Open discussion: Tower upgrade costs

[Guest mrchak]

A principal that the game employs is that if you want to build a specific tower, it matters what route you go to upgrade to it (if you want to build a Magma Tower, it costs less to build Fire->Adv.Fire->Lava->Magma as Fire->Adv.Fire->Amp.Fire->Magma)

In 3.0 it is always cheaper to move from single to dual earlier in the upgrade process than to do it as a last step. This is there to make players plan out their building a little more.

The question is, is this a good thing or a bad thing? For each lv2+ dual and lv2 triple, there can be a lower cost version that you can upgrade from the towers with less elements (e.g. Apl.Fire->Magma[cheaper], Lava->Magma[regular])

This would necessitate 51 duplicate tower units, unless there was an even more clever way to do it.

[Guest Sancdar]

In 3.0 it is always cheaper to move from single to dual earlier in the upgrade process than to do it as a last step. This is there to make players plan out their building a little more.

This is there to make less work for the map developer, you mean. Like I said in some other topic, I'm pretty sure you can do it with just 1-7 towers, a smart upgrade function, and a whole bunch of tooltips.

[Cisz]

I don't like the poll, because I can't vote "I don't care".

If someone want's to spend the time on it, ok..

But it's really not of any importance. All good players can easily avoid it. And all bad players don't even know of it. I mean, come on, bad players sell on pick and place money towers on 5 (numpad notation).

[Twilice]

Yes finally, I tried to make this thing started in the former forum.

but not so much succes.

Should cost same gold, (you don't get 100% for selling them if you uppgraded the costy way.)

[Guest mrchak]

I think this improvement should be flagged to Karawasa as something to include into Element TD 4.0.

[Karawasa]

This is there to make less work for the map developer, you mean. Like I said in some other topic, I'm pretty sure you can do it with just 1-7 towers, a smart upgrade function, and a whole bunch of tooltips.

With the new and improved tooltips, this sounds like it could take a long time. As Cisz said, this doesn't really seem pressing.

Besides, you can justify the cost imbalance. The upgrade paths are different, so you get to take advantage of different towers in the interim. The more expensive path always upgrades from a more powerful tower, so consider that the "cost."

[Guest Sancdar]

I don't think it would take that long to make the tooltips. You're copy/pasting everything but the cost, which is one of only a few numbers since all prices are the same. But hey, paying a huge extra % of gold because you click the wrong button or you're inexperienced at the game and don't know exactly how the build paths work is fair, right?

[Guest mrchak]

But hey, paying a huge extra % of gold because you click the wrong button or you're inexperienced at the game and don't know exactly how the build paths work is fair, right?

Assuming you're being sarcastic, I'm 100% in agreement with you. We shouldn't penalize noobs for not knowing these intricacies; its like stealing candy from a baby!

Yes, this isn't as pressing as some other issues, but I still think it can be included in the 4.0 release.

[Karawasa]

Why don't we just remove the extra pathways? When you think about it, level 1 duals and triples have only ONE upgrade path. Why should level 2/3 duals and triples have two upgrade paths?

I say we keep it simple, it makes sense intuitively. It solves the problem, and saves me time.

[Guest mrchak]

Thats one possibility, its definitely the simplest (besides leaving it as is). It would prevent people from accidentally making an upgrade choice that loses them net worth. However, I still think it would be BETTER if the upgrade paths were left open but the cost was adjusted.

[holepercent]

have all the paths cost the same... more often, this happens in random where one path would give better results.. instead of going thru the process of selling and rebuilding it the 'correct' way...

[Guest mrchak]

In random mode you can at least sell and rebuild with no gold penalty. On non-random you get the 25% tax on selling, so if you have a Freezing tower and want to upgrade it to Monsoon you are in a catch 22.

[Cisz]

But on pick you can play the same build 20 times, plan ahead, and know exactly which tower will have to br build when. Or you simply pay more, win w/o leak and wonder: "What's all that posting about?"

[Karawasa]

I'm still leaning toward removing the additional upgrade paths. It encourages better planning by pros, and prevents noobs from killing their cash. It makes sense too, if you want a level 2 dual, you need a level 1 dual etc..