Hard to play/Boring II

[GipFace2]

Quote from the original topic because it's locked:

As title says, I've been playing ele td for a long time, and now it's simply not funny/interesting anymore, when I have weaves where mobs turn on divine protection that makes them invulnerable on any kind of damage or they have ressurection, and besides all that I might have weak towers against them(counter-element) as well that does 50% damage, so it's obvious that It's impossible to defeat certain levels. General idea to balance out this is to reduce move speed of levels that have divine shield/ressurection or just general balancing of whole td = improve minimum damage taken from counter-elements from 50% up to 75%. Generally make TD a bit more easier and still fun to play. I used to be very very good @ ele TD before, could defeat hard mode and sometimes very hard mode, and now I'm not able to finish it in normal/easy mode.. seriously wtf is that. If you want only map creator and forum addicts who follow every single little change to be able to finish this td, then continue ruining it, because it's nearly impossible to finish it atm. This definitely isn't going to attract players if they fail every single game without any chance of improving coz pure imbalance.

P.S. I don't even wanna start discussion when I type -random

I played EleTD 4.2c last night. It was the first EleTD game I played in two years. Wow, this was hardly the game I enjoyed so much back in 2007. WTF happened?

U = Upgrade tower

Who came up with this bright idea? A and C were on the left side of the keyboard. These hotkeys to be ergonomic and improved response time. Now they're moved to the right side of the keyboard for no apparent reason other than to dumb down the controls. Interest micro is now significantly more difficult. But wait, you say. You wanted U to be the standard for every tower! Well, nobody sells level 2 and level 3 towers much because of the build time. Thanks for ruining what was a core component of getting a good start in EleTD 3.

It's more difficult

Quote from the original thread:

back in 3.0 the better players would finish allmost every vh rnd

I don't know about you, but I considered this a good thing. I spearheaded competitive EleTD play by building at position 7 when it was appropriate and eliminating all other players in under 20 minutes. Now there's not much opportunity to eliminate players. In fact, most players will die due to incompetence rather than being swarmed with creeps. This doesn't give me a great sense of satisfaction. The game now feels more like a true solo game rather than "beat the creeps ASAP to pressure the opponent." By overbalancing all towers so that none of them stand out from the others, there are no more backdoor wins like Lava or Death at position 7 at level 16-20. (see http://nnl1.com/miscfile/eletd3/GipFace%20...Lava%20rush.w3g for a EleTD 3 replay that used this; use WVS 1.21b) Who cares if some towers were better than others? On -sr mode, everyone gets the same rack, so the problem of balance there was already solved because everyone has access to the same towers. You fiddled too much with the mechanics.

BTW, nobody could consistently keep up with me on -xvh sr back in the EleTD 3 days, and that was the hardest difficulty. (Cisz couldn't last past level 31 in about 5 -xvh sr games we played) Why make the game harder when no one else could beat the previous hardest difficulty?

It's longer

Nobody has the patience for a 1 hour TD game anymore. Right before I quit War3, I shifted towards maps like Line Tower Wars and Mini TD. Why? Because those maps are done in 20 minutes or less. EleTD 3 was neat because most games could end in under 30 minutes. By adjusting the levels so that it takes longer to kill each wave, the game takes more than 1 hour to complete in most cases. This sucks. (If there is short mode, I didn't see it, because the bots that host this game don't have it on)

I suppose I no longer have much of a say in EleTD development, but all this feature creep is a huge turn-off. Well, whatever, War3 is dead, and more people are shifting towards Flash TD games which are simpler and faster. That should ring a bell and tell you what's wrong with EleTD right now.

[holepercent]

Nice to see you posting again.. i joined the game late into 3.0, when 4.0 was still being planned and stayed in play.

Now, to play 4.x, get out of 3.0 mindset and 'relearn' the game. Accept the fundemental shifts in balance and gameplay..

4.0 is designed for competitive balance in pick (-sr is always balanced). All 4/5/6-element builds can be completed reasonably. 3.0 was well known for LWFD and its variations while DFNE was barely playable..

The hardest difficulty should not be the standard for most players.. the hardest difficulty is supposed to be for the best players only, those who know all if not most towers and the rest of the game inside out.

There is short (starting from wave 15, 1000 gold) and extra short (starting from wave 30, 6000 gold) in the game..

And yes, eletd would not be staying on wc3.. we are exploring other ways to play such as sc2, flash etc..

[Karawasa]

I suppose I no longer have much of a say in EleTD development...War3 is dead, and more people are shifting towards Flash TD games which are simpler and faster. That should ring a bell and tell you what's wrong with EleTD right now.

No, I wouldn't say that. Everyone has a say in ETD development; especially people we know to be competent players. I hope that you give 4.2c a few more chances and post your feedback.

I fully agree with you in regards to WC3. We are working on moving to another platform.

PS: You have brought up build times before...but the ironic thing is that I actually shortened them from 3.0 to 4.0. Test it!

[GipFace2]

I hope that you give 4.2c a few more chances and post your feedback.

Well, I just played a few more games. EVERY SINGLE GAME the towers ended up freezing by around level 35ish. Not only does this version suck, it's unplayable, too. This never happened in EleTD 3 unless I intentionally built basic waters in the Ronald level to punish everyone with slow computers. Also, other people with slower computers were complaining about lag until the point the game froze. I did not experience any lag on my end because I have a high-end computer, but all your feature-creep just made it less accessible to players.

DFNE was barely playable..

DFNE on -vh sr was hilarious and one of the most skill-intensive racks. Also, the original poster complained that EleTD is no longer "funny." Well, I knew some people found it very funny when they got beaten by instant kill.

E: Amplified Earth was strictly better than all arrow towers unless facing nature

DN first: Make 2 Death at position 7 on level 17 and win by level 25 (level 24 is heal)

FE first: Make 2 Lava at position 7 on level 17 and win by level 25 (level 24 is heal)

DNE: Crypt rush, win by level 40 (level 39 is heal)

FNE: Play the interest game until you have enough to build 6 dinos at position 7 and smash everyone

It was only near-unplayable in pick. DFNE on random actually has the most backdoor wins out of any rack due to two awesome instant kill towers and Lava's splash damage upon explosion. I can't believe I still remember this crap.

[Karawasa]

I did not experience any lag on my end because I have a high-end computer, but all your feature-creep just made it less accessible to players.

That becomes a moot point once the medium changes. As you pointed out, WC3 is dead. 4.2 and beyond only exist as experimentation for things to come. On that note, 4.3 will prove interesting .

I played EleTD 4.2c last night. It was the first EleTD game I played in two years. Wow, this was hardly the game I enjoyed so much back in 2007. WTF happened?

Perhaps you have some other critique on why this version sucks beyond the performance issues? So far your biggest complaints seem to be the upgrade key and the lag...

Do you think if the game was the same as it was back in 2007 that anybody would still care about it? Element TD has evolved, simple as that.

I was hoping for some more useful feedback from you...but so far you've only complained about things that are meaningless.

Edit: You did mention a couple of gameplay problems in the first post, but glossed over them. Focus on what matters the most.

[MitFantasy]

VH is suppose to be a challenge. 3.0 VH mode was the "standard" there is no challenge there. Unless it is unbeateable then it's a problem, but as you can apparently see a lot of people have already beaten VH mode. It just take a lot more effort to planning to accomplish it.

Online play, you could end the game in 30 minutes if you desire. Like you said VH mode is so hard, most won't even get to the end. Play EX mode here and watch the game end in 15 minutes or less.

As for the slowness. Well, in every version, there is probably some bugs. These things can't be completely avoided. It just take time for the developer to find the cause and hopefully fix it.

E: Amplified Earth was strictly better than all arrow towers unless facing nature

LOL, I remember this. In 3.0 Earth Tower was ridiculous. It just flat out ownz everything. Build enough of it, you can breeze thru nature round. A splash tower shouldn't be doing that much damage. In comparison, water tower is a craphole of element to have by itself (actually I still think it still is even in 4.0, just my opinion).

In summary, what is the point of the hardest difficulty when people can easily beat it?