Hey, just found this little addicting game....
Got to mission 5 (Level 45, but then I died. >_>)
The trick is to make mazes out of the turrets.

http://www.xgenstudios.com/play/xenotactic

Ripper

Awesome...sure makes tower defense seem like a cheap thrill now...


Derek

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Cpl D. Smith CMD
A04/TQ1.0.62147E1


RIP Pvt. Chris Chulamanis A14/TQ4.0.66993E7 You are missed.

Mission 2 is tougher than 1, but 1 was easy once you know to make a maze

There goes the rest of my weekend!!

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Made it to Mission 3 level 27.

I didn't bother with anything other than the Vulcan guns for the entire maze. With a few missile launchers scattered about.

Makes it interesting when the helecopters come through (the missile launchers don't fire at them- you need the air defense system for them).

Anyway- on level three once I had the maze set up, the Vulcan's don't have enough firepower- I tried selling them to upgrade, but it didn't work out. I was overrun.

THEY'RE COMIN' OUTTA THE WALLS MAN!!!

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

Hah Sarge, you make it sound so insane.
I started out as a Vulcan fanboy as well, but I found that upgraded Plasma Towers (Called BFG towers. ) have a better DPS.

I got to Mission 6 Level 73, and well, it wasn't pretty.
11 BFG Towers + 5 DCA's = death
>_>



Ripper

You can upgrade the towers themselves?

LOOK OUT BUGS HERE I COME!!!!

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

Can't get past game 4 level 36.

ok, game 5 level 44, must stop playing

Yeah umm...

Could you share how you got to mission 5?

Just as you were- I'm stuck in the 30s on mission 4.

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

I found marginal success by using un-upgraded vulcans to make the longest maze and then use a limited number of super upgraded plasma towers at key locations. The flying guys come every 7 rounds in game 5, so you have to start prepping for them well before.

OK, have fun at D-Con while I sit around trying to get past level 71, moping about not being at dcon.
Things I have learned;
Use Vulcans like barb wire to build your maze
Try to upgrade a weapon all the way as soon as you can
Find a balance between positioning guns to kill early and positioning to be in the center.

OK I've cleared mission 5 now. My problem was I was trying to upgrade my plasma towers all at the same time, rather than concetrating on one tower until it was at full strength (a lesson I should have learned from playing old school Tower Defence ).

Quite a surprise to see those gigantor helecopters emerge on level 49 (and they were the only ones to make it past my defences).

I'm not going to attempt mission 6 until I get back from D-Con- too much to do, to little time.

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

Guess the game's maker doesn't know what SAM means though...

Well I hope you all had a good time this weekend. I found a trick to getting further. If you create a reversible maze which requires all the aliens to stop and turn around multiple times you can focus all your upgrades on the airpower.
It got me to level 79.

Funny, I did that as well Joe.
Got me to level 71 though, and a heck of a lot slower.
The air eventually did me in with 6 DCA's Towers.....

Ripper

So create a maze with a couple of long parts that come to a dead end? Or a couple of L shaped dead ends so they can't "see" that it's a dead end?

Bit confused on that one.

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

As soon as I have 2 hours to play again I will try to grab a screen shot. You start the maze going in one direction and then slowly build out the maze going in the other direction but with the way blocked. Then you open up the blocked maze and block the original direction so all the aliens turn around. Because they keep going back and forth, you need less maze to contain the aliens. This lets you spend all your money on air defense. A couple of well placed sam units will cause a lot of damage because of the splash. The key is to not let the two super choppers get by. You need the money to build . You almost need to start over if you let them slip by.
I got to level 86, but mentally I am done with the game. I did some research, and I don't think anyone has won the game.

edit: The little arrow on top is the plug and then you just keep buying ans selling a vulcan on each end to keep the bugs in the kill zone

Ok made it to mission 6 level 79. Had 7 (maybe 8 ) fully uploaded Plasma towers and at least full 7 DCAs.

Those two giant helecopters got by (whatever level they were on- 49?), so I just didn't have the funds to keep going a long time ago.

It's really difficult to find a balance- If I don't upgrade the DCAs the helecopters get through, but if I spent too much on the DCAs too soon, I won't have enough firepower to fight the ground bugs.

And the ground bugs are where the money is made.

Vicious circle. Catch 22. 6 of one, half dozen... What the hell ever.

I'd say at 79, I'm gonna bug out and call it even.

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

Well...

One more time for good measure.

So I'm looking around on the web for hints- apparently people have made it to level 100 (however not finishing the game- they were done in before level 100 was completed) by using a "Money Hack".

You download the game, and then open the game properties (really I don't know, just going on a youtube video of how it's done).

You then enter a code that allows you to fiddle with the amount of money you start with. People have started with $5000 instead of $80 giving them plenty of cash for firepower.

F---ing cheaters!

Anyway- I did come across a video of someone making it to level 93 without the money hack.

For one thing, don't use Plasma guns; they cost too much eating up your cash for DCAs. Use the SAM turrets; they are cheap (last upgrade is only $160). You can survive with one, then two final SAM turrets for over half the game.

The rest of your money goes into DCAs. You place them in the center of your screen working outward. The guy who made it to level 93 had 12 full DCAs (I think) in the middle of the maze.

And the Maze is much simpler than we have been making it.

The left side has three long hallways the bugs have to navigate through. In the middle is a giant area with just one long wall for the bugs to go around (eventually you fill this area with DCAs).

The top right and bottom are the exits that you move a single Vulcan back an forth.

I made it up to level 86. I only managed 8 full DCAs and a blue one. When the helecopters went by on level 79 and left me with only one life left, I sold all my DCAs just to concentrate on the back log of ground bugs that were trapped in the maze. I knew I wouldn't make it past level 86 (the next round of helecopters)- so I thought, "what the hell" let's see what happens.

Well by this time there were soooooo many bugs that several full Vulcan towers, at least 4 full SAMs and two full Plasma towers did nothing to break the lines.

Oh yeah- I also put two pairs of full Freeze towers at the beginning of each entrance to slow the helecopters as they came out (I sold them at the end for cash as well though).

Behold...





The horror...


The horror.


And so I feel I can not go any further with this abomination of my time.

No more.

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

Level 86 seems to be the big blocker.

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No, they are not going to see this coming...

Ok I am 100%, officially, without a doubt, done with this game.

I just used the cheat engine to award myself unlimited gold. I made the maze that we usually use Vulcans with, entirely out of red Plasma turrets.

The entire center of the maze was red DCA towers (we're talking at 30 of them).

On level 93, 7 helecopters made it through the DCAs. So every plasma turret I had that would be in the path of the final set of helecopters, I switched and upgraded to red DCAs (probably an additional 20 towers).

I had 13 lives left before level 100 (oh yeah- the ground bugs had an average of 200,000 hit points so there were plenty left to keep my remaining plasma towers busy. There were also two boss scorpions or facehuggers that both had 2,500,000 hit points each)!

When the helectopters (that had 200,000 points each) went by- I was left with two lives.

It was then a matter of reversing the maze until all the ground bugs were killed. I eventually replaced every single DCA with a red plasma tower to mop up the mess.

Took 2 1/2 hours to complete the game with the infinite money cheat.

I am convinced the game would be impossible to win legitimately.

I didn't bother with a screenshot. Too damn tired to press Ctrl-Print Screen.

Lock this damn thread and let it pass into oblivion.

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

I am still having some fun with it. I have given up trying to win, but I still like to play around with different formations. I like experimenting on the green level. Once you give up on winning and just enjoy blasting aliens, it is fun. I like bringing the aliens together first and then creating a reversible maze. It makes the SAM turrets deadly.

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No, they are not going to see this coming...