W.E.L.D.E.R. [Word Game]

[britt@highline]

Originally Posted by slewis7

I have to pile on concerning the Toxic tiles. I just played my first WELDER game in a long time and was gifted, I am guessing, around 7 of them for the first time in round 10. To add insult to injury, the first 2 of them were Qs. I survived, but not unscathed ;-)

On the positive side, I did encounter some much appreciated new features. The wrench is great and was really needed to get through those toxic critters. Also, the undo move is a mercy; I seem to fat finger things at least three times a game. That alone is allowing me to retain some follicles when playing WELDER.

Need less to say, for sanity's sake, I will defer welding further until that update arrives. My scalp will be thankful!

Oh mercy. Yes, that sounds a little rough. Level 10-12 just have way too many Toxic Tiles in the current build. We shipped the update to Apple at about midnight last night, should be in the store mid next week. Thanks for the support!

[fastspinecho]

I don't think the game can be fixed simply by making toxic tiles less common. Sooner or later one of them will drop into a location that is surrounded by other immovable tiles. That means sooner or later you will need to use the wrench, which means that despite assurances, you cannot play the game as before - you cannot ignore gigawatts.

The fundamental problem with the toxic tile, I think, is that it inverts the whole philosophy of Welder. Before, Welder was a game about patience. There were countless times when I would see a stuck tile surrounded by hot tiles and wonder how I could ever finish the level. But little by little, working from the outside in, the tiles dropped away one at a time. Ten words later, what a great rush to finally clear out that stuck tile and refresh the board. Of course, now there was a problem on the other side of the board... and so it went, until the level finished.

Now, the pace is completely off. Toxic tiles are impatient. The problem is not that they lower your score - that's a fair sacrifice to make. The problem is that without scoring, the game will end because scoring is directly tied to getting more swaps. Thus, you must give toxic tiles your immediate attention, or you will immediately lose the game.

IMHO, if I want a hair-on-fire word game that is constantly interrupting my plans, I will play Puzzlejuice. Welder used to be about taking your time to find the perfect play for the long term. Now the perfect play is automatically outlined in green.

The best solution would be to make toxic tiles optional, but that seems unlikely. The second best would be to somehow prevent them from accelerating the game end. Maybe words still score normally, but toxic tiles cause a score penalty each turn that does not affect swap accumulation?

[amn624]

Not a fan of this update. Worked for weeks to get where I am (level 13 and 51,000 points) and then without warning, you just change the way the game is played?!

That's beyond the pale. WELDER is a different game now. I'm not even sure I want to continue and after putting in so many hours of painstaking effort and patience, I'm quite annoyed.

[britt@highline]

I believe the update will fix both of the above mentioned concerns. Hopefully Apple approves it soon. Thanks for your patience!

[MarkDF]

Originally Posted by fastspinecho

I don't think the game can be fixed simply by making toxic tiles less common. Sooner or later one of them will drop into a location that is surrounded by other immovable tiles. That means sooner or later you will need to use the wrench, which means that despite assurances, you cannot play the game as before - you cannot ignore gigawatts.

I completely agree. I don' think making the toxic tiles less common fixes the problem with the inherent nature of the tile. It's a game changer no matter its frequency and a change I don't really welcome.

I, too, have managed to get myself up to level 13 and survived only because I had the free gigawatts. If I end up losing my current game because of the game change I won't be happy with the game at all.

[britt@highline]

Hi,

The new update should be out on Wednesday or so. I believe that our solution to the Toxic tile will work for our users. If it does not, we will be again revisiting it to get it right. Most users however, will never ever see a Toxic Tile again. Thanks for your patience.

[LordGek]

I just need to go on record as not being a fan of the new Gigawatts system.

I know the developers of this game are decent guys just trying to get a little money out of their months, if not years, of hard work on this game, but this Gigagwatt System has broken the game for me.

Gigawatts are cute in theory and can be used to buy any number of very useful perks, but now the game has no clear end. I can't get around it being simply a matter of playing as long as I'm able to pay for additional swap recharges or wrenches. How is this NOT a case of pay to play? Sure the costs of using the same power-up multiple times in one game go up progressively, but it still means, if I were willing to fork out the cash for more gigawatts, I could keep playing, right? Even worse, it sounds like these Toxic Tiles pretty much REQUIRE the use of a Wrench, meaning as others have just stated, this new Gigagwatt System is not just something optional you can ignore.

While you can earn gigawatts in game, it not only is a fairly tedious process, it would be a matter of intentionally playing in an inefficient manner. So each time one plays it would be a matter of grinding for gigawatts in a game that is then doomed to not get very far due to all of the wasted swaps just to earn gigawatts, or playing a game where you actually use whatever gigawatts you've manage to save up so far in hopes of getting a highscore.

[deckard]

Yep, what he said, x100.

[MarkDF]

Thank you for the new update! I haven't seen a toxic tile yet and I'm back being able to enjoy the puzzle aspect of the game.

[deckard]

Agreed, the last update has been pretty awesome. The game just feels much more playable now (just me or does it seem like the game is more generous with cascades now) and toxic tiles are very rare. I think this is a really good spot for this game to be right now, still plenty challenging but with enough features to make it accessible to more casual players.