New TD: All Ideas Welcome

[kadoda77]

I'm looking to make a new TD (Tower Defense). I've got some ideas of my own, but not enough to build a whole, solid game. I'm new to modding, so I'm really not sure where to begin either. Any help and feedback is welcomed.

I want to hear your ideas for what you think a good TD game would be. Number of builders and towers per builder, tech tiers of the towers, waves, terrain, sounds, abilities, type (Square, Maze, etc.), and number of lives are all things I would like to take into consideration.

On a side note, I'm looking for a mapper, as terrain and map properties are my weakest point.

So let the constructive criticism begin!

 

[Landmine]

Mapper? Wat do you mean?
I may be able to help with terrain.
If you want tower ideas, you can look in my thread: Tower Ideas (don't forget to give credit). You may want to do a maul instead f a TD. Just becareful. TDs are sometimes solo and the terrain is new and set for building, while mauls are always team effort on a sometimes fodified version of the wintermauls (3 spawns up top, move down, go to the sides, go down, move in toward middle, go down into ship). Mauls also spawn more enemies because of the ammount of players.
If you are doing a TD (not a maul), I might suggest 30 lives. A maul usually has 50, 25, 10 (I think), 5, and somtimes 1.
The number of builders depends on you. If you want to have themed towers, you might want a separate builder to build those towers. You will probably want the normal builder (all the normal towers, no the big cost heavy towers).
The number buildings for a builder would depened on how many towers you have. For example, a normal tower builder would usually have at least 7 towers to build. If you have 12 towers for 1 builder, the cancel button will interfer with 1 tower. Yet I have seen a TD where a builder had 2 towers to build. Note that all towers should be upgradable unless they are top tier.

 

[kadoda77]

Hey thanks for the tips.

Yeah, by mapper, I mean someone who would make the terrain. I'm not imaginative enough to make up my own.

I've played just about ever maul out there, (My favorite being Shopping Maul, even tho it's not traditional) but I'm looking to make this as unique as possible.

The most memorable TD's I've played would have to be: Warhammer 40k, Shopping Maul, Zoator TD (The first finalized version), Line Tower Wars, Skibi's, Azure, and Mafa.

Since I'm still pretty new to modding, I'm intrigued by all the possibilities, and know that even tho it will require more work, it's not impossible to make something new and unique, that everyone will enjoy.

I'm still deciding whether it will be solo, or team. I would probably have to go along the lines of Warhammer 40k, and make it so that everyone gets their own spawn, and it would be possible to play by yourself if wanted, or with others.

RPG's are my favorite game genre, so I want to add some sort of rpg element, such as the XP function that Shopping Maul has. The only thing that tires me from playing any specific TD is finally figuring out how to beat it, then it's no challenge anymore, and no fun. Unlockables are a must.

Well, there's some of my ideas, back to the tutorials I guess.
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Tower Ideas:

I'm really interested in having a tower that deals very low damage and starts off attacking very slow, but every time it hits a target, it's attack speed increses by a fixed percentage (Maybe 1% per hit?) and continues to build up attack speed until the target is killed, after which, it's attack speed will return to default when attacking another creep.

Possibilities for upgrades would include increasing the damage, attack speed increase interval (Maybe 2%, 3%), or hitting a second target (Using Attack 2 maybe).

I have a couple ideas for what it would look like:

1. It would be a generic lightning tower, that would call down lightning on it's targets.
2. It would be a gattling gun, shooting bullets at it's targets. Inspired by the sentry turret from Command and Conquer Red Alert 2.

 

[kadoda77]

This is a bump/project update.

I've been gone for a few days, and will return tomorrow, hopefully to start actual work on my TD.

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What I'm going to include (But need help):

Terrain
Towers
Rules/Gameplay Style
Banking System
Experience System
Unlockables
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I'll be reading your comments, and using any help you guys give.

Whoever helps will get credited properly, and if you are interested enough, you could even become part of my non-existent project team.

So, until tomorrow night, I've got to go for now.

-kadoda77

 

[jiffy_peanutbutter]

No offense to that other poster, but whatever you do, don't do a maul. Mauls are boring and annoying because they are mostly just ripoffs of the original Wintermaul.

I don't like mazing in games, it makes your layout of towers look sloppy and silly.

I also don't like games where you get "Arrow Tower" and then it has 10 upgrades. I've always thought one upgrade is enough, and this allows you to have more diverse towers.

I don't "upgrading" damage and speed, that makes the game less creative to me.

Lastly, I would say to definitely add races, because games with just one race gets very boring fast. In my opinion, Burb and Element TD are the best out there.

You should try having multiple, little teams so that each group of say 3 people could try to last longer than the other.

I'd be happy to help with tower ideas but I kind of need more information bout the game to think of any good ones.

+Rep for effort in posting, btw.

 

[kadoda77]

Thank you anderf, I really do want this to be as unique and professional as amateur modding gets.

I am NOT going to make a Maul. They are way too over used.

For anyone wondering what my progress is, it's well, not very good. I'm trying to figure out how to make a tower using my gattling gun idea, and my absolute lack of knowledge of making abilities is hindering my progress a lot.

Ideas are good, help is better. Anyone who wants to officially help, please state so here. This is open enough that you could even name it if you wanted, I'm a bit lacking in the creative naming business. I just come up with the ideas and attempt to make them. On that note, I'm still looking for someone to create the terrain for the map.

So, what I want:

A small team of dedicated modders who are willing to give both ideas and time to make this TD the most unique and fun game that players have played in a long time.

If you want to know what the theme is before you get started, well you're outta luck, I haven't decided on a theme, which is why I want my team together. A group of people that can agree on a theme and get things truly advancing.

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I'll be looking for you!

(On a side note, I've changed my BNet account name to "Zero_".)

 

[jiffy_peanutbutter]

Well I'd be happy to help, but I don't really know how I would. I'm not that great with terrain or triggers, but I'm always bursting with ideas. I can help with testing/balancing, tooltips/descriptions/naming, and some other crap, I don't really specialize in anything.

For the Gatling gun, I don't really know how you would do it, but you could make the tower with searing arrows. After warming up (charging mana) and doing little damage, the Gatling gun starts using searing arrows to do real damage. But I dunno.

As for theme, you could try doing a maul that's "underground." I haven't seen too many of those.

 

[kadoda77]

Alright. I guess I might as well turn this into an actual idea mill now. So, let's let the ideas start rolling.

Terrain:

I like sunny grassy maps. They're, happier, and I like happy things. So I'm thinking something simple and grassy, like Azure TD or Shopping Maul or Warhammer 40k TD.

Towers:

A variety of races will be good. Originality is a must, granted you will still have generalizations such as a splash race, a low damage high speed race, high damage low speed, etc. I never liked how in Mauls Pink and Green are the only ones that can get the special tower that costs one lumber. (Usually a laser tower) That makes it so that people want to be a specific color. I think every color should have fun.

Gameplay:

Modes: I like maps that have game modes. Like Gem TD or DotA (Not a TD, I know). It gives players a fresh new look on the map, and can offer more challenging gameplay for the fans/veterans. Expect to see multiple game modes. Example modes would be: Normal, Survival, Challenge, Versus, ???? (Secret Mode).

Save system:

Why come back and play more? Because you'll have a unique experience every time! With an experience system you'll be able to pick up from where you left off, earning secret unlockables and gaining reputation as the best player out there.

Unlockables:

That's right, everyone loves unlockables, it's true. Get some satisfaction for you hard work with easter eggs and more. Examples of unlockables include: Changing your ally color, getting 'toys' to show off to your friends, and more.

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Let's hear your ideas, all are welcome. If I use any, I will credit your properly, and if I like it enough, I might invite you to help with the map creation.

 

[jiffy_peanutbutter]

Btw, I said maul by accident back there. Save system seems sort of stupid to me because it doesn't make much sense applied to a TD.

Modes sounds like a good idea, but whats the difference between "Normal" and "Survival" mode?

Also, need some sort of basic plot. The so-and-sos are being attacked by the so-and-sos and you have to defend against them.

 

[kadoda77]

I've got a pretty solid idea of what I want to work towards now. There won't be a save/load feature, but there will be experience points. For what? I can't say publicly, that would ruin the surprise!

On a side note, again, I'm looking for someone who likes to write stories. Any interest in writing will do, I'm just looking for someone I can butt heads with on storyline ideas. Privately, not here in the idea factory.

 

[Razorbrain]

try making it depend more on Skill and not more on how to build and what to build

that would be really awesome

 

[jiffy_peanutbutter]

try making it depend more on Skill and not more on how to build and what to build

that would be really awesome

Wait... Wot? Isn't the the skill? Strategy? Anyway...

On the story, what better place than the idea factory? Post your plot, and ask people to add on/judge and see what happens when you get out.

 

[kadoda77]

Ah yes, that is not to say that you shouldn't post story ideas here, that would be silly. What I mean to say is, if you would like to talk one on one with me about your story idea, I would love to do so. If you do, I might just let you in on my secret idea behind all of this. (Seriously, it's a great idea, I just can't think of a name without a story.) The story will kind of determine what the towers will be modeled after anyways, so it's all very important.

 

[Landmine]

If you need help with terrain, I might be able to help (might meaning that you would have to supply the theme). I might also be able to help in the fact that I got a topic going for tower ideas, so you can find some towers there (don't forget to credit the people though).
Currently, this is sounding better and better by the day. One thing that I highly suggest not doing for a TD is an upgrading TD. A TD where you only upgrade tower(s). It gets boring fast.
I currently think this TD/maul has potential.

 

[Bane]

If you need any help with triggers toss me a PM and ill help you out,
-Bane

 

[Razorbrain]

Wait... Wot? Isn't the the skill? Strategy? Anyway...

On the story, what better place than the idea factory? Post your plot, and ask people to add on/judge and see what happens when you get out.

Building the same towers on the same spot all over again (not equal to) Skill

what i meant is like, if certain towers have spells, you have to cast them manually, or something like that, use your imagination

 

[jiffy_peanutbutter]

Ideally, you would never find a "perfect" strategy, or you wouldn't use it because it would get boring. I would find manual cast spells VERY annoying.

I've always thought of TDs as a gaming of thinking, rather than clicking.

 

[Landmine]

Ideally, you would never find a "perfect" strategy, or you wouldn't use it because it would get boring. I would find manual cast spells VERY annoying.

I've always thought of TDs as a gaming of thinking, rather than clicking.

I agree. Though, you can find the perfect stratagy, but then you always find a way to improve it. Thing is, if you just have a small amount of towers, the game gets repetative, and theres no real way to improve. Thats why I prefer games like Gem TD, you can always find different stratagies, and mazes each time, and you always get random towers. I also prefere TD with random terrain (like random TD, and the other TD I can't think of the name). That way, you are forced to create a different maze and stratagy each time.

 

[kadoda77]

Well, I've been slacking lately, something that I'm sure is frowned upon, as nothing gets done when you slack, but today is different!

I'm downloading Fallout 3, and thus, cannot really use my computer for much of anything, cuz most of the stuff I do is online. So what does this mean? It means I'm actually working on the map!

Attached is a prototype for the pathing I might use. I like it because it's simple, allows for many different tower placement strategies, and like most TD's, if you don't build in the right spots, you're pretty much doomed to failure.

I might put in some walls or cliffs that could block towers from being able to attack across certain parts of the map.

Ideas/suggestions? (Making terrain really isn't my thing, but well, I had more fun with this than I thought I would)

 

[Super-Sheep]

Ideally, you would never find a "perfect" strategy, or you wouldn't use it because it would get boring.

When you win once in a TD, then you just need to repeat your building order to win again.