Need tips to balance a TD

[LanceDH]

Greetings THW,

After creating diffrent maps (and never finishing them) I now am getting closer and closer to finishing a TD.
In the past 2 days I've finished the terrain and most of the triggers, but now I got to the worst part ... balancing the whole thing.

My TD will have 40 waves (could still change) 4 difficulties and currently has 1 race (to make balance easier).
So far, I have 1 tower and 2 waves ... and now I'm not sure how to continue.
I could ofcourse test every wave, but theres 40 of them, and a TD has so many ways to create a maze. I don't want to end up with a TD that you can only complete with only 1 build style, but neither do I want people to be good by just building towers at random locations.

So do I just have to test the waves over and over (wintermaul already takes 1 hour to finish) or are there some tricks to test/balance things easier and faster?

LanceDH

 

[Kaer]

I think the best solution would be testing the finished (or close to finished) game with a couple of friends. Only if you test the TD with all player spaces filled you get the most reliable result.

You can't really test it without playing it for hours. If you add a command for switching the level or sth your gold wouldnt fit the level you're in, nor would the towers.

 

[Jsprat100]

Gold cost system:
For every 5 max damage, assign, for example, 50 gold. If a tower has 10-15 damage, for example, then it would cost 150 gold. For towers with abilities, sort abilities mentally into low and high level. For every low level ability that tower has, add, for example, 50 gold. For every high level ability it has, add 100 gold.
EXAMPLE: A tower has 15-20 damage with 4% critical strike.
It would cost 200 (damage) + 50 (ability) = 250 gold.
Works the same for upgrades, however if the upgrade only adds an ability, give it the cost of a high level ability to upgrade (100 gold cost for my example)

TIER SYSTEM
For my first TD (its lost now) I took three towers, shadow blood and frost. Each could be upgraded 3 times. At its top level, it unlocked a special tower of its category. After all of those second teir towers were created, a special (demon) tower became avaliable, that could be upgraded 3 times too.

Alternatively, you could do a linear system where you need 1 tower to unlock the next.

Or you could do an upgrade system where you need to research towers.

 

[LanceDH]

I'm creating a Wintermaul like TD, where you have diffrent towers that don't upgrade.
I currently have 10 towers of which 2 are 'finished', the other 8 are just premade to edit later.
The first towers costs 10g the 2nd 60g. You start with 50g.
You get 1g/kill and 10g for completing a wave (in the first waves).
So you start with 5 of the first tower, then you add some more, save some money or sell towers after some waves to build stronger ones, ...

Now the problem I have with the balancing is:
5 towers doing 16-18 damage each, 40 creeps spawn, k, not to bad, make the first wave instakill (you learn how things work).
Now you have 5 towers and 50g, what is an ok hp for the next wave. So I got 40 creeps with 20hp.
3rd wave: 40 creeps with 35hp
And as the waves get harder and harder, so does the way of thinking.
Eventually you can't realy know what towers people should have at those waves to give the waves a good hp.

 

[Kaer]

You have to guess and to simply try it out. Wave too easy? More hitpoints. Looking for a change? More armor / speed / units which share damage or what ever.
I don't think there is a way to calculate all those things.
Especially if it comes to air units or sth like that.

I'm creating a wave-survival map since a few days. Exact the same thing, waves of creeps which need to be balanced to my heroes and a bunch of heroes which need to be balanced, too. Quite funny if you ask me, but it's more than complicated, sometimes.

 

[ClanOOKARep]

Make some towers be more powerful then others, make the weaker ones have an automatic-attacking spell that could add some extra damage, make it so the player has to have different towers to be able to go on, and that they have to plan a maze good.

 

[SlayerII]

Something which nobody mentioned is that towers should get more cost efficent when getting expensive. Otherwise you dont need to make the expensive towers and just spam the lower ones.
So your first tower my have 10-15 damage for 10 gold
a later one have 100-150 damage for 75 gold
and the last uber tower 1000-1500 for 500 gold
i also saw some tds where towers got less cost efficent, but you did not have to much place to build.

 

[LanceDH]

I actually already knew what SlayerII and ClanOOKARep said.
The only problem I have is trying to find out what hp my waves should have compared to the tower I can build with the money you get and the power of the towers.

I now 6 orso waves 'done' and 3/10 towers (5 if you count the ones that are completely untested).
But I guess I'll just have to do what Kaer said: create my waves and towers, test of few games with diffrent strategies, and then have other people test it.