I've played a game and my vulcano towers shot their bullets at a creep which was somewhere in the middle instead of at the ones that were near the target. See the replay in the link.

That's not supposed to happen, no?

http://www.beatthegeek.com/games/TowerDefence/tournamentResults.asp?tournid=955#

they target the oldes ones. but there's a secret trick (haha):
shift-click on a creep of that wave you want to see dead first ;)
good luck!

My frustration is when the volcano "lava" goes down the rabbit hole - I don't mind it so much if it was about to latch on to a creep that was just exiting; that's collateral loss. But I've had lava fly across the screen, ignoring (old) creeps that haven't yet escaped (but might have been killed if the lava had hit them), and instead the lava disappears down the hole.

yes that's very annoying to see them disappear.

if you shift-click on one creep, enough lava targets that special one to kill, and the rest of the pot is distributed to others of that wave. if there's even more lava, the rest goes also to the oldest ones. i'm quite sure 'bout that. but no guarantee

try. happy slaughter ;)

Even if I fix it to target the creeps closest to the exi you'll still have that "rabbit hole" problem. Not much I can do about that.... just make sure to fire the volcano before they reach the exit so the lava has a chance to make it to them before they exit :P

Added to the to do list. Marking thread as fixed so I don't need to come back to this thread.

Don't think it needs a fix :)
It's part of the charm of the game. If you change it, it just becomes another tower, you just have to keep "F" pressed for it to fire..

i agree with PhaE

Maybe I'm not describing the problem well, but -- it's not like other towers, other towers don't keep shooting down the red exit after a creep has disappeared -- instead they target living creeps in their range.

I dunno, it's not a big deal, as Sparticus said you just have to press "F" early enough for the flying red meanies to get to their target before the target gets to the exit. But all things being equal it'd be nice not to have that exit-hole lava wasted and instead target living creeps.

I understand wht you mean. But that means you need to place a vulcano tower close to the exit, and shift-fire at the right creep.
If you're too late, well, tough luck ;)

I don't see a difference with e.g. timing of upgrading towers, or using powerups.

Actually all towers will make an attempt to kill enemies runnign down the red exit.... however, most towers shoot so fast that you don't notice it. Volcano towers lava shoots slower and go from one end of the map to the other... so you notice it.

I also do not see this as a problem - its one of the characteristics of that tower and you need to place it accordingly.

Ok, that settles it then. I'm going to leave the volcano targeting the way it is. I did try to change it a few weeks ago but after realizing the amount of work it would be I decided to put it off for later. So I'm happy with this decision :)