Hi everyone!
It's been a few weeks since the TD update and I wanted to share with the community things I thought should be tweaked and things that are amazing and should be left the way they are.
Balance issues: Buffs and Nerfs
(It feels like everything that was good before the update is now bad and all that was bad is now good)
[+] = needs to be buffed
[-] = needs to be nerfed
[-+] = needs to be changed
[-] The turret towers (path 1) are the ultimate all-around killing machines.
While turrets used to be a worse archer before the update, now, they kill everything. They target 2 mobs at once, and drain their health before moving on to the next. Their damage should be reduced by 25% to 50%. You literally cannot win if your team doesn't have this upgrade and the other one does. User @Mikhail Gorbachev had the very good idea to add projectile-resistant endermen, all explained here.
[+] The turret towers (path 2) are a pure joke.
Watching the arrows shot at a slow rate towards the mobs only to bounce off and do no damage is just something I don't even know how to describe. I almost wonder if this is intentional and it's a joke put in by the developers. The bounce effect should home in to the mobs, and the arrows should do 300% the damage, losing 50% every time it bounces.
[-] The inferno potions melt everything that isn't immune to fire.
This one is something. For a mere 300 EXP to unlock and 400 coins to use, this thing will destroy all that isn't a nether or flying mob. Creepers? Dead in 2 infernos. Cave spiders? Not a chance. Giants, even level 5? 5 infernos later it's like they never existed. I understand inferno used to be bad before the update and needed a buff, but this is just too much damage. Halving the damage it deals would be good.
[+] The so-called "ice damage" from the ice tower is so benign it's unexistant.
I tested it. With only maxed ice towers all along the path, level 1 zombies have lost 3 green rectangles on their percentage bar when they get to the castle. With the damage indicators it seems the ice damage deals an amount of damage lower than 1 every 2 seconds (It shows the hurt animation but no red numbers pop out). I understand that ice towers are meant for slowing and not damage, but if it's written in the tooltip it should at least be something. Either completely remove it, or replace it with something else such as something similar to the freeze sword effect.
[-] Pigmen and skeletons: the early-game castle wreckers.
Right now you need turrets to defeat them. If you don't have at least 3 level 3 path 1 turrets ready in the first 8 minutes of the game, may the TD gods have mercy on your soul. Since they are nether mobs, they are resistant to the feared inferno potions. After getting 15 coins per second, sending 2 full waves of level 4 or 5 pigmen or skeletons will destroy all. Pigmen have less health but are speedy, their health should be reduced by a small 25%. Skeletons have normal speed but high health and high damage. That damage should be reduced to 1.5, just like the pigmen, and their health reduced by 20%.
[+] Poison towers. Let me laugh.
Both paths are pure disappointment. For the first path, the poison does indeed last forever as advertised, but the damage from it can be compared to the ice tower, that's how bad it is. The only thing this does is give mobs fancy green particles. The so-called "damage AoE" is even worse: they flash red, but no damage is dealt! At all! This is simple to fix, though: the poison damage should be 5/second, and the AoE damage 10/second when level 4.
[-] The silverfish rush. Please.
I'm putting this one in bold text. The well known synergy between Quick Start + Hardcore has ruined so many first time playthroughs that it's starting to be universally despised. Try talking about it in a TD lobby to quickly start a flamewar in the chat. If I could fix only one thing it would be this horrible exploit. Remove Quick Start. Please. I beg you.
[+] Giants : actually a disavantage to your team.
An insane cost of EXP to upgrade, and slain by inferno potions in seconds. The amount of EXP it gives you is so little for its price, and the number of coins the other team gets for killing them is so unbalanced you are actually giving points to the enemy team. In the 50 games or so I have played in the new update, not one giant got further than the middle of the track. Ever. Of course, if infernos and turrets get nerfed, this will be mostly fixed, but a small 25%-50% health increase wouldn't be a bad thing.
[-] The Horde: manageable, but only with the most effective tactics available.
Enjoying a game of TD, when suddenly the dreaded words "The Horde" appear on your screen and you rush to buy 10 inferno potions and build 20 turrets. The amount of giants and blazes spawned by this is so much greater than what the enemy team could send to you at this point (unless double income is active). TD is supposed to be a PvP game. I have defeated the Horde multiple times, but there are no multiple ways to do so. Only turrets and infernos will save you and nothing else. With the changes I was speaking of above, the Horde would be nearly impossible, so there should only be 2 level 1 giants and 12 level 2 blazes, or something around that.
[+] Zeus' rage : like a cloud of soft rain to appease the enemy mobs.
For it's price, it spawns a cloud which zaps enemies zeus tower style. That was fine before the update, but now the damage from it is so little compared to it's price. The fix for this is easy : doubling the fire rate of the lightning bolts.
[-+] Powerups : victory or defeat from a dice roll.
The presence of randomness in tower defence games like Kingdom Rush or BTD5 has been a heated subject for a very long time. Most of the time it's acceptable if it's either minor or centered on the randomness. However, the powerups have the ability to send a level 5 magma cube at the start of the game (I won one game because of that), to give you a speed or healing potion for your early pigmen or skeletons, or to give you a minute's worth of coin production. It's not that bad, but if things are going to be fixed, might as well do everything. I suggest the following : a level cap of 3 for the free troops, only defensive potions, and coins and EXP rewards scaling with your current goldmine level. (Let's say 30 seconds worth of production).
[+] The Archer Tower. Lots of points for upgrades which are barely worth it.
The first path of the archer is a worse turret. It shoots a bunch of arrows. It seems its only use is surviving the dreaded silverfish rush. Some better fire rate is necessary, maybe 2x would be enough. The second upgrade is extremely expensive in points (940), and all it does is do a little boom when it hits. It costs a lot of coins in game too (around 1500, I don't exactly remember) when you could have just placed a turret tower. The damage and AoE needs to be increased.
[-+] Magma cubes : sluggish red and black goo filling the whole track and leading to destruction.
Right now, when the enemy team has turrets and infernos galore, the only way to win is with magma cubes. (Sure, if you send cave spiders and regenerate them, you will win, but get noticed and it's game over). This strategy is very common in double income. If 1 or 2 players are supplied with gold from 1 or 2 other players, the enemy track will get filled with them (due to their exponential division). By using lots of meteor showers and having turrets through the whole track, it's possible to slay 3 waves of them, but beyond that it's practically impossible. "Advanced" games where both teams are experienced are a race to the magma cubes. I have to be honest though, the magma cubes are my favorite troop because of how much they multiply and how uncertain the outcome is when you have 3 waves. The problem is not the mobs themselves, it's the method used to kill them which is not diverse enough. But by applying other changes described here, it should be fine. Perhaps reducing the health of the offspring would be a good choice.
[+] The Zeus Tower. Funny, nice looking, but useless.
The zeus tower is the "fun" tower in my opinion. Its animations are really nice and the baby zeus make funny noises, but the damage the baby does is mediocre (100 times more than the ice tower though), and the zeus bounce is even worse : it has trouble slaying level 1 zombies! Increasing the damage (250%) is the simple solution here.
[+] The leach tower death ray. Amazing aesthetics but horrible damage.
A very nice visual effect. When you see this thing coming for the first time, you think : "THAT THING WILL DO SO MUCH DAMAGE" but it turns out it's just a mere 50-60. The charge time needs to be increased by 150%, and the damage to 250. Just my opinion.
Other things :
-Constant disconnecting with "Loading terrain". I don't know if this can be fixed, but so far playing on 1.10.2 has helped reduce kicks for me.
-I love the new tutorial, but it doesn't teach to not stack towers and to place them well on the grid. Also, when the enemy is overrun by diamond zombies, they will often start to place a lot of level 1 archers, which is extremely uneffective (but it's what the tutorial taught them). I just think the tutorial should introduce beginners to the mage tower to solve both of these issues. It's also strange to grant access to a paid upgrade in the tutorial but not give it in game.
The good things
And finally, some good things about the update.
-Nice visuals
-Very nice looking new maps
-The paths are a good idea, it's sad most of the time only one of the two is good
-Branching routes in maps are fun
-Anti-stack prevention while still preserving the freedom of the game.
-Damage indicators
-Useful options
-In-game purchases (for once it's a good thing)
-Meteors and death rays (Come on now)
-Skeletons ride horses
-Giants look awesome when upgraded
-Better scoreboard
-More points on game end
-Nice mob sending and tower building GUIs
-Very engaging for beginners
-Shulkers (and the noises they make)
-Actually useful bows and swords
-Cool achievements
And most importantly...
This update is free.
If you read the whole thing... wow.
-Manchot
It's been a few weeks since the TD update and I wanted to share with the community things I thought should be tweaked and things that are amazing and should be left the way they are.
Balance issues: Buffs and Nerfs
(It feels like everything that was good before the update is now bad and all that was bad is now good)
[+] = needs to be buffed
[-] = needs to be nerfed
[-+] = needs to be changed
[-] The turret towers (path 1) are the ultimate all-around killing machines.
While turrets used to be a worse archer before the update, now, they kill everything. They target 2 mobs at once, and drain their health before moving on to the next. Their damage should be reduced by 25% to 50%. You literally cannot win if your team doesn't have this upgrade and the other one does. User @Mikhail Gorbachev had the very good idea to add projectile-resistant endermen, all explained here.
[+] The turret towers (path 2) are a pure joke.
Watching the arrows shot at a slow rate towards the mobs only to bounce off and do no damage is just something I don't even know how to describe. I almost wonder if this is intentional and it's a joke put in by the developers. The bounce effect should home in to the mobs, and the arrows should do 300% the damage, losing 50% every time it bounces.
[-] The inferno potions melt everything that isn't immune to fire.
This one is something. For a mere 300 EXP to unlock and 400 coins to use, this thing will destroy all that isn't a nether or flying mob. Creepers? Dead in 2 infernos. Cave spiders? Not a chance. Giants, even level 5? 5 infernos later it's like they never existed. I understand inferno used to be bad before the update and needed a buff, but this is just too much damage. Halving the damage it deals would be good.
[+] The so-called "ice damage" from the ice tower is so benign it's unexistant.
I tested it. With only maxed ice towers all along the path, level 1 zombies have lost 3 green rectangles on their percentage bar when they get to the castle. With the damage indicators it seems the ice damage deals an amount of damage lower than 1 every 2 seconds (It shows the hurt animation but no red numbers pop out). I understand that ice towers are meant for slowing and not damage, but if it's written in the tooltip it should at least be something. Either completely remove it, or replace it with something else such as something similar to the freeze sword effect.
[-] Pigmen and skeletons: the early-game castle wreckers.
Right now you need turrets to defeat them. If you don't have at least 3 level 3 path 1 turrets ready in the first 8 minutes of the game, may the TD gods have mercy on your soul. Since they are nether mobs, they are resistant to the feared inferno potions. After getting 15 coins per second, sending 2 full waves of level 4 or 5 pigmen or skeletons will destroy all. Pigmen have less health but are speedy, their health should be reduced by a small 25%. Skeletons have normal speed but high health and high damage. That damage should be reduced to 1.5, just like the pigmen, and their health reduced by 20%.
[+] Poison towers. Let me laugh.
Both paths are pure disappointment. For the first path, the poison does indeed last forever as advertised, but the damage from it can be compared to the ice tower, that's how bad it is. The only thing this does is give mobs fancy green particles. The so-called "damage AoE" is even worse: they flash red, but no damage is dealt! At all! This is simple to fix, though: the poison damage should be 5/second, and the AoE damage 10/second when level 4.
[-] The silverfish rush. Please.
I'm putting this one in bold text. The well known synergy between Quick Start + Hardcore has ruined so many first time playthroughs that it's starting to be universally despised. Try talking about it in a TD lobby to quickly start a flamewar in the chat. If I could fix only one thing it would be this horrible exploit. Remove Quick Start. Please. I beg you.
[+] Giants : actually a disavantage to your team.
An insane cost of EXP to upgrade, and slain by inferno potions in seconds. The amount of EXP it gives you is so little for its price, and the number of coins the other team gets for killing them is so unbalanced you are actually giving points to the enemy team. In the 50 games or so I have played in the new update, not one giant got further than the middle of the track. Ever. Of course, if infernos and turrets get nerfed, this will be mostly fixed, but a small 25%-50% health increase wouldn't be a bad thing.
[-] The Horde: manageable, but only with the most effective tactics available.
Enjoying a game of TD, when suddenly the dreaded words "The Horde" appear on your screen and you rush to buy 10 inferno potions and build 20 turrets. The amount of giants and blazes spawned by this is so much greater than what the enemy team could send to you at this point (unless double income is active). TD is supposed to be a PvP game. I have defeated the Horde multiple times, but there are no multiple ways to do so. Only turrets and infernos will save you and nothing else. With the changes I was speaking of above, the Horde would be nearly impossible, so there should only be 2 level 1 giants and 12 level 2 blazes, or something around that.
[+] Zeus' rage : like a cloud of soft rain to appease the enemy mobs.
For it's price, it spawns a cloud which zaps enemies zeus tower style. That was fine before the update, but now the damage from it is so little compared to it's price. The fix for this is easy : doubling the fire rate of the lightning bolts.
[-+] Powerups : victory or defeat from a dice roll.
The presence of randomness in tower defence games like Kingdom Rush or BTD5 has been a heated subject for a very long time. Most of the time it's acceptable if it's either minor or centered on the randomness. However, the powerups have the ability to send a level 5 magma cube at the start of the game (I won one game because of that), to give you a speed or healing potion for your early pigmen or skeletons, or to give you a minute's worth of coin production. It's not that bad, but if things are going to be fixed, might as well do everything. I suggest the following : a level cap of 3 for the free troops, only defensive potions, and coins and EXP rewards scaling with your current goldmine level. (Let's say 30 seconds worth of production).
[+] The Archer Tower. Lots of points for upgrades which are barely worth it.
The first path of the archer is a worse turret. It shoots a bunch of arrows. It seems its only use is surviving the dreaded silverfish rush. Some better fire rate is necessary, maybe 2x would be enough. The second upgrade is extremely expensive in points (940), and all it does is do a little boom when it hits. It costs a lot of coins in game too (around 1500, I don't exactly remember) when you could have just placed a turret tower. The damage and AoE needs to be increased.
[-+] Magma cubes : sluggish red and black goo filling the whole track and leading to destruction.
Right now, when the enemy team has turrets and infernos galore, the only way to win is with magma cubes. (Sure, if you send cave spiders and regenerate them, you will win, but get noticed and it's game over). This strategy is very common in double income. If 1 or 2 players are supplied with gold from 1 or 2 other players, the enemy track will get filled with them (due to their exponential division). By using lots of meteor showers and having turrets through the whole track, it's possible to slay 3 waves of them, but beyond that it's practically impossible. "Advanced" games where both teams are experienced are a race to the magma cubes. I have to be honest though, the magma cubes are my favorite troop because of how much they multiply and how uncertain the outcome is when you have 3 waves. The problem is not the mobs themselves, it's the method used to kill them which is not diverse enough. But by applying other changes described here, it should be fine. Perhaps reducing the health of the offspring would be a good choice.
[+] The Zeus Tower. Funny, nice looking, but useless.
The zeus tower is the "fun" tower in my opinion. Its animations are really nice and the baby zeus make funny noises, but the damage the baby does is mediocre (100 times more than the ice tower though), and the zeus bounce is even worse : it has trouble slaying level 1 zombies! Increasing the damage (250%) is the simple solution here.
[+] The leach tower death ray. Amazing aesthetics but horrible damage.
A very nice visual effect. When you see this thing coming for the first time, you think : "THAT THING WILL DO SO MUCH DAMAGE" but it turns out it's just a mere 50-60. The charge time needs to be increased by 150%, and the damage to 250. Just my opinion.
Other things :
-Constant disconnecting with "Loading terrain". I don't know if this can be fixed, but so far playing on 1.10.2 has helped reduce kicks for me.
-I love the new tutorial, but it doesn't teach to not stack towers and to place them well on the grid. Also, when the enemy is overrun by diamond zombies, they will often start to place a lot of level 1 archers, which is extremely uneffective (but it's what the tutorial taught them). I just think the tutorial should introduce beginners to the mage tower to solve both of these issues. It's also strange to grant access to a paid upgrade in the tutorial but not give it in game.
The good things
And finally, some good things about the update.
-Nice visuals
-Very nice looking new maps
-The paths are a good idea, it's sad most of the time only one of the two is good
-Branching routes in maps are fun
-Anti-stack prevention while still preserving the freedom of the game.
-Damage indicators
-Useful options
-In-game purchases (for once it's a good thing)
-Meteors and death rays (Come on now)
-Skeletons ride horses
-Giants look awesome when upgraded
-Better scoreboard
-More points on game end
-Nice mob sending and tower building GUIs
-Very engaging for beginners
-Shulkers (and the noises they make)
-Actually useful bows and swords
-Cool achievements
And most importantly...
This update is free.
If you read the whole thing... wow.
-Manchot
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