for all retro fans! North & South offers the highly popular gameplay, now charged with intuitive touch controls.

PLAY SOLO OR COMPETE AGAINST OTHER PLAYERS!
An extensive single player campaign takes you through the years of the Civil War, and you can challenge your friends in various multiplayer modes locally or online using the matchmaking function.
mzl.vblxconi.640x960-75.jpg
mzl.ovanohmv.640x960-75.jpg
mzl.apzvirmj.1024x1024-65.jpg

Ninja Striker 2, currently free for release, 8-bit styled 2d platformer.

Angry Birds Friends, freemium + facebook, who knows maybe someone here will enjoy it.

Firaxis' Haunted Hollow, a freemium title that apparently has more depth to it than it's visuals would indicate?
 
Response pasted from Snuggler:

You want to tap right in the middle of the big circle just as the little, moving dot is inside of the little circle. You have a small window of opportunity to hit all three for maximum damage. It seems like pretty much all of us were confused by this.

yeah the game does not tell you how to fire weapons :D im pretty frustrated with my machinegun fighting against infinitely spawning russian zombies here :/

i guess im supposed to destroy the ship but it has insane 1200 shields and 1200 health. takes me forever to whittle that down... i have to say, the game is pretty boring unless im doing something wrong.

Had to retrain 90% of my crew to redshirts to combat the 20 zombies that spawn every 10 seconds. Couple of my crew are loading missiles ad nauseum.

And this is like the third mission in the game, what the hell! :D
 

Foob

Member
ive got air leaks outside basically every room on my ship, and I haven't a clue how to fix them. if I send someone out to fight the invaders preventing me from ending the mission, they die. If I send a repair guy out, he dies. Arghhh
 

WillPwn4Food

Neo Member
I'm struggling to find GOOD iPad games these days. For the most part, I've found the only games I really enjoy are on iPhone only. Anything come out lately for iPad that people suggest?
 

avcables

Banned
Star Command needs a lot of balancing with the combat. It's clearly influenced in some ways by FTL but unfortunately it gets too hectic without having the option to pause and make adjustments. The temperamental controls, tapping and missing a crew member or a particular destination, and managing systems is way too much for certain fights.

I'm getting absolutely decimated around my 7th or 8th fight. This is with upgraded rooms and a full staff. I can't manage to keep a fair balance between my own weapons and the enemies.

Crew should absolutely be influenced by what token they're hired by as well. It makes no difference what token you choose but choosing any particular color is effectively a waste for that color's room or upgrade path.

While Star Command is a lot of fun, most of my experience is just realizing that there's still a lot of potential in what should become of the title and not what's actually being offered. Worth the current asking price? Absolutely.


ive got air leaks outside basically every room on my ship, and I haven't a clue how to fix them. if I send someone out to fight the invaders preventing me from ending the mission, they die. If I send a repair guy out, he dies. Arghhh

This is part of the problem. The only way to fix an air leak is to wait for the shields to come back up. If you get yourself stuck in a position where you're unable to defend yourself for long enough to have that happen, you're relatively screwed. There's no oxygen level indication, no way to differentiate what parts of the ship are being affected by the leak, and no way to avoid getting permanently fucked in a fight if your crew is stationed in the wrong parts of the ship when a leak occurs.
 

Snuggles

erotic butter maelstrom
RE: Star Command, I'm having troubles dealing with boarders. I get wiped out fast. Maybe I need more red shirts, but even then, it's hard to properly command my squad and fight the enemy ship at the same time without a pause function. Kinda frustrating, since I really want to enjoy the game. Here's hoping it sells well enough to encourage a lot of updates, because I agree that the framework is there for something special.
 

avcables

Banned
RE: Star Command, I'm having troubles dealing with boarders. I get wiped out fast. Maybe I need more red shirts, but even then, it's hard to properly command my squad and fight the enemy ship at the same time without a pause function. Kinda frustrating, since I really want to enjoy the game. Here's hoping it sells well enough to encourage a lot of updates, because I agree that the framework is there for something special.

The primary concern here is making sure your Red crew members are getting properly healed by Blue crew members at the same time they're fighting the enemy.

The primary issue, however, is that weapon rooms can't function when you don't have a Red crew member inside them. It causes a serious issue because you're unable to attack the enemy ship (and making progress in the fight because of it) while defending your ship from the boarding parties in most cases where you'll need a lot of Red crew members. Separating one Red crew from each of your weapons rooms isn't enough in most cases. Boarding parties tend to come with four or more enemies at a time.

The only thing I can recommend is keeping a Blue crew member near multiple Red crew members that are staged at a distance. It'll let them continually heal while being able to attack the boarding parties without taking too much damage. Utilize your Captain and bridge Red crew members to fight, too. It'll let you keep more Red crew in the weapon rooms.
 

Snuggles

erotic butter maelstrom
The primary issue here is making sure your Red crew members are getting properly healed by Blue crew members at the same time they're fighting the enemy.

The secondary issue here is that weapons room can't function when you don't have a Red crew member inside them. It causes a serious issue because you're unable to attack the enemy ship while defending your ship from the boarding parties in most cases. Separating one Red crew from each of your weapons rooms isn't enough in most cases. Boarding parties tend to come with four or more enemies at a time.

This is exactly my problem. It wouldn't be that bad if it wasn't for the scenarios with respawning hordes of enemies. You need at least one or two people manning the cannons so you can destroy the enemy ship. I'll have to hire more reds and blues and see how that works. I can't seem to get enemies to fight me in the med chamber like FTL, lol.
 

Flunkie

Banned
I, uh, I kinda fucking hate Star Command right now. This thing needed baking for a while longer.

Yup. What the hell. It's pissing me off. Just give me a portable FTL. That's the perfect game of this type.

Also no iCloud saving. SDFJSDFKSDVMLHAMJARFSVAVAETBSNY
 

avcables

Banned
Yup. What the hell. It's pissing me off. Just give me a portable FTL. That's the perfect game of this type.

It makes me wonder if they used any of that money for QC. It's not bad, just a little broken in too many places.

Also no iCloud saving. SDFJSDFKSDVMLHAMJARFSVAVAETBSNY

You can manually backup your saves using iFunbox on Windows. When your iDevice is plugged in and iFunbox is running, you'll want to navigate to User Applications on the left side, locate the app you want to save data for, double-click the icon, and move the Documents and Library folders to somewhere local. I keep them on my Dropbox.
 

Flunkie

Banned
You can manually backup your saves using iFunbox on Windows.

I don't care about backing up my saves or that shit. I'm all about being able to start a game on my iPad when I'm at home, save it, and continue where I left off on my phone. Should be the norm these days.
 

avcables

Banned
I don't care about backing up my saves or that shit. I'm all about being able to start a game on my iPad when I'm at home, save it, and continue where I left off on my phone. Should be the norm these days.

I think we're all about that. It's unfortunate, but if you really wanted to pick up where you left off on another device, that would be one way to do it. It's useful information, nonetheless.
 

Flunkie

Banned
I think we're all about that. It's unfortunate, but if you really wanted to pick up where you left off on another device, that would be one way to do it. It's useful information, nonetheless.

Oh well, getting my ass beat down in the second fucking mission with no explanation why is making me not even want to bother with the game in its current state anyways. Reloaded my save, recovered my progress, got past the second stage, got beat down handily by the third mission. This is not how you make a game...
 

avcables

Banned
Oh well, getting my ass beat down in the second fucking mission with no explanation why is making me not even want to bother with the game in its current state anyways. Reloaded my save, recovered my progress, got past the second stage, got beat down handily by the third mission. This is not how you make a game...

The game was incredibly easy for me until about my seventh or eighth mission, where it gets a little more tedious. By mission ten or so I have absolutely no hope even with a full crew and upgraded rooms.
 

Flunkie

Banned
The game was incredibly easy for me until about my seventh or eighth mission, where it gets a little more tedious. By mission ten or so I have absolutely no hope even with a full crew and upgraded rooms.

You must have twenty fingers and an elevated bullshit tolerance level.
 

Flunkie

Banned
There's nothing difficult about the beginning missions at all. It's like attempting the first few missions in FTL without using the pause mechanic.

Not really. FTL is actually good. And the mechanics are better. Not to turn this into a comparison thread of the two, but all Star Command does for me is make me want to stop playing Star Command and play FTL.
 

Rlan

Member
North & South has been available as iPad only forever, glad that they've made it work on iPhone now.
 

RedShift

Member
I think Star Command is pretty good.

The trick is not bother with any yellow guys during fights, just get a load of red guys and your captain and bunch them up in a tight ball with a blue guy or two, then keep a skeleton crew running the weapons and shields.

Only problem is I'm getting crashes every now and then when enemies beam in, and for some reason when nothing is happening it tends to lag a lot.
 

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
there are several north and south games, which is the real deal?
I count 2, "The Bluecoats - North and South" and the one I linked above. Bluecoats hasn't been updated since November and isn't 4" supportive on phone and isn't universal (separate apps). I'd say the other one is a safer bet. Looks a bit nicer too.
 
It really breaks my heart to see Firaxis making freeium ios games. What happened to you guys?

If that helps them get a steady income stream to let them make games like xcom then I don't see the issue. Best to focus on the positives instead.

Now if they only made freemium ios games, then yes it would be a concern.
 

avcables

Banned
Not really. FTL is actually good. And the mechanics are better. Not to turn this into a comparison thread of the two, but all Star Command does for me is make me want to stop playing Star Command and play FTL.

I'm not disagreeing with you there. FTL is, fortunately, more polished and more fun because the scope and mechanics are still different enough from Star Command that they're easier to accomplish.

I think Star Command focused too much on depth of the planetary system than the actual mechanics. Both of these titles took in excess of two years and both got Kickstarter assistance. I don't fault Star Command for any of those except not managing their focus on the right areas of the game.
 

Heel

Member
How about we judge games based on their quality instead of generally shitting on their business model? It's getting old.

Do we know if any of Feraxis' free games do anything legitimately scummy? If so, let's hear it. As far as I've heard from that IGN video they're charging for additional campaigns that will be bundled at discount for less than $10. How dare they!
 

dgenx

Made an agreement with another GAF member, refused to honor it because he was broke, but then had no problem continuing to buy video games.
Is sad to hear that star command ont living to its expectations , iwas going to buy it
 
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