The enemies should be in there, it's just that most of them are scientists who do nothing and security guards that do next to nothing. If you mean the lab is actually empty, uh oh
is there a discord or something for your games? if there isn't, seems like that could be a good way to organise stuff like bug reports and also build up a community if there is one i'm just dumb and do not know where to find it
I've found an exploit/bug: When using the hose tool, pressing down repeatedly at the bottom of the screen instantly deletes whatever you were holding, and with gravity this means you can clear entire columns. the block seems to wrap around to the top of the board for a frame or two before deletion. It's not incredibly practical since holding down at the bottom also increases the speed of the board, and it nets you no points, but nonetheless it's a thing.
With the crane, it could probably have infinite lift strength and still not be broken. However, game balance is always good to keep in mind. I'm also not entirely sure how a crane would be able to displace sideways without treading on the other tools' abilities.
I think the shovel having an element of RNG is fun, as long as it's somewhat predictable. Maybe a system could be implemented where the shovel will displace to the right if the last horizontal movement you made was right, and left if you moved left? It could still be random whether it moves 1 or 2, but you would have a way to herd the pebbles a little bit better. A further thing could be that the vertical movement determines how large the number is, although that would remove the RNG.
I'm in love with this thing, i think, maybe, but i do have a few notes. First off, a bug (ha): I've lost a few games seemingly out of nowhere after garbage spawns, possibly because the game thinks that the empty tiles it just dropped are actually a tower reaching to the kill zone. Should probably check that out. Secondly, the shovel is probably one of the harder tools to use due to rng. As far as I can tell, it likes to launch blocks up to the highest tower it can find, but I haven't exactly figured out what its deal is. Thirdly, the crane is the tool that I tend to lose on most often, due to too much garbage being piled up for it to be able to pick up anything, and its inability to move anything sideways within the pile.
Overall, a very fun experience. Will probably continue striving for a high score.
With the first one I was mainly talking about times when I don't have any shells loaded at all, and thus shotgun RNG has no chance to take effect. I'm fine with runs that end on shotgun RNG,those are very rare; however, about a fifth of my runs if I'm remembering correctly end with a checkmate I have no way of knowing about until I look at every possible move. I would rather the game just end there instead of letting me pick my poison.
I'm aware the rng of the shotgun would probably be too much to work around with the second one, but it was just a suggestion. It would maybe be a cool card upgrade for shields to activate on those sort of cases, but it would be a little broken as a general game mechanic, as you said.
The shields activating on the chance of an enemy's defeat by shotgun would be annoying, although one potential way it could be implemented is having the shield activate on a potentially dangerous move, but instead of completely canceling the move it brings up an "are you sure?" prompt. If you hit yes, the move proceeds, and you roll the dice... if you hit no, the shield is still spent, and it goes back to the 'select a move' phase. Again, just a suggestion, maybe not easy to code, but it would be a good thing for game flow in my opinion.
Some sort of mechanism that lets me know I'm in checkmate and automatically makes me lose would be nice imo, 'cause having to figure that out yourself after trying all your shields and cards and whatever feels slightly demoralizing.
And I know it would be tricky to set up and balance with the inherent rng of the shotgun, but it would be nice if the shields would activate when I kill a piece and the piece behind it becomes in range and instantly kills me. I know it's mainly my fault for speeding through but I hate the runs that end that way because it doesn't feel fair even if it is.
Otherwise, it's a fantastic game, a fabulous set of twists on an ancient classic.
