[iOS] Outwitters - Turn Based Strategy from Tilt to Live Devs

[wonderpug]

Just came out, and seems pretty promising.  Three teams so far (merfolk, cuddly wuddly things, killer robots), one free, no ads, $3 to unlock all teams now and forever.

It's your basic Advance Wars type gameplay, hex-based.  There are points to capture to boost your income, and you win by destroying the enemy base.  The most unique that stands out in Outwitter's gameplay is that your pool of resources is used not just for unit creation, but also for moving and attacking.

They've also given the game a built-in league and ranking system, letting you play against like-skilled players as you try and move up the ladder.

[USMC Kato]

Looks fun, I'll give it a shot

[wonderpug]

Hold on there, Lively Discussion, let me get a word in.

Looks like the game got a nice write-up on the PA Report.

[Harkonis]

you won't play with us anyway

[leo8877]

you won't play with us anyway

Pug was my most reliable opponent in Hero Academy!

Also, I downloaded this and it looks cool, but I wish there was a CPU opponent.

[wonderpug]

Hark is rightly pointing out that my Game Center boycott means that I'll only be playing random opponents in Outwitters.     I much much preferred Hero Academy's setup with a game-specific username and account.  Ah well.

That said, I'm really really enjoying the game.  The ladder is more or less the same as the way Starcraft 2 has it, with different ladder tiers you can progress through.  The hierarchy is still falling into place, of course, but for the most part I'm already being matched up just against similarly skilled players.  Hero Academy really really needs to implement something like that.

Balance-wise, I think the Runner/Scout units are too cheap and useful, as they seem to be the dominant unit in any match, and some maps are waaay too imabalanced in favor of the first player to move, but the two developer guys are very active and they've already implemented changes based on their forum feedback (changing the match timeout from 7 days to 4 days).  I'm not worried about them getting things tweaked better soon enough.

[Harkonis]

I really want to play a pug in Summoner Wars 

[leo8877]

This game is excellent, but like Hero Academy, I wish I could play against a CPU sometimes instead of waiting.

[leo8877]

Grrr, I was about to destroy my first base and my opponent gave up 

[leo8877]

These guys are funny

[leo8877]

Well I got into the Bright Log division of the Master League.  Where are you guys placed?

[wonderpug]

I'm in the top 10 of my Gifted League division, but since I've won I think the last 10 games in a row, I expect (hope) I'll be bumped up to Master League soon. 

Their placement algorithms were found to have some issues, and while they've now fixed/improved them, it seems it'll still take a bit for everyone to shake out into their proper leagues.  I'm sure a lot of people are overplaced, and a lot are underplaced.

[leo8877]

I'm in the top 10 of my Gifted League division, but since I've won I think the last 10 games in a row, I expect (hope) I'll be bumped up to Master League soon. 

Their placement algorithms were found to have some issues, and while they've now fixed/improved them, it seems it'll still take a bit for everyone to shake out into their proper leagues.  I'm sure a lot of people are overplaced, and a lot are underplaced.

I'm pretty sure I am overplaced by a lot!

[leo8877]

I got bumped down to the Gifted League and this is better.  I have 11 league wins now and seem to win and lose about equal.  Also I emailed the devs to let them know I am crashing about every time I join a new game and they wrote me back saying they are working on fixes, so that was nice.

[wonderpug]

I'm a big fan of the devs.  They've been very attentive and active on their main forums. 

Someone had a thread talking about how hard AI is to develop for games like this, and one of the two devs said "plus I'd have to make a new button for CPU matches!  I've made enough buttons!" 

[leo8877]

I have multiple games that were last activity 5 days ago and they haven't lost.  I thought they changed it to 4 days before they auto give up?

[wonderpug]

Should be four, yeah. If you post a screenshot on the bug report forum, they seem pretty quick at sorting out problems.

It's really fun moving up the league ladders. I finally got into Masters, and now I'm up to #3 or so in my division. The ranking system still has some kinks, I think, but it's such a great extra layer to have.

[leo8877]

Should be four, yeah. If you post a screenshot on the bug report forum, they seem pretty quick at sorting out problems.

It's really fun moving up the league ladders. I finally got into Masters, and now I'm up to #3 or so in my division. The ranking system still has some kinks, I think, but it's such a great extra layer to have.

I'm in Gifted and stay about in the top 30 it seems.

[wonderpug]

I won!

[leo8877]

Nice!

[wonderpug]

It kind of sucks, strange as it may sound.  I was at the top of my Masters division, and since you keep your point accumulation when you swap leagues, the league promotion put me right at the top.  I already miss the sense of progression: it would've been nice to have to claw my way up to the top of Super Titan.

[wonderpug]

I am the 94th best Outwitters player in the world!

What kind of material do they use for 94th place medals?  Cotton candy, maybe?

[leo8877]

I am the 94th best Outwitters player in the world!

What kind of material do they use for 94th place medals?  Cotton candy, maybe?

HAX!