Here are some tips and tricks for beginners.
This is quite obvious, but I’ll still say it anyways: ROPES!!! When optimizing, use ropes… they’re cheaper and usually sturdy enough. Planks are sturdier but more expensive so try to use less them as support structures, or at least try to get craftier with them, you don’t always need to tie them to an anchor point, for example.
Sometimes you just don’t have enough anchor points and your ropes keep breaking… so try this method… for some strange reason it actually works… You’ll see this a lot in my solutions, but basically, you just add “another” rope next to the one that’s breaking, by adding two more ropes connected to each anchor point (hence the word “triple”). I was gonna post a screenshot, but eh… you’ll see it plenty.
When you just need extra space for ropes, just use a small plank for extra anchor points, but don’t over load it or it’ll easily break. I think I only used it once on level 26.
Sometimes building a ramp to make cars jump over a chasm is A LOT cheaper than building a bridge to cross over it. You can see a simple example of this in levels 12, 14 and more.
You can also build ramps far from anchor points and simply secure them either with ropes or planks depending on how sturdy you need them to be… you can’t just let them free or they’ll get pushed around by physics though.
A speed bump is just a sharp-angled mini ramp, mainly used to break momentum of cars for when you need them to do certain specific things, like a sharp jump or just make them wait a bit. Like ramps, you need to secure them. You can see some appliances of speed bumps in levels 48, 52 & 53.
Remember there are physics mechanics, which means you can get crafty and use both motion and gravity to your advantage, either to swing stuff, or to push stuff, or to simply get rid of turrets =)
You can see some examples of these “tricks” in several levels, like 40, 44, 48, 49 or 51. Pay particular attention to level 40.
On some maps, you can bypass certain paths and portals… this will sometimes allow you to save money, but not always, so just think about what seems cheaper instead of what seem smarter.
Angles are SUPER important in general. By angles I mean literally the angle of the planks you place, whether they’re for support or roads.
Using the right angles will allow your bridges to be more stable and not fold or collapse. It will also allow you to flat-out stop momentum without inflicting any stress on the structure (see level 26 or 44).
The angles on ramps will greatly vary the way cars jump, which is essential to save money. And sometimes, using a weird angle also works as a way to counter wobbliness effects… so yeah, point being, you’ll probably spend a LOT of time fine tuning the angles of your planks… you’ve been warned. =P
Written by Jacowboy
