Well, I've tried the second beta, and it's certainly more stable, I especially like the maximize option and those really evil monster sounds (all the sounds were also louder which helped), I'm also pleased the various issues are fixed.
The boundary sound is also now more convincing.
The main issue I found was one during the battle. Though the tower firing sounds let you know when monsters were being shot, it wasn't always clear whether monsters had made it past the towers or not, and if so how many.
While visually this is quite visible, in audio terms it's a litle less clear (I tried playing the game with my screen off as well, as I usually do when testing audio games).
Those monster movement sounds are pretty awsome, but th issue is you need to have your curser on the monster to here them.
How about a key press to route the curser to the leading enemy monster? this, combined with the grid movement announcements will let you audibly follow the monster procession and know when it's passing your towers, and whether they get shot down or not, also it'll let you know when the monsters are going to make it off the path and do you damage.
I'm also afraid I have another bug (and quite an irritating one actually).
The upgrade tower menue is only available after first building a tower. What I mean is, if you build a tower and then press tab you'll get the upgrade options, however if you move your curser off the tower and then back on again, pressing tab does nothing. This effectively makes upgrading towers pretty impossible, which means I've got slaughtered every time I get to level 3, sinse basic towers just don't seem effective against those boars (or indeed the giant bugs).
Eddit: okay, after another bash I've noticed that the the skipping rank 2 bug is stil there irritatingly, though it is now possible to read file I.
Buy buying upgrades as soon as I bought towers, and buying lots of low level towers, I made it past the pigs of doom, and indeed the beasts that followed them. However, the next level got me (what is it with those giant bugs!).
while I know your not on balancing issues yet(and anyway without upgrades being possible it's hard to discuss balance), the two gold reward per monster seems a bit stingy, especially with the different monster types, so you get the same amount of gold for taking out a puny ogre as one of those huge mutant beasts. This also means waves with a few, especially tough monsters are far less lucrative than ones with a hoard of faster ones.
So, how about instigating higher bounties for certain monster types?
This also opens the possibility of having especially hard to kill (and possibly randomly appearing ie, there is a chance of them showing up on a given level), bonus monsters which don't damage you but award more gold, ---- for instance a phenix which is super fast and pretty tough, but gives 30 gold if you bring it down.
This would give the game a bit of fun randomness, and also give a way for players to rake in cash.
I'm also not sure where you stand on earning extra lives, ---- especially if the game is going to have 40 or so levels, but this might be another nice feature to add, either from bonus monsters or from completing a tough challenge, such as two waves without spending money.
Alternatively, you could make extra lives perchiceable at some high cost, say 100 gold a life.
Btw, just one question, is the game's official title "tower defense?" or are you going to insert a snazzier one later. This isn't just an idol question, sinse after consulting the fount of all wisdom, aka wikipedia regarding tower defense games, apparently the name "tower defense" has been copywrited by some coorperate scumbags who take exception to people using it in their games (as apparently do aple).
With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)