10 suggestions for Tower Defence

[Shadiee]

Introduction
Hey everyone!
So from somebody in-game I heard we might be getting a new Tower Defence update (I literally made a Forum Account just so I could post this). I saw that people have a lot of great ideas already, but those that made their own threads really only focused on fixing issues with Tower Placement and related. I understand this is the most important thing we want changing, but I think it's time we concentrated on the other things too. We have been waiting quite a while for an update, so in my opinion an update that has only fixes to that problem won't be a very exciting update.

It's fine if you don't agree with all of my ideas, I'm new to the forums so please correct me or comment your opinion (Just be nice about it please!). I will try to stay to the topics that I haven't seen so many people comment on, so we can avoid having a repeat of a previous thread. Sorry if the thread is a bit long, I just had a lot to talk about!

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1. Team Balancer

So the game does have a Team Balancer of sorts already, though it only applies to pre-game. It is getting continuously more annoying being stuck with two or three people on your team and five to six on the other team. However, I don't feel that the main difference is the amount of players exactly. Each player has their own income, and the amount of income affects the troops you can send, towers you can place etc. That's why if we were to add a Team Balancer in-game I would suggest something to do with boosting the income of the team with less players. This would allow that team to build / send just as the others do and prevent them from getting instantly rushed because they don't have enough money to build a good defence.

2. Notifications

As far as I know no one else has spoken about this yet. It isn't really required, it would just be a helpful little tool that could be enabled / disabled via the settings menu in-game. Basically, the game would send you chat notifications for events that happen in the game, such as when a new wave is sent to your side. Obviously this could get annoying with people grinding, so there would be more settings where you can decide which events you will receive notifications for and which you won't. The purpose for this suggestion was due to my own experience. I happened to be on the other side of the map when the troops were sent, and had I noticed at the beginning I could have defended so much better than when I actually did notice, which was when they were at least halfway down the path.

3. Shared Income

I was just thinking of a possible new income voting option - should we need one, which we don't... - and I came up with this. It probably isn't very good but hey, I'm not good at making suggestions (So rip this thread).

Everyone on a team would share the same income; so when one person spends money it would be taken from everyone's income. This would encourage teamwork, but could also be quite annoying due to trollers / noobs.

I thought this might not be enough to make a unique mode of its own, so I added another thing. Much like the Leach Tower, all the towers would have a limit to how many times they can be placed. The number would depend on both the general usefulness of the tower and the size of the map (How many tower squares there are.)

This mode would be recommended for parties, as from my time playing the game I have learnt that the idea of teamwork does not go well amongst most players.

4. Last-Second Joins

I'm not sure if this would actually be classed as a bug or not, but please don't allow players to join the games in the last seconds before the game starts. Because all of the server's scoreboards and tab list clash so in the game you can end up not knowing how many coins you have as the scoreboard that is showing is still the one for the pre-game lobby.

5. Tower Interaction

There aren't any troops, besides the wither, that interact directly with the towers. I think destroying them is a feature that should be kept for the wither, but other troops should be able to stop towers from attacking for a few seconds, like stunning them. After all, towers can stun the troops, so it's only fair if they get their own back right?

6. Limit on AoE Potions

Sometimes when the entire team works on a rush (eg. Parties) they can basically throw potion after potion of speed or healing and in my opinion that is way too overpowered. I think there should be a max count of potions that can be active at one time (like 2 or 3) so that the team being attacked has a chance to defend themselves. Also, someone needs to either fix the map Barren, or implement it among the rest of the maps. It is the only map where you can't use potions near the enemy team's castle, which makes rushing harder.

7. Better Timers

Currently, the XP Bar is used to show both the cooldown for troops and the charge that a sword has. It can get really confusing when both of them use the same system, so I think it should be changed. Maybe the sword can be shown using the durability, with 0 charge being almost no durability and charged being full durability. Then the XP Bar could show the troops cooldown even when you clicked off the chest. Or if that didn't work, the troops cooldown could be shown using the number of chests in your inventory, since chests can be stacked.

8. Castle Guards

Lots of people have said the Castle Guards need to be nerfed. I haven't payed much attention to them, but I see how overpowered they are early-game. However, I find them quite ineffective when you have attacking troops that have 300+ health, or a huge amount of troops all crammed into one area. For example if they enemy team sent Slimes / Magma Cubes there is often so many in one area that the Castle Guards do basically nothing.

9. Castle Health

It's difficult to see how much health exactly using the bars that are names of armour stands by the castle, so I suggest that the numbers be added to the sidebar or show numerical values instead of the health bar. Some of the maps need to be changed too because in some the armour stand is actually inside the castle so you can't see it, or just entirely non-existent. (Only applies if it is the enemy team's health, obviously if it is your team you can just look at the boss bar)

10. Players on the wrong side

Somehow, some players get confused with the map and end up on the wrong path that isn't for their team. They might realise and go to their own side, but I have experienced games where they are trying to hit their own troops and never go back because they don't understand, or because they don't speak the correct language when someone tries to tell them. Instead of pushing them away when they hit their own troops, it should teleport them back to their side automatically, because a lot of players don't seem to understand it.

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Outro
That's all I'm gonna list for now, I know that other people have a lot of awesome suggestions. I hope that when the update does come it will be amazing! Thanks for reading!

 

[jclle]

Thanks for the input love the shared income idea!

 

[Shadiee]

Thanks for the input love the shared income idea!

Thanks!

 

[coralines]

As a frequent TD player, I appreciate how you decided to come up with so many ideas, however I find myself against most of these and here’s why.

1. Team Balancer
So the game does have a Team Balancer of sorts already, though it only applies to pre-game. It is getting continuously more annoying being stuck with two or three people on your team and five to six on the other team. However, I don't feel that the main difference is the amount of players exactly. Each player has their own income, and the amount of income affects the troops you can send, towers you can place etc. That's why if we were to add a Team Balancer in-game I would suggest something to do with boosting the income of the team with less players. This would allow that team to build / send just as the others do and prevent them from getting instantly rushed because they don't have enough money to build a good defence.

I see where you’re coming from with this, but it’s not necessarily any different from what already happens.
Starting off, team balance is already efficiently working for the most part as you’ve mentioned. The only problem is when your teammates ragequit or crash, leaving you with little to nothing in terms of teamwork. I see that a lot and I understand why you would suggest that, but in reality that’s already a thing. If you sold your teammate’s towers and replaced them with yours specifically, you’d get all the money from enemy troops (and trust me, you would get more money than them because you’d be sending a full wave but they would send you multiple, meaning more kills for you). That being said, whenever you play solo, the best strategy is saving your money meticulously and rely on yourself only for both defense and attack, which could sound impossible at first, but it can be very easy if you know how to push them before they push you. Alternatively, if they push you first, try to keep slowing those troops down while you increase your goldmine and obtain lots of money to defend.
There are multiple strategies, but trust me. Winning a 1v6 is definitely not impossible if you know how to save and spend money properly, without wasting one single coin.

2. Notifications
As far as I know no one else has spoken about this yet. It isn't really required, it would just be a helpful little tool that could be enabled / disabled via the settings menu in-game. Basically, the game would send you chat notifications for events that happen in the game, such as when a new wave is sent to your side. Obviously this could get annoying with people grinding, so there would be more settings where you can decide which events you will receive notifications for and which you won't. The purpose for this suggestion was due to my own experience. I happened to be on the other side of the map when the troops were sent, and had I noticed at the beginning I could have defended so much better than when I actually did notice, which was when they were at least halfway down the path.

I read this one and I was like “wow, that would be interesting”, but then I asked myself if that would have change the gameplay somehow, and I had to change my mind. One of the most fun part of the game is sending invisible spiders when the enemy team is not paying attention, or sending any sort of troop while they’re already too busy with other troops ahead. Giving them any sort of alert could drastically change a slow and steady gameplay and prioritize a massive pushing one instead, which means more players would have to send troops at the same time that way, resulting in no money in case the team needed to defend too. The secret is having a specific role in your team without doing everything unless you really need to.

3. Shared Income
I was just thinking of a possible new income voting option - should we need one, which we don't... - and I came up with this. It probably isn't very good but hey, I'm not good at making suggestions (So rip this thread).
Everyone on a team would share the same income; so when one person spends money it would be taken from everyone's income. This would encourage teamwork, but could also be quite annoying due to trollers / noobs.
I thought this might not be enough to make a unique mode of its own, so I added another thing. Much like the Leach Tower, all the towers would have a limit to how many times they can be placed. The number would depend on both the general usefulness of the tower and the size of the map (How many tower squares there are.)
This mode would be recommended for parties, as from my time playing the game I have learnt that the idea of teamwork does not go well amongst most players.

This is very challenging, but it could go south so easily with noobie teammates spamming towers and people claiming. That would require a whole team in a party, maybe in a call too, to have the most efficient game. It’s definitely interesting, but I personally wouldn’t want a gamemode like that without re-adding a tutorial to the game first.

4. Last-Second Joins
I'm not sure if this would actually be classed as a bug or not, but please don't allow players to join the games in the last seconds before the game starts. Because all of the server's scoreboards and tab list clash so in the game you can end up not knowing how many coins you have as the scoreboard that is showing is still the one for the pre-game lobby.

Agreed 100%, but that’s definitely more of a bug than anything really wanted. I think people should stop joining a lobby once the countdown gets to 5, so even by getting in at 5 seconds you can still vote for gamemodes and choose a team. Anything below 5 should be redirected to a new open lobby.

5. Tower Interaction
There aren't any troops, besides the wither, that interact directly with the towers. I think destroying them is a feature that should be kept for the wither, but other troops should be able to stop towers from attacking for a few seconds, like stunning them. After all, towers can stun the troops, so it's only fair if they get their own back right?

I like this a lot actually, and it’s quite game changing to an extent, but not for the worse. I agree though that instead of breaking them, they should get stunned only for a certain amount of seconds. Kind of like witches heal troops, this new mob could have an increased percentage of stunning towers for a certain amount of seconds as the levels increase. For example, level 1 could have a 10% chance of stunning a tower for 3 seconds, up to level 5 with a 30% chance and for 10 seconds. I don’t know if that is necessarily balanced, but that could be nice.

6. Limit on AoE Potions
Sometimes when the entire team works on a rush (eg. Parties) they can basically throw potion after potion of speed or healing and in my opinion that is way too overpowered. I think there should be a max count of potions that can be active at one time (like 2 or 3) so that the team being attacked has a chance to defend themselves. Also, someone needs to either fix the map Barren, or implement it among the rest of the maps. It is the only map where you can't use potions near the enemy team's castle, which makes rushing harder.

I’m kind of in the middle with this one to be honest. I like the idea of limiting potions, but it could also be bad for people trying to defend if two or three players dropped potions to speed and heal at the same time, you know?
Also, agreeing with Barren needing a change with potions. It makes no sense to have those last few blocks out of reach, especially if people try to defend. That’s basically a big gg for them.

7. Better Timers
Currently, the XP Bar is used to show both the cooldown for troops and the charge that a sword has. It can get really confusing when both of them use the same system, so I think it should be changed. Maybe the sword can be shown using the durability, with 0 charge being almost no durability and charged being full durability. Then the XP Bar could show the troops cooldown even when you clicked off the chest. Or if that didn't work, the troops cooldown could be shown using the number of chests in your inventory, since chests can be stacked.

I mean, heh I see why you would suggest that, but it takes two seconds to look at what item you’re holding in your hotbar. If you might get confused, just give it a quick look and boom, done. I don’t think this is a really necessary change, and it could confuse players by not hitting the enemy troops by seeing the durability is close to none, because they’re too scared of breaking their sword.

8. Castle Guards
Lots of people have said the Castle Guards need to be nerfed. I haven't payed much attention to them, but I see how overpowered they are early-game. However, I find them quite ineffective when you have attacking troops that have 300+ health, or a huge amount of troops all crammed into one area. For example if they enemy team sent Slimes / Magma Cubes there is often so many in one area that the Castle Guards do basically nothing.

I don’t think they necessarily need a nerf, and that’s because at any point in time you can stack the castle guard effect with potions, which not everyone knows about. Giving a default more efficient castle guard would mean troops like spiders and zombie pigmen (often used to push other players that are not extremely knowledgeable of the game) will eventually become useless due to the castle guard being too strong against them. You could say that the castle guard could increase the amount of arrows being shot over time, either by buying upgrades or have them happen automatically as time goes by - in any case, the arrows could be shot more frequently or deal splash damage like archer 4 bottom path, something along those lines.

9. Castle Health
It's difficult to see how much health exactly using the bars that are names of armour stands by the castle, so I suggest that the numbers be added to the sidebar or show numerical values instead of the health bar. Some of the maps need to be changed too because in some the armour stand is actually inside the castle so you can't see it, or just entirely non-existent. (Only applies if it is the enemy team's health, obviously if it is your team you can just look at the boss bar)

Yes I 100% agree with this one. Having a numerical value should be added not only because we already have that option for troops, but also because you need to know what your castle health is. See for example the reasons provided here: https://www.cubecraft.net/posts/1043983/
These are all valid reasons that could make a massive change, only thing needed is changing the health bar to a numerical value. I think this is something a lot of people would like to see, and I’m personally all in as well.

10. Players on the wrong side
Somehow, some players get confused with the map and end up on the wrong path that isn't for their team. They might realise and go to their own side, but I have experienced games where they are trying to hit their own troops and never go back because they don't understand, or because they don't speak the correct language when someone tries to tell them. Instead of pushing them away when they hit their own troops, it should teleport them back to their side automatically, because a lot of players don't seem to understand it.

I mean, yes and no. I can understand that they might not necessarily understand the language, but colors are international lol. If you press tab, you would see how your color is not the same as the beacon where you’re attacking those mobs from - but that’s more of common sense tbh. I can see something like that being added as a quality of life change, but I’m not sure if this is necessarily needed, especially considering how it could be difficult to develop. Right click on an enemy troop could potentially teleport you back to your own beacon, but people would need to be careful if they’re getting nether stars on the enemy team’s ground. I don’t know, I’m kind of in between with this one.


Also, keep in mind that these are just my personal opinions based on my experience, which for sure will be different than yours, I’m sure of that. But I’m glad to see you came up with so many ideas!

 

[Shadiee]

Hey thanks for replying! I'm glad that regular TD players are active on the forums and can give good advice!

I see where you’re coming from with this, but it’s not necessarily any different from what already happens.
Starting off, team balance is already efficiently working for the most part as you’ve mentioned. The only problem is when your teammates ragequit or crash, leaving you with little to nothing in terms of teamwork. I see that a lot and I understand why you would suggest that, but in reality that’s already a thing. If you sold your teammate’s towers and replaced them with yours specifically, you’d get all the money from enemy troops (and trust me, you would get more money than them because you’d be sending a full wave but they would send you multiple, meaning more kills for you). That being said, whenever you play solo, the best strategy is saving your money meticulously and rely on yourself only for both defense and attack, which could sound impossible at first, but it can be very easy if you know how to push them before they push you. Alternatively, if they push you first, try to keep slowing those troops down while you increase your goldmine and obtain lots of money to defend.
There are multiple strategies, but trust me. Winning a 1v6 is definitely not impossible if you know how to save and spend money properly, without wasting one single coin.

Yeah true actually, I've won 6v1s before a few times. I didn't think of the angle of getting more coins than them to be honest, next time I'm in a situation like that I'll be sure to use your advice!

This is very challenging, but it could go south so easily with noobie teammates spamming towers and people claiming. That would require a whole team in a party, maybe in a call too, to have the most efficient game. It’s definitely interesting, but I personally wouldn’t want a gamemode like that without re-adding a tutorial to the game first.

True, maybe it would be better once they have a tutorial, was also thinking the tutorial should be something you have to do when you join a game for the first time (after it was added), regardless of if you have played before, or it would just stay the same as it is currently. I also didn't think this would be voted for much if it was added, since people seem to pretty comfortable with the current options.

Agreed 100%, but that’s definitely more of a bug than anything really wanted. I think people should stop joining a lobby once the countdown gets to 5, so even by getting in at 5 seconds you can still vote for gamemodes and choose a team. Anything below 5 should be redirected to a new open lobby.

Yup.

I like this a lot actually, and it’s quite game changing to an extent, but not for the worse. I agree though that instead of breaking them, they should get stunned only for a certain amount of seconds. Kind of like witches heal troops, this new mob could have an increased percentage of stunning towers for a certain amount of seconds as the levels increase. For example, level 1 could have a 10% chance of stunning a tower for 3 seconds, up to level 5 with a 30% chance and for 10 seconds. I don’t know if that is necessarily balanced, but that could be nice.

Yeah, or they should have a limit to how many towers can be stunned at the same time, or they would be practically invincible.

I’m kind of in the middle with this one to be honest. I like the idea of limiting potions, but it could also be bad for people trying to defend if two or three players dropped potions to speed and heal at the same time, you know?
Also, agreeing with Barren needing a change with potions. It makes no sense to have those last few blocks out of reach, especially if people try to defend. That’s basically a big gg for them.

Yes, maybe it wouldn't carry over for both teams so if there were two speed pots active then the defending team could still drop potions of their own. It's just so there can't be endless speed pots used when a team works together to rush.

I mean, heh I see why you would suggest that, but it takes two seconds to look at what item you’re holding in your hotbar. If you might get confused, just give it a quick look and boom, done. I don’t think this is a really necessary change, and it could confuse players by not hitting the enemy troops by seeing the durability is close to none, because they’re too scared of breaking their sword.

Lol I didn't think of it that way, it was just a small quality of life thing that annoys me because I'm trying to send troops while also hitting the enemies. Maybe it's just me that gets confused easily. :P

I don’t think they necessarily need a nerf, and that’s because at any point in time you can stack the castle guard effect with potions, which not everyone knows about. Giving a default more efficient castle guard would mean troops like spiders and zombie pigmen (often used to push other players that are not extremely knowledgeable of the game) will eventually become useless due to the castle guard being too strong against them. You could say that the castle guard could increase the amount of arrows being shot over time, either by buying upgrades or have them happen automatically as time goes by - in any case, the arrows could be shot more frequently or deal splash damage like archer 4 bottom path, something along those lines.

Same, I don't think they should be nerfed either. I like your idea of them getting progressively stronger, though if there is a rush in the early game they may be just not powerful enough. I agree that they should need to be upgraded if they are going to become stronger, so you can do it at a time that is more suitable depending on the circumstances.

Yes I 100% agree with this one. Having a numerical value should be added not only because we already have that option for troops, but also because you need to know what your castle health is. See for example the reasons provided here: https://www.cubecraft.net/posts/1043983/
These are all valid reasons that could make a massive change, only thing needed is changing the health bar to a numerical value. I think this is something a lot of people would like to see, and I’m personally all in as well.

Yeah, it annoys me a little if I can't see the exact number of both castle health bars. I don't really know why lol, it just does.

I mean, yes and no. I can understand that they might not necessarily understand the language, but colors are international lol. If you press tab, you would see how your color is not the same as the beacon where you’re attacking those mobs from - but that’s more of common sense tbh. I can see something like that being added as a quality of life change, but I’m not sure if this is necessarily needed, especially considering how it could be difficult to develop. Right click on an enemy troop could potentially teleport you back to your own beacon, but people would need to be careful if they’re getting nether stars on the enemy team’s ground. I don’t know, I’m kind of in between with this one.

You would think they would just use the colours, but trust me I have seen plenty of people who not only look like they are new to TD but are new to Minecraft as well xd. A new safety, it wouldn't teleport you straight away if you left-clicked, but if you did it multiple times then it would.