Overcomplex and I'm not in the mood for it starting out learning everything. Feels like it copied that other Bot Arenas. I much prefer just levelling up to specifications.
The thing with this game is that it's as if too much work was put into it.. there's a point where you take a break from making this kind of game.. but they pushed it too far.. and then it's too complex, slow, and boring. There's my explanation.. it's just an okay game and as I expected.
That, and tanks with noncontiguous bubbles (bubbles not touching), and minimally constructed tanks.
As is, small tanks are too survivable - they can zoom around the arena avoiding most bullets and they have no issues taking occasional hits. The only time a small tank is going to be in trouble is if it gets glued, and even then it'll be fine if it keeps its distance from enemies.
Conventionally built large tanks have issues surviving the DPS of harder missions because of their large signature radius - everything in the arena can hit them with minimal effort and they have issues dodging. Large tanks with noncontiguous bubbles, though, are a completely different creature - by sticking a small bubble in the corner, you have a tank with a signature radius potentially as small as a Class 1 with the survivability of a larger tank and the ability to use larger weapons like the Massive Cannon. Sure, you become less maneuverable than a Class 1, but if a Class 1 can survive being webbed, then so can you.
Also, there's no incentive to use all your bubble points, as a complex awesome-looking tank with lots of bubbles is just as survivable and combat-effective as a barebones tank with little more than weapons strapped to a single bubble (if any).
The game would be more balanced if:
- Smaller tanks get a serious hitpoint nerf - two to three hits from an enemy heavy cannon should take an average Class 1 tank down. Piloted correctly, you shouldn't be getting hit anyway - a class 1 tank's main defense is evasion. - A projectile crossing the invisible line between a detached bubble and the closest adjacent bubble counts as hitting your tank. - A tank gains a small amount of additional damage resistance for each extra structural bubble. Larger bubbles add more.
atomicinf took the works right out of my mouth - i wholeheartedly agree with what he said.
I also want to add that although the complexity and freedom offered is a nice idea, the slow (and laggy) pace of the game pushes players to either quit or resort to cheap, one-dimensional tactics to get through the game more quickly. For example, all my tanks were one small bubble + as many 5-spreads as I could tack on.
The rate of increase of gun points is simply too slow and makes going through the first 15 or so levels a tedium. There should really be a gun point awarded after every level.
In addition, some of the unlockable guns make the previous guns completely useless (i.e. the 5-spread renders over half the other guns obsolete). So while it seems like there are a lot of gun choices, in the end most people are going to be using 5-spread, exploding pierce, and/or area burst. I would suggest re-balancing the damage values and gun pt costs to provide incentive to use a wider assortment of guns.
All in all, the idea is nice but the execution could definitely be improved with some tweaking.
Holden012 - system specs (OS, CPU, GPU, RAM)? Is your Flash Player up to date? Do other Flash games work correctly? Does BTA continue to not work if you switch to another browser?
Although I love the Bubble tanks series (really loved that tower defense game), Arenas is just not as fun to play as BT2. The main problem for me, is the pace. It is just so very slow, that I get very bored, and just have to stop playing. And thats not just how fast you get gun points (which is a rather slow rate also), but the speed of the tanks and refire rate is really too slow.
One of the reasons I loved Bubble Tanks 2, is since it was so fast, you could easily clear a bunch of bubble fields, try out a bunch of different tank types, and just having fun shooting stuff. While in Arenas, its so slow, it begins to feel more like a chore then fun.
