Well I guess the main reason why not that many people are playing the game is that this is the only website where you can find the game. Compared to Invasion, which you can find on lots of websites.
Invasion by itself is actually a pretty simple game compared to Vanguard.
Making a level designer wouldn't be that easy. There are a real load of variables that you need to keep in mind with each level, and making them balanced well takes a lot of trial and error. But using your feedback I can look into tweaking some variables to make sure that these extremes get removed (the sick amount of resources you are able to get and the too low difficulty of the middlegame missions in the campaign).
Right now I'm still spending more time working on the new site than making changes to Vanguard. The site really has my priority focus right now, but if I find some time besides that I can do that tweaking.
Still, it may be the second action defense game after Invasion, but there are other games like Santa Rush 2 and Tetroboom, and not to forget those cool games made by Mennez like Special snake and Supercops Targets.
Just keep in mind that if I were to jump into a sole focus of tweaking and adjusting Vanguard, it would really postpone the website, and that's not exactly what we're waiting for right now. The progress on the site is good and I intend to keep pushing that for a while longer so we can release the new site in the first half of 2012. If that new site is online we can also pull in more members, which will make it a lot more fun to compete for scores on Vanguard as well.
"The absence of rules is the enemy of art." ~Orson Wells
