BYM - The Mission Continues...

The latest video blog can be found here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTpIdrM03c0

This episode Fear talks about Backyard Monsters By the Casual Collective. New monster release, upgraded catapults, and upgraded walls. Fear tells the story of why he thinks the new changes will be better for his group of players.

A few side notes I would like to touch on here. With the previous version of the way they had the game mechanics, you could essentially make a base that was mostly impossible for attackers to make any kind of return on their investment. While this worked wonders for those folks that just like to attack and laugh at you while you try forever to retaliate and crack their base, it was also causing people to stop attacking. I believe the designer saw through this. It was going to be my next topic for BYM, but since he has the same thought process I do on the matter, I can move on.

The biggest issue with the new catapult change is that it was destroying so many blocks, it was discouraging people from playing or rebuilding their base because of all the work involved building blocks, and then placing them back where you had them. Since they fixed that issue, and gave us a way to make the blocks stand up against large attacks, I can't bitch about that either.

I would say that the catapults largest attack mode is a tad overpowered, but I understand that you can only use that a very limited number of times. It will be awhile before people get their bases upgraded, and as I am level 37 or so, I am in no hurry to have other players get ahead of me.

I think the focus of the game and the strategy has changed. It is no longer a matter of if they can take down your base, it is more a matter of how much you are willing to lose by planning your base poorly. You need to understand how the weapons work and use them to your advantage. You are going to have repair times, but as long as they don't take your resources, I don't see the big deal. I will work on attacking you and getting maximum return on my investment, you need to make sure I can't do that.

I will be trying out some new bases now, that I wouldn't have attacked before and see how that goes. I am hoping to run into the new level 4 blocks and see just how much punishment they can take.

Overall, I think the changes are great. I know there will be some tweaking soon, but I have had some real fun the last few days discovering all the new features.

Talk to you all next time!