Potential Gameplay/Balance Issue

[jamesbarnes]

Firstly, props to the devs for a great peice of software, with some of the highest production values ive seen on the ipod.

I was trying to figure out the most efficient tactic to play AF, and figured out that keeping the plane of play constant and limiting movement to just horizontal, thus ensuring vertical diversity ... blah blah.

Long story short, it turns out to be very much quicker (and ridiculously easy) just to keep the blocks stacked high and scribble your finger left to right. As long as you keep the top row flat you will clear the blocks VERY quickly, with essentially no skill at all.

For a single player game this wouldnt be a massive problem i guess, but i can see this really messing with the balance of a multiplater game.

Fortunatley, the fix seems simple enough; If the method that checks for a chain of blocks is only called when the finger is removed from the screen, all the frantic scribbling in the world wont do any good

Hope that all makes sense.

James

[burtosis]

I guess that I would prefer to be able to keep your finger on the screen because otherwise multichains become more difficult.

The swiping issue was toned down three versions ago - before any matches count. Right now, only matches where a popping block touches the bricks that match can count for a x2. After x2, all matches are counted (except under some cases where some count as a combo).

One point if you are playing multiplayer in the current set of rules though - if it is sheer points that you need to win then the player that can multichain best will win absolutely.

You might be able to swipe yourself up, but you will make many matches. Sometimes it will even take 45-60 seconds or more to get to just a x2. If you are able to multichain well, you should be able to get many more multipliers while swiping almost as many blocks.

Personally, I kind of like the balance as it is now because even if you haven't practiced alot, then you can at least get some neat stuff to happen and points just by a random strategy.