WindStrike Posted March 3, 2015 This isn't completely confirmed, but due to an indefinite delay on the DOTA 2 version as a result of "we have no idea when the new DOTA 2 engine will release", we may be rolling back to the SC2 version in order to A, fix its current bugs and whatnot; and B, test out new features. Ready? GO! Tower Changes Not just balance fixes... actual changes to the towers. This is to fix towers that aren't considered as good, or its synergy with certain combinations actually works *cough Ice*. Laser Tower: A very powerful single-target tower that deals Light damage. However, the more creeps around the target, the less damage it does, down to a minimum damage cap. 2,000 / 10,000 Damage Loses 10% of its damage for every other creep within 6 range of the target. Will not drop below 30% of its damage, aka 600 / 3,000 per shot 1.00 Attack Speed Range - 12 Poison Tower: An AoE tower that deals Water damage. As it attacks, the amount of AoE it hits increases, eventually capping out at a maximum. 30 / 150 / 750 Damage 0.31 Attack Speed Range - 12 AoE - Starts at 1.5 (full damage) Every attack increases it by 0.3 AoE, up to a maximum of 6 AoE (full damage). That said, it takes a total of 15 attacks to hit maximum AoE. After 2 seconds of not attacking, its AoE will automatically reset down to 1.5. Quark Tower: A single target tower that deals Light damage. The more it attacks a single target, the more damage it deals at an exponential gain with no cap. 120 / 600 / 3,000 Damage After the first attack, its damage increased by 50%. This 50% is applied to the most recent damage. At Level 1, its damage per hit would be 120, 180, 270, 405, 608, 911, 1367, etc. 1.00 Attack Speed Range - 10 Mildew Tower: An AoE tower that deals Nature damage. It still hits creeps with a line-drive move, but the higher hp percentage the target is, the more damage it will do. 35 / 175 / 875 Minimum Damage The higher target's HP is, the more damage it does. How this should work is that for every 1% HP it has, the damage should deal an increase equal to that amount. So if the target is at 42% HP, it should deal 42% additional damage. That said, highest damage it should deal is 70 / 350 / 1,750 Damage 1.50 Attack Speed Range - 12 AoE - 2.5 (full damage) Ice Tower An single target bouncing tower that deals Light damage. It fires a frozen orb a target, which bounces as many times as possible to a random nearby creep before the orb disperses. It also gets a bonus versus slowed creeps. 50 / 250 / 1,250 DamageIt gains a % damage increase equal to the total % the target is getting slowed. 1.50 Attack Speed Range - 10 Orb search AoE - 2If there is no other creep within 2 AoE of the target, the orb automatically disperses. Orb duration - 3 seconds Orb movement speed - Should be equal to twice a creep's standard movespeed. Hail Tower: A long-range single-target tower that deals Light damage. It can fire at up to 3 targets at once at the cost of reduced single-target damage. 200 / 1,000 DamageWhen it fires at up to 3 different targets, damage drops to 140 / 700 Ability Duration Lasts for 3 seconds, has 3 second cooldown Autocast is defaulted to on. Tower Balance Updates The following is just a bunch of balance changes. Mostly buffs. Earth Tower: Damage: 16 / 80 / 400 / 6,000Down from 18 / 90 / 450 / 6,750 Vapor Tower: Initial Damage: 8 / 40 / 200Down from 10 / 50 / 250 Flamethrower Tower: Initial Damage: 100 / 500Down from 150 / 750 Napalm Stack Damage: 80 / 400Up from 60 / 300 Runic Tower: Ability AoE: 2.25Down from 3. Flooding Tower: Damage: 310 / 1,550Up from 300 / 1,500 Range: 12Up from 10 Haste Tower: Damage: 340 / 1,700Up from 264 / 1,320 Ephemeral Tower: Damage: 600 / 3,000Up from 500 / 2,500 Celerity Tower: Distance Damage Multiplier: *750 / *3,750Up from *600 / *3,000 Torrent Tower: Drop the first two charge levels (80 / 400 and 175 / 875). Caps out at 80 attacks, not 100. Remove Elemental Grenade/Ray Towers So the DOTA 2 version is going to remove the elemental versions of the grenade and ray towers. Why? Because this is the number one reason of how expert players are able to do something silly called Interest Abuse. A mass buy/resell phase up through about Wave 30 that lets expert players have up to 50% more networth than other players even in multiplayer matches. Extra networth above other players should be done through smart spending, not some abuse trick. Remove this, and said expert players might be able to get away with it through up to Wave 15 just using the standard Grenade/Ray Towers. That's fine, cause it's early game. Past that though, it shouldn't be happening. This should also kick players off the intro towers and into actual towers much earlier. Speaking of which, here's another way to do it:Max level Grenade and Ray Towers should be able to directly upgrade into any of the single-element towers. The cost for each would be 118 minerals. Up next, creep changes! Go to top Share this post Link to post
WindStrike Posted March 3, 2015 Creep changes a-gogo! Regeneration Creep Ability A new creep ability that passively gives health regeneration to creeps over time. It takes a creep close to a minute to pass through the whole maze, so let's give them 2% of their maximum hp regeneration per second. Defenses that burst kill creep waves won't have any trouble. However, defenses that bank on creeps getting through most of the maze are going to have trouble, namely the triple-pass location up top, double-pass, annnd the best single-player build Artillery Towers. Rather than redoing the creep order, this'll replace various Normal waves, but not all of them. Here's the list! Wave 26 - Flame Bat, Fire Wave 33 - Jungle Scorpion, Nature Wave 36 - Manta Ray, Water Wave 45 - Goliath, Composite Wave 49 - Infested Marine, Dark Wave 53 - Colossus, Light Wave 59 - Sand Behemoth, Earth Maybe then this wave won't be a complete joke, lol. Speed Creeps Speed creeps tend to be very hard to defend against early game, but once you have slowing, their ability might as well not exist. Right now, there isn't a creep ability that really counters slowing... maybe AoE, but not actual slowing. Change speed bonus from +200% down to 100%, 3 second duration, 3 second cooldown. While the speed bonus is activated, the creep is immune to all forms of slowing. This'll nerf it early-game and buff it mid to late-game. Fruit Wave The balance of Element TD banks around creep abilities way too much. As long as the fruit wave sends just normal creeps, AoE + slowing will win every time and single-target will be pointless. They need to have creep abilities. For each wave of fruit, have it alternate between each of the six creep abilites (including the Regeneration ability above). This should alternate on a per fruit basis using the following order: Image Healing Undead Mechanical Regeneration Speed I don't know what the current HP scaling is per fruit wave increase, but with the abilities, the HP scaling can actually tone back a bit, just not too much. Overall HP Scaling For some reason, the SC2 HP scaling on creeps causes the latter half of the waves to taper off with a lower scaling than the first half. This probably partly explains how expert players are able to only spend half their gold until the fruit wave, which is quite silly. Attached is an Excel sheet with new creep hp values. It starts off slightly easier than the current scaling up through about 30. By 45, it's about 15% harder, and by wave 60, it's about 30% harder. Try saving half your gold now! Up next, game modes! New SC2 Creep HP.xlsx Go to top Share this post Link to post
WindStrike Posted March 3, 2015 Now for game modes! Gameplay Mode Selection Screen This screen has 3 menus with 2 options each. After 30 seconds, it will auto-choose a mode. There's a 5 second delay before you can confirm your votes. If you're in single-player, the default is set to Normal, Single Player, Non-Mazing. If you're in multiplayer, the default is set to Normal, Competitive, Non-Mazing. Normal or Extreme NormalTooltip: Standard mode with 50 lives. Extreme Tooltip: Up for the extra challenge? Fruit points are doubled and everyone gets 100 lives instead! So the old Extreme Mode, aka 1 life and 0 cooldown between waves is being pushed from the second menu to this menu. That way, it can be stacked with the other modes listed on the first screen. Every wave has an ability. That is, every Normal wave is now a Regeneration wave. Including the first five, not that it really matters early on much. Creep HP Scaling is a flat 18.3% increase from the very start. Wave cooldown timers are always 5 seconds, with 45 second breaks every 5 waves. All creep abilities are on steroids. Here's the breakdown! RegenerationCreeps recover 4% of their maximum HP per second. UndeadCreeps recover to full HP when they respawn. MechanicalInvincibility lasts for 5 seconds, 5 second cooldown. SpeedCreeps always move at double speed and are immune to slowing debuffs. HealingWhen a creep dies, it heals all creeps nearby by 50% of their maximum hp. Keep the current AoE, I don't know what it is right now. ImageIllusions have no duration. They still will not count towards lives, but they don't disappear until they die. Cooldown before a new illusion can be summoned jumps to 20 seconds though. The point of fruit points being doubled is that this would theoretically be the new contender for achieving high scores... if it's even possible to beat. o_O Single Player or Competitive If you're the only person in the game, Competitive mode will automatically be grey'd out and unselectable. Single Player Mode Everyone is in their own sandbox and world. Wave Order modes and Duration modes still apply to everyone, but everyone's difficulties are separated. Wave timers are separated. If one player finishes a wave, it will only continue to the next wave for that player. Competitive Mode Everyone's Difficulty is the same. During the voting process, everyone may choose a difficulty, but the average of those votes is what chooses the overall difficulty for everyone.This will disable Newbie difficulty from being selectable. When one player beats a wave, the countdown timer for the next wave will begin for everyone.Here's a change. For anyone that increases their difficulty manually with '-harder', when that player beats that wave, it will still use the overall difficulty's cooldown timer. I really thought it was silly an experienced player could go into a game, jump their difficulty a notch or two, then do a rush-kill defense with 3-second default cooldown timer for everyone instead of 6 to 9, killing all the newbies off instantly without giving them a chance. Increasing your difficulty in a Competitive game should only be for the sake of getting a higher fruit point score. Also includes the suggestion to Send Boss Creeps at enemies.See the Alternate Version pointed out here - https://forums.eletd.com/index.php/topic/95124-sending-element-boss-creeps/?p=119545 Non-Mazing or Mazing Non-MazingStandard mode with the pre-determined maze. Mazing Build your own maze!Please add the ability on the Maze Blocks to be able to upgrade directly into Elemental Towers. Costs should be 172 each instead of 175. This way, we don't have to sell a block in order to build a tower, which has cause many people to lose due to creating holes in the maze. Regarding Regeneration creeps...Base regeneration is 2% a second I think. Regeneration creeps would be bumped to 3% a second, and for Extreme mode, they'd be bumped to 5% a second. The mode needs various other tweaks, but until I can figure out a viable way to do so without requiring a complete balance overhaul of the entire game, I'll hold off on suggestions. Hero ModeRemove it from the game. Very, very few people play it, and it honestly isn't that great. Best not to have too many unnecessary options at the players. Perhaps in the future, it could return, renewed with greatness. Team ModeRemove it from the game. Even less people play it, unfortunately. Well, that and it can run into various issues especially when paired with people that think grenade/ray towers are the best and fill every slot on the map. Derp. Wars ModeI don't know if it's still on the menu, but if it is, axe it. It's far from being a viable wars mode, plus the new change to Competitive Mode provides more interaction between the players anyways. Gameplay Options Selection Screen This screen has 4 menus with a number of options each. After 30 seconds, it will auto-choose a mode. There's a 5 second delay before you can confirm your votes. Difficulties Retool on the difficulties! Old set was Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard, and Insane. This will also redo the scaling juuuust slightly. The numbers will look different, but the results will be roughly the same. New set: Newbie Equivalent to current Easy difficulty. This difficulty is grey'd out if Competitive mode is selected. 75% HP and 0% Damage Reduction. Cooldown Timer = 10 seconds between each wave, 60 seconds on each 5-wave break. You do not get points for killing Fruits on this difficulty. Easy Equivalent to current Normal difficulty. 100% HP and 0% Damage Reduction. Cooldown Timer = 8 seconds between each wave, 60 seconds on each 5-wave break. Fruit Points per kill = 1. Normal Equivalent to current Hard difficulty. 100% HP and 30% Damage Reduction. Cooldown Timer = 6 seconds between each wave, 45 seconds on each 5-wave break. Fruit Points per kill = 2. Hard Equivalent to current Very Hard difficulty. 100% HP and 50% Damage Reduction. Cooldown Timer = 5 seconds between each wave, 45 seconds on each 5-wave break. Fruit Points per kill = 4. Insane Equivalent to current Insane difficulty. 110% HP and 60% Damage Reduction. Cooldown Timer = 5 seconds between each wave, 45 seconds on each 5-wave break. Fruit Points per kill = 6. This is mainly a relabel. Naturally, a lot of players like playing on "Normal" difficulty, but the current normal difficulty is, well... less than average. Very Easy is a really big joke, so axe that and set the new Normal in the middle. Who knows, by bumping it up a level, we may see an increase in overall player skill. High scores for everyone should be wiped. If that's not possible, multiply all of the above numbers by 5 instead. That way, old records will automatically be invalidated due to higher numbers. Element Selection All PickYou can select what elements you get. All RandomEveryone's elements are completely randomized. Same RandomEveryone gets the same random set of elements. Wave Orders Standard Wave OrderThe normal wave order is a predetermined set of creeps, which plays out the same every time. Chaos Wave OrderRandomization of the standard wave order. Game Length Interest Before The Game StartsThe interest timer should not start until the first wave starts. That time you get before the game starts to build your towers shouldn't be spent waiting to get the most out of your gold, it should be to figure out what you're building. Normal Game LengthYou start with 70 minerals, 0 gas, and you start at Wave 1 with a 30 second timer before the game starts. Short Game Length You start with 1000 minerals, 3 gas, and you start at Wave 16 with a 45 second timer before the game starts. If you're on Single-Player mode and you summon a Level 1 or 2 Element before Wave 16 starts, you will get it automatically. A Level 3 Element will run through your maze. For Random mode, the 3 gas you get is automatically spent on elements. It will not summon a Level 3 Element. Very Short Game Length You start with 6000 minerals, 6 gas, and you start at Wave 31 with a 60 second timer before the game starts. Same note as Short Game Length. I didn't include Race mode because as I've pointed out several times before, it's a pointless mode. Including Extreme Mode is optional, and heck, I'd be happy if we just got all the other changes, but it'd certainly be an interesting super challenge mode. And that wraps it up! It's a large set of suggestions for sure, heck larger than the old massive list of changes I posted last year, though these changes aren't nearly as drastic as some of the ones suggested there. What's people's thoughts on these ones? Go to top Share this post Link to post
