Gem Tower Defense

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216 - 2021-10-12 9:40:59.512360

Mine PC is also 6 years old, but i dont observe more slowdown than it was always. It happens quite randomly, sometimes slows at lvl 50( but not as much as on pic), sometimes lvl 300+ is smooth.

But as i noticed fire rate of towers is LESS afected by it.
Timer aslo slows, but not much ( sometimes 1s last 1.5s, once i checked it counted 70s in 73s while enemies were like 3x slower).
Less slowing fire rate of towers surely makes game easier, also aoe towers befinit much. That screenshot remind me v0.5.0 , where lag was extreme near lvl 100 and ABS was way overpowered aoe gem.

Strange that game sometimes lags, while using only 2% of CPU.

@WGW: I'm not suprised at all that same time on higher lvl has more memory leak. Surely lvl is main factor, then time.

I tried to make similar statistic as you, finally i got a GO (in lvl 68), but because that lags, i was losing some time, also i was forgetting to write downs some values. Anyway i can paste it here if you are interested:

lvl	leaks	EEs	MB	time
128	1	10	254	10083
132	1	10	287	10497
136	3	10	299	10917
140	2	10	310	11330
144	3	11
148	2	11		12160
152	4	11	363	12571
156	2	11	386	12993
160	2	11	422	13401
164	2	12
168	2	13	455	14265
172	1	13	467	14722
176	3	13	509	15145
180	3	13	529	15627
184	3	13
188	4 	13	555	16553
192	3	13	580	16977
196	3	13	613	17440
200	2	14
204	3	14		18338
208	3	14	670	18851
212	3	14	720	19360
216	3	15		
220	2	16
224	2	17	839	20802
228	2	17	855	21283
232	3	17	873	21791
236	2	17	
240	1	17	905	22909
244	3	17	935	23421
248	2	17	
252	2	17		24392
256	2	17
260	1	17	1120	25429
264	2	17	1104	25889
268	1	18	1180	26431
272	3	18	1181	26927
276	0	18		
280	1	18
284	2	18	1258	28403
288	3	18	1316	28899
292	3	19	1333	29364
296	1	19	1403	29860
300	1	19	
304	1	19	1481	30823

320	2	19	1602	32774
340	1	19	1894	35169

352 accidentaly closed game
(values after flying lvl)

i didnt make screenshot, it was new maze with a lot of space for EGs, i had over 50 of them. Anyway time wasn't best, about 2k slower at lvl 100, then lost some on lags. I think hibernating PC many times wasn't so good.

WGW - 2021-10-12 3:12:45.329450

WGW - 2021-10-12 2:58:56.872797

AIG - 2021-10-11 22:34:22.363967

TP - 2021-10-11 11:34:07.186843

WGW - 2021-10-06 4:11:15.443150

JINGLES - 2021-10-05 2:52:40.294545

WGW - 2021-09-30 10:54:36.847280

I've uploaded a spreadsheet tracking the memory leak across 4 games for the very few who'd be interested:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L-lZDQvIvHmsPV1EukQRsIMzu5jIrwP1xQq2gmY8ydo/edit?usp=sharing

The first 4 tabs are just the data for the 4 runs.  The last 2 tabs are an attempt at a simple analysis, may or not be easily decipherable (or sensible).

The only consistent, noticeable trends I see across 4 games with a pretty wide range of time scores (1 run on the old Win7 PC, the other 3 on the new Win10 PC):

(1) Not only is the memory leak cumulative, but the RATE of the leak slowly but continuously grows.

(2) The rate of leak is tied to more than just elapsed time.

The one game here with the slowest memory leak, by far, was the Win7 run (labeled "Win7 Old Layout, L344"), which was also the single SLOWEST run of the 4.  I ended that run at level 344 at ~60,000 seconds, with the memory leak at ~2GB.  The memory leaks for every other run at 60,000 seconds were all WELL above 2GB.  In fact, my top scoring, fastest run so far (labeled "Win10, top score"), was already leaking over 3GB at 60,000 seconds.  That's a full 50% higher than the Win 7 run's 2GB leak at the same elapsed time.  Yet I was only at level 344 at 60,000 seconds in the Win 7 run, versus level ***440*** in my top scoring Win10 run.

So the leak clearly is affected by more than time score. One of the variables would seem to be your OS/PC specs.

Now, all that said, I think faster times DO slow down the leak compared to other runs *ON THE SAME SYSTEM*, but there's more than that going on here.

I have more I could blather on about, but I'm sure this already 10 times too long!

WGW - 2021-09-26 22:03:19.513308

@216: I honestly on't remember ever having had the top score, even for a short while-- I guess that was right after Peter scrubbed the high score list of spammed fake scores; as I (vaguely) recall, it wasn't long after that when folks like a/aznist, you, etc, beat level 196 (which, for those who don't know, was a VERY difficult thing to do in the prior version of GTD).  I really appreciate your tips, which have been very helpful.

I'm in the process of compiling a bunch of info on around 5 runs of GTD (both on my old Win7 system and my new Win10 system), which I'll share soon.  I'm not able to answer your question previously about the level of memory leak in an earlier run, because I wasn't keeping track.  I now have a spreadsheet with data on 5 "successful" runs.

I also want to point out-- and might make a separate comment about this because it's so important-- that GTD DOES, in fact, run very differently on PCs with different specs.  The timer is not affected (until very late in the game)-- it ticks off secondes in real time.  But the movement of enemies, and the rate of tower firing, can get significantly slowed depending on system resources, which actually makes the game much easier.  You'd think that if that the whole game is getting slowed down-- both enemy speed and tower firing rate-- that you wouldn't have any actual ADVANTAGE, but just that levels would take longer (in real time, not according to the game timer).  But no, it appears, just as in the Flash version of GTD, that different system specs greatly affect how the game plays out.

Basically, from what I can discern so far, it's much easier to play GTD on an older system to the point of "sustainability", where you're earning enough gold to not have any concern about running out.  But getting the fastest timer score possible is greatly aided by having a higher-end system.

Just a preliminary analysis-- will post more soon.  I want to finish another couple of runs first, which are already in-progress.

216 - 2021-09-26 12:07:29.408629

WGW - 2021-09-26 3:10:14.179882

WGW - 2021-09-26 2:51:16.850526

@G: I completely agree-- keep that in mind when you see that I've just (finally) snagged the top high score.  Even in the prior version of GTD, even before a few folks had managed to crack level 196, I never, ever, ever had the top high score because of jerks spamming the high score list (the stats for those runs were very obvious signs that the scores were fake).

But I only got this far due to playing on a massively overpowered PC for what a game like GTD should ever require.  The game should really be rewarding skill, not how powerful your PC is (nor how high your tolerance for boring gameplay, after level 200 or so, is).

All that said, I'm going to enjoy the brief moment in time where I have the top score, until someone with a better PC decides to beat me.  :)

I will post some more info soon-- I've been keeping track of the memory leak and elapsed time of two games (one still running).

I should also note that the "exploit" I mentioned in an earlier comment, where running two instances of GTD will slow the game down to the point that you can kill a lot more air troops (levels 40-100 or so), does NOT work on my new PC.  It would seem that this only works when you're somewhat straining resources (even though a game like GTD shouldn't strain the resources of a 10 year old PC).

None of this meant to be interpreted as complaining about a free game. I just don't feel great about having the top score largely because I just spent $1500 on a new gaming PC. . .  :)

G - 2021-09-21 18:34:01.947899

WGW - 2021-09-21 13:22:09.725629

@216: I think I hae a good idea why the high score text boxes ignore "R" keystrokes-- "R" is the only shortcut keystroke Im aware of in GTD, to "remove" rocks.  If there are any other keyboard shortcuts, I don't know what they are (none of this is documented as far as I can tell).  So what's probably happening is that the GTD program is "intercepting" "R" keystrokes in the high score text boxes and registering them as requiests to remove rocks, whereas if you paste text from elsewhere that has an "R" in it, there's no problem because there's no actual "R" keystroke involved (within GTD).

More soon-- working on re-creating my prior high score (currently at level 270).  Thanks for all the tips.  As I've said previously, being ble to get to higher levels is a product (in some combination) of your systemm's RAM, processor, etc, rather than my really deserving any credit.  For what it's worth, I did not upgrade my PC just to get a higher score in GTD, but because of a a few other games I've wanted to play for a while which require Win10 and much better specs than my old machine.  :)

Here's hoping I quit my current run before the game crashes.

Martijn - 2021-09-21 9:51:30.349362

216 - 2021-09-20 20:19:43.039674

@G: I can understand that need more jades if bad start, but you built 30(!) of them.. it takes 90 turns (-2 per each 1-turn jade). Also i reseting game if start is bad.

@WGW: Do you remember memory usage near lvl 400?
I think you should keep reducing times of your runs, in case of over 500 run, optimizing can save DAYS ( for me it took 2 days or less to get lvl 400). You made 50 EEs, while i had 21 ( at lvl 400). In fact i was leaking 0-3 flyers, but since it don't casue game over i accepted that. Making not too much EEs is a key to get better times.

The places that you should NOT make an EE:
- left side of map (that doesn't range c5-c6 road)
- mid zone (exception for 1-2 of them)
- left/mid part of "old" downline - that was great place in flash version, but here it no range c2-c3 road(right part can role as post c6 stunzone)
- outside of GO range (but its obvious)

Other notes on your 516 pic:
-nice placed 4 GAq
-good placed RCs and BOs out of mid zone( ussually i make them on mid to boosts lvl 100 time, i make 2nd BO in late game)
- however, extra space on/near mid was used mostly for EEs , jades and 2nd malachite (what is for, 1-turn in lvl 2?)... wait there is even 3rd one. It's better to make an uranium than extra malachite.
-lack of EGs near mid, which is great place for 100+ kills EGs (ABSs also not bad here, but kills should goes for EGs)

You can try to optimize maze for more space near mid (i know, its not so easy)

The importang thing for time score is getting GO quite early, do you remember when you got 1st GO?

Anyway, congrats of getting higher lvl than i actually have even gotten!

##############
Good that old comments are not removing as it was before. here is already over 100 comments (IMO 100 comment limit was too low).

WGW - 2021-09-20 17:26:18.254522

Well, I had the highest score game ever going on my new PC, level 541-- no major change in strategy, just getting further due to having a lot more RAM.  Game was running smoothly until ultimately it crashed on level 541, using around 4GB of RAM (on a system with 32GB of RAM total).  So I lost the best scoring game ever after playing for around 3 DAYS.  At least I took a screenshot about 20 levels before the crash: https://imgur.com/a/bAo88kp

The memory leak behaves the same on a much better PC running Win10. Having more RAM does, in fact, let you play the game longer before the memory leak causes a crash, but no matter how much RAM you have, the browser is going to crash long before you've gotten even close actually running out of memory.  Most unfortunately, that there's no sign in-game that a crash is going to happen soon.  The game was running smooth as silk for 540 levels, then it just choked.  If I'd at least seen some slowdown happening, I might have ended the game on purpose, but no such warning.

Congrats to Jason Sill, the guy who just posted a level 528 score-- the very same day I was about to post a 500+ level high score.  But then the damned browser crashed!!!  Is it really worth my spending another 3 or 4 days trying to get above level 500 again?  No, it's not.  But I'm sure I'll try anyway. . .

WGW - 2021-09-18 12:25:08.148276

@216: Yes, that is very weird about the game stripping out out the "r" character for high scores-- I noticed that myself when I was posting my first few high scores in the new version, that the website/game was just simply ignoring any keystrokes for "r"-- but at least there's a workaround-- pasting the text back to the GTD website from somewhere (anywhere) else.  You can see that "r"'s are being stripped as you try to post a new high score-- the stripped "r"'s are all visibly stripped from the onscreen text before you hit the final "Submit" button (or whatever it's called now).

Definitely a problem to be addressed, but issues #1 and #2 as far as I've seen are: (1) Plug the memory leak, and (2) make sure the game runs the same across all system specs.  Better that GTD crashes "early" for users with very outdated systems than that the game would give an EDGE to people (like me, now), who have high-powered gaming PCs.  This just ain't that kind of game-- which is part of why I love it so much.

WGW - 2021-09-18 12:06:06.220363

@G: First of all, I want the Uberstone BAD, too. So bad.   :)

I've had much the same experiences playing the new GTD as you-- most particularly with respect to the need for lots of Lucky Ancient Jades.  It's true that the game is overall more "forgiving" than it was in the Flash version, but not with respect to the need for gold.  You need a lot more gold to perservere now, but you're also a lot more able to earn it if you build lots of Lucky Asian Jades.

And all the above said, I believe I've now observed a couple of instances (so far) of the game playing very differently depending on your system specs (at least within a Windows environment).  This parallels some effects I was aware of in the prior Flash version, but is most certainly not analagous.

E.g. In the Flash version, your processor speed (and maybe, secondarily, other system specs like total RAM) directly affected how GTD ran, to the extent that (as I've previously noted), when I upgraded my PC around 2015, I was able to shave the elapsed time for the same GTD runs I'd been doing for years at that point, by about 25%, with no change in strategy or maze whatsoever.

Well, I just upgraded PCs after many years of resistance, this time to a fairly over-powered game machine, and i find (so far) that GTD doesn't run much differently on this new machine 10000x more powerful than the last PC on which I used to play this game, BUT-- I should (conceivably) have enough RAM to allow playing the game out well beyond where it crashed on my last PC.  We'll see (at level 169 now).  I'd be pretty surprised if the new PC crashes GTD at the same memory leak level-- around 2.3GB-- when this PC has 4 times the RAM.  But we'll see! (and I will update).

One other effect I've noticed, which is actually quite significant, I think, is that you can sort of "handicap" yourself by having the game run much slower if you run more than one instance of it-- at least in MY case, running the game on Chrome on Win 7, with one of two games I was playing simultaneously already at least advanced to around the 100 level before I observed the exploit.

What this does-- at least on "slow enough" systems, is to allow you to slow the progression of a game to a crawl just by having two instances of GTD running (in Chrome, at least, in Win 7 at least, and with low enough system specs, at least), with the result that you can avoid leaking literally DOZENS of air enemies from levels, say, around 44 to 92 that would have otherwise leaked and cost a lot of gold (cumulatively).

So I have more to say on this (not that I'd expect anyone to want to read more on this), but I think the tl;dr is, "System specs still affect how GTD plays, though not the same way as they used in the old Flash version".  And I think that that the wildly varying experience between the experiences (so far) of an undebatedly very experienced/serious/successful player like @216 and my own (and @G's, and perhaps others') is more down to our varying system specs/platforms than anything else.

I don't mean this, truly, to be be dismissive or condescending; I just happen to have had the rare "opportunity" to have done a major PC upgrade in the midst of both the development of the new GTD, and the last one (a few years back).

This new PC is a (supposedly) gamer's PC, , so I expect to at least squeeze a few more dozen levels out of my vurrent run than I have so far.  We'll see.  :)

G - 2021-09-16 18:13:59.995190

216 - 2021-09-16 15:11:08.052292

G - 2021-09-15 18:00:56.509217

216 - 2021-09-15 14:02:34.459500

G - 2021-09-15 2:26:09.187193

216 - 2021-09-13 16:04:17.993344

@WGW: 1. Aparently there was many things that you are missing form mine comments(espec from 2020). That "wall of EEs" was called a downline, which was mine first idea how i should play emeralds runs - the problems was how to force EEs to hit different targets, so i wanted to place them as away as possible(from c2-c3 road) to reduce their range. In this version downline needs to be placed 0.5 gems higher that in flash version.

2. ABS vs EG comparision:
Its not so easy to compare them, because flamestrikes and kills change their balance. Assuming 0 kills, GO+BO (x2.8), pink weakness and 5 armor ther (average)shoot DPS is:
EG: 180*1.3/0.75*2.8*1.75*0.769 = 1175.6
ABS: 200*1.3/0.8*2.8*1*0.769 = 699.8

Assuming target is stunlocked and ABS will cast flamestrike every 10 hits(4s), there will be 2.5 flamestrike avg active(1250 DPS), so 1950 DPS total from ABS
But flamestrike dont benefit from kills, assuming 100 kills:
EG 2351 DPS
ABS 2650 DPS
with 200 kills:
EG 3527 DPS
ABS 3349 DPS

So ABS shouldn't take kills. Also it take some time to proc flamestrikes - ABS do less dmg in first few s. I tend to make them after lvl ~150

3. I'm thinking what you meant by "gems with a lot more dmg",
lets compare DPS of some others with same assumptions:

ABS: 1950
GAq: 1723
GA:  1413*
EG:  1176
GPD: 1126
GD:  1009
PAq: 676
EE:  669
PTF: 592 + nova DPS (50 because mana?)
U238:560
PA:  546*
GT:  538
RQC: 529*
GE:  484 (+25 from posion)
GS:  431
GR:  402
LAJ: 389
GO:  388
MM:  277
YS:  215
MBO: 77

so only 3 gems can have better dmg than EG.. wait 4, Uber Stone 19789 DPS, but we can forget about it with 4-merge bug. Chance for 5 same perfects is 1:409600000

dmg of some gems is a joke in this version , GR,GE really sucks.

* Flyers can have 4 armor, bt for comparision used 5

WGW - 2021-09-10 6:05:12.706888

WGW - 2021-09-10 5:39:19.124737

@216: Thanks for reposting the link to the screenshot-- I must have missed it in the earlier comment.  Very interesting how you created a wall of Dark Emeralds on the bottom, which must create a nearly impenetrable barrier without having to completely flood the map with DE's like I do.  And I'm surprised how many Egyptian Golds you build, too; I've been of the mind that they're mostly important for armor reduction, since there are gems that deal a lot more hitpoint damage.  As soon as I've got enough EG's to consistently keep enemy armor down, I generally don't prioritize them.

I think the upgraded Blood Stone is the most powerful now?  It's hard for me to make these comparisons since the stats are only visible while you're playing and I'm too lazy to make a list of it all.)

Maybe my current maze would work faster if I tried prioritizing the special gems differently, without having to change the layout.  I'll give it a try.

Regarding leaking enemies, I wasn't suggesting that you could leak every enemy on every level.  That's obviously going to end the game eventually.  And once you've got a strong enough layout to kill all air enemies, you CAN'T leak them, no matter what you do.  You can only leak the ground enemies.

In the old GTD, I would do an easy calculation of how much gold I needed to start leaking enemies at what level, so that I would basically end every run leaking everything for the last 30-50 levels.  It shaved a good 25% off the time.  But that was with my playing only to get to level 196, knowing I'd always lose at that point.

In the new game, I just have the maze set up so that it only takes a switch in 3 rocks to flip from leaking ground enemies to killing them all.  When gold starts to run low, I just close the maze up for a while to build gold back up.

I also meant to mention, regarding my earlier comment that Jades seemed to earn gold even when upgraded only once, I must have been drunk when I saw that happening, cause you're right, it doesn't.  I'm guessing what happened is that I had an only-once-upgraded Jade in that game, and saw my gold going up without seeing enemies dying, but that I was only not seeing the enemies die because some of them were doubled up (overlapping).  My mistake!

216 - 2021-09-10 0:25:23.639993

@WGW: No way to leaking grounds every wawe (X^2+10 life cost) ... but mb it's not as bad idea to leak in some lvls after 300.

In that run i surely didnt leak for purpose. Well, no posted score, but i made a screenshot at 324:
https://imgur.com/zFP34ZH (link is also in mine comment from 19-07). I think the cost of life is enough proof.

It wasnt ultra-fast run, i posted lvl 201 with 21k time(with very late GO) and 5,6k time lvl 100 NJC (this was VERY fast run, but stil possible to do better)

Surely high amount of EGs(with kills) near mid is important. Early GO also helped here. Notice i made only 3 jades and still 2M gold. 29 EE were enough to leak 0 flyers in ~90% cases.

In late game ABS have better dmg on stunlocked enemy. 
GAq overdmg EG singificantly (since its cd is now 350 instead 500), but getting great gems is question of luck.

Note that dmg from EE is much lower than it was, cause green x1.5 multiplier(as well as others colors) is not implemented yet (while pink x1.75 is, idk why).
Generally having too many EEs have bad impact on time scores, havning low-dmg hard stunzones is one of reasons.
- - - - - - -
About mazes/layout - yes, its important(but hard) to find better and better. But it have less impact in very late game.
- - - - - - -
HP of enemies is growing linear 4500*(lvl-30), x0.3333 on flying.

But yes, it's fast, ground wawes in late game takes at least 150-200s, no matter how good start was (from 300 to 324 it took me ~3400s, assuming that 18 ground wawes lasted 3000s its 166s/lvl ) Seems like only way to reduce it would be Uber Stone, but 4-merge bug dont giwe me hope for that.

to kill 10 enemies at lvl ~300 in 200s, while they have over 1000000 HP, need about 50k DPS in burst zone.. or at least total PDS from towers.

lvl 0 EG buffed by BO+GO have 1175 DPS on 5 armor amethyst weak enemy.
but having 30+ EGs with some kills at this point is not hard at all( in addition to other dmg gems) - resulting less than 200s. i think i saw an enemy losing near 50k hp per second, but not sure it it was in this run.

So Its possible to get enough attack power to even better time, problems is towers cant waste their attack time.

In mid game(100-150) wawes goes MUCH faster , near 100s or less , while first 50 wawes can be done in less than 3k s thanks to BS(s)

#######
About Windowns and RAM i think i need to read more, but @SMS said that its more likely reason than browser( comment from 23-03)

#######
Recently i noticed interesting bug: while i have all EE part i can click comine special on.. malachite. Accidentally clicked once and  tranformed it into EE(with all malachite kills, but rather no worth anyway).

WGW - 2021-09-09 21:50:00.373931

@216: There's really no possibility whatsoever that Windows is limiting the RAM usage of processes when there's plenty of RAM free.  GTD crashes for me when it gets to around 2.3GB of RAM usage-- just look at the minimum requirements for any semi-modern game.  Newer games often REQUIRE 8GB or more to run.  So no, it's not Windows itself dictating that the browser can only use 2.3GB of RAM, or no modern game with real graphics would ever run on Windows.

Back in the olden days when RAM was much more limited, Windows would offload memory usage onto your system hard drive if usage exceeded capacity.  That feature still exists (at least in Windows 7, which I'm still using), and it would make no sense for it to have been created in the first place if Windows was just globally limiting all processes to a fraction of available RAM.

Regardless, there's obviously something wrong with GTD as it currently exists-- there's no reason whatsoever for a game like this to be using 2GB of RAM, of course.  So we could go back and forth on whether elapsed time affects the memory leak, or what platforms folks are using, but the bottom line is, the memory leak just needs to get fixed (whenever Peter H. has the time to do it-- I'm not complaining. The game is free, after all.)

As for comparing our respective time scores, well, obviously I couldn't compare to yours since it's not a posted high score. . . Not that I'm doubting you, but obviously, I couldn't compare my scores to a score that isn't there.  :)

As I said earlier, I think I could probably shave a bit more time off my runs with some really good luck and some minor tweaks to playing style E.g., making sure to leave a cleaner path for leaking ground enemies mostly outside the range of dark emeralds, so that leaking enemies makes a level go quicker.  Otherwise, the ones that get stunlocked take FOREVER to kill and the levels where you leak can actually take even longer than not leaking.

But I'd expect to maybe at best shave off another 10-15% in time score.  Doing any better than that would, I think, require me to entirely change my maze layout, which I'm not too interested in doing at this point.  It would require a lot of frustrating experimentation just to get to the point where I'd be doing about as well as with my current layout, let alone doing any better.  That's not to say there aren't better layouts (yours, apparently), but I like mine.  It works.  And it's faster than (just about) anyone else's, which is good enough for me.  :)

I'm assuming that in the run you mentioned with that ultra-fast time score you were also leaking ground enemies intentionally?  I can't see how you could possibly build enough attack power for a run that fast if you were killing all enemies on every level.  Their hitpoints just get too high as the game goes on.

216 - 2021-09-08 13:12:17.315143

WGW - 2021-09-08 8:25:21.474967

WGW - 2021-09-08 8:19:15.845880

Doing pretty well now-- though it is frustrating to have to  watch out for the memory leak and make sure to end the game before the browser crashes.  In my case, it seems to crash when the leak gets to around 2.3GB (frustratingly, that's with 3GB more RAM still completely free).  The last few levels end up really nail-biting, not because of anything actually happening IN the game, but because of the increasing risk of a memory leak-related crash the longer you play.

There was some earlier speculation here (by @216, I think) that the memory leak might be correlated with the elapsed in-game time, and that, therefore, faster run times might allow you to get to higher levels before a browser crash becomes a threat.  My recent experience sorta bears this out, in a very unscientifically, purely anecdotally, teeny sample sort of way.  I've been focusing on reducing elapsed run times, and have been able to get to higher levels accordingly.  My last run I had to finally end (biting my nails) at level 377, with 2.1GB RAM leaking.  Elaped time this run and the times for the other runs I've posted high scores for recently are all far, far below the other high scores.  I might still be able to winnow down the run time a teeny bit more, but not much-- the only motivation to even try being to hopefully squeeze a few more levels out of the game before purposely ending it to head off a crash. . .  Frustrating.

But I'll keep playing.  And I might be buying a new PC soon, if so, presumably that will help work around the memory leak (my current PC is over 6 years old.)

For anyone interested, here's the layout just before I opened a few gaps to end the game on the next level (377):
https://imgur.com/mMNFHT2

Crazy how many great gems I was getting late in the game, when there was nowhere good to place them.  I believe I had 10 great gems and 44 or so dark emeralds (which is too many, really).

216 - 2021-09-08 1:32:16.060613

German - 2021-09-04 10:39:06.189434

German - 2021-09-04 9:30:06.116749

216 - 2021-09-02 1:47:18.956635

Chr3y - 2021-09-01 6:09:48.872486

WGW - 2021-09-01 1:28:31.627238

Crap almighty, I did it AGAIN, pasting a whole bunch of old text along with my comment.  I will try to more careful about this, really.  Here's the actual NEW comment I meant to add:

@216: Since I don't have the knowledge/experience to acess the game code, and I don't have any record of the properties of gems in the old Flash GTD, I can't make the sort of detailed comparisons you've outlined.  I only notice the really huge changes, like the elimination of the opal bug(s), the increased gold earnings of Jades, that sort of thing.  I never even tried to play anything other than survival mode, so I'd also never notice changes in other modes.

But one thing in particular that you pointed out, which I had not noticed but really should have, I think has proved to be KEY to why I was doing so badly for so many runs.  I expect bad RNG every now and then, but not to the extent I was losing, and so badly, and so early, and so often, and I think the reason is the bug you described with respect to combining gems "out of order" (so to speak) sometimes consuming extra gems-- I saw it happen myself after I started looking for it, thanks to your heads-up, and I suspect I was losing a lot of perfect gems in a lot of runs without even noticing it, because once I "discovered" that you could do a "combine special" on any gem in the recipe, I started really abusing that feature. . . and likely lost a lot of gems along the way.

In my current run, which again is without a Great Opal, I'm well into the "safe zone" (currently level 162) where it's clear I'm not going to run out of gold.  I haven't been able to create a single great gem, nor any special gems on a single turn, and yet this run has gone 10 times better than my last 5 or 6.  So I think-- though time will tell-- this is mostly down to not wasting gems through combining them out of order, and possibly also due to having built a Black Opal very early on, around level 40.  I believe my first half dozen very succesful runs also had an early Black Opal, so it seems that building one early is a lot more important now than it was in the old version.  Especially since the damage buff works properly now, rather than only affecting gems already on the board as in the prior version.  You put a single BO down early in the game near the middle, and basically every gem you place after that is 40% more powerful.  It didn't used to work this way!

Thanks for all the additional info, most especially making me aware of the new bug with respect to combining gems out of order.

WGW - 2021-09-01 1:25:42.051398

There is many diffences bettwen flash GTD (list below)

@WGW: 1. i didn't observe any gold gain from Asian Jades. Also checked in code, only maxed has a bonus gold chance.
2. It's possible to lose before 100 with very bad RNG (lack of EGs/EEs). But when builing more jades and not repicking as much it shouldn't happen... especially if you got a GO! How many leaks you had?

I quite like that combinig special on any gem, but it makes game much easier - geting last EE piece in good position was a part of strategy, Now you can put early fT or FS and reserve that place it for EE. Also now worth to place fD early to farm kills, then make EG.

Sometimes merging comsume 2 same gems, as some ppl noticed, so better not cliking combine special on perfect gem.

List of other (than jades/combining) differences bettwen flash version and 0.5.4:
-lives mechanic
-towers/ enemies center point got changed, so towers range diffent positions
-star ruby/ uranium burn dmg doesn't ignore armor now(strange), but possible it benefit from opals (need more testing)
-aqua gems and malachite have now 350 cd (was 500)
-some great gems got nerfed, so they sucks even more
-dmg table doesn't work for other than pink dmg
-gold form kills is not rounded down (also 2 more gold per lvl)
-displayed minimum dmg is 1 less* than actual
-aura rage in now displayed (thanks)
-flamestrike last 2x longer (good idea imo)
-4 more armor on survival
-minimum speed bugs
-wrong speed display
-better displayed hp update
-some display bugs with buttons
-no-survival dificulties have 50 lvls instead 41
-strange disability to place gem near exit than would leave 1 half-tile space bettwen
-less lag (but more memory leak)
-no opal bugs, except SYS aura bugs
-SYS same stats as YS bug ( it cause it really useless)
-some reset game bugs

*2 for EE, which have double dice roll(1-51)

Thanks for all the additional info, most especially making me aware of the new bug with respect to combining gems out of order.

216 - 2021-08-31 15:25:29.122389

216 - 2021-08-30 15:02:44.935531

There is many diffences bettwen flash GTD (list below)

Sometimes merging comsume 2 same gems, as some ppl noticed, so better not cliking combine special on perfect gem.

*2 for EE, which have double dice roll(1-51)

WGW - 2021-08-30 5:51:21.148350

AAARGH!!!! Again I made a very dumb error in copying and pasting the below comment, which included text from a much earlier comment.  Here's all I meant to post (apologies!):
A couple more things I've only just noticed to be different than the Flash version of GTD (I'm sure this is all old news to everyone who's been playing the new version a while, like @216 and @G): 
- You can do a "Combine Special" on ANY individual gem on the board that's part of the recipe.  In the old version, you were 100% restricted to building special gems using component gems in the order they were laid down.  You still don't have 100% control over which gems are used to build a special when there are multiple possibilities on the board, but you have a lot MORE control now than used to be the case.  I like it.  
- Jades upgraded only once now earn gold, too.  Used to be that you had to fully upgrade (2 upgrades for 295 total gold) for Jades to earn any gold (and of course, even the fully upgraded Lucky Asian Jades in the Flash version earned far less gold than they do now). I was so locked in to expecting that I had to fully upgrade (2x) Jades for them to produce gold, that I never even *tried* to upgrade any of them just once-- I had just been waiting for enough gold to upgrade them completely.  I was shocked to see one earning gold-- without kills, of course-- when only upgraded once.

Even more surprising when you consider that nowhere in the official text description for the Jade does it say anything about it earning gold, at ANY level of upgrade.

WGW - 2021-08-30 5:49:42.996651

Well, well, well. . . I'm back to playing GTD, and couldn't be happier about it.  I just posted the (current) highest score for the game, which I had to end intentionally due to system resource drainage, rather than actually "losing".

In finally returning to this game since the original Flash version was involuntarily retired, I have to say I'm very pleased at the changes I see.  I had tried to play the new post-Flash game when Peter first released it, but saw tons of bugs and ended up focusing on other things for a while, figuring plenty of other people would do the job of reporting the errors.

But I just fired up the game again a few days ago, and to my delight, I was able to post the highest score yet.  The main issue with the game at this point seems, to me, to be that advancing into really high levels becomes a huge drain on system resources, so rather than a strategic challenge, after level 200 or so, GTD becomes a "Manage your system resources" game to prevent a crash due to memory requirements, rather than anything IN-GAME limiting your progress.  In my case, I had to shut down basically every program and background service that I didn't absolutely need to be running, in order to keep my PC from running out of RAM due to GTD's increasing requirements as you progress.

Otherwise, I think the changes Peter made with respect to how gold/lives/escaping enemies work are a tremendous benefit to the game-- the original version devolved into "can you click fast enough to regain lives" after level 140 or so, and at level 196, a SINGLE escaping air troop enemy would immediately end a game you'd invested 10-15 hours into playing.  The new system is much, much more forgiving, without breaking the essential game systems otherwise.  It's maybe a BIT too easy now, but I say this as someone who has already invested literally years of my life into this game; I don't think (based on the existing high scores) that too many other people would find that these changes really make the game too easy.

But from my perspective, the game (in survival mode at least) is now a matter of how many Lucky Asian Jades you can build early on (to earn gold), and how many Enchanted Emeralds you can build once your gold levels are consistently increasing.  All other considerations, while not irrelevant, have become at the least *secondary*, to the primary goal of simply keeping your gold level high enough to withstand leaks.

And if you focus on gold levels for the first 50 levels or so, repicks become basically free, making the actual survival mode GTD somewhat akin to the "sandbox" mode, in that you can feel free to repick and repick and repick until you get exactly the result you want.  The original game required extreme care in repicks, which meant actively needing to balance optimal outcomes (ideal gem placement) against recourse cost (skyrocketing repick costs against earned gold levels-- gold accumlation was MUCH slower in the original version).

But the real problem, to me, seems to be a matter of resource usage, in that the game uses more and more memory the further you progress.  Once I hit level 150 or so, my concern was no longer that I would actually lose the game, but that my whole system would crash due to the increased memory demands with every level gained.  The game itself was essentially unloseable by that point, but I had a lot of worries whether my whole PC would cry uncle before I was able to post a high score.  I've also seen comments from others here regarding the game playing very differently depending on what monitor refresh rate you're using (i.e., using 120MHz makes the enemies move 2x as fast and makes the game unplayable).  These issues are  clearly not intended;  no one intentionally designs a game so that losing the game is due more to your system specs than how you're actually playing the game.  But I also expect (due to my own meager programming background) that these are MUCH more difficult issues to sort out than out-and-out bugs are ("bugs" meaning instances where the game is explcitly malfunctioning).

All in all, I'm genuinely thrilled with this new revision of the game.  I've only encountered 2 or 3 bugs at this point, all of which are very minor.  The user interface is, imo, a bit more clunky now than it was in the Flash version.  Otherwise, I think this is a much-improved game, and I heartily commend Peter Holko for re-releasing, re-developing, and re-thinking it.

There's been a real hole in my life due to not playing GTD in the background literally ALL the time, as I had for a decade before the end of Flash.  That hole is now filled.  :)

I still say, though, the fact that a few people had managed to beat level 196 in the original version continues to leave me humbled, since I was never able to come even CLOSE.  I posted dozens and dozens of L195 high scores, but despite countless hours trying the so-called "emerald strategy" to get past L196, I never managed it, even with abundant help from the folks who did.

So while I got past level 196 and way beyond in this revised version of the game, I will never lose my admiration for those who bested my best in the original version.  I'm quite sure that any of you (a/aznst, 216, mmkay) could do just as well or even better assuming your computer specs are good enough to avoid crashes at higher levels.

But that said, it still feels good to have the current highest score again, at least temporarily!  My PC is almost 10 years old and has only 8GB of RAM, so I'm sure someone, somewhere will do better.  But if Peter is ever able to revise the game so that system resources are no longer an issue (without changing any other essential elements of the gameplay). . . I don't think anyone can do better than with my strategy.  :)  It would be very interesting to see what kind of balancing/adjustments are possible to make the current game more challenging for very experienced players.

For those who are interested (and if you weren't, you surely wouldn't have read this far to begin with), here's my maze layout:

A couple more things I've only just notived to be different than the Flash version of GTD (I'm sure this is all old news to everyone who's been playing the new version a while, like @216 and @G): 
- You can do a "Combine Special" on ANY individual gem on the board that's part of the recipe.  In the old version, you were 100% restricted to building special gems using component gems in the order they were laid down.  You still don't have 100% control over which gems are used to build a special when there are multiple possibilities on the board, but you have a lot MORE control now than used to be the case.  I like it.  
- Jades upgraded only once now earn gold, too.  Used to be that you had to fully upgrade (2 upgrades for 295 total gold) for Jades to earn any gold (and of course, even the fully upgraded Lucky Asian Jades in the Flash version earned far less gold than they do now). I was so locked in to expecting that I had to fully upgrade (2x) Jades for them to produce gold, that I never even *tried* to upgrade any of them just once-- I had just been waiting for enough gold to upgrade them completely.  I was shocked to see one earning gold-- without kills, of course-- when only upgraded once.

Even more surprising when you consider that nowhere in the official text description for the Jade does it say anything about it earning gold, at ANY level of upgrade.

WGW - 2021-08-30 5:25:33.406736

216 - 2021-08-29 22:10:30.828310

G - 2021-08-29 16:24:47.551548

216 - 2021-08-26 21:55:39.986215

G - 2021-08-26 14:43:58.992345

216 - 2021-08-26 0:23:45.299676

G - 2021-08-25 13:19:46.127397

216 - 2021-08-24 23:17:57.869525

G - 2021-08-24 20:45:51.558468

216 - 2021-08-21 18:12:40.325040

Game got frustrating for me, because mine broken mouse often makes a double click - downgrade after combining...

@WGW: 1) Nerfing Jades is not only thing to fix, late game when you can stun all flyers will be endless anyway, SYS is broken*, some great gems are not so great( GR, GE, GS imo sucks), someting is wrong with minimum speed in lvls 30+

2) Maybe you can't get way better times, but mine times were x1.5 better (and probably possible to get better), so you can improve a lot. some important things:
-Maze shouldn't be too long
-worth to build more EGs, BSs/ABSs ( best dmg towers, maybe besides GAq)
-dmg towers should target something most of time
-try to avoid low-dmg stun zones (but sometiems they help for killing flyers)
-in early game(60-) worth to optimize maze around BS(s) for good aoe (later it matter less)
-kills on EGs/BS also matter

3) Chance for getting uberstone was also motivating me to play. I saw in code, it exist and have REALLY OP stats ( only minimum dmg is lower than in flash version).
But it's ~1500x harder to get than GO...

* upgraded version have same dmg as not upgraded, it overwrite 40% BO aura when gem was placed later than BO gem (gem that you click combine special counts)

WGW - 2021-08-21 5:06:25.920469

@216:  It's hard for me to imagine doing much better in "time score", so to speak, than I've been doing (still only on about my 5th run)-- Maybe just a bit faster with truly exceptional luck, but I know my current time scores are pretty fast compared to posted high scores (even for the runs which I've lost due to crashes), and compared to my time scores in the Flash version.  Without having to work around the restrictions of the prior version of GTD, levels go by much faster than in the old version, at least until you get to the really high levels, above 200 or so.  I mean, you could VERY easily be correct that elapsed time is related to the amount of memory leak, it's just not something that, even if true, can really be taken advantage of in a major way.  The memory leak just needs to get fixed (and, I would hope, the game mechanics rebalanced a bit).  I'm in the midst of a game now at level 259 that's only taken (in seconds) 38,756-- which would have been one of my better (not all time best) time scores in prior GTD for all the games I lost at level 196, and this one has already gone 65 levels further.

We'll see if Peter H has the time and energy to address this stuff in a future update, but regardless, for now, I'm just enjoying being able to again play GTD again in the background while I do other things. . . it sure would be great, though, if the memory leak were fixed and the game rebalanced (which might just not require anything more than nerfing the gold earned from Lucky Asian Jades).

Meanwhile, I remembered one reason to keep me motivated to play even in the absence of updates:  Maybe one day, MAYBE, I'll finally get an uberstone (assuming they still exist in this version of GTD)!  It won't change anything, game-wise, even if I do, if the game is already constricted by the memory leak problem.  An uberstone isn't going to stop the game from crashing.  But it would feel good, after all these years, to finally, FINALLY get one!

Oh, and one more thing-- without getting into the math on the probability of getting a great opal, at this point I accept that you're correct that they're a lot more common than I'd perceived in the past.  Every run I've done in the new GTD, except that first one, got me at least one GO, and usually several. I've gotten FOUR GO's in this run just so far.  :)

216 - 2021-08-16 23:27:07.380638

WGW - 2021-08-16 22:17:27.000537

@G: I'm with you in finding the memory leak problem to be enough to almost-- almost-- kill my long-term interest in this game.  It seems to me that without this extra-game limitation, there are probably at LEAST a dozen of us who would be able to play the survival mode out until the point where there are no places left to put new gems/rocks, which means: (a) The game is too easy in current form, mostly because of overpowered Jades, and (b) If the memory leak is fixed without any other tweaks to the game, there will be no meaningful distinction between high scores over, say, level 200, since any decently compentent player will be able to easily get to that level.

I found some interesting (though not potent) effects experimenting around along the lines that you summarized, and perhaps more, including reducing towers-- my last build, the one where I finally posted a high score (at level 301) involved my building 20+ Uranium in the lower left corner of the map, to see if that would slow down the memory leak-- but I found that, as you noted, there's really no effective way (that I've discovered) to limit the memory leak.  I also tried things like minimizing the browser tab, which apparently halted the game completely, where in the prior Flash version, minimized tabs massively slowed but didn't HALT the game.

Putting the PC into suspend mode would temporarily reduce memory usage to minimal levels, but as soon as you let the game run again, it would reach the same level of RAM leaks within 20-30 seconds.

So it seems to me that the game is currently permanently limited by the memory leak problem, which may be very, very, very difficult to solve from a programming perspective.  Or not.  But I can certainly see how it might be quite difficult to resolve.

In any event, good to see people (like you, and @216) still engaged in the game after all these years.  I think it's a testament, more than anything, to how great the basic design of this game is, that we remain interested and committed even when it's not really working as it should be.  :)

G - 2021-08-16 18:48:46.174611

WGW - 2021-08-13 2:23:34.476710

So it's the long high score text that has messed up the formatting of the high score page?  That's a real shame.  Seems to me that there's a gigantic area of compromise between allowing high score text to be so long that it messes up the whole page, and limiting high score to just 32 characters (as in the prior Flash version of the game).  I haven't posted a single new high score yet, but that's exclusively a result of browser crashes due to the memory leak. . .

Speaking of which, @G: I'm curious, since you're one of the few who has posted high scores above level 400, what your system specs are?  Does having more memory than I do even help?  I ask because every game I've played has crashed due to an "out of memory" error from the browser even though I had around 3GB of RAM still free.  So I'm wondering if it even matters to have more RAM, since I never really even came close to actually running out of RAM, or whether there's some sort of browser-specific memory limit that will crash the page even if you have plenty of RAM left (as I have had at each crash so far).

@216:  The "No Jade" challenge sounds pretty damned challenging, all right. . . As you noted, I think it would take some pretty good RNG luck to make much progress without upgraded Jades.  Now that I've played 4-5 runs of the new version of the game, I'm convinced that (in keeping with my prior comments) building and upgrading as many Jades as possible early on essentially makes survival mode a cakewalk-- I'd go as far as to say it breaks the game.  I haven't "lost" a run of the new version for any reason other than a browser crash (due to the memory leak).  Other than restarting if I don't get a malachite on the first turn, every run I've played has been "winnable" (meaning, self-sustaining, increasing gold levels until the browser crashes), which was not the case with the Flash version.  So yeah, I see now how much easier the game has gotten, at least if you exploit how overpowered the Jades are now!

G - 2021-08-12 22:04:00.031004

216 - 2021-08-09 11:06:33.030738

No reason to have 11+ lives, limiting them (to 50) in this version is also pointless. I think that late wawes enemies should cost more lives, even when life cost depend of lives bought (10+x^2 ,if someone didn't notice)

I like idea with "end game" button, but balancing late game sounds better.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I found idea to keep current game interesting: "No Jade Challenge" ( you can actually build jade, but not upgrade it). I did 2 attempt so far, lvl 68 and 76, both with huge mistakes( removing rock and leaking some grounds for example), GOless, but quite good luck with EE/EG.

it will be very hard to get far in "NJC", because very limited repick and leaks. But i believe 200+ is possible with some luck.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Folowing GO chance discussion i made table with chances for specific amount of GOs ( or other specyfic Great gem) in longer runs:

\   lvls + repicks:
GOs \  200     500    1000   1500   2000
0      73,6%   46,4%  21,5%  10,0%  4,6%
1      22,6%   35,7%  33,1%  23%    14,3%
2      3,5%    13,7%  25,3%  26,5%  21,9%
3      0,35%   3,5%   13%    20,4%  22,4%
4      0,03%   0,6%   5%     11,7%  17,2%
5      0,002%  0,1%   1,5%   5,4%   10,5%

####################

Correction to last mine comment: i was near 360 not 260. 
RAM usage was ~1,6GB

####################

About score text limit: well it should be limited...now score page looks destroyed by 1 long "name".

WGW - 2021-08-09 6:01:55.094133

Here's another ridiculously LONG comment for the very few, the comparably obsessed, who would have any possible interest in reading.  ;)

So. . . on what was exactly my second runthrough of GTD since the Flash version ended, I did far better than last time but AGAIN did not manage to get on the high score list due to the broswer crashing (at level 340).

Here's the maze layout just before the crash:
https://imgur.com/a/g2lVI9Z

A few items of possible note for anyoe with the interest and patience to read these absurdly long ass comments:
(1) I now realize that there's absolutely no reason to ever have more than 11 lives stored up (you're allowed to bank up to 50).  You always lose only one life per escaping enemy now, and with 10 enemies per level, as long as you have 11 lives banked, even if every enemy escapes you'll still have one life left, and can simply replenish lives on the next turn.

(2) It's now an actual consideration to make sure to leave yourself a way to end the game by leaking enemies.  Otherwise, the inevitable outcome, once your layout is so fleshed out that no enemy, ground or air, ever escapes, is that eventually you run out of spaces on the board to place new gems, and the game will (presumably) simply become deadlocked.

I planned ahead to make sure I would be able to self-destructevenutally, ensuring the maze would still have removable rocks to provide an escape path for enemies even with the board overstuffed with Enchanted Emeralds.  Here's the "base" maze with 4 key rocks removed to allow for ground troop leaking: 
https://imgur.com/a/dpBzgg1

Curiously, by level 275 or so, intentionally allowing ground troops to leak per the above modified maze actually made the levels take LONGER than they did normally, defeating the whole purpose aside from being able to end a game intentionally.  (In the Flash version I used to leak enemies on purpose late-game in order to shave down the time the late levels took.)

A suggestion to Peter to address this, which should be very easy to implement on a programming level: Let's have a new option to explicitly END a game-- as distinct from the existing "Reset Game" option-- which will allow players to claim their earned score thus far for a place on the high score list, without our being forced to find a way to intentionally preserve an "escape valve" so as to allow for eventually self-destructing a game.  Maybe call it something like "Resign", or "Retire"?

(3) I played this latest game in MS Edge rather than Chrome, but found that Edge handled the game about the same overallthough it did somewhat outlast Chrome in terms of when the memory leak became unsustainable.  Chrome ended my first game at level 330  when i still had 3GB of RAM free, popping up an error saying, "Oh Snap! You ran out of memory" (or something close to that), when in fact I was nowhere near having yet run out of memory.  Using Edge for this second runthrough, the memory leak increased at apparently the same rate, but Edge didn't "prematurely" crash the tab for running out memory until level 341 this time, though that may have had more to do with the specific maze layout than the browser.  In any event, once again (as with Chrome), Edge crashed the game with an "out of memory" error when I still had almost 3GB of RAM free (which I don't understand), but the game was still running smoothly until the very level, so there was really no sign of a crash in sight when the crash happened (Chrome had been running the game sluggishly for a few levels before the crash).  Strangely, Edge used consistently les processor time (30-50% in Chrome vs 5-15% in Edge).

Bottom line, I think the memory leak issue here is very clearly the most serious drawback of this otherwise brilliantly revised game.  I can imagine this being potentially very, very difficult to fix, but it would be wonderful if it could be.

In the meantime, based on my limited experience so far, I'd recommend that anyone on a PC try playing the game on MS Edge rather than Chrome.

(4) I love the high score text's longer character limit (what is the limit now, anyhow???), and that it now accepts punctuation.  :)

(5) I also want to specifically commend Peter for fixing the longstanding "Opal bugs" from the prior Flash version.  :) I'm still getting used to not having to worry about the opal bugs in the current version, as it's become so automatic to me by this point from the Flash version to be careful with Opals!

(6) Following up prior discussion with @216, where in the last game I could not get a Great Opal no matter how many times I repicked for one, in this run I ended up getting THREE of them!

(7) Some elements of the maze may understandably look very strange or counter-productive to eagle-eyed folks like 216.  There are reasons for everything, but I think it's already an epic-length enough comment as it is, so I'll defer preemptively explaining, e.g., why there are so many Black Opals and Quartz gems.  But there ARE reasons.  :)

MASSIVE SLOWDOWN at level 340, 2.3 GB RAM used with 2.8 GB still free (of 8GB).

WGW - 2021-08-07 22:52:09.485488

@216: By "gold level" I just meant the amount of gold you have banked.  As for how many Jades to build, and how early, well, bear in mind I've only played exactly one run of the new game so far, so I haven't played around with it nearly enough to make a solid judgment on this, but I personally find that having tons of excess gold is so important-- mainly in freeing up the ability to repick at will-- that it's worth building a ton of them.  With a more refined strategy, I can see that it might not be strictly necessary to build so many, but it sure didn't hurt.

And yes, it was extremely frsutrating not to have picked a great opal after all that time-- starting around the mid 200s level I was repicking a dozen times each turn in the hopes of getting a great opal, but it never happened.  That's why I still had some spaces left open in the middle of the maze, so there would be someplace to put the great opal if I got one.  (Also perhaps worth noting: the Uranium and the Star Ruby gems were not there by my choice, but rather due to bad picks early on of chipped gems that I just wanted to clear off the board.)

I've never found Great Opals to be as common to get as you have, as we've discussed before.  I can't do the probability calc, it's too complicated for me, but I know that I consider it a huge stroke of luck to ever get one, whereas you seem to find it not all that rare at all.  All I can tell you is I wanted one, was trying to get one, and repicked hundreds of times in hope of getting one, but it never happened.  I guess it wouldn't have mattered in the end since the browser would have crashed anyhow!

I'm currently trying the game out in MS Edge rather than Chrome, and so far no apparent memory leaks-- but I'm only at level 60.  We'll see!

Good to see you're still around.  :)

216 - 2021-08-07 21:47:18.306422

WGW - 2021-08-07 18:58:55.434989

WGW - 2021-08-07 18:56:14.284555

Well, well, well. . . I'm back to playing GTD, and couldn't be happier about it.  I SHOULD have been able to post the (current) highest score for the game, but Chrome crashed due to memory overusage around level 330, at which poit I sactiely tryig to lose lives to give myself an escae hatch, because otherwise the game was never going to end until I just ran out of spaces to place new gems.  Oh well.  It was satisfying doing so well, even if there's no record of it for posterity. . .

But the real problem, to me, seems to be resource usage, in that the game uses more and more memory the further you progress.  Once I hit level 150 or so, my concern was no longer that I would actually lose the game, but that my whole system would crash due to the increased memory demands with every level gained.  The game itself was essentially unloseable by that point, but I had a lot of worries whether my whole PC would cry uncle before I was able to post a high score.  I've also seen comments from others here regarding the game playing very differently depending on what monitor refresh rate you're using (i.e., using 120MHz makes the enemies move 2x as fast and makes the game unplayable).  These issues are  clearly not intended;  no one intentionally designs a game so that losing the game is due more to your system specs than how you're actually playing the game.  But I also expect (due to my own meager programming background) that these are MUCH more difficult issues to sort out than out-and-out bugs are ("bugs" meaning instances where the game is explcitly malfunctioning).

There's been a real hole in my life due to not playing GTD in the background literally ALL the time, as I had for a decade before the end of Flash.  That hole is now filled.  :)

But that said, it still feels good to know I can still play this game well, even with some pretty major changes.  :)  It would be very interesting to see what kind of balancing/adjustments are possible to make the current game more challenging for very experienced players.

For those who are interested (and if you weren't, you surely wouldn't have read this far to begin with), here's my maze layout, which ended up crashing the game about 20 levels later:
https://imgur.com/a/POOMgJA

216 - 2021-07-19 21:39:50.548253

kira - 2021-07-19 21:21:37.725369

216 - 2021-07-19 12:39:04.008345

kira - 2021-07-18 22:46:03.757891

frowny face - 2021-07-15 22:20:20.866516

216 - 2021-07-15 18:28:09.369999

Are you challenging me? :)
I got past 500 twice in flash version ( where leaking 1 unit at lvl 196+ was instant lose)
Currently(0.5.4 version) is no point of going playing after ~200, since you get enough EE to stunlock enemies and even if something leak, you have much gold for lives from overpowered jades (10x more gold procs than in flash verion).

The only difficulty is running out of space, which can happen before wawe 600 with longest mazes and no paraiba. The map is 40x40 half-tiles (20x20 gems), but its not possble to fill full map, lets say 300 gems is possible with medium maze. Most specials are from 3 gems, but paraiba is from 4( takes 4 lvls to build), so lvl 900-1200 should be possible.

Anyway, congrats of patience to getting 500.

The problems are possible chrome crashes( at lvl 200 it wasn't using so much RAM for me, but someone said on lvl 500 it take 6 GB) and no option to speed up game, so getting to 500 take days :(

I haven't play this game since months, i'm waiting for updates.

btw, (temporary) old website still exist, here are mine scores: http://45.55.255.26/highscore/
(it's also on web archieve)
On web archieve you can also find mine comment with lvl 500 pic.

frowny face - 2021-07-15 16:31:00.240822

216 - 2021-07-15 11:08:28.055163

frowny face - 2021-07-15 1:24:30.696124

frowny face - 2021-07-15 1:18:50.926663

Themidnightpanda - 2021-07-11 20:41:10.231511

what - 2021-07-02 21:02:34.037875

Peter Holko - 2021-06-07 23:45:00.039316

G - 2021-04-27 16:08:56.466045

malacus - 2021-04-23 1:03:07.632746

G - 2021-04-02 21:51:08.306837

N N W - 2021-03-31 1:00:58.923268

SMS - 2021-03-23 12:21:17.551737

Peter Holko - 2021-03-19 23:23:47.605271

G - 2021-03-19 19:41:04.228508

SMS - 2021-03-18 19:23:28.386561

N N W - 2021-03-18 11:19:44.146697

elf - 2021-03-12 11:01:07.012990

elf - 2021-03-12 10:04:17.610977

G - 2021-02-20 0:35:17.910765

mikis - 2021-02-14 21:08:09.084885

216 - 2021-02-07 18:28:38.116165

G - 2021-02-07 15:40:36.953979

Speedhack bug - 2021-02-06 20:23:01.827084

G - 2021-02-05 19:05:47.130860

216 - 2021-01-29 15:16:22.702763

Big Lighthouse - 2021-01-29 14:45:10.548477

216 - 2021-01-29 14:13:52.540013

Big Lighthouse - 2021-01-29 9:23:59.839530

216 - 2021-01-28 18:30:32.749115

G - 2021-01-28 17:51:15.745725

Big Lighthouse - 2021-01-26 13:07:07.800063

Themidnightpanda - 2021-01-26 3:51:39.317063

wactical - 2021-01-25 23:05:57.631014

216 - 2021-01-25 21:55:13.561578

wactical - 2021-01-25 20:32:52.826357

wactical - 2021-01-24 18:47:04.836132

Peter Holko - 2021-01-23 6:10:19.559496

Peter Holko - 2021-01-23 0:42:01.556411

216 - 2021-01-21 21:52:57.109361

Peter Holko - 2021-01-21 20:22:25.725475

malacus - 2021-01-21 17:45:49.313974

YeWay - 2021-01-20 4:36:35.890126

malacus - 2021-01-20 0:27:47.249223

216 - 2021-01-19 23:09:30.307270

malacus - 2021-01-19 22:12:56.706955

216 - 2021-01-19 22:10:21.948478

malacus - 2021-01-19 21:51:31.153678

216 - 2021-01-19 11:51:27.380624

ruby - 2021-01-19 6:45:31.925544

Themidnightpanda - 2021-01-19 3:15:58.314598

216 - 2021-01-18 23:04:31.942751

malacus - 2021-01-18 21:40:46.157100

aratogep - 2021-01-17 19:33:32.921015

robert - 2021-01-17 7:36:01.532267

G - 2021-01-17 2:50:48.767906

216 - 2021-01-17 1:18:20.346108

G - 2021-01-16 23:40:46.600313

malacus - 2021-01-14 3:28:38.231672

Peter Holko - 2021-01-14 0:35:18.158980

216 - 2021-01-13 22:34:18.204200

malacus - 2021-01-13 2:17:40.086205

216 - 2021-01-13 2:05:31.308406

malacus - 2021-01-13 1:35:38.134786

216 - 2021-01-13 1:27:36.030217

malacus - 2021-01-13 0:45:45.914666

216 - 2021-01-13 0:02:27.608741

I noticed that base repick cost in 25 now.
Lags are probably related to heavy RAM usage (was over 2GB in 128). I didn't have a GO in 128 game so i don't think it matters(as well as console longs)

All types of higher difficulties are welcome (or making existing harded), I like survival idea(no max lvl) the most, sometimes i make speed run on other diff.
Buffing sub-100 survival wawes is rather no needed , hp of enemies just after 40 is growing up linear, but fast. I always have been leaking some flyers before 100, because not enough towers.
But completly other no-max lvl difficutly that makes also sub-100 ground wawes much harded may be interesting. But for that "speed" button is rather very needed (very long mazes).

Ofc, late survival wawes (200+) needs some balance, because with property located stunners(and enough of them) game was unloseable. It can be done in many ways:

-faster enemies (but enemies are quite fast)

-more enemies (11th flyer could kill me in many games, adding few more definitelly will force leaks).

-partial stun resistance (based of stun time for example).

But before talking about balance, lags needs to be fixed (I'm really curious what cause that lags!) 
Idk how hard is to kill all flyers now(4 more armor and min. speed bugged), so maybe is too early for talking about game balance.

malacus - 2021-01-12 22:29:24.001124

malacus - 2021-01-12 21:58:55.422743

Peter Holko - 2021-01-12 21:38:57.220447

216 - 2021-01-12 17:34:28.757095

Peter Holko - 2021-01-12 17:05:24.811044

216 - 2021-01-12 16:16:44.713941

Tonic - 2021-01-12 16:02:53.505989

216 - 2021-01-12 15:35:31.212564

Peter Holko - 2021-01-12 0:54:29.882999