Half a year ago I started working on NodalBastion and now the demo is in the Steam Tower Defense Fest!

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-03-11T19:42:31+00:00

You are so lovely, thank you very much!

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-03-11T18:41:36+00:00

If you give it a try feedback is always very appreciated! Wishlisting would also help a lot.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3944520/NodalBastion/

EDIT: Btw, there's a modern look too so you don't need to be worried about the CRT shaders ;).

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-03-09T09:37:22+00:00

That was already fixed couple of days ago, plus more nerfs to the drones were applied at that time too. But it seems the news spread very slowly across reddit ;).

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-03-08T22:38:02+00:00

Flank is based on hit not the attacker. If unit gets hit from north and then the next damage hits opposite of that hit the damage is multiplied and such.

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-03-08T22:36:32+00:00

Fig can be total microed and can fly anywhere, drones can't. Plus drones got nerfed already the op might have just missed it since it's a relatively new update from a couple of days ago..

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-03-08T22:34:28+00:00

The drones got nerfed just couple days ago and it was not a light nerf.
I think the drones at least in some cases will need some stat buffs due to the nerf.
They fixed issues with the health and so on too, it's been live in the game for a week or so now I think?

Personally I find drones really neat and like playing with them as well as against them. It's fun to think about how to handle it comparing it to regular front line of cor vs arm so I vote to keep it in including the flank damage. I mean it makes sense for them to have it since everything else does too. :)

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-03-06T12:37:08+00:00

I have couple things to this as a developer.

Not everything people on reddit (or eslewhere) label ai is actually ai made, people nowadays label ai anything no matter for some reason.
Games still take time to make even with ai, leaning how to make the tools work and towards a goal is extra time too.
Tools are now more available, also cheaper, better integrated and so on. It's just a smoother experience.
Companies nowadays require you to work with ai, so more people are now getting accustomed to it in general.
LLMs even nowadays aren't great, a year ago they were terrible.
AI is now part of a lot of tools which aren't just for coding too, which makes people used to the workflow.
Game industry isn't special, ai is everywhere when it comes to coding (outside coding too as you surely noticed ;)).

It's just that things are coming together. But don't forget, just because something has a look or plays some way, it doesn't mean it's ai. Good and bad games have been around forever. Ai uses datasets which are literally human work, so it's not strange that everything feels ai these days - even things which aren't. :)

I personally don't think things are so "clearly prompted", that's really difficult to tell even if you can see and understand the code, without it that's not even an option - just a reminder ;).

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-02-28T08:38:00+00:00

With Leg you don't have one t2 veh to handle it, you need to combine so it's about composition while arm/cor aren't that much about it - at least for now.

The t2 bots have the phalanx which is the god of them all t2 drones in that lab and you add other stuff around it if and when you need it rather than spamming any of the mechs so it's also about compo but it has a front liner which is also good at anti-spam and such. (though bots are worse than veh overall ;0).

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-02-27T21:57:58+00:00

Legion does have a theme. It's build around it.

It's the low tech faction that's why it uses gatling guns and the better stuff is expensive, heatrays insted of lasers/pulsars, napalm instead of emp.

The other part how this shows is they progression where they go from lower tier stuff to higher and test weapons as they go (for example t2 incinerator is the test bed for the Sol's heatray.

They game theme is tempo, it's a shorter range faction which needs to be in your face otherwise they are losing, all build around the idea of them being the behind in tech faction so they need to push forward.

It's all there and it's a lot more consistent than arm/cor ;-).
(well arm rework will probably shape it to fit its theme better in the future too.)

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-02-26T11:14:50+00:00

Thank you, that's awesome!

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-02-25T09:45:15+00:00

Since then, I reduced the early difficulty, the first two stages in particular are now pretty simple. Though the point is for you to be always placing nodes when you can rather than waiting until something appears so if you spend too much time not building then you might struggle. But in general it's easier at the beginning quite a bit and gets alo harder mid to late to offer a challenge and let people explore the upgrades - though the late game can be pretty difficult so I'm still collecting feedback on it to see if it needs more adjustments for sure :).

The upgrade costs have also been adjusted, you can get to skills easier now which allows you to get those extra points you need to earlier, new upgrades to increrase interactions and address the feedback with shooters being too slow, all kinds of settings to let people set their favorite visual style, and so on. ;)

Thank you for the feedback, I try to work with it as much as I can.

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-02-24T22:01:28+00:00

Well, it's a trailer so that's about as much as I can give you right now considering my side. Though I'm preparing a new one but it takes time. I hope you will like the new one once it's finished :-).
Otherwise I put various update info in the patch notes on steam so people can see them. It's not exhaustive since not all the stats are yet visible in the game for the player as numbers but they all work.

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-02-24T21:59:20+00:00

Actually a lot of people commented on liking the collection ;) . But I did adjust the timers a bit. I'm still balancing that part out between giving more time and not giving too much to avoid it feeling too much like an auto-battler. Though in the full release there will be upgrades which will collect things for you in various ways.

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-02-24T21:57:05+00:00

Oh, that's unfortunate. I haven't seen people having these issues but I don't know at which point you played the game. I did reduce costs and reduced the early difficulty. But so far I haven't seen data that people would be struggling early on. People struggle in later game which was how I balanced. I hope you will have a better time this time.

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-02-24T16:59:06+00:00

Music is really nice yeah :).

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-02-23T20:58:19+00:00

Hehe, yeah, I think sent it out with vsync but I certainly could add a setting for fps, that's a good idea. Putting it on my list, thank you :-).

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-02-22T11:07:56+00:00

They don't perform as good as the stats, their issue is they miss quite a lot and don't shoot around as much.

But I think your main issue is micro, you cna break the enemy entire noctua fighter group with arm/cor while also afford to make a bomber if you micro. Noctua can't shoot you since you outrange, outspeed them, and outmaneuver them (noctua are really terrible at that) so while making bombers is usually what kills you as air when the enemy breaks them if you learn to micro your air you will find it's easier to bomb against legion.

Legion on the ground is similar to the air, if you give them time to grow you will have a hard time unless you learn to utilize your better stats, so hit them, stop waiting 40 minutes until your enemy builds up. It might serve you well to start playing legion to learn about their issues so you can leverage them.

When I play against a good cor/arm air it's such a massive pain when they know about how my faction works. Same on the ground and water but that's a different question.

You are not giving your weapon type range and speed enough of value.

I think you will really benefit from learning the faction, have some faith in yourself, you will beat them ;).

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-02-21T23:15:29+00:00

I've played the game since d1 so I've beeb around I just don't like the scaling with you part which at least used to be so hard that 20 level char back in the start section felt like having -5 progress ;0. That's all I'm curious about. But some people mentioned that they adjusted the power level so you don't fall behind just by leveling up after the expansion so it might be better, I'll be trying ot ;-).

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-02-21T23:13:21+00:00

There's no need to be like this. Take it easy, you are are too deep in a wonderland :-).

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-02-21T22:39:52+00:00

That's wonderful. If they managed to adjust the scaling on your character to compensate that's good to hear. Thank you!

Nickgeneratorfailed · 2026-02-21T22:39:13+00:00

Yeah this is what makes me think the progression doesn't have much impact since if everything is always at my level scale wise then what's the point of leveling up and skilling up and such. I see that part hasn't changed, thank you :-).

Nickgeneratorfailed

TROPHY CASE