Dark Portal Defense Vol. 1.3

[Moderator]

18:30, 22nd Mar 2016
Ardenian: A challenging survival game, strongly reminding me of Fortress Survival.

One point which is completely out of balance is the difficulty. I played multiple times, with different heroes, with different difficulties.
A difficulty is not called Very Easy if enemies manage to still take you down easily.
After a few games I learned what towers I had to build in order to survive.
Different difficulties should aim to allow new players to learn the game, the easy way. I suggest, Pyro, you try to balance out the lower difficulties to allow new players to get into the game, not being defeated in seconds.
A hint how the game works ( run away, search a spot and build a base) would be nice, too.

The terrain is average, you could try to get some structure in the labyrinth-like build and add some unique area and base concepts
( for example, small bases with small entries, big bases with bigger entrances, different themes, like Town, Wilderness, ...).

You could also think about reworking the heroes.
Many hero abilities, like Farsight or Mass Teleportation don't offer a greater use in the game.

 

[bear_369]

Gonna try this out soon!
I used to create a map that is inspired by Fortress Survival.

 

[Vengeancekael]

Played it for 20 minutes alone, it's fun! Albeit quite simple. It'd be nice if you added the option for the host to choose the game length though, 45 minutes seems a bit too much.

• Include the credits list in a quest in-game
• Custom heroes would be better
• Some polishing in the tooltips could always help

 

[bear_369]

I played it for 30 minutes. I really like the game.
Most bosses are kinda annoying like they can summon treants at the trees which they can summon inside the base and create another entrance to the base.
And a boss with a Finger of Death which can 1-hit which towers they want to pick. (Corrected me if few towers can't be 1-hit by that ability.)
And also, you should added something that how the game works like how you gonna get a lumber from?
Anyway its fun! But need some fixing.

EDIT:

I played the map again but this time disabling the fog of war. You should fix the terrain where most creeps became stuck when clump together.

 

[Pyro]

Thanks for the replies, I really appreciate both of you testing the game.

But I made a really huge mistake by uploading the version that I used for epicwar, just because it was already protected.
I will upload the newest version asap, because it contains a lot of changes and mob balancing, and should also be beatable solo.

I also fixed the clumping of monsters by adding a meatgrinder trigger that just removes monsters once they cross a certain number.
Oh and by the way, the monsters that use force of nature also had the ability removed, it would otherwise make no sense to choose a base with trees in it.
I am not quite sure wether the difficulty dialogue was already implemented at that time, but yeah, this was the other option for the player instead of being able to make the game shorter.

Edit: Reuploaded the newest version, added ingame credits, Loading Screen thumbnail is next.

Edit 2: encountered some problems with the map optimizer, making the previous version unplayable. reuploaded.

 

[bear_369]

I played your map again. I couldn't can tell a difference between the two versions right now.
By the way, here's some feedback I got.

- For some reason, after you upgrade a gold mine lvl 1, its max hp got reduced by 7.
- The sound environment is really annoying as they can killing my ears.
- I literally found a treants that were summoned earlier but I couldn't find who's the caster.
- An Assasinator (Final upgrade of Sniper Tower) with a Damage Aura can be so overpowered that its critical damage can even 1-Shot the Final boss.
Especially with the *2nd-to the last form* Multi-Shot towers when combined with attackspeed and damage.
- Few heroes' ability is useless like Archmage's final ability that is quite useless very much.
- There's an invisible dummy unit near a slow tower that can cast blizzard when attacking.
It's visible because it probably got affected by the aura.
- Some passive/autocast abilities icon is kinda broken when you go in menu or pause the game.
- Although the *gold-producing* structure only produce gold. Why there is a tooltip description about its damage and etc?


I suggest you should fix some of the feedbacks I said.

 

[Pyro]

Thanks for your review, bear_369. Oh, boy, I believe this will turn out to be quite long, but i will try to cover everything you mentioned:

I played your map again. I couldn't can tell a difference between the two versions right now.

First of all, I was pretty sure that I made a lot of changes in the new version, even the map itself does look different already in the preview, and Im certain I finalized the terrain in the earlier stages of editing.

- For some reason, after you upgrade a gold mine lvl 1, its max hp got reduced by 7.

The gold mine level 1 has 10 hp because buildings that have less than around 2 max hp can't be built, and if I wanted to calculate the income via its max hp like I did with the other mines, it would have to have 2 hp, so thats that.

- The sound environment is really annoying as they can killing my ears.

I have no real easy way to change the sound environment other than turning down the music, but I guess you are talking about the effects anyways. So my advice for you is that you could just turn down the effect volume in the game options?! I mean I wasn't bothered by the sounds, if you don't want to get your ears "killed" you can even mute the effects completely, I believe.

- I literally found a treants that were summoned earlier but I couldn't find who's the caster.

I hope the treant you found was a regular mob, or did you see the force of nature effect destroying trees? because if the ability was still in the game I would have to go search for it.

- An Assasinator (Final upgrade of Sniper Tower) with a Damage Aura can be so overpowered that its critical damage can even 1-Shot the Final boss.
Especially with the *2nd-to the last form* Multi-Shot towers when combined with attackspeed and damage.

The Tower Oneshotting the boss is really quite a balancing issue. But you must've been playing on very easy mode, because when I played the last time with some friends on easy (2nd difficulty) we had like 6 of those levelled-up towers with auras and items and stuff and the boss still held out for at least one minute. In conclusion, I will buff up the very easy mode, but generally, if you have some experience with the game, I recommend easy or normal mode when playing solo and normal or higher if you are playing with someone else. The difficulty is rising exponentially, so If you really want a challenge, the higer difficulties will make sure you get one.

- Few heroes' ability is useless like Archmage's final ability that is quite useless very much.

The Archmage ultimate is only useless if you are playing solo. When you are playing with other people, You can either help out your teammates at their bases or even escape with your hero and units if your own base is crumbling.
No other hero does provide that, so this can be a useful ability, in my opinion.

- There's an invisible dummy unit near a slow tower that can cast blizzard when attacking.
It's visible because it probably got affected by the aura.

So you probably saw the white aura circle appearing out of nowhere, will try to fix that.
Edit: I didn't even use a dummy unit, so its probably just the displaced origin attachment point of the tower model.

- Some passive/autocast abilities icon is kinda broken when you go in menu or pause the game.

Yes, I sometimes used the DISBTN icons, neglecting this visual issue, because I wanted to use a fitting image without making it look like an active ability. I would have to import icons or use unfitting ones if I wanted to change that.

- Although the *gold-producing* structure only produce gold. Why there is a tooltip description about its damage and etc?

So I'm guessing you are criticizing my tooltip format? Well It should still show a "-" for things like damage on the goldmines, its simply a description template that is used on most of the towers.


As I said before, I will look into the things you mentioned, if there is something among them that the community does not accept, I will change it. For me right now, the balancing on "Very Easy" was the most significant point.

PS: Did you actually oneshot the boss? Or did you just substract the red numbers from his total hp?

 

[bear_369]

Thanks for your review, bear_369. Oh, boy, I believe this will turn out to be quite long, but i will try to cover everything you mentioned:



First of all, I was pretty sure that I made a lot of changes in the new version, even the map itself does look different already in the preview, and Im certain I finalized the terrain in the earlier stages of editing.




The gold mine level 1 has 10 hp because buildings that have less than around 2 max hp can't be built, and if I wanted to calculate the income via its max hp like I did with the other mines, it would have to have 2 hp, so thats that.




I have no real easy way to change the sound environment other than turning down the music, but I guess you are talking about the effects anyways. So my advice for you is that you could just turn down the effect volume in the game options?! I mean I wasn't bothered by the sounds, if you don't want to get your ears "killed" you can even mute the effects completely, I believe.




I hope the treant you found was a regular mob, or did you see the force of nature effect destroying trees? because if the ability was still in the game I would have to go search for it.




The Tower Oneshotting the boss is really quite a balancing issue. But you must've been playing on very easy mode, because when I played the last time with some friends on easy (2nd difficulty) we had like 6 of those levelled-up towers with auras and items and stuff and the boss still held out for at least one minute. In conclusion, I will buff up the very easy mode, but generally, if you have some experience with the game, I recommend easy or normal mode when playing solo and normal or higher if you are playing with someone else. The difficulty is rising exponentially, so If you really want a challenge, the higer difficulties will make sure you get one.




The Archmage ultimate is only useless if you are playing solo. When you are playing with other people, You can either help out your teammates at their bases or even escape with your hero and units if your own base is crumbling.
No other hero does provide that, so this can be a useful ability, in my opinion.




So you probably saw the white aura circle appearing out of nowhere, will try to fix that.
Edit: I didn't even use a dummy unit, so its probably just the displaced origin attachment point of the tower model.



Yes, I sometimes used the DISBTN icons, neglecting this visual issue, because I wanted to use a fitting image without making it look like an active ability. I would have to import icons or use unfitting ones if I wanted to change that.




So I'm guessing you are criticizing my tooltip format? Well It should still show a "-" for things like damage on the goldmines, its simply a description template that is used on most of the towers.


As I said before, I will look into the things you mentioned, if there is something among them that the community does not accept, I will change it. For me right now, the balancing on "Very Easy" was the most significant point.

PS: Did you actually oneshot the boss? Or did you just substract the red numbers from his total hp?

I didn't but it takes about 2-3 shots before the critical strike happens. (Idk if other sniper towers were joined to attack the final boss or just a single tower)
Also, I did saw the treants were summoned by a force of nature. Its just I found them summoned at the top of the cliff with trees.
PS: Can you please tell me what the changes of every creeps when choosing a harder difficulty.
I just they reminded me the same thing as the previous difficulty I chosen.

 

[Pyro]

I didn't but it takes about 2-3 shots before the critical strike happens. (Idk if other sniper towers were joined to attack the final boss or just a single tower)
Also, I did saw the treants were summoned by a force of nature. Its just I found them summoned at the top of the cliff with trees.
PS: Can you please tell me what the changes of every creeps when choosing a harder difficulty.
I just they reminded me the same thing as the previous difficulty I chosen.

I am now certain that you are still playing the old version of the map, which is why i got confused why you were wondering about the trees spawning and the difficulty balance, on top of the assassinator tower oneshotting the boss.

I didn't test the old map myself, until I did some research on how to view it in the map folder:

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/world-editor-help-zone-98/maps-wont-show-up-game-maps-not-showing-map-list-125940/

So yeah, this was the reason for me not being able to play the old version and you still playing the old map until now. It appears if I reupload the map with a shorter file name and a different in game description, it will definetly be shown in the folders, so this will be fixed with the next update.
Edit: New version uploaded.

 

[bear_369]

I am now certain that you are still playing the old version of the map, which is why i got confused why you were wondering about the trees spawning and the difficulty balance, on top of the assassinator tower oneshotting the boss.

I didn't test the old map myself, until I did some research on how to view it in the map folder:

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/world-editor-help-zone-98/maps-wont-show-up-game-maps-not-showing-map-list-125940/

So yeah, this was the reason for me not being able to play the old version and you still playing the old map until now. It appears if I reupload the map with a shorter file name and a different in game description, it will definetly be shown in the folders, so this will be fixed with the next update.
Edit: New version uploaded.

I see. Sorry for that, I kinda confused that I thought you just updated your map.

 

[Legal_Ease]

Screenshots?

 

[Pyro]

Screenshots?

Thanks for your reply, Legal_Ease, I already stated something in this regard within the map description:

"At the time being I still have a lot of other stuff to do, so I hope you guys can accept the fact that the description is lacking in some ways. Images and a more accurate description will follow soon." (selfquote)

I will also add a changelog asap, because I made a lot of little fixes and balance updates in the past few days.

Edit: New version uploaded, along with screens, gameplay video and changelog with the latest updates.

 

[Ardenian]

The visibility dummy at the begining should not be selectable.
Add the Locust ability ( 'Aloc') to it, for example.

 

[Pyro]

Hello again, I updated the map and played it.

I went for Easy Mode and managed to beat it all the way, some notes:

• Armor and damage of the monsters scales fine now, armor could be a bit less.
• The hardest part is beating the first boss /making sure the walls hold him off; deceptive damage spike!
• Armor reduction is a necessity, which I don't think it should be.
• HP scaling of the monsters is too low though; especially for the last third and the final boss.
• Monster variety means needed tower variety, and I don't want players to be needing the full roster of towers if playing solo.
• Nitroflame tower and upgrades seem too weak.
• some of the Fusion towers still seem a bit too strong in comparison, it's frustrating that some upgrade paths are dead ends because they cannot be fusioned further.
• Ranged and flying enemies are comparatively too strong, because they get the same strength as melee ones, but can hit towers and heroes.

With this test, I think very easy difficulty is good to learn the game, whereas the higher difficulties can be seen as a challenge.