Super Energy Apocalypse

*Sniff*. I love you guys.

-Lars

I liked this game a lot! Altough its vivid on the typical american zombie mythos to legimate storage of weapons at every home.. its pretty open-minded in the environment issues. Zombies as creation of bad environment care is a very new adoption to this mythos I highly welcome :)

About the playing experience. I think the level set shoots far too short of what the engine woulbe be capable. I never had to really worry about smog. Or to use electrical or ethanol trucks, or to use any weapon but the light which imho far outrules the gun, the tesla coil is useless too in comparison. A set of lights at the main appearance point will kill them all....

Ooh... this is fun. It's like Command & Conquer meets Captain Planet!

So that's why we don't have any widely-produced electric cars! Not enough zombies!
The fact that it's post-apocalyptic must've meant that the people didn't realize that the zombies fed off of waste until it was too late.

Also, the floodlights do seem to be more cost-effective than the gun turrets; if they actually do damage in a radius, then having a few close together would be potentially more powerful against more zombies. (Unless, of course, they really just aim for one at a time, and look like they're shining out in a circle)

i just LOVE the game ^^

i was hoping to read more comments though, as i am totally stuck.. lol

well good job!!

Everyone I see play has a completely different take on what is useful or not.

For instance, I'm always running low on energy, but tend to have lots of metal, and so I always have gun turrets around because my flood lights totally own - until they run out of juice. Then I'm hosed.

I was just playing the last level to make sure the level sequence still works, but what happened is, I ran out of fuel so I switched to electric cars... and then I ran out juice and all my lights turned off! I switched to natural gas just in time to get the lights back on and save myself.

So, it all depends on your play style I guess ;)

I forgot about the different approaches you could take, mainly because I tend to pick a favourite and just attempt to fine-tune that one rather than try for a complete overhaul.

I'm having a painful time on the last stage, since the zombies always aim for the geothermal stations first. With no power, I can't build more power plants: I always seem hosed after day one.

I'll try using the turrets, and possibly switching to natural gas for the garbage trucks, and ignoring the "Build more farms!" warning for a while longer.

(I was hoping for a climactic final showdown, where you had everything at your disposal... I guess that wouldn't have fit with the environmentalist survival horror theme)

Howdy Gar!

Here's how I beat the last stage:

The Geothermal plants are good, but keep in mind that spreads out your base, and makes it more vulnerable. It's best to start off with a small, tight, easy to defend core. Remember, the traitor blows up all your research so you'll need to get it all back. Build labs early, at least three, and as soon as you can, start upgrading your nat gas plant. Keep in mind you have 25 nat gas and 25 fossil fuels - make the most of them! They are precious resources to get you up and running. The idea is to build up quickly, then phase into a "sustainable" economy just before the nat gas and the fossil fuels run out. So, while you're waiting for research to upgrade your nat gas plant, be sure to build a few mines and some guns. This way, you will only be spending metal, not energy, which is very scarce on this map. This should get you through a few days. Colonel Roosevelt will come to supply you after a few days, so try to survive until then. You shouldn't build any geothermal plants until you can defend them - wait until the 2nd day at least. Then, surround them with 4 flood lights. Don't worry about the tiny craters - the yield is too low to be useful. Also, watch your fuel. It's probably best to keep them on gasoline, if you haven't built any fossil fuel power plants, since that resource will then ONLY be used for your trucks. Upgrade your fuel as quickly as possible or you will run out too soon! If you upgrade your gasoline early, you should be in a place where you have plenty of surplus food or energy to switch to ethanol or electric a few days in.

Try some of these, and if it doesn't work, how about some of the rest of you guys share your strategies for beating the final level?

Oooohhh... I avoided using natural gas plants and labs because I kept thinking "I need the most energy NOW" and figured upgrading everything on day 1 would use more energy than just focusing on production for the first day.

For a sequel, I'd hope to see more use of nuclear power: it would come in handy where there are no oil wells or geothermal crevices, but that never happens enough to actually see them come into play seriously. The fact that its waste is even more harmful makes them seem like more of a liability. They might make for an alternate strategy for the last stage, though.

About nukes:

Nuclear waste is pretty useful in sandbox mode, it just takes time to set the economy up. If you have nuke waste dumps right next door to them and plenty of engineers, the zombies never get a chance to eat the waste and they are perfectly safe. The thing is, they're very expensive to build. So you need a few days to bootstrap with other energy sources to afford them, and the one thing you don't have in level 8 is time. So, they are useful, but I've yet to use them in a winning strategy for level 8. They're lots of fun in sandbox mode though! And are great for when you just have ZERO resources.

It seemed that just as the tutorial was ending, the game was finished!! It would be great if there were more stages!!

"""The fact that its waste is even more harmful makes them seem like more of a liability. """

Well thats part of the game message. :-)

I can imagine that level 8 is now a lot more difficult from before. Come on, be honest, how many of us used THAT bug?

One thing about the nuclear waste:

It's usually best to have one engineer to a nuke site. It sounds crazy, but the truck goes pretty slowly, and zombies had aimed for the waste before. Once the waste is on the truck, no zombie could reach it.

Just in case anyone was curious, I've had a zombie eat one of my nuke wastes once, in a previous version. It grew powerful enough that it kicked any building in a shot, AND it didn't insta-kill once daylight came out. Yeah.

Also, I guess no one caught that "Dr. Ananastasia Wurstwagen" is the descendant of the "Herr Ananas Wurstwagen" from the Alchemist's Apprentice?

It would be fun, if it weren't so incredibly, incredibly buggy.

You can't build where the floodlights are active? Why?

Events reset the menu, so if you are trying to build more defenses in the middle of a fight, just give up. You can click on "Defenses", and you might even have time to choose what to build, but good luck placing it before the next reset.

@larsiusprime
did u start out with 25 nat gas and 25 fossil? i only have 25 nat gas and 5 fossil... the trucks always leech the hell out of my electric.

I'm finding the final level to be painfully difficult. Has anyone actually finished it?

I can NOT get past level six...

Heres how I did level six...

Dont build the geothermal until you have 400 power saved. To do this, build a gas and oil power plant and let them provide your needs for the time being. Throw up a mine, 2 or three labs, enough farms to stave off starvation, and some defense. Make sure you research your oil and gas consumption as quickly as possible to slow your usage. Once you have 400 power, build the geothermal and the level will end. I think it took me about 3 days and I fended off the 2 zombie waves with a total of three flood lights.

I have a question on sandbox. Is there any way to reduce the smog emission from your farms? I find I can build all I like with clean techs, but once I have to create a certain number of farms to support my ever growing town smog skyrockets to 999. I have no other smog producing buildings, totally clean power, and I run into this problem with about 10 farms. Is this intended to force an end to sandbox games or am I missing something?

Found it... my trucks were still producing smog... foolish. Now they all run on crystal clean, Willy Nelson approved, ethanol!

Thanks!

I still can't get past level six... I keep running out of natural gas and gasoline, and there isn't a place for a well...

Ah, magic of comments. Owned it. Level 8, though... no research... almost no supplies... no oil wells... low production geothermal only option... 200 seconds? HOw is it possible?

+1 @Phoenix Gabriel.
I like this game a bunch, but the bug where events seem to reset the menu makes it impossible to build after about 15 seconds into an attack. As a result, I've haven't been able to finish level 8. Otherwise, excellent gameplay, decent storyline, and overall a very compelling game. Nice work, Lars.

AAAAGGGhhhhhh, I'm doing sandbox, it is the first, FIRST night, and I'm having trouble, garbage appeared in so many places, zombies are annoying, and only one garbage truck. Well at least 12 seconds till morning. PREPARE TO ALL DIE ZOMBIES!