Survivor TD Aspect

[Ghan_04]

In previous versions, the next level would start as soon as one player killed all their creeps. This gives a disadvantage to players who want to draw out their towers along the path. It also gives an opportunity to spam other players by having one person build all their towers right at the entrance, causing all the other players to literally drown in creeps. I suggest that this be changed either to A. Make all creeps be dead before going to the next level or B. Give each player their own separate level system. Opinions?

[Guest Sancdar]

Definitely not option A. Any TD where you get to wait for someone slow is annoying as hell. That's why Gem TD is pretty much only played with Race Mode at the moment.

[Cisz]

Since I'm about to host an eletd tournament, my answer is pretty obvious.

Not only gem td but many other tds have a "slowest player sets speed" mode, Blizzard TD for example. Those tds actually punish good players.

As for tds with totally independant maps, like yellow, I don't really like them. Whats the point playing multiplayer if the only interaction is "you have lost" or "you have won"?

[Guest Sancdar]

Sometimes it's nice to talk to other players. Sometimes it isn't.

I guess the one strong point on option A is that if you were on Random mode, you could make buckets of cash by selling all your towers until the slowest player was almost done killing his creeps. It's still a "solution" that makes the game more boring.

[0rb3r]

The up left mazecorner is really not the best place to post your tower strength, in fact, cizs is the first one I saw succeeding in very hard putting his solar in that place. Most ppl uses storm and nova, in which case its hard to finish that fast the levels that other would be overhelmed with creeps. Maybe a pro could achieve that, but, would a pro really do that?

I think its ok the way it is now, in fact it is the main reason why multiplayer is so funny, playing with pros makes you feel how good they are, as the game speed increases. Each 5 levels is anyways a bonus time to gain back the time you lost. (Of course sometimes i feel additional 5 secs. really wouldnt hurt ).

BUT i have to admit that it is an excellent idea to make Race mode more fair (it just happens to often that the same player is first in a row).

[Guest Sancdar]

Well, the main problem is people who play VE and kill everything quick just to make the game harder for the other players. But hey, so what? You should still be able to deal with it, you just get less interest.

[Guest mrchak]

It's a competition. If you want to play offensively, build up front and drown your opponents! That's part of the fun of the game.

But something is in the game as a mechanism to balance that. It depends on the difficulty level of the player who clears their creeps first - if they're on VE, it waits like 20 seconds for the next round, if they're on VH, it waits like 5 seconds.

Furthermore, for all players the spawns don't START at the same time, they END at the same time. So that also helps to prevent some noob on VE from creaming experienced players on VH.

I think its fun to have interaction between the different players. Make the strongest player set the pace, its more competitive.

As a side note, I love Race mode, but my buddy Psycoblade NEVER wants to play it because its so stressful! Its fun stress...

[Guest Sancdar]

Yeah, I like playing Race. My friends no longer do. Honestly though, you'd have to lose a ton of levels without ever getting a lifegain tower to lose from it.

[Guest sillyboy_tomato]

I like it just the way i like it now

[Guest j`4`c`K`i`E]

I am 100 % for option C!

I could win with cisz, if the slowest would spawn the new creeps, because it is not important, how fast he plays :S

(To win with cisz would be lol )

-> No good idea!

[Cisz]

It would require a good book or a flash td in the background on my behalf..

[ocmassreo]

we can start new lvl creeps

when the first players have finish "and "when the creeps of the others, run half of the map

no start creeps when 1st finish

no start when last finish

but if one player finish kill all creeps and others creeps's player do a calculate distance

or time delay ?

[Guest Tigershark]T-T[]

To me, the only change that is worth discussing would be the idea of having race mode changed to not losing lifes but starting the next level independently. This way, like for example in Dixel's Tower Defense, the player who finishes the last level first wins - or the last survivor wins, but of which gives people some motivation to be faster than others.

[Guest Sancdar]

I like the current Race Mode, because the lives lost don't actually hurt that much, but they are still a motivation to finish levels quickly.

[Cisz]

Agreed. The life loss of race mode is more like a pinch to motivate you.

[Guest hyperprimate]

I like racing, but I'd like to see some changes to the race mode. I don't like that you lose the same amount (one) life if you finish the wave one tenth of a second after the first player as if you leak and finish it a minute later. Maybe the second player to finish a wave could lose one life, the third two lifes etc. Or make players lose one life every ten seconds they have not finished the wave. This would get rid of the "Cisz is faster than me anyway so I don't even try to kill a wave first and just build safe so I don't leak"-effect.

[Guest mrchak]

Yea, as soon as a player finishes the wave, all players have like 5 or so seconds to clear it before they start losing lives,

if they clear it within 5 seconds, lose no lives

clear it in 5-10 seconds - lose 1 life

clear it in 10-15 seconds - lose 2 lives

if after 15 seconds there's still something, lose 3 lives and stop counting.

Might that be too intense? At the very least I like the idea of the game giving you a warning "SOMEONE has finished the level, you have 5 seconds to clear your spawns or else you lose a life!!!"

[ocmassreo]

good idea ^^

[Guest Lajm]

Yeah, I like that idea too

[0rb3r]

all players have like 5 or so seconds to clear it before they start losing lives,

if they clear it within 5 seconds, lose no lives

great idea, it doesn't changes the race concept but leaves you an "airbag" so that you dont have to lose a life if you aren't the first one. If you play it too slow, you realize "how much" too slow you are as you get a bigger penalty on your race. Excellent feedback.

Teoretically, if all players play on similar clearing speed, no one loses lives. I love it.

[0rb3r]

I've just had a nice idea for Race mode, how about including in the multiboard the time you have have made like in a real F1 race? something like:

• Wave 33

Player 1 - +0,87 secs

Player 2 - +8,73 secs

Player 3 - 15,97 secs Lead

Player 4 - +4,78 secs

Player 5 - +12,55 secs

Player 6 - +5,12 secs

Of course the time should include the difficulty adjustment.

Comment!

[Guest mrchak]

I like that - as the game goes on it can keep a running balance, that would be really fun. I'm a little unclear about how you'd count up the seconds; Is it the difference between the first person clearing the level and the last person clearing the level?

How about this, the game can track the time when each player finishes the level, then it can take an average. Each player gets the difference between their time and the average added to their cumulative score. So at the end of the game you will see how much above or below par you are.

For example, the times for clearing lv 1 are

Player 1 0:52

Player 2 0:55

Player 3 0:45

Player 4 1:01

Player 5 1:01

Player 6 0:57

Then the average time is 0:55, so the players are scored above/below par as:

Player 1 0:03

Player 2 0:00

Player 3 0:10

Player 4 -0:06

Player 5 -0:06

Player 6 -0:02

Next level the time above/below par would be tallied and added to a running total.

It would be cool if the players are ranked (re-ordered) in the multiboard ongoing to reflect their standing. Maybe during race mode this time can take the place that the Net worth currently takes, or a new column put in. If the time is just amended to the player name then it might look uneven.

[0rb3r]

To MrChack

I wouldn't make it so complicated, on wave 33, the multiboard displays the results of the last round (wave 32), you can see easy and without calculating who was the fastest, and how far away you are from him. As an extra, you can calculate how many lives you lost (considering your 5sec=1life, 10sec=2lifes... purposal) in no time and how far away you are from losing less lifes (it isn't the same losing 2 lifes by 11 secs then by 14 secs).

I'm not a Race player but I think to remember that the game compensates difficulty, just include the penalty into the effective comparison time.

Maybe during race mode this time can take the place that the Net worth currently takes

yep, thats a great point, if you make the multiboard too big it will reduce your view field, Not displaying Net Worth would be imo a good solution.

How about this, the game can track the time when each player finishes the level, then it can take an average. Each player gets the difference between their time and the average added to their cumulative score.

No need for average time, you could display the cumulative results each 5 rounds (so, on end round 10 you see cumulative from 6 - 10) and at the end of the game the total score (cumulative from all rounds from 1 - 60).

[jolin012]

I agree aswell, it's good with the life loss, with independent start it would make it even more stressing, too stressing for many players.

[Karawasa]

Some interesting ideas in this thread. To be honest, I like the way things work now. As for Race Mode, it got the axe (you will find out why in the public beta).