What we say
Battle for Mars
Big week here, we released the full version of our strategy game Battle for Mars! I’m biased, but this is the game I always wanted to have on my phone. Actually, now that I think about it maybe that’s why we wrote it. It’s tough to go wrong with a game as big as this one for as cheap as we’re selling it. Some features:
- 17 unit types
- 6 building types
- 6 types of terrain
- 3 enemy races
- 6 quick start maps
- 12 map story mode/campaign
There’s soldiers, robots, artillery, boats, spaceships, repair droids, transport droids, transport boats, anti-air bots and so on. It’s crazy fun, if you’re into this sort of thing.
If you’re on an Android phone, here’s some links to the game: Free Trial and the Full Version. For everyone else you can check it out here here, last I checked it was #8 on the top paid games and climbing!
And check out the screen shots below for a preview of what the game looks like.
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It looks really cool.. I wonder if you are planning to port this game to the iPhone
We were considering it, but there’s already a pretty awesome looking strategy game coming out for iPhone, so we’re going to check that out first before we decide. Would be fun to have it on iPhone for sure though.
The link to the full version returns 404, and I can’t find it on the market. I’m on a rooted dev phone, but I can see other priced apps.
What gives?
We have copy protection turned on for the game, so dev phones (like mine) can’t see it. It’s a dumb situation, so we’re considering turning it off. Haven’t decided yet though.
I purchased the full version of this game and wondered if people would be able to share any good strategies. I can’t seem to make enough money to win.
Hi Kenny, good suggestion. I’ll post a strategy guide here soon.
Thanks! I just killed my phone’s battery on this awesome game.
Great game.
I’m stuck on the “Seperated Nations” map. It’s tough since they have 2 factories. Any good strategies for this level?
The best way to defeat the 2 factories is to utilize your naval station to make gun boats to line up around the opponent until you have enough to crush him and take the command center.
I’m stuck on “The Siege”; where its you vs 3 other groups.
I suspect I need to kill purple first, since they are the weakest.
I think John’s going to do a strategy guide for this game shortly as well, hopefully that’ll help people who are stuck. Meanwhile, post your tips here or email them in and I’ll do a post with the best suggestions.
This game is amazing. I beat it, but now I want more. How much would I have to pay you to make more campaign levels?
wow i played the first one an totaly mastered it to the ground! Cant waite to get this one an master it to the ground to but thesrs this game like it that i have on my psp called battle filed an yes i masterd it to the ground to to wont to be abole to play my frinds an beat them down to the….. ground YEA!!@!!!!!!
Bought, loving it, referred to a friend!
Thank you for making it available on dev phones!
I have an non-rooted G1 from T-Mobile and was unable to buy the full version. Said it could not find pname:com.larvalabs.tactics
I have won all the maps. First principle of the strategy is a good defense. (Turn off the animation to save your time, otherwise you will be playing the whole day for some maps.)
You will always be at disadvantage to computer in the beginning. So maintain your army well with tech bot. Normally go for Mega bot and Rocket as soon as possible. Try to avoid getting war bot and sniper bot except (Outpost). Depending on the situation, let the enemies with 1-2 life line, run away, fight off the enemies with more life around you first. (1-2 get usually healed to be 3-4 and come back, easy kill)
If the enemy has to cross the bridge to get to you, block the bridge with the mega bot accompanied by tech bot and rocket bot. Once you get them blocked, you are on a sound foot.
With multiple enemies, don’t engage in the fight, stay out of it and let them fight themselves (except in 4 players map where you have to face at least one).
“Venusian Invasion” is a bit tough for me in the beginning, the trick is not to let the extra factory fall into computer’s hand at all cost, and block the middle section with Mega bot.
For the seige, try to stay within your city and let the computer fight in front of you, bomb bot and tech bot are very useful here, occupy the mountain with soldiers, swap injured characters with the healed ones. Be aware of the spaceship. Swapping and patience is the key.
When I get to ‘the secret tech’, I was like “what the heck? how am I gonna win the computer with 2 mega bots and one rocket bot out already!” Well, patience and good defense again always. try to get the secret tech(you will lose it anyway but the point is to distract the computer from focusing all their force on the main buildings.) Avoid rocket by moving side to side, that way cpu has to send in more bot to kill you. In main, get as much bomb bot as you can and station them in your building, that way they can get healed themselves. When the megabot get near you, the bomb bots will be ready to fight them off. well try to balance out by watching enemies soldiers, so you might need to create soldier/sniper/war bot depend on how you balance it. Then get back the secret tech.
Martian revolt, start with 2 war bot, 1 sniper bot to guard the bridges. Then get mega and rocket as usual.
Territorial Battle, create special force soldiers in the beginning to keep low profile, if you have mega and rocket bot early, you will attract computers attention. Let the computer fight each other. By now, you should have developed skill for good defense.
If you have finished all the above, ‘battle fot mars’ is not that hard. Secure the tech and city on your side. kill and take over the computer on your side while the other two is fighting on the other side. After I have won the computer on my side, I secure all the available buildings and create a bunch of ‘battle pod’ for an assault. Cause ‘battle pod’ can go far.
for ‘islands’,'desert waste land’ and ‘center show down’, secure all the avaiable building, don’t provoke computer but be on good defense and you know what to do next.
‘Outpost’ cannot be won with defense cause it is very hard to defend. Get the tech building early(to boost your armour and not to let cpu armour increase). create about 4 snipers and bully cpu soldiers and dance away from its lethal foes:mega/war bot. when having a chance, sit on enemy factory to slow down their army creation. create war bot every time, to have multiple fire power, to outnumber the computer.
This game is amazing. Great job. Totally addicted to it. I play it everyday during my commute to work, and I’ve missed my train stop once because of this game.
However, it “froze” on me once, and wouldn’t let me complete a turn at all. Even rebooting the phone didn’t work. That game was completely lost, I had to start over. Frustrating.
Other than that, this totally rocks, keep up the good work.
I also bought Word Pops. Fun too.
Thanks for supporting Android!
I STILL cant get past secret tech….that one seems impossible! but is stilll the best game ever on phone. want something like it for my macbook!
Hey Alex, glad you like the game – do you remember if the game was on your turn or the computer’s turn? We recently released an update to the game with a few fixes to the computer player AI, so I’m wondering if that might have fixed the problem you’re seeing.
I’m an addict. I beat all the levels a long time ago, but still play over and over for fun.
I rank the difficulty as follows:
1. Outpost
2. Territorial Battle
3. The rest I beat every time
I still lose on outpost every once in awhile (maybe 1 in 5). The computer has great advantage, especially when they start going with rockets.
1 vs 2 was the free one, and it still remains one of my favorites. I like to beat up on the pink until the blue takes over, then try to defeat the blue. This makes a very tough game that I can’t quite beat yet. . . .
The only one that I occasionally lose on is the Outpost.
I would love to have more maps, as I have mastered all of the current ones. I super hope you have one in the works. Thanks again for the many, many hours of fun. Best $5 I ever spent.
Trick for outpost.
Don’t cross the bridge to guard the command center!!! If you don’t cross the bridge, you won’t attract the computer on the “command center” side (unless you really block their bridge so that they can’t cross it. You can’t block like that anyway.) Start with 2 Sniper bot to secure the “Research” building. Computer already has one Research building which improve their unit armour. If you lose another “Research” Building to computer, your unit armour cannot match computer’s. Here is a suggested sequence of creating units: 2 sniperbots, 1 soldier,(4 warbots and 1 sniperbot),(1Megabot, 3 Rocket bots).
Cheat/Bug/Game Design limitation
In crowded maps (4 players), at time, computer bots will overwhelm the whole maps. Don’t get panic! What will happen is that there are so many bots for the game engine to handle, the computer will pass their turn without doing anything. If you notice that passing turn, don’t go finish off the bots to wake up the computer. Attack them Just enough to reduce their armour, make your stratgey move, save up your resources, secure the unoccupied building, you can even conquer the base! The computer is just frozen/waiting for you to clean up the bots. Resist the temptation
.
It’s a bug. The computer got frozen too often in 1.5. Let me know if there is anything I can help you with finding out the root cause.
also noticed the game freezes on the campaign map on “the siege” and its on a computers turn every time. 1.5 phone.
Can you tell me what version you’re running? I thought v1.08 should have fixed that.
Android 1.5, BFOM 1.08. I think, it has to do with the units count on the maps. I have about 20 units with 3 computers and they have about 40-50 units combined I think.
Check out the latest version I just posted, 1.0.10. It won’t fix the problem but I’ve added an error reporting option. Enable it in settings and if you encounter an error in the computer player it will generate an email so we can try and figure out the problem. It’s been really tough to track down, hopefully this does it. Thanks for all the info.
We’re up to 1.0.12 now, which contains 3 fixes to issues reported by users with the new error reporting system. Keep sending ‘em in and we’ll keep fixing them (unless the game is now perfect).
1.0.12
Response is not snappy.
Battle for Mars map
I have 9 unit
Green has 13
Pink has 7
Blue has 11
Let me know if you want me to email the strace instead of posting here.
E/b4m (32513): Exception in compuer player:
E/b4m (32513): java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Comparison method violates its general contract!
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.TimSort.mergeLo(TimSort.java:743)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.TimSort.mergeAt(TimSort.java:479)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.TimSort.mergeCollapse(TimSort.java:406)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.TimSort.sort(TimSort.java:210)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.TimSort.sort(TimSort.java:169)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.Arrays.sort(Arrays.java:2489)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.Collections.sort(Collections.java:1940)
E/b4m (32513): at com.larvalabs.tactics.ai.ComputerPlayer.takeTurn2(ComputerPlayer.java:153)
E/b4m (32513): at com.larvalabs.tactics.ai.ComputerPlayer$1.run(ComputerPlayer.java:138)
E/b4m (32513): at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1058)
D/dalvikvm(32513): GC freed 3134 objects / 202632 bytes in 137ms
E/b4m (32513): Exception in compuer player:
E/b4m (32513): java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Comparison method violates its general contract!
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.TimSort.mergeLo(TimSort.java:743)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.TimSort.mergeAt(TimSort.java:479)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.TimSort.mergeCollapse(TimSort.java:406)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.TimSort.sort(TimSort.java:210)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.TimSort.sort(TimSort.java:169)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.Arrays.sort(Arrays.java:2489)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.Collections.sort(Collections.java:1940)
E/b4m (32513): at com.larvalabs.tactics.ai.ComputerPlayer.takeTurn2(ComputerPlayer.java:153)
E/b4m (32513): at com.larvalabs.tactics.ai.ComputerPlayer$1.run(ComputerPlayer.java:138)
E/b4m (32513): at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1058)
D/dalvikvm(32513): GC freed 1487 objects / 79840 bytes in 131ms
E/b4m (32513): Exception in compuer player:
E/b4m (32513): java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Comparison method violates its general contract!
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.TimSort.mergeLo(TimSort.java:743)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.TimSort.mergeAt(TimSort.java:479)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.TimSort.mergeCollapse(TimSort.java:406)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.TimSort.sort(TimSort.java:210)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.TimSort.sort(TimSort.java:169)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.Arrays.sort(Arrays.java:2489)
E/b4m (32513): at java.util.Collections.sort(Collections.java:1940)
E/b4m (32513): at com.larvalabs.tactics.ai.ComputerPlayer.takeTurn2(ComputerPlayer.java:153)
E/b4m (32513): at com.larvalabs.tactics.ai.ComputerPlayer$1.run(ComputerPlayer.java:138)
E/b4m (32513): at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1058)
oh error reporting feature. didn’t notice that.
Check out the new version 1.0.13 which should fix the bug you just posted.
rush through the campaign, yeh, it is fixed.
Win – Dead on how you described to beat outpost. I’ve found in other levels that starting with a sniper bot give a great advantage, especially when protecting buildings.
Still looking for new maps. . .My android told me the other day about another update from Batlle for Mars, and said there was a new map. . .”The Seige”. Sounded familiar, but was just moved from campaign to quick start map (still in campaign though). . . .
New maps please! Maybe 10-20 more? Or a feature that will let us design and upload them ourselves?
Anyone ever buy like 20 techbots, and line them up? I like to send my soldiers on that trek. . .fun to watch them run for awhile. ..
That’s my fault on The Siege, I blew it and included the wrong map in the quick list. However, I’m working on a new map that should be pretty fun, but it’s harder to get it balanced than you think. Should be out by the end of this week though.
On a related note, we’re trying an experiment where people can send in their own Retro Defense levels for us to include. Let me know if there’s interest on the Battle for Mars side too, I can post the map format.
Looking forward to the new map. . .
BTW, I’ve been a coder for like 15 years. . .mostly java. Is there a way I could build by own map using an api or subclass . . .or something? I think it would be fun to design a map and play with it until it gets balanced. I know the robots pretty well for the amount I play.
-Jason
Great game!
Few thoughts after playing many hours in the last few days (risking domestic peace…).
1. I can’t buy it for my dev phone. So I had to install it on my wife’s. Maybe for the better as then I can only work on vacation, but there is domestic risk there…..
2. It would be nice to have an “exit” functionality that frees up all resources immediately. I suspect the game to cause some slowness in everything else (more of an Android OS problem than a game problem). Right now, I reboot the phone to get rid of the game.
3. I am stuck at campaign map “Venusian Invasion” I have all the quick maps except Outpost. But I’ll figure it out, or read the tricks above.
4. As of tricks. On siege I use planes to block the bridges and you can just finish them off one by one. Even if the computer is very rich as they can’t do any fights, the computer doesn’t purchase the expensive units (like a flying city.) Computer just continues to throw easy units at the siege.
One more thing: A long time ago (20+ years, wow) I used to play Strategic Conquest on a Mac – seems to still be around: http://www.deltatao.com/stratcon/
What’s interesting in that is that as a player one doesn’t have full visibility. You have to discover the world map first, and then you have to have units around to see what’s going on there.
Yes, definitely. That’s called “fog of war” and would be something we’d definitely consider for a new version, it makes the game much more challenging. We just didn’t quite have time to fit it into this version.
Hmm, troops and robots are supposed to be able to go under planes to stop tactics just like you’re mentioning in #4. I wonder if something is wrong there, I’ll check it out.
Not at the moment there isn’t, but it’s something we’re trying to figure out. If there’s interest though I might post the Battle for Mars map format since it’s just a text file. Then people could send in some maps for us to include if they wanted. I guess more interesting than that would be a way to load those map files yourself to try them out, I’ll see if there’s anything we can come up with that makes sense.
Great job. Totally addicted to it but i’m stuck in “battle for mars”
I suspect this is the last level. But i curently want to update the firmware of my phone. Reinstall the game from the market is easy but I will loose everything and will have to restart from the begining. Is there any project to make the ability to save parties?
The only save mechanism at the moment is to the Android provided settings for the given user. We could possibly provide an SD card save export at some point in the future, but at the moment it’s not on the schedule. Sorry.
A few possible bugs and some suggestions:
UI: If a blue boat goes under a bridge that has a blue land unit on it, the blue land unit flashes red momentarily as the boat is passing
AI: If a unit goes under 4 points of health, the “Run for the nearest building” routine kicks in and the unit will do nothing else, even if it cannot move and it would make sense to just attack whatever unit is closest
General: It appears that the enemy AI can capture a building it passes over, even if it does not end its movement on that building. Example: A friendly building has an enemy bot on it and an enemy soldier next to it. The enemy soldier can move through the bot as part of its movement (fine) but can also capture the building as it does so (not fine). Suggestion: check for capturable buildings only at the end of a unit’s movement
UI: Don’t ask me if I want to destroy a unit when it finishes its turn. In fact, if there is nothing else a unit can do that turn apart from “hold”, don’t ask me anything. Only ask me if there is another option e.g. capture or repair. If I want to destroy a unit, I won’t move it first.
Gameplay suggestion: (Making things more like Wesnoth) Change how healing units work so they can provide up to X points of healing to adjacent units at up to 2 points per unit at the beginning of the turn
Gameplay suggestion: Give some units the ability to always attack first against slower units, even if the other unit has the initiative
Gameplay suggestion: (Making things more like Wesnoth) Allow units to gain experience for a kill and level up.
Gameplay suggestion: (Making things more like Wesnoth) Let us name units and keep them from previous levels
Tim, thanks for the suggestions and bug reports. Very helpful stuff here. I’ll definitely put the bugs and more minor improvements on the list for the next releases, but the more major upgrades (basically everything you suggest based on Wesnoth) will have to wait for a more major update I think.
Why is it that the enemy bots seem to be able to capture buildings. At first I thought I just wasn’t paying attention but it happens all the time, especially on Venusian Invasion. Its fine if not a bug but on purpose but you could mention in help file.
what are the research labs used for i grab them but i dont notice anything change?
I love this game and have burned mannnny hours – going to bed very late…
I love it so much that I have played each level many different ways- just with planes, just with boats, or just with land based units. Once you figure out how the computer makes decisions, it’s still lots of fun but predictable.
1) Stay low key, let the computer have what it wants
2) Build up money to build bigger things – be patient.
3) When plans are available, create them quickly and block access points. Use bombbots to keep them safe when needed.
4) Have a few Techbots around to heal them when they get damaged
I have played this by killing rotating which enemy to kill first and by which means – I have uninstalled it to save my marriage, and reinstalled it because I am addicted.
I wish there was a version for my PC – much easier to put in the background and still get something done
-Thanks.
Another one I just noticed:
Friendly units can pass through squares occupied by other friendly units. However, this appears to ignore other checks. For example, a droid can get itself stuck by crossing a mountain it wouldn’t normally be able to cross unless a friendly soldier was on that mountain.
So this map can result in a droid getting stuck between the mountain and the sea if a friendly soldier sits on a mountain as it passes (view in fixed-width font):
__M_____
_M_~~~~~
__M_____
Where _ is desert, M is mountain and ~ is sea.
Ive had this game and beat it a long time ago.. I got bored today and googled it..and here I am. This is by far the best $5 I have spent on this phone. I’ve put endless hours into it. My strategy is to play defense and overload with the basic soldier until my money is high. Then attack with overwheleming odds with a rocketbot and bomb bot. regarding sea and sky..DONT. Just buy the basic gun boat and basic sky ship which will kill all of the other units and give you control of sky and sea.. And it will save you money..
FUN FUN FUN. I hope you guys consider making another game.
I would love to be able to make my own maps! Any chance we could get the map code?
Yeah, that’s something we’re definitely considering. We did it for RetroDefense and we got quite a few maps. The map format for Battle for Mars is more complicated and difficult to see whether the map is working without actually trying it in the game, so we’re seeing if there’s anything we can do about that first.
I would love to see a map generator. Then we could use this forum to trade maps. Or even better, upload them for profit on android market. I would easily pay $5 for 10 more maps.
Are the maps comiled into your code, are read as a text file at runtime? Maybe they just need to be put in a directory on the phone, and it if passes check, it will be loaded automatically?
To developers: (gamers, please do not read)
I only make Battle Pods… they beat pretty much everything for the money, and other units cannot even attack them!??
Not only that, but for some reason other units cannot pass underneath them, making Battle Pod the ultimate unit.
Too bad discovering this practically took all the fun out of the game. Fly around with a bunch of these things, stomp everything on the way. God mode.
Have spent many hours on this and still haven’t beaten all the maps. Took me four tries to get through Venusian Invasion, though most of the other ones I beat first or second try.
.
Great game, great fun.
Looking forward to your next game
Ok, finally beat the last map after almost a day of play. Built up an entirely too huge army, and it took me forever to move everyone out of the way so that my soldiers could capture buildings
.
SSS: Serious Spoiler Strategy (Read at your own risk
)
The siege
. Well, if you don’t, create another Mega bot for the other side. You are on a very strong defense. Let other fight right before you and build up your cash for assault.
Pass the first round without creating anything. On the second round, create a Mega bot on either site (I don’t know why I always choose left side.) On the third round, put the Mega at space port, create two soldiers. On the fourth round, move down the two soldiers to two cities, create two more soldiers. On the fifth round, move the soldier inside to create another Mega bot. Now you should know what to do next
Secret Tech
and control the upper part of the map. I let computer bots come to their death at my two mega bots’ hands on the lower part of the map. Then put the soldier in Trans bot and travel to the computer command via upper map.
When I first play this map, this one scare me. The designer cleverly makes player play with 2 computers by giving computer two factories on either side of the map with two Mega bot and one Rocket bot out. But this map is easy if you know the trick! Create a soldier, send him to get the research building and come back. Create two Mega bot and let them sit in the base. Don’t make Mega bot go out to attack very far. Always make them station at the base. Create a battle pod and destroy the Rocket bot. You are on a strong defense now. I create a combat bot and attack boat (should stay close to Navy) to control the sea and air. Then I create a bunch of battle pod (about
Outpost
) or lose it (which is not good 
) Anyway, here is a very good opening move. On a first round, create a sniper bot. On a second round, put the Sniper bot at the research building to prevent computer from getting it and create another sniper bot. On a third round, bring back the injured sniper bot to the base (probably 8-9 but it must be healed.) Place the newly created sniper bot at the research building and create war bot. (By this time, computer probably have created a war bot and will attack the sniper bot at the research building) Get the seriously damaged sniper bot back to the base to get healed at the bottom city. Place the war bot to the next city (assuming the computer war bot will attack it.) Create a soldier. On the next round attack computer war bot with your war bot in the city and with soldier on the right side so that the soldier can go to the research building next. After that capture the research building… follow with creation of rocket bot. That is a 25% chance of winning moves. The rest depends on you. 
There are a lot more tips to this map. If anyone is interested, ask here and I will post them here when/if I come back here.
This one is very tricky. Only the skilled player can defeat the computer. I manage to beat the computer most of the times at this map but if I don’t pay attention or press the wrong button/command, I have to struggle a lot (which is very good
Well, the game is OK except that I can not finish a map half way through story due to computer controlled player turns coming up and then them never moving.
the units are interesting but the high end units are so much more powerful than the beginning units that its not even worth building the first units, just go for the big ones you will win every time.
For your comment on 3 enemy races, thats not really accurate.
there is only one “race” in the game, they just have different colors and names, units and strengths are absolutely identical.
All in all the game is OK and possibly worth buying IF and only IF they can fix the issue with the units just not moving.
VERY frustrating when your about to win and all of a sudden you have to start over again.
Could you turn on the error reporting in the settings – then if an error occurs you can email it in to us and we can try to fix it. Thanks.
@Deus
I have the same issue 3-4 updates before but not anymore. (Hmm… I wonder why you don’t have updated version
) When it happens, I go launch all the other (7-8) applications until I don’t see BfM in the application list when I press the home button for a few seconds. That way, BfM process is killed and when you relaunch it, it will get back you to the same game and the computer will move. Oh, talking about the game being very easy with big unit, have you been beating outpost consistently by creating big units first too? Let us know the strategy then.
Oh I beat the secret map on the first try! Don’t know how it shows up. I thought about canceling it and restart but I was afraid that I won’t get back the secret map. So I play on. This map also gives me the creep like “secret tech”. It has two computer. One is small and one large computer. A small one is there to give the large one more power cause it loses out to the large computer very quickly! Now it’s David and Goliath and you know who win
. It needs a very disciplined defense. Creating powerful bots is much needed but it won’t let you win cause the computer has two space ports (I have none) and one Navy (I have one). Let’s just say that computer has 3 factories (me 1), 5 cities (me 1 again) and 2 commands. Oh, I start with 0 balance and as usual, the computers have some. the bigger, the bigger sum.
I wonder if BfM will have multiple players soon cause there is an alert dialog box “Unlikely Ally”
I figured out how to get into the secret map!
1. Make sure you have no current games running, then open bfm
2. You will see a pop up talking about the new map (something ally)
3. Hit your home button (i’ve got G1)
4. Open up bfm
5. Presto! You will start with 0, and be scared of pink.
Thanks again for all of the new maps! The more the merrier, and a map creator would be cool. Even if I have to make it as a text file on my laptop, and move it to a bfm directory.
I love this game. any new maps coming? I would pay much more than the cost of the game.
how do u beat territorial battle
Great game, well done!
However has it been abandoned? There are some pretty major bugs unfixed. For instance, when selecting which enemy to attack when there are more than two options it will often refuse to cycle past the first two when tapping. The trackpad solves this but aren’t there touch only android phones?
Simple solution would be to allow target selection with a tap instead of cycling. Would also save a lot of time.
Also had a question… why are three taps required just to get to the attack dialogue? This is soooo frustrating during long battles. Three taps, then choose target, which can take another half dozen cycling taps if there are a lot of targets. Then confirm!
Movement? Why two taps just to get there? Wouldn’t it be logical to just open movement on first tap and menu on second. Put unit info option in the menu and now double tap selection has been removed from the game, as it should be on a touch device!
Don’t get me wrong, this is one of the best android games out there, but anyone who has played through the game knows how frustrating all the extra taps are.
At $5 it feels like this game deserves an update. Keep up the good work larva.
Love this game and would buy the full version but it is not available on Android market place for me — I am in the Philippines. Can I get it from you directly? I am an unlocked Nexus One.
please please, put this game on the iphone!!!!
Is this board still active?
I just started playing the multi-user version. It rocks! Here are a few suggestions:
-Beginnings are slow as people wait to accrue money and build up defense. Consider more funds to start the game a bit faster (not too much, otherwise the first player has too much of an advantage)
-Some maps are not well balanced. One way could be to auction off who starts. E.g. on Outpost, how much of a handicap are you willing to take to play what in single user mode is the computer?
-Need a “surrender” for multi-user. Otherwise you have to pay to the end, and it’s boring for both. I just destroyed all my units in one game, but it still was a few rounds for a soldier to reach my base.
Continues to be the best game. Tower Raiders came very close, but that will have a hard time beating multi player.
Hi Louis,
Yup, although this probably would be seen quicker if it was on the recent multiplayer post. In any case, to answer your questions:
- You’re definitely right there. That’s an interesting idea to have more money, although usually you still have just one factory so you can’t build too much to start anyway.
- We randomly assign players to slots right now, so at least you won’t know who gets the good slot (except for AI players, you place them in a spot). We included all the maps from the game, but maybe that was a mistake since some are lopsided as you mentioned.
- You can leave the game and the computer will take over for you.
Glad you like the game!
Please put the game on the SlideMe market as well. Many operators don’t have access to the standard google’s paid market. You are surely gonna make more sell if you publish it in SlideMe as well.
Hey Nikolay, it’s now available at SlideMe too: http://bit.ly/b4msldme
That’s pretty damn awesome! I’ve been waiting for so long I just can’t believe it’s available for me as well now. Thank you so much.
It’s just Murphy’s law that my damn SlideMe client began force closing, but i’m getting it sooner or later.
Got it. Started the campaign. This is just too awesome
thanks again.
Hey Matt, after playing for a couple of days the full version, I bough from the SlideMe, it showed the “Demo” screen again. I am once again restricted to one map, with no Naval&Air units. Could you please advise how to overcome this situation.
Hi Nikolay, there was a mistake in the last build sent to SlideMe which caused it to expire, the version that’s up there now works though so just update. Sorry about the mistake!
I have already found a way to exploit the multi player game to my advantage! I think, it will be hard to fix it. I will keep it to myself for now
got my VZ Droid today. The color and contrast is better on G1. And I am hooked to G1 track ball navigation and have to slide out keyboard on Droid to navigate and it is not the same obviously. How does other Droid users experiences of the navigation?
I love this game. I have played it for months. I got bored after a while with no major changes. When the multiplayer came out you had the ability to pick 3 computer and 1 human. I was able to play other characters then the earthlings. This made the game fun again. Now you made it so you have to pick at least 2 human players and those games can take forever to play. Can you add an option of choosing your side you want to be on instead of always being the earthlings. It makes the game easier but after beating it a couple times it isn’t worth the time setting up your strategy. I just wanna build my army and attack. Please let me know what you can do?
So for the past 2 days, my game will not load new turns for any of my multiplayer games. Any advice, as I really would like to get back to playing? Thanks in advance!
please! please! please! DO NOT port this to iphone — Android needs some great EXCLUSIVE titles so they can compete with iphone os. The game is amazing! The last time I played it though, the characters did not turn around when moving left… they just kept facing right. So I am guessing you will just create mirror images of the characters and write a few lines of code so they face the direction they are walking in. Aside from that minor gripe, this is my favorite game on Android!!!!
Hey Matt,
Just wanted some guidance from you, if you don’t mind. In my application i am getting the same error as you were getting in your game application(noted here by ‘Win’ in comment 19), which you have already resolved.
I am developing an application which uses Collections.sort(List) method. Here, this arraylist is containing objects of class Contact with ‘name’ as one of the instance variables for this class. I am sorting these objects based on this name attribute.
Can you please let me know, how did you resolve that general cotract violating error in comparison method? My error stack trace is:
Uncaught handler: thread main exiting due to uncaught exception
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.pixecon/com.pixecon.RequestActivity}: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Comparison method violates its general contract!
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2496)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2512)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at android.app.ActivityThread.access$2200(ActivityThread.java:119)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1863)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4363)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:860)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:618)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Comparison method violates its general contract!
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at java.util.ComparableTimSort.mergeHi(ComparableTimSort.java:831)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at java.util.ComparableTimSort.mergeAt(ComparableTimSort.java:449)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at java.util.ComparableTimSort.mergeForceCollapse(ComparableTimSort.java:388)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at java.util.ComparableTimSort.sort(ComparableTimSort.java:187)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at java.util.ComparableTimSort.sort(ComparableTimSort.java:142)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at java.util.Arrays.sort(Arrays.java:2384)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at java.util.Collections.sort(Collections.java:1928)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at com.pixecon.RequestActivity.onCreate(RequestActivity.java:85)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1047)
05-24 12:59:31.975: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(16046): at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2459)
Thanks.
the last few days my multiplayer won’t load new turns. has anyone else had this problem. it doesn’t have any of my games listed. i tried to uninstall and then reinstall but no help.
No reports from other users over the past few days. Email support if you’re still having the problem so we can help.