Gem Tower Defense

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a - 2019-12-06, 11:57 AM

Chr3y - 2019-12-06, 07:56 AM

WGW - 2019-12-06, 05:58 AM

WGW - 2019-12-06, 05:49 AM

Chr3y - 2019-12-06, 03:29 AM

Chr3y - 2019-12-06, 02:48 AM

Sheraf - 2019-12-05, 08:14 PM

WGW - 2019-12-04, 03:54 PM

WGW - 2019-12-04, 03:53 PM

ItDoesn'tMatter - 2019-12-04, 01:13 AM

WGW - 2019-12-02, 08:18 AM

@GodSama: I'm always thinking about uploading a YouTube video outlining the strategy I use, but it would really be a great deal of work-- I'm honestly not being coy here--.  It would require LOTS of editing, along with lots of explanations of various decisions throughout the course of any given game.  I would probably have posted something to YouTube by now were it not for the fact that this is a Flash-based game, and Flash will no longer be supported by Chrome (and therefore the rest of the world) as of the end of 2020. . . It would mean I'd end up putting dozens of hours of effort into a video about a game that will be basically unplayable a year from now.  :(

I'm always checking comments here every few days, though, an delighted to offer any helps/answers to questions from newer players, just cause I love this game so much.  :)  I did make a sort of guide outlining how I start any "winnable" game (meaning, in my terms, getting to level 196), which centers around building a very strong malachite.  This will get you a good deal of th way towards undertanding how to get past level 40, and ultimately, up to level 196 (without ANY chance of ever getting PAST level 196).  Here's the guide:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sv4bpn2h2nn3tcb/How%20to%20build%20a%20powerful%20malachite.doc?dl=0

Hope that's somewhat helpful!  If you have more specific strategy questions, though, please do ask and I'll try to answer them.  I completely love this game.  :)

WGW - 2019-12-02, 08:07 AM

ItDoesn'tMatter - 2019-12-02, 04:57 AM

GodSama - 2019-11-26, 03:47 PM

WGW - 2019-10-31, 07:17 AM

common - 2019-10-30, 07:47 AM

The_NSW - 2019-10-25, 01:51 AM

ruby - 2019-10-20, 09:09 PM

Daniel - 2019-10-17, 10:32 AM

WGW - 2019-10-08, 12:19 AM

Christian - 2019-10-06, 01:16 AM

Matt - 2019-09-30, 08:04 PM

WGW - 2019-09-28, 07:26 PM

@mmkay: Tell me about it. . . I completely dread the discontiunation of Flash support, for one and only reason-- this game!  I don't know whether there other browsers will still support Flash, but I do know that in prior experiments using other browsers, I can't reliably count on autoclicking to buy lives on air troop levels after 150 or so.  So unless I can find a broswer that responds to autoclick software as Chrome does, or can figure out a way to stop Chorome from updating itself so I can still use it for Flash games, that may (finally) be the end of my totally obsessive playing of this game for the past 10 years+.  :(

@ffnfcn: Keep plugging!  I can't claim with absolute, objective certainty that choosing an initial malachite is better than choosing an initial silver tower; I can just say that I've personally found malachites scale upwards in their power much more effectively.  Plus which, after level 95 you don't want any gems with slowing/stunning effects in the path of air enemies, as that can cause them to stack up and leak two or more simultaneously, which will automatically end any game after level 95 where two air troops stack (a mathematical certainty!)

fknfcn - 2019-09-28, 01:28 PM

_mmkay - 2019-09-13, 04:40 PM

Calena - 2019-08-27, 11:01 PM

WGW - 2019-08-21, 03:16 AM

WGW - 2019-08-21, 01:41 AM

Replying to a bunch of comments in one comment here, since individual replies would only push more comments off the bottom of the page. . .  :)

@a: So great to see you back! I hope you're able to get a working setup going again, assuming you still have interest in playing this game.  If anyone is going to break level 196 again, it's you.  I've given up on emerald runs-- too frustrating at normal speed!!!  I'm just contenting myself to post as many L195 high scores as I can, replaying the same basically "guaranteed to get past level 195 but no further" strategy.  :)

@NewPlayer: I couldn't agree more about the "community" aspect of this game.  I seriously doubt I'd have kept playing it all these years if not for the great discussions.  Adding a comments page was a stroke of genius by Mr. Holko.  I've started to save snapshots of the comments page offline so there's at least some record somewhere of the comments that get pushed off the bottom of the page, but stupidly, I didn't think to start doing this until a few months ago.  So many great conversations lost. . .

@noob: I'm really surprised to read that you can't get past level 24 WITH a red crystal.  I don't even usually NEED a red crystal until level 28, and sometimes not even until level 32, and I never, ever, ever waste a turn to build more than one red crystal unless the game hands me a second one in a single pick.  Bear in mind that by level 40, you don't need to (and shouldn't) put any effort whatsoever into trying to kill the air troops.  You need, instead, to have enough gold to be able to afford buying more lives when you they (inevitably) leak.

If I had to take a guess at what might be going wrong. . . It's not so much that your maze would be the problem, considering that you're losing to AIR enemies that ignore the maze.  So I'm guessing the problem is more likely in the placement of your gems (rather than the maze LAYOUT) and the order in which you're building them.

I always start with a 1st turn malachite (I just restart the game if I get a 1st turn silver), and place later gems in such a way as to PREVENT them from getting kills. This allows the initial malachite to get SUPER powerful.  I always fully upgrade the initial malachite at level 13 or 14, and by that point, it's so powerful by virtue of racking up nearly all the kills that it will continue to mow down all the enemies on its own for another dozen or so levels.

So I expect that you're allowing the kills to be spread out too much amongst the gems in your maze, rather than making sure you've got one super-powerful gem (presumably, the special gem from the first turn). And of course, you need to have that super-gem's cooldown boosted by at least a normal opal.

If you allow that first gem to rack up all the kills in the beginning, and make sure it's boosted by an opal, you shouldn't need a red crystal to get past level 24, and won't need a second red crystal to get past level 36.  From level 40 onwards, you forget about killing air troops enitrely and buy your way past the leaks with gold.

But much of this goes out the window if you're using @a's alternate "emerald strategy".  If you can post a screenshot, I might be able to make more specific suggestions.  Hope this is helpful!  :)

a - 2019-08-19, 12:14 PM

a - 2019-08-19, 12:13 PM

noob - 2019-08-18, 01:48 PM

NewPlayer - 2019-08-10, 07:26 PM

WGW - 2019-08-10, 08:46 AM

@NewPlayer: It's a shame older comment keep getting pushed off the bottom of the page when new comments are left, because there have been so many detailed discussions that would be so helpful for new folks to read that are now lost to the ether. . .

The basic idea in the strategy I use (which will get me TO level 196, but guarantees never being able to get PAST level 196) is that I make sure to have enough gold to buy my way past leaking all air troops from level 40 onwards; to reliably kill all the ground troops, I focus on "stun-locking" them in the lower-left quadrant, while keeping all Dark Emeralds and Jades out of range of the air troop path.  There's basically no chance of killing more than a few air troops past level 44 unless you're using the alternate "Emerald strategy", where you're trying to flood the entire maze with as many Dark Emeralds and jades as possible in order to be able to kill air troops past level 44.  The Emerald Strategy is the only way to get past level 196, but only ONE person has ever managed to do so, because there's a great deal of luck involved beyond the skill and knowledge of the game also required.  I've never gotten even close to getting past level 196-- only a/aznist ever has!

WGW - 2019-08-10, 08:39 AM

WGW - 2019-08-10, 08:34 AM

This Game Is Now Rigged - 2019-08-08, 10:22 PM

noob - 2019-08-08, 08:14 AM

Christian - 2019-08-07, 11:17 PM

NewPlayer - 2019-08-07, 07:21 PM

Otanes - 2019-08-05, 04:21 AM

WGW - 2019-08-05, 01:26 AM

Otanes - 2019-08-04, 01:05 PM

WGW - 2019-07-22, 08:59 AM

Calena - 2019-07-13, 05:27 PM

Calena - 2019-07-13, 05:18 PM

Calena - 2019-07-13, 04:44 PM

Smotr - 2019-07-06, 02:55 PM

Smotr - 2019-07-05, 11:55 AM

Crystalncauldron at gmail - 2019-06-12, 12:42 AM

WGW - 2019-06-03, 06:48 AM

Sp32 - 2019-06-01, 05:12 PM

WGW - 2019-06-01, 05:35 AM

Severin - 2019-05-23, 06:50 AM

TenDollars - 2019-05-15, 12:54 AM

GodSama - 2019-05-13, 05:42 PM

Severin - 2019-05-01, 05:10 AM

DUB - 2019-04-17, 09:51 AM

WGW - 2019-04-12, 01:35 AM

Nohadou - 2019-04-11, 11:28 AM

Chiroptophobia, - 2019-04-05, 07:07 PM

Chiroptophobia, - 2019-04-05, 04:48 PM

WGW - 2019-04-01, 10:35 PM

noob - 2019-03-30, 04:38 PM

WGW - 2019-03-29, 07:22 PM

@noob: Getting past air troop levels from level 40 on usually requires letting them leak, and buying lives with gold to make up for it.  I can sometimes, with great luck, kill all air troops even at level 44, but basically, you want to have enough gold to buy your way out of leaked air troops from level 40 on. Note that from level 40 (41?) forward, every killed enemy earned you 25 gold, a big jump from the 10 gold per enemy you earn in level 36-39.  So the key, really, is having saved enough gold (1,100, or 600 gold + 50 lives) to get past level 40, and then you'll be earning plenty of gold per ground enemy kill to give you enough gold to buy your way past air troop levels.  Upgraded jades are very important here, too, because they're the only gem in the game that earns you more gold-- otherwise you only earn gold from enemy kills.

So basically, you don't want to focus so much on doing enough damage to kill all the air troops at level 40, but instead, should make sure to have enough gold + lives to buy your way past it.

>>also i read on the wiki that you can upgrade chances to get a specific gem - i've searched for that function when i started but i've never found it so i gave up, is it really possible?

Not sure what info you're referencing on the wiki (if you can give a link, that would be great!), but "upgrade chances" doesn't boost your chance of getting a SPECIFIC gem, ever.  What it does is adjust upwards the odds of getting higher *quality* gems.

>>also does black opal stack with mystic like in wc3 or can you only have one?
There are NO gems which stack their effects in this game.

Hope this is helpful!

noob - 2019-03-27, 09:28 PM

noob - 2019-03-27, 09:05 PM

lement - 2019-03-07, 09:50 AM

WGW - 2019-03-06, 05:58 PM

ruby - 2019-03-06, 12:29 PM

lement - 2019-03-06, 11:15 AM

@ruby: It's on the wiki for the respective stones, ex: https://gemtowerdefense.fandom.com/wiki/Tourmaline. But repeating here: regens at 2 sec(1,75 for initial tourmaline), caps at 10. Flash RNG is less than perfect, can be described as sticky, so the low cap mainly hurts ancient blood stone, which I observe tends to fire two flame strikes in a row.

I assume (but haven't confirmed) the mana regen is not affected by regular (or black) opals, which also makes the two towers relatively weaker.

Effective penalty...Ancient Blood stone will, obviously, deal 55,5% damage (due no flame strike) for next six strikes(firing at 2 shots/sec) in perfect stunlock situation, so it is significant. Happens lot more often than 1% of the time that 0,1×0,1 suggests, though I have no idea how much more often. If 30% of flame strikes are double strikes, it'd reduce effective stunned flame strike damage from 250 to 205 and overall bloodstone damage to 581,25.

(Non-stunned flame strike is obviously lot lower, though, to the point of doing zero damage in places.)

That's still pretty good, even with the off-weakness penalty. Thus, I generally like to include one inside the stunbox area, though it isn't vital like reducing armour, cooldown or speed is. If you look at aznists' anti-air mazes though he has gone on to use jades over bloodstones, with other two main gems remaining golds and dark emeralds.

WGW - 2019-03-06, 02:04 AM

WGW - 2019-03-06, 02:01 AM

WGW - 2019-03-06, 01:50 AM

To whoever it is that's spamming the high scores with fake scores again-- who I know is reading the comments, because he or shee just added a new fake score saying, "cry me a river, WGW", so obviously is aware of my last comment here calling this out: (a) I'm sure you're one of those "Parks and Recs" viewers who doesn't even realize that Ron Swanson is supposed to be a SATIRE of the insanity of libertarianism, not a SYMBOL of its greatness.  Lovely to see one of my favorite characters from one of my favorite shows used in a way that the show's creator's AND the actor who played the character would be disgusted by.  I'm sure you also think Archie Bunker was intended as a heroic character.  He wasn't.

(b) Since you've made it perfectly clear now that you're doing this at least in part (and why else) to specifically piss ME off, individually. . . allow me to say "Go f-ck yourself", with my pledge to never pay you nor your inane attempts to flood the high scores with fakes a moment's notice ever again.

Also, perhaps consider seeking therapy.  The only thing sadder than my still playing this game pointlessly after all these years, is posting fake scores just to piss someone off.

ruby - 2019-03-05, 12:59 PM

govinda - 2019-03-05, 09:17 AM

govinda - 2019-03-05, 09:14 AM

lement - 2019-03-04, 02:41 PM

On a repeating note, another bit of evidence of firefox/chromium & perfect opal mismatch: 5,5 up/0,5 left doesn't get the reduction in sandbox mode in firefox, while right one does: https://i.imgur.com/aRE4FWA.png i.e. the situation in chrome, flipped around. (Also, thanks WGW, though I could be better; still don't have a map for Mystic Black Opal boost range, for example.)

On archiving note, I found that this current page is archived periodically in wayback machine. Also found the mana regen/cap rates there and thus made pages for Paraiba and Blood Stone on the wiki. On that note, seems Frost Nova only lasts 3 secs and uses up mana faster than it regenerates when buffed by perfect opal.

Also, on a gameplay note, I think I found an occasionally-useful quirk (tested in fox): If you get the 3 gems for a combination, and don't take it, the combine special button on the last gem only disappears for the time there's no enemies on field. Useful for, say, keeping the normal opal on malachite to kill an air wave before combining into jade, or similarly keeping a flawless opal in place with early perfect aquamarine until one gets replacement opal (though sadly for Black Opal its boost is limited to when the last piece was initially placed, not when it was combined).

(Also, when I did this via getting 1 triplicate sapphire/diamond/topaz and then next, I didn't get the button for the second one until I combined the first, though that bit was in sandbox.)

_mmkay - 2019-03-02, 05:19 PM

WGW - 2019-02-28, 04:47 PM

WGW - 2019-02-28, 04:35 PM

WGW - 2019-02-28, 04:33 PM

WGW - 2019-02-28, 04:31 PM

govinda - 2019-02-28, 01:33 PM

lement - 2019-02-26, 06:59 PM

As the comments below show, probably every high score past wave 44 uses jades to get gold; at that point 10 fliers will cost one 1100+ gold while four previous waves only earned 792.

I did notice lv1 jades earning gold though I didn't count individual hits; only total gold per level.

Also, tried out chrome (with some hassle). Flash does behave differently than in fox; It indeed performs much better in regards for autoclicking than fox (while in there the clicks have a lower boundary of ≃ 40-50? ms apart past which it adds them to the end, chrome doesn't do playing clicks at the end). Furthermore, text is smaller, and the game image doesn't freeze on right-click. Perhaps most importantly, at least in later waves having game minimized was not only the difference in CPU temp, but also in whether the dwarves could barely get past third stop or whether I might leak ground to exit; echoing what aznist said about flash update.

An argument for keeping multiple backups for flash past 2020, I guess.

Unfortunately, lost that run at 144 due air stacks with slower in range. Though not as smarting as the previous run at 115, with my first ever great opal in actual game - I misplaced autoclicker by accident due chrome having different mouse scrolling.

Joel - 2019-02-24, 06:46 PM

Joel - 2019-02-24, 06:45 PM

lement - 2019-02-16, 03:21 AM

lement - 2019-02-16, 02:32 AM

Small correction (to wiki): I slightly underestimated Perfect Opal range in lower left/right area. Corrected now, discovered on a somewhat ridiculous run where I got one on wave 10 perfectly in range of my two malachites, silver, star ruby, and jade after two waves...Discovered via placing flawed topaz to complete emerald where I falsely thought it'd  be out of range.

Bit giddy about near every pick going right (on damage front) on this run so far, though in the long run losing near third of my kills so far to various base gems is kinda bad.

@Browser: Tested(after bit of hassle with adding flash to chrome), Chrome indeed behaves differently than firefox in regards to flash - for one, right-clicking doesn't freeze the flash image behind it. Texts are also different sizes.

Haven't tried out autoclicker yet, partly due...eheh...well, when I started noting why I lose games down, I was both surprised how many I lost, and that I mainly lose due greeeeeeeeeed. (Well, though I know I am easily baited into death from playing touhou 12.)

WGW - 2019-02-07, 10:43 PM

@lement: I just tried using a very old version of IE (version 9, from about 1978), and I lost at level 193 because autoclick just doesn't replenish lives QUITE quickly enough.  This is never a problem in Chrome, because Chrome kinda freezes the game when there are a ton of mouse clicks buffered, where IE just saves all the extra clicks for the end of the level with no slowdown).  I wouldn't expect there to be such different behavior except for the fact that I remember this being the reason why, a LONG time ago, I gave up on playing GTD in other browsers.  Really sucks to lose the game two or three levels before the usual end, but on the other hand, the game ran a LOT more smoothly and there was no indication of even a potential crash, as there always is when I play with Chrome.

So I'll try out some other browsers soon, but it may just be that only Chrome will allow autoclicking to replenish lives consistently fast enough from level 180 and on (which is the point at which you have to click to buy one life at a time rather than buying five at a time, or the math dictates you'll lose-- before level 180, there's no problem!)  Or maybe I should experiement with a different autoclicking program that can maybe click faster, but I suspect that it's the browser that's limiting the click rate too much, not the autoclicker, again, because of the different autoclicking behavior in Chrome versus other browsers, but it's still worth checking if it would mean I could play this in a more stable broswer without losing prematurely.

Thanks for the advice on making a video; I'm certainly aware of screen capture software, but while I have a good amount of experience with digital video encoding and editing, I've never used capture software (and I wouldn't be surprised if it screws up how this very finicky game plays).  A digestible video, too, would really require some sort of narration and a WHOLE lot of editing, and all this for a game that I can't imagine more than a few dozen people still play. . . and which will be unplayable after 2020. So I doubt I'll ever make a video.  But maybe!

But I'm trying to at least find those screenshots I posted ages ago of how to build a strong malachite in the early stages, and if I'll find them, I'll post the link here again.  :)

lement - 2019-01-28, 03:43 PM

As far as discussion being lost goes, lot of it could be directly copypasted to the wiki - even if some of it is somewhat speculative, such as my recent observation on weaknesses.

Last of my own contribution was with visualization of non-symmetrical effect range of perfect opal: https://gemtowerdefense.wikia.com/wiki/Opal, and before that for enchanted emerald and lucky jade left corner ranges. (note: the wikia in link should be replaced with fandom sometime in February due site migration)

@WGW, if fox and chrome neither are no good, have you tried Opera for playing?

As for video making, I've done it before for a different flash game. You need a screen recorder (I used Kazam), and likely an editing software (unless you're going to upload raw footage, in which case the overhead is only few minutes+uploading & downloading time, provided you have the ram and hdd space).

@GaryLou: I recall WGW once posted an imgur album, but I don't have the link to that anymore. However, I still have an example of l5/10/15/20 images of an old downleft build of mine: https://imgur.com/a/b8ALnZx; the last image being just before I downgrade the opal then close holes to make dwarves do seven passes past near every place near special gem (which the life drop shows should have been done before wave 19).

Maze effectiveness can vary, but that's a common theme, btw. Though usually the starting malachite is placed in the left rectangle the path makes, as it does bit more damage to bats there (assuming one can still kill them) and also kills starting dwarves sooner.

When going for air stun strat, aznist starts with silver instead of emerald, as shown in this comprehensive album they linked below: https://imgur.com/a/ZYhcO along with eventual intended result: https://imgur.com/a/atnCR

WGW - 2019-01-26, 08:51 AM

WGW - 2019-01-26, 08:48 AM

williamh - 2019-01-05, 07:55 PM

GaryLuo - 2019-01-01, 11:00 AM

GaryLuo - 2019-01-01, 10:57 AM

a - 2018-12-31, 04:58 PM

lement - 2018-12-28, 11:19 PM

_mmkay - 2018-12-28, 09:18 AM

lement - 2018-12-26, 10:25 PM

a - 2018-12-20, 08:56 AM