So I played your game during the previous jam and it's definitely in a better spot now but a tutorial is going to be crucial I think. For the question of balance, I don't think any strategy can outweigh buggy rush currently and unfortunately the AI does buggy rush every time which gives you small room for mistakes, overwhelming you if you aren't prepared. This time I went into it knowing that and tried my best to buggy rush as well but somehow I still lost despite us having the same number of factories. I think the core idea is solid, but a tutorial is pretty mandatory for a very complicated game like this and the AI probably should not be buggy rushing, at least not in a first level. It's such a hard strategy to counter that having that as your first challenge can definitely put people off a bit. That said, when you get into the swing of it and you're head is still above water, it is quite fun. So with a little bit of polishing on the difficulty and the new player experience and I think you may have something pretty special.
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Many thanks for your feedback. I will add more versatile AI opponents, with different strategies and difficulties, in the next update. And hopefully also a tutorial.
The buggy rush is really hard to stop. I will put another AI as the first level. What helps to defend is:
- sync up production when you have more than one factory
- sacrifice some hitpoints on buildings. If balanced right, it is possible to tech-up, keep your buildings alive, and defend with one less factory than the opponent has