Tower defense or everything in the dark. Is that it?

Hello all,
Okay I just bought the beta Gratuitous Tank Battles. From the ads and the videos and the fact that I like Gratuitous Space Battles, I was pretty sure I would like Gratuitous Tank Battles. So far, it’s kind of been a disappointement.

The main thing seems to be that the only thing you can do is play a tower defense style game by chosing defend, or else have a battle that is totally in the dark, if you pick attack. It’s not just in the dark either, your units are routed by the paths that the map has.

What happened to being able to see what you are playing, and what happened to open battlefields or maps, and why does the defend option have to be just another tower defense game? Is there something I am missing here or what?

what do you mean “everything in the dark”?

not sure if I understand

I’m not sure what you mean when you talk about the attack option. Could you expand/clarify?

On the defend side, I don’t really understand the complaint about it being a tower defense game. From the GTB website: ‘Gratuitous Tank Battles is an RTS/Tower Defense hybrid…’. It states up front what it is, and the videos I’ve seen have certainly portrayed it that way. I would say, however, that it’s not ‘just another tower defense game’, in that the customisation and variety it offers gives the game quite a bit more depth than most tower defense games I’ve played. In other words, it’s a tower defense game, and it’s a very good tower defense game.

If ‘totally in the dark’ means ‘black screen’ then you may have some sort of graphical error. Or are playing a night-time map.

For the error, try reinstalling.

For the night map, enable night vision. It’s the little Crescent-moon in the lower left.

I don’t think I’d even describe Gratuitous Tank Battles as tower defense. You don’t even ever need to play as defender (ok once -> the tutorial mission), You cna play just as attacker, which is an entirely different game.
But yes, it sounds like your monitor is dodgy or you are playing a night-time mission maybe? I wouldn’t describe the game as dark. Especially when tanks blow up :smiley:

I think by “in the dark” he means there is no indication of what you are going up against.
never mind, probably a bug

I have to agree with the guy.

I feel the game would of been better if it was more similiar to GSB, placing tanks and infantry, fortifications, to brawl. And then missions to hold out against infinite numbers of enemies with trenches and fortifications.

Maybe it would be an expansion, but I just feel a core part of the game was left out.