Unique Tower Defense Ideas

[Mr_Bean]

Hi guys,

I am in the mood to start developing a new project and I feel like making a tower defense (TD). But not just any TD - a unique one, one that has something that is totally different from any other TD. What do you think would make an awesome TD?

I was think of something like being able to summon your own units that run down and attack the creeps, but they wouldn't be too strong. Anyone got a good idea?

Thanks,

Mr_Bean

 

[kari0003]

I'd say tower combos for one. It would be about every tower have an attack effect and different towers can stack their effect so the damage will be multiplied.

I also suggest you to bring some interesting to the maze ex:
-You can block the maze with destroyable barricades
-The maze is changing with every round.. (maybe moving core)

Make it intense, most td-s (like Green TD) are great, but after lot of playing it's get easy and boring. Let it be hard and fast, so the ppl who play it would say: 'Whoa this was great lets try it again so we wont fall at the beginning'

The summon idea you wrote is makeable, go on with it if you like it. But you should make it different from LegionTD.
The way of the summoning should be unique, maybe Barracks send a group each wave, or the towers "channel" units (if they run out of power warriors die)

These are bad, suddenly gathered ideas, but they maybe help you to pick a way, and start developing

 

[Mr_Bean]

Thanks for the reply! Would you be interested in helping more? Perhaps supplying more ideas? Helping with terrain? I would like to give towers spells (similar to Element TD, if you have played it), to make it more interesting.

Do you think it would work if I had multiple points where enemies could spawn and multiple routes they could take to the core? I personally think this could work, but I need more opinions.

 

[kari0003]

Actually I'm making my own TD with someone at the moment, so I want to focus on that.
But i can always help with ideas!

Tower abilities are a really good idea, also you can code some unique spells what are more useful in TD maps. For example knockback, blocking spells, and AOE spells.
It would help making the map more interesting, if different towers would be good against different attackers (air, ground, mechanical, or w/e you figure out)

I'm not sure about multiple routes yet, but if the routes are more or less equal, it would be good. For example if every time, a different player could get to the creeps first, and the sequence of the defenders would be always different. -But its quite hard to imagine a terrain like this.

I suggest to wait for another ideas, because i'm afraid these suggestions wont make a clearly original tower defense map in this state. I'll be around and helping for that time

 

[Mr_Bean]

Okay, cool. Good luck with the project.

I will experiment with different ideas, like the multiple routes, and see how it turns out.

I don't want to make different attack types -vs- different armour types, perhaps just certain towers can only attack air, certain tower have splash damage etc.

 

[Chaosy]

1. be able to build tempoary traps on the walk road example; fire trap damages every unit who walk on it for 10 hp.

2.buy expensive upgrades that tempoary affects the creep wave. 10 less creeps on each side, reduced movement speed (20%) etc etc.

3. building specific types of tower close to eachother may grant bonuses

 

[Sin'dorei300]

1. Some towers can suicide, dealing a big amount of damage to neabry enemies

2. Some towers can move

3. Some towers are used as wall, so the enemies will take time to destroy them

4. Some towers are flying, and can bombard enemies

 

[RandomPogi]

Different paths, like a forest path or something, and mines, own units, unique pathways, not just the normal cliffsides and whatnot.

 

[Mr_Bean]

Cool. What do you mean by mines? So you can get more gold?

Also, nice signature

 

[Sin'dorei300]

1. Some towers can throw multiple missiles

2. Some towers can absorb life and mana

 

[Mr_Bean]

So I need ideas for terrain. I really suck at it and can't seem to get anything going. Perhaps you guys could share your thoughts on how you think the terrain should roughly look? I'm mainly trying to get creep lanes going, then I will worry about the details later.

 

[Chaosy]

this a unique idea of td (i think).

gameplay

there is one shop/upgrade center at the middle of the map.
after every wave you get teleported there to upgrade your towers etc
the waves spawn at random points at the map but atleast 1000 awey from the shop
your unit is moveable and you got to survive the waves by building walls and towers and traps.

terain

to such nice terain as possible you can just do a big forest with alot of tree to run behind.


towers;

walls
traps
slow/posion towers
etc

 

[Mr_Bean]

Cool, sounds interesting. So do players work together to build mazes? Or does each player work alone?

 

[kari0003]

Chaosy's idea rocks hard!

Just at a tower defense map, there should be a thing to protect. For example at a forest there would be a unicorn, which evil hordes are trying to catch for its blood.
And you have to protect the unicorn, what can move, so you may go after it and do new defenses with each wave.
With all the running around, it would be more like a survival, so towers have to be the primary tools to survive with.

The interesting part of the game would be that you have to defend at a different location every time?
And you could buy upgrades in the shop for the next round before every wave. (Like tower boosts ,enemy negative buffs, unlock technologies for stronger towers, etc)

Players should work together to save the unicorn(or whatever) but the enemies would come from each way, so its more like building a base, than a maze (imo)

Mr.Bean@ How many players you want in your map?

 

[Chaosy]

work together is the best one i think.
the best thing is, you do not know where the minions will spawn so you got to build smart.
also if its YOU who should survive you need to run, not only standing still waitinf for the wave to be over

 

[Mr_Bean]

I prefer the idea of having one point where enemies have to get to. When an enemy gets there, the player whos side it came from loses a life. Enemies could come from multiple different places for each player, which makes it more interesting and difficult.

How many players? I'm not sure. How many would be ideal?

 

[kari0003]

4-8 i think, 4 because you have at least 4 sides, and 8 because you will never get more ppl into your host.

So what you want for the objective is regular TD-like.
Then we will have to bring as many changes to the gameplay as we can.

For example, waves are compounded from different units ex:Tanks, Fast units, Immunes, Swarm units. And you have to make the best killer tower against all of them. (But if i remember right, you said you don't want to do this)

Or do a td, where are no waves, or at least there are just special waves, and the attackers flow from the portal during all the game. They are damaging your walls/gates all along the game, if they are strong enough, they can break leaks into your wall, so some of them can get through your lines.
I dont know if its a good idea, or possible, but mass upgrades and buffs would be really useful, and effective in a game like this.

 

[Peacehagen]

I was working on à td not so long ago and had a nice feature i think the builders are heroes with three stats:

Income - increases gold gained after each completed wave by 10%.
Tech - Each point increases the heroes passive skill by 1. Also unlocks new towers and upgrades.
Magic - increases heroes mana by 5. Also unlocks new spells for the hero.

The heroes have one passive skill (for example à damage bonus aura for your towers) which is upgraded by the tech stat. They also have four active spells (for example temporary gold boost from kills) which are unlocked at 5, 15, 30 and 50 magic points.

The magic skills have à moderate cooldown and if heroes start at 100 mana they can cost around 70-100 mana each. The heroes have no mana regen but regains all their mana after each wave. It adds more skill to the game to use your spells at the right time and also allows players to try different stat builds.

Heroes have à primary stat which increases by 1 every level and gets two skill points to put where they want. The heroes level up after each wave and gains no experience during waves.

Also it is nice with boss waves that has some tactics, examples:
1. Boss casts à dmg reduction spell which lasts à little longer than it takes for him to reach the point of interest, so you either need to slow him so the debuff fades out or some insane damage.
2. Boss activates à mana shield. Has large mana regen but not very big mana pool, so you need à strong burst in the beginning to break the shield so the towers behind can kill the boss (ideally cast à dmg boost spell on your towers for extra burst).
3. Boss summons à dummy add with so high defense it cant be killed so players has to manually order towers to attack the boss instead. Alternately the boss could summon adds far ahead so they dont have as far to run to the point of interest.

---------------

Note: add quotes and special effects if you use bosses, make it clear its à boss like weather effects, night/day change, Rain of fires or something at random places around the map

 

[Mr_Bean]

Wow, those are great ideas. I like the idea of having a hero builder with skills etc.

So do you never actually learn the skills? They are upgraded with each tech stat and unlocked when your maximum mana reaches a certain amount?

So there would be, for example, three different hero types, each with a different primary stat? How much should the non-primary stats increase by per level?

Also, nice boss ideas. I will probably add them if I ever get the map going. I don't know how to start the terrain yet. What would you recommend? One large lane where players work together? Or each player has a separate lane to defend, then players compete to see who can survive the longest?

 

[Peacehagen]

I made à dummy upgrade requirement on the spells and towers called "5 points in tech" or "15 points in magic" etc. And when à hero lvls up you check if the hero has 5 tech or magic or whatever and if it does, research the dummy upgrade for the player, which in turn unlocks à new spell or tower.

I made the spells already there on the heroes but you can make them buy spells when they have enough in the magic stat if you want more customization.

The mana increase from the magic stat is just to allow the hero to cast more spells during each round since they dont have any mana regen.

I can send you my map so you can see how it works

 

[Mr_Bean]

Oh okay. Did you complete the project? I would love to see your progress, and I promise I won't steal anything

 

[noob]

Why not put lives degeneration who force you to win lives by buying them at incredible price like 1000*number of time you bought a live.
And an bad ending where you discorver you were defending a doomsday machine when you throught it were a machine for saving the world or something like that(I never see that in any tower defense).

 

[Peacehagen]

Oh okay. Did you complete the project? I would love to see your progress, and I promise I won't steal anything

It only have 1 hero, only supports 1 player and only 20/50 waves are done (not completely balanced). All towers and spells are not done either but if you try and play it im sure you can find some inspiration

Im not sure if i will finnish it so feel free to take whatever you want from it

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/pastebin.php?id=jn76nj

 

[Mr_Bean]

I have tried to come up with some sort of terrain. This is what I have so far:

I placed a peasant in the middile to give an idea of the scale. What do you guys think? Obviously it's not complete, it's just to get an idea of what I'm thinking.

The creeps would come from the top (I will probably add more possible spawn points) and head towards the bottom. Whenever they reach a crossroads in the paths, they will randomly select a path to choose.

EDIT:
So I tried to improve the terrain:

All the places with "Grassy Dirt" terrain is buildable. What do you think?

 

[Sin'dorei300]

The terrain needs alot more work! Use more custom stuff!

 

[Mr_Bean]

I know it needs more work. The point is that I am trying to come up with a lane structure for each player. I need opionions on the structure, not on the aesthetics...

 

[Peacehagen]

I think the laning is interesting, continue with it

 

[Reclamation]

If you want to get real crazy, you could create really unique things such as a tower that allows slow effects to stack. I might post more ideas as I think of them.

 

[Mr_Bean]

Yes, I want a lot of focus to be on the towers. I intend to add lots of spells to towers etc.

Here is another screenshot:

I added in the teleporter where the creeps head for.

EDIT:
I have tried to add different environments for the players, to make it more interesting. Here is what I have so far:

 

[Sin'dorei300]

This:

Use more custom stuff!

 

[Mr_Bean]

This:

The point is that I am trying to come up with a lane structure for each player. I need opionions on the structure, not on the aesthetics...

 

[Sin'dorei300]

Anyway, i like the 5th.

 

[Mr_Bean]

Thanks

Now I need ideas for tower abilities. Nothing too hectic, but it must be interesting. The tower ability should fit into Human, Orc, Undead or Night Elf category. Thanks for any ideas.

 

[Drunken_Jackal]

Well im clueless in your previous discussions, but ill suggest the base concept idea:
What if the towers fought each other along with defending the creeps?
It could be force based or something.

 

[Lordkoon]

I hope you liked my post about the watery towers I wrote in the main topic.
Suggestions by me:
- Make the terrain count, be an eyecandy - that alone would make your TD unique because lets face it TD terrains are so bleh. I love terraining playable zones so if I can offer you my services I will.
- Make a small inside castles ====> You defend a castle and when you leak enemies they enter inside it. For each player there will be their own castle. In the castle yard you must prevent them from entering it by building defenders which will have their own upgrades and statistics. That way you not only defend with towers but also can choose to fortify the castle instead with large army.
- Make towers gain bonus abilities when certain other towers are built next to them. This would work with aura-checking trigger I guess.
- Make towers being able to upgrade diffrent parts of themselves to be effective vs various enemies.(making dummy units with diffrent phoenix-fire like spells - the same way as the battle tanks AOS )
- Make heroes that can go inside the castle to defend the castle yard or garrson them into towers.
- COOL TERRAIN PLS

 

[Mr_Bean]

Nice ideas. I am still in very early development stages...
I will need someone to do terrain later, so I will let you know.

What do you guys think: when towers upgrade should they have a different model and name or same model (except a different tinting colour and size)?

 

[Lordkoon]

I'd say make basic and medium towers same model just larger and tinted and make the elite and unique towers change models each upgrade.