2019-05-31 21:34:23 (edited by Dark 2019-05-31 21:39:20)

Okay, I can now firmly say the game is bloody awesome and well worth bying if your into quick fire strategy.

For those who are having trouble I'll try and explain how things work.

The object of the game is  obviously to destroy enemies, each wave you have a number of crates and a number of targets, which is why it'll say "crates 3, targets 1" or something like that.
Double tapping on either  will automatically face your tank towards it, so the next thing is what your tank is currently pointed at with the distance, EG "weapon cache 120" or "infantry 492"  (I'll assume these distances are in meters, though the game just gives the number).

You then have buttons to go forward or reverse which will move your tank 100 meters towards or away from the current crate/enemy, and a report on the status of your enemy, EG "enemy in range" or "enemy near."

If the enemy is in range of your current weapon you can then try to blast them. You do this by changing your elevation, this is a number which will change according to how you tilt your phone, and then double tapping on the elevation button to fire.

From what I've gathered, 45 in optimum conditions will get them at max range of your weapon, if they're closer you need to change elevation obviously.
After this is a log of each turn, which you can swipe through to hear the most recent thing, which tells you if you use fuel (you use one fuel each move), get shot at by the enemy and lose armour, or shoot at the enemy and either miss, do damage or destroy them.
If you miss the enemy, you will be told the elevation of your shot and by how much it missed, EG 32 over 86 means your 84 metres over and probably need a lower elevation to get the enemy. You don't seem to need to be %100 dead accurate, but it helps.

Bare in mind, the log continually updates, so the log of previous turns will also be written to the screen.

At the bottom are stats for your tank, the wind speede, your percengages of armour, fuel and shells left. If you tap  on your percentage of shells you can enter the shop.
here you can change your current type of weapon, this is handy to do since you have several different shell types with different ranges, and if the enemy is further away its better to blast them with a long distance shell  than waste fuel and armour moving towards them. You'll be told "selected" to show what type of shells your currently using, and will be told the percentage and range of each shell type.

You can also buy upgrades and extra items with the stars you win for completing waves, you get more stars with one shot kills and by using different types of shells.

In terms of sound, you seem to get sounds when the enemy fire at you and do damage,  obviously when you move and fire, and some wind sounds, the really important sound though is the ratcheting sound when you tilt your Iphone. This indeed is the one miner  access issue,  its the only way to tell your elevation is moving. Vo will speak your elevation when you first swipe onto the number,but won't report when it changes, so you'll have to either swipe, then tilt your phone, then hold steady while you swipe back to check the number, or just rely on the clicks to calculate what you want. Fortunately, you don't need to be too exact.

the two things I haven't worked out yet, are firstly,  the relative spaces of how targets and crates work, EG when you can safely pick crates up and be out of range of an enemy, and secondly, how windspeed affects your shooting and what happens at higher elevations. Mostly my tactics so far have involved finding a shell at the correct range of the enemy, then blasting away at 45 elevation, or maybe a bit less if the target is a wee bit closer.

I'm also not sure exactly which type of shell gets refilled if you run over a weapon crate either.
hth.

I think this one will be lots of fun, especially with the randomly generating levels, and even more if extra stuff can be added to the game, EG obstacles and bunkers to get around, or vantage points to increase your elevation, as well as different missions or enemy types, either way, happy blasting!

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.)

2019-06-01 08:16:37

There's already a recording demonstrating this game.

Seems easy enough, might have to pick this one up myself.

https://www.applevis.com/sites/default/ … st1241.mp3

2019-06-01 12:26:46

All right, now that I understand how the game works, I can state a more educated opinion.
It's a great idea, and a lot of fun. The sounds are not bad, and while I initially thought some music might be nice, I now think it would distract from the strategic considerations.
The only minor problem I am facing is that VoiceOver often loses focus. I find it fiddly to hunt for the controls by touch and explore, so I use the swiping gestures, and sometimes randomly end up in the middle of the log, or there is a target but VoiceOver does not put focus on it while using swiping gestures, so I have to use touch and explore again.
It would be great to have something like this for the pc. Still, this mobile variant is worth its price.
Best,
EG

In the hands of a gamer, word becomes weapon, argument becomes shield, and life becomes a quest.

2019-06-01 13:57:34

I have found a pretty big bug. I've got over 1000 stars, but if I click on any of the upgrades such as ammo drop, nothing seems to happen, the stars stay at 1000 and it just sits there.

2019-06-01 14:25:58

@Eternal gamer, I usually swipe through everything anyway, unless I specifically want to look at the stuff near the bottom.
@Aaron, the shop is a bit confusing since it tells you the percentage you are of stars to buy each upgrade, and how many stars left to get, but not the total, and the figures don't update when you by something, however if you here a sound when you double tap you know you've bought the item.
I'm not sure how the various ammo/armour and fuel drops work, since mostly I've just concentrated on buying expantions to hold more ammo etc.

Oh and btw, it seems that weapon crates will refill whatever type of shells you have selected, so if your coming up to one, its usually wise I've found to go into the shop and see what your running low on.

I also believe that generally if you head towards a crate it adds distance on to the next target, so its usually wise to look at the nearest crate and target and see what is closer, though again I'm still experimenting with this.

Wave 10 is my best so far, but now I am a bit clearer on how things work I hope to get further next time around.

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.)

2019-06-01 15:00:10

so does this game require headphones? the more i'm reading about this the more i am liking the sound of it.

2019-06-01 15:07:27

ok i'm having trouble finding this game on the uk app store.

2019-06-01 16:15:21

@Darren, nope the game doesn't need headphones, and its definitely in the Uk ap  store (indeed I think Woodside aps are based in the UK themselves).
If you can't find it under the name, tank battle endless gunner, try looking up knight commander or one of woodside aps other titles and go  through the "more by this developer" link, that's how I found the game myself.

Okay, I've just checked a few things.
First, interestingly enough, you can cycle targets and crates by repeatedly double tapping on targets or crates, to see the distances of what is around you, this is a good idea since multiple things can attack you at once, also you are peanlised fewer points for using weapons at shorter range.

speaking of penalties, you also seem to lose points for picking up more supplies than you need, so its usually wise  look through the crates and see what you need when, EG you don't often need all the fuel.
I'm still working with the elevation and wind business, since I haven't really worked out why you'd want to use an elevation greater than 45 anyway, since you can't target at a distance greater than the maximum distance you can shoot.

I will say, on later levels the game gets a lot  interesting, especially when you start running into enemies that can move around, change your shots and generally mess things up.

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.)

2019-06-01 19:52:58

so I finally got the hang of this game and I love it. Keep up the great work

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2019-06-01 20:51:32

thanks dark. yes i got it in the end and am hooked. having the same sort of issue with elevation as yourself though. i have gotten up to wave 7. at the end of each wave do the stars get automatically applied or do you have to click on the amount of stars etc?

2019-06-02 04:03:49

I'm a little confused on shooting the enemies.
I get that you have to take wind into considderation and so on, but I keep finding myself looking at the enomies range, only to press the elivation button and hear the gun shell sound.
In the end, I end up just ramming my way through, and obviously that doesn't get me ver far smile
Can someone give me a bit of advice?

Though our eyes may fail, our ears prevail!
User Karma, every little helps

2019-06-02 04:29:20

Honestly, I stopped looking at the wind speed, as it really doesn't seem to affect my shots much. I'm able to one shot nearly everything just by using simple math.

Just use the shell closest to the range needed (without going over) and minus about 1 degree for every 10 in distance from you. If an enemy is around 933 from you, use the longest range shell (1000) with an elevation of about 37 or 38. Hasn't let me down yet.

2019-06-02 13:12:38

hi all, sometimes when i have 1, or 2 targets on waves, why does it say at the end, i have shot through more? trying to work out the elevation now. i think the dev wants increase the difficulty somehow.  also, to dark, it seems that when you select the shell you want to use, the crates replenish just that shell.

2019-06-02 14:09:31

@TheBlindSaiyan the elevation quote unquote button is more like a report on the elevation. Tilt your device to change it, and tap the elevation thing to find out your new elevation. When you are ready, double tap the elevation button to fire.

2019-06-02 16:41:10

So If I'm right in saying, the closer you are to an enemy, the lower you'll want to set your elevation?

Though our eyes may fail, our ears prevail!
User Karma, every little helps

2019-06-02 16:51:42

Hi.

at 40, yep, this is exactly what you want to do. Although the system confused me at first, because logically, the lower you would set your angle, the farther the shell would fly because the angle of attack is lower and the force pushing the shell could go directly forward.
Normaly, if you would want to shoot targets closer to you,  you would need to increase the angle of your shot, so the shel would go up, forward a bit and then fall back down to the ground, I don't know why the game handles this differently.

Greetings Moritz.

Hail the unholy church of Satan, go share it's greatness.

2019-06-02 18:53:48

I haven't noticed much with windspeed either, the manual says it only effects elevation over 50,but  45 is max elevation and will hit at max level of each shell, and you can't target things out of a shell's range, I don't really see how it plays any part in the game.

@Simba, I'm guessing the tank is one that uses soemthing like a Howitzer which goes up and down again. No this doesn't make sense, especially if its a modern tank, but it makes for a fun game big_smile.

About stars, you get them awarded automatically after each wave. You get most for one shot kills, and more kills according to how many targets you've distroyed in total as well as the targets you hit that wave, however, you also will lose stars according to how much fuel/armor/ammo you lose, and also how much you pick up in excess of what you need, especially fuel, this is why its wise to only use crates when you actually need more of something, though I've usually found armour the thing I run short of most frequently.

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.)

2019-06-02 20:10:44

well so far i've managed to get to wave 19. it's pretty good. can you get additional weapons further into the game? i ask because i think some weapon placements have a greater range than the hellfire.

2019-06-02 21:36:28

Yes, the elevation is a little backwards. Like Dark mentioned typically the higher the elevation the less a shot will travel. However this game is missing a key element that most games of this nature using physics typically have, how much force is being put behind a shot. Some of you may remember that old game that first came with Windows many decades ago, where you were faced against another cannon. You had to calculate wind speed, elevation (terrain), angle of your shot as well as the amount of gun powder you used.

I think the game tries to simplify using different shells over gun powder. The only issue with this is the shell has a cap limit on it's maximum range, but it really should be determined by the angle you shoot from. However I do understand that since the game is in real time, trying to configure all this would be difficult to do on the fly.

2019-06-03 05:13:01

here I thought we would actually get a cool game where you could drive a tank and kill stuff. people don't know how to make interesting games it seems.

2019-06-03 08:05:14

Does anyone know what the lower clicks mean when adjusting your angle?

I'm thinking it might be a way to know you're on target, but I'm not sure, since when I fire when I hear the lower clicks I'm usually spot on.

It's rare to miss when relying on the lower clicks.

2019-06-03 13:41:56 (edited by Dark 2019-06-03 13:43:15)

I thought the idea was that in theory you should be able to hit at higher distances than max range of shots by using  higher elevation, but since you can't even target when the enemy is out of range this makes matters a bit pointless. it also means that usually you end up dying because your stuck with a target at something like 2000 and need to crawl towards it at 100 m a turn taking massive damage  because of its longer range.
I don't know if the game will include extra force behind shots, but it'd be nice to see some way of either hitting at longer range, or avoiding damage, EG moving into cover.
Actually, it'd be quite cool if the game had elevation and cover included, so that you could drive your tank up a hill and get greater elevation for your shots, or drive behind a hill for cover from the enemy, but we'll see, since if woodside follow their usual pattern we should hopefully see more updates to the game later.

@DaddySpice, you certainly do get to drive a tank and kill things, its just that this game requires a bit more calculation and tactics and a bit less boppit style  hear it hit it, which imho is only a good thing, since we have waaaay too many action  which are all reaction at the moment.

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.)

2019-06-03 15:33:12

at dark, i think daddy spice was thinking more along the lines of being able to pick where you drive your tank. rather than taking it only towards or away from a given target.

2019-06-03 17:35:37

Make it for android! Please?

2019-06-04 03:23:44

yeah I actually meant you should be able to drive your tank around and kill things instead of being stuck to this wave after wave way too simple format that it is now.