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[Aoi]

I admit, I'm not quite sure what to make of A Little Planet of Mine yet, but it's intriguing so far.

You control a civilization beginning from a hunter/gatherer stage up through galactic power. You manage things from a cutaway view of the planet divided into sections, so it's sort of like looking at a clock. You build up your population, decide what buildings go in what sections, toss 'em in there, and let them have at it.

The complexity comes in with the resource system. Early on, you're basically working with just wood, stone and food. However, there's a finite amount of resources. You can harvest natural resources with three units at once, but that'll deplete your forests, which means no more wood.  If you only use a single harvester, the natural regeneration rate is enough to allow it to recover, but you're harvesting at a slower rate. You've also got some resource nodes that are entirely limited--  fresh water, crashed satellites with rare high-tech stuff, etc. Adding to the complexity mix is different types of terrain and adjacent sections will influence what you can get. Wild animals adjacent? You have a higher chance of pulling fossil fuels or fertilizer, which means that, despite the animal taking up a block on your increasingly crowded planet, you might not want to exterminate them. Advancement appears to be largely about building your vertical chains correctly; wood leads to coal which can turn into glass with the addition of sand... but that's already process that takes a minimum of 3 sections/pops, and you can't even do anything with it yet. For something shorter, farms produce 'free' food in return for taking up a section/pop, but if you want to use up your water supplies, there's a 50% increase.

Unfortunately, I haven't explored contact with other civilizations yet since the first three planets I managed to send rockets to were the equivalent of Venus and my 300-turn game expired by then.

The free version basically acts as a long demo; you're locked to one race (I think; or the menu was broken) for 300 turns, which is more than enough to get a grasp of what's going on, and severely screw yourself over (in three different ways, while I was bumbling about...). Unfortunately, it seems to have some stability issues; I was getting random hang-ups which were getting a tad frustrating.

[Wiles]

I purchased the upgrade to unlock everything in this Little Planet of Mine because I was so intrigued by my initial 300 turn game. I played a bit of the freeform mode but I haven't really been able to grok the game yet. The game doesn't really explain much and you're left to figure out how to acquire a lot of the more advanced resources on your own. Which isn't really a bad thing, but it has stopped me from playing as much as I thought I would. I play mobile games irregularly and for short periods of time so I tend to get into games that don't have too much of a learning curve. Not that it seems overly complicated, it just seems like it will take some trial and error to suss out the resource system.

Another recent game I have tried is Demise of Nations. It is a free turn based strategy game with micro-transactions to unlock maps and some other cosmetic features (fancier custom avatars for example). You also have to use their currency to host (not to join) a multiplayer game. I think it costs 5 gold to host a game, but you start with 100 and you earn gold as a daily log in reward and for completing games. There is no cost to playing singleplayer. The thing I wasn't so pleased about is that it took my real first name as my username in the game and it would costs 250 gold to change it. It's pretty annoying that it used my real name instead of my google play games profile name. I don't use my real name for anything gaming related.

The game itself seems fairly interesting so far. However, I haven't completed a full completed a full game yet so I can't relate how it holds up long term. It is reminiscent to games like Civilization on PC but it focuses mostly on combat. There are some differences to the civ formula, for example you do not build cities, instead you capture neutral cities on the map to expand. Claiming more territory is as simple as walking your military units around the map. Diplomacy with the AI is also very simple, they offer alliances, they trade, ask for aid or threaten you not to war with their allies. Forging alliances with the AI seems rather easy, I was spammed with alliance invitations from my neighbours pretty early on. I was playing on one of the easier difficulties though, so that might have an effect on diplomacy. The combat is also similar to later hex based Civ games, you build units and run those units into the enemy units until they are dead. There seems to be a decent variety of units as well and they all have strengths and weaknesses (like mounted units are good against infantry and ranged units but vulnerable to spear units). There is also a weather system and units have different penalties associated with the weather (for example rain would affect your archers more than your spearmen). The game feels fairly aggressive early on, you start with enough resources to build a lot of units and you can use units you purchase the turn after you purchase them. There is also a tech tree but I haven't gotten far into it yet. I am not sure how tech works yet - I know some maps start in the Roman era, while others start in the modern era. What I do not know is if you can progress from ancient to modern tech, or if they are separate game modes with their own tech trees.

Maps seem overpriced to me, I have seen them range from 4-5$ (in Canadian dollars) for a map or 20$ (listed as 50% off 40$) for all of them (including access to modded maps people upload). I think you can purchase a random map generator as well (it is listed as a map, for 4$), but it is hard to judge how good or balanced that is since it is unofficial. The game comes with a map of ancient Europe and I also found a free map (as far as I can tell it is the only free map) of modern Europe on the store.  You can also pay for the maps with the in game currency, I have seen them range from 400-1000 gold. There is also an editor but it is only available for PCs, you can't edit them through the game on mobile. I have no idea how that system works yet.

The feature that attracted me to the game is the asynchronous multiplayer. I find it hard to game with most of my old gaming buddies due differences in schedules so that is a feature I value a lot in strategy games. The way turns work in the game is everyone takes their turn at the same time and the game resolves everything at the start of your next turn.

[Aoi]

I'm going to open Merge Dragons with a caveat-- it's supremely pointless, only one notch above an idle game, but that notch makes all the difference in terms of "feel", that pushes it into a very shallow 'just one more minute...' field for me, and into a bad psychological area, in my opinion. On top of that, this thing is basically Delayed Gratification: The Game.

The basic gameplay is on a grid, on which you're dragging things around. When you place three (or five for a bonus, or multiples thereof) Things together, they merge into an upgraded Thing+1. Repeat ad nauseam. This is really it. You're mostly just hanging around waiting for that next combination to make something "new".

You have your home base and a series of stages; the stages tend to either be VERY easy (most of them can just be brute forced with adequate time) objective-based ("make Thing+4") , or very loosely puzzle-oriented where there's a very fixed number of options. After finishing a stage, you get a random assortment of stuff to choose to send back to your base for free, or for IAP.

The base is where I spend most of my time-- you need dragons to unlock more sections of the map, life force (or something) to open dead tiles on the map, and, there's that psychological desire to get that next Thing+1. In addition to unlocking more of the map, dragons are used to harvest tiles, greatly speeding up the process of getting new stuff... but they have a limited number of charges before they need to reset. It becomes a bit of a logistical nightmare at my point: I'm juggling six major upgrade paths, and every tier requires an exponentially growing base to advance further, and there's a very finite amount of space to work in. And this is where that bit about delayed gratification kicks in big time here-- a combination of 3xThing yields 1xThing+1. A combination of 5xThing yields 2xThing+1. And a cascading combo awards increasing amounts of bonus life force... and (almost) EVERYTHING gets improved by their combinations-- 3x1g coins yields a 1x4g, for a 33% increase, or 5x1 yields 2x4, for a 66% increase... at the cost of having to waste space on the field and the time to accrue it. INCLUDING the rare drops that give IAP currency. But there's more delayed gratification going on! A lot of base components will upgrade themselves over time at a 1:1 ratio, instead of 3:1 or 5:2, but, again... over time.

There ARE a number of hard-timed mechanics, like waiting for energy to restore to do more stages or dragons to rest up, but that's it. You could sit in your base for hours, picking up things that spawn, shoving them around, etc.

So, yeah, very simple concept, over all very pointless... but oddly fascinating.

[AzyWng]

Flippy Knife, which has been in the top charts for a while now, is basically "Why Throwing Knives Suck In Real Life: The Game." It's actually comprised of four minigames, each revolving around throwing knives in some manner.

Each knife is a little different. The Butcher knife, for instance, has a whole edge instead of a point, and is a bit heavier, while the Police knife has only one point that must stick into its target. It's rather difficult to get more coins, but playing "Arcade" is probably the easiest way since your "Prize" bar doesn't deplete like the bars in other minigames, even if you make a mistake.

And you will make mistakes very often.

All in all, it's a fun but frustrating time waster that helps dissuade people from throwing knives in fights.

[sambojin]

Robots.io just got a big balance update. Everyone can look awesome, everyone can make awesome games, and there's no more twin shield monkeys pretending that they're awesome. Or there is, but they're balanced now, not overpowered as shit.

******

Remove VIP needed to create custom games
 - Remove VIP needed to robot customize
 - Once in 24 hours the clan loses 10% of respect

Rebalance:
 - "Energy shield" reload 16s->18s, active time 5s->4s
 - "Mortar" reload 5s->4s
 - "Shotgun" reload 5s->4s
 - "Jump module" reload 37s->25s
 - "Speed module" reload 17s->15s
 - "Titan shield" add hp 800->880
 - "Argument" reload 5s->4s
 - "Resonator" reload 45s->35s, damage 360->300

Still sitting pretty at #13 world rankings-wise


All your dreams came true!  You can now ride a bright pink and mauve mech into battle, and crush everyone who dares oppose your sense of fashion!

[Aqma]

Thank you sambojin for the Pathos recommendation, amazing game with an actual mobile oriented interface!

[sambojin]

Yeah,  Pathos is really good as Nethack-likes go. I was surprised I'd never heard of it before. One of the best roguelikes on mobile today, and free!

My only other gripe with it is not knowing what spells your character is going to start with. I shouldn't really complain though, knowing what your starting gear and stats will be is big enough of a boon.

Forgot to mention that you can start with whatever pet you want as well. Dog/cat/horse/bird. Dogs and cats still check for cursed items (they bark or meow at them, which is cute), birds avoid all the traps due to flying (but are kind of hopeless otherwise due to stats/HP, but do double attack ) or you can start with a horse (IE, everyone can be a knight, just not as good at it).

There's also crafting. Crafting is really good. Find a workbench, scrap a useless potion (for magic'y material) or some junk weapons for iron/wooden stuff, then see what you can make. At worst, you'll usually get two rings of regeneration (one for you, one for a pet/charmed that never starves anyway) out of it. This is how you can restock lots of the trickier to find items as well, like bullets, shotgun shells, bolts, arrows, whatever. Makes being a ranged shooter a lot easier.

Equipping charmed/dominated/raised/fed stuff is also WAY easier. You can get quite a cohort going if you want. Considering the bard can charm the guard captain in Minetown for a good while if you start with the Magic Harp,  giving you a guaranteed lvl10 tank and pack mule every game (that uncharms to neutral, and can level up too I think), it's worthwhile knowing that you can pick what they wear and carry.  Just give it to them ("share" it after clicking on them), then try and equip it.  I haven't actually tried a shopkeeper yet....  Tried it, doesn't work. Does work on baby blue dragons, etc though, so you can have a fairly nice mount early on at least. Flying mounts make Sokoban a lot easier, for when you don't actually want anything but some free food and equipment, but no bonus "you solved it" stuff. Really hoping to run into an OoD Hydra for multi-attack goodness some time with a bard. There's probably better stuff too. Going to have to go through the Entity lists at some point and do a monster wrangler run. You're not that bad as a mage or a shooter as a bard either, and you still get crafting for cheap and guaranteed ammo/sundries too



More silly stuff I've found: your fledgling Raven pet may not have hands or feet, but it does have 10 strength. So you might not think it could,  but it can be a pack mule with up to 150 pounds of items held by him.  Good buddy. Fly harder!

Polymorphing things is also incredible. And happily permanent when done to pets (and probably everything else too). I poly'd my last Raven into a Juggernaut. That's usually a lvl30 creature, with donk loads of HP, doing up to 40 damage a hit. Needless to say, I died riding around on it, but it was still going strong. Yes, it could level up too. Don't know if that means it gets even MORE stats slowly, or if it just starts out lower than normal. It had HEAPS of HP and was doing 12-40 damage though, so I think the former. So tripe, lichen corpses, apples etc get a bit of extra value, because creatures fed them are perma-charmed, and wand zapping is fairly safe as a way to ID stuff in this, so find that poly wand. And nothing ever starves but you. Which is why I like bards (that Horn of Plenty extends your food clock and gives you even more pets than just your Harp playing skills can. It's a really nice package, barring the lowish strength stat).

A few runs later, my pets had died but there was a neutral rabbit there, just flopsying around. One melon and a poly potion I threw at his head later, and he's an Ogre King. Doesn't sound that great, until you realize that OKs summon 1-2 friendly ogres when they attack without a weapon. So I've now got a poorly-trained but well-equipped cadre of ogres roaming around, holding all the random crap I find but will never use. They're not very good, but having four spare meatbags and a summoner is nice. They've got darts, daggers, big chunky weapons and heavy armour. They're slow, but it means I've always got a "safe room" a few squares behind me at all times.  It's nice,  especially considering it all started out as one little random neutral rabbit on lvl8.

Starting to think this game might deserve its own thread. It's on PC, Android and iPhone, so anyone who likes NH-lite can play it.

[etgfrog]

There is a game that has been around the android store for a while called "Event Horizon - space rpg". Its essentially like the old star control games except with ship customization and potentially tough AI. Quite often you have to out stat the enemy to beat them because the AI is very good at dodging at higher levels and with perfect reaction time. That isn't to say there aren't flaws in the AI, such as dodging a stream of weaker projectiles to run into a large projectile. The game received some hostility directed at it was developed because two different updates had removed save files, but it looks like development has stopped and it looks to be stable now.

[AzyWng]

Snipers Versus Thieves is a PVP(?) game where a group of four thieves must run to their escape van while being shot at by a sniper.

Both the thieves and sniper have gadgets that allow both sides an advantage, from deploying a diversionary decoy to getting one explosive shot.

The thieves must run from cover to cover, using stamina and adrenaline to run faster. Stamina restores over time when a thief is not running, but adrenaline is boosted by taunting (exposing yourself to sniper fire) and always goes down no matter what.

Gadgets are acquired in a manner similar to Clash Royale, matches can get you cases which take time to open. This can be sped up with gold.

All in all, cool concept, and I like the game.

[sambojin]

Well, I've started playing Mobile Legends: Bang! Bang!  (as it's called in my region of Australia for some reason, not just Mobile Legends). It's kind of fun.

It could be deceptively p2w (you do have emblem sets, that you can buy for money, but it seems like it'll be about 10% advantage across the board with a $$$$$ purchase. But as well all know, stats scale mightily, more than their apparent number shows). It does take a tiny bit of skill still, not just stats from level-ups or buys from the shop, but gear is king. It's a  proper MOBA, so laning, gear buys, etc are in full force (not a real twin-stick shooter, like I was hoping, so auto-aim is most definitely "ON").

Can't really say it's great, but it's the best MOBA adaption to mobile that I've ever played. So it's good, but there's always that creeping doubt as a newbie that it's LoL, not DoTA2, and some heroes are flat out better than others and can be purchased.

Then again, the default hero "Layla" scales right the fuck out of control with a decent attack set, so it's not a simple p2w or grind-money-grabber.

(note: don't buy "Miya" with your initial tutorial battle-thingies. She's "ok", but the stun has a huge delay on working, she actually seems squishier than I thought (regardless of the durability bar on hero preview), and her stun escape isn't actually that good. And she doesn't seem to scale as ridiculously well as Layla with items (who is free, and has a quick-to-use AoE slow and damaging ultimate anyway).

(note 2: learn to use your Regen's and battle-thingo. They're just another cooldown skill.  And considering a match takes 7-14 minutes usually, just damn well pop them. 30secs-1min cooldown seems like a lot, but it's not. And you will die if you don't).

[sambojin]

Couple of quick blurbs on games I've been playing or just tried out:

Galatic Warrior is a top down, arena style hack'n'slasher. Kill all enemies, next wave appears. Kill nine waves, and the boss appears. It controls fairly fluidly, has cutesy pixel graphics, and has a bit of a progression system to get new cooldown skills and to level up gear and stats. It's quite fun, in a simplistic way.

Obelisk is like Galactic Warrior, but far simpler and quicker. Was apparently made in 72 hrs for a Lundum Dare Comp. You've got a sword and a grapple chain, that is it. Then you go and kill everything. There was something else like these two that I played recently, but can't remember the name of. It was quite good too, and you could knock people off cliff edges. Anyway, I think I just like this genre, and it works well on mobile.

Fist of Truth is like Hearthstone, but played on a 3x3 grid, you can play vs AI if you want, and there's five different factions for card synergies (although there's plenty of "does it for any/all" cards available, at a slight mana premium). Turns are simultaneous, and the 3x3 grid rather than the 7x1 allows for some depth of defense and extra unit positioning options for spell use, battlecries, etc. It actually looks like it might be really good, and is only in early access stage for now. Small client, some simple and some complex effects, and a cartoony basic art-style that I'm fine with. Give it a try if you want a CCG that is quick to play but might also get very cool after you get plenty of cards. Has a card-burn mana-ramp system, so you can go mid-range or high mana more easily, and it takes more duff-hand end turning out of the equation. I've only done the tutorial, but the game might have legs to it. Refreshing in its simplicity, but with possible depth of strategy available too. Probably will suffer the standard "this card entirely outclasses that card, and I have it and you don't" thing of most CCGs, but that's to be expected. Have a look if you've got a spare twenty minutes.

[AzyWng]

I can't seem to find Galactic Warrior or Obelisk on the Apple App Store.

[Aoi]

Fist of Truth is like Hearthstone, but played on a 3x3 grid, you can play vs AI if you want, and there's five different factions for card synergies (although there's plenty of "does it for any/all" cards available, at a slight mana premium). Turns are simultaneous, and the 3x3 grid rather than the 7x1 allows for some depth of defense and extra unit positioning options for spell use, battlecries, etc.

There's another feature that I find to be particularly interesting-- turns are executed simultaneously, but there's an order to which the units act: Front to back, top to bottom. This leads to some additional tactical decisions: Early on, you'll run into a unit that gets stronger the more adjacent (4-dir) units there are. Do you put it in the middle of the field, where it can get four adjacent units, making it extremely powerful, but risking the top and front units being destroyed, rendering it weaker, or in the bottom back corner which is more protected, but with only two adjacent units and the possibility the match may end before it gets to attack?

[sambojin]

I tend to lead with top/front, then go to middle. If I've got one of those units, my second goes mid/mid, to give a +2 on turn three. That's enough value for a two mana unit to my mind. Incidentally, that magical buff spell, the +1/+3 one is actually incredibly good value in this game, since it's being thrown on a body already. Actually, defense in general seems a little undervalued mana-wise, considering how useful trading is, and that you'll almost always be able to chuck some extra attack at a problem easily enough, but high defense cards are fairly thin on the ground.

Some of their card design decisions seem strange. You start with a 2 mana 2/1, and a 2 mana 1/1 with a conditional +1/0 text. The former outclasses the latter due to not being conditional, yet there they both are in your starter deck, showing off some odd design choices right from the word go. Maybe there's a warcry trigger card somewhere that can make the second card better, but I haven't gotten it yet.



Not on Apple Store? This 100% confirms my past fears. Apple is shit. Or maybe they're just a small dev team, so these games are "exclusive" for now. They might pop up there later. More and more indies seem to be going to Android these days, even though it's a more fiddly platform to develop for. Not sure why. Probably just making games on the phones they use, and indies don't tend to buy overpriced piles of junk

[SHAD0Wdump]

Some of their card design decisions seem strange. You start with a 2 mana 2/1, and a 2 mana 1/1 with a conditional +1/0 text. The former outclasses the latter due to not being conditional, yet there they both are in your starter deck, showing off some odd design choices right from the word go. Maybe there's a warcry trigger card somewhere that can make the second card better, but I haven't gotten it yet.

The conditional is actually persisting. Meaning as long as you can place it early and defend it, it can actually hurt a decent amount. The other 2/1 is kinda trash, a vanilla 3 in stats for 2 mana when the ballpark seems to be at least +2 over the mana cost made me ditch it as soon as possible.

 The fears of cards getting 'Just Plain Better' seems to be confirmed early on too. There's also a $2 store item that advertizes +15 vitality. I have not checked pvp to see if this vitality relates to in game player health like I suspect, but that is my current biggest pay to win warning light right now.