Hi all,
I want to start out by saying that I love tower defense. I just got my 200th win and it is the main thing that I do while on Minecraft. That being said, I feel that the tower defense game mode has become saturated. I want to start out by saying that regular-priced gamemodes are usually fine since you can't build every tower that you want and you have to think ahead for what mobs you send out. In double income mode, however, I usually find games going on for very long periods of time. Double income is my preferred gamemode for sure, as it is faster paced and an individual player can make more of a difference. Since it has been a long time since tower defense has had any sort of significant update, I had a couple of ideas for making the game interesting again. These changes could also alter the current defense strategies that seem to saturate the game.
MOBS
Enderman - The enderman would be a new mob with new abilities that would challenge the current strategy of archer tower spam. The enderman would have two abilities that would change how the game is played. The first ability would be immunity to archer towers. This is because, in vanilla Minecraft, you can't hit an enderman with a bow. This would mean that you could capitalize on defenses that rely heavily on archer towers as a defense for blaze. The other ability that enderman could have is the ability to leap forward once they reach a certain amount of health. For instance, a level 2 enderman could jump 15 blocks forward when it reaches 50% health, while a level 5 enderman could jump 50 blocks forward. This would attack defenses that are extremely front heavy and could be a way to force defenses to spread out, especially in the early game. As for health and speed, I would expect the enderman to have a normal speed while having health that is approximately that of a creeper. I know enderman have more health than regular mobs in the regular game, but If this mob has arrow immunity and teleport, then it would be overpowered to also have it be a tank.
Ghast - The idea for this is fairly straightforward. The giant is a tank on the ground, so the ghast can be a tank in the air. It can also have fire resistance since it is a nether mob. Giants right now are a little overrated in that inferno potions weaken them immensely. The thought process here is a tank mob that is immune to fire. That way, defenses would have to use other potions like Zeus, which is more expensive. It would also require the defense to have air towers. This will change up strategies as if they use a ton of Zeus, then swarms of mobs could get through, whereas if they use archers, then the previously mentioned enderman would have an advantage. Ghasts would force defenses to consider what towers they go with more carefully.
Guardian - I am less certain about this mob, but it is one that is 1.8 friendly. Since the guardian attacks with a beam, it may be a mob that could stun certain towers for a short period of time. For this reason, it would have to be a relatively weak mob, but it could prove troublesome if it is protected well. It would punish defenses that rely on a couple of strong towers. I would expect the stun ability to have a charge time so that when the mobs spawn, it would take some time before they begin stunning towers.
Blaze - I feel that blaze are a little overpowered right now. While strategies have varied a little bit over time, blaze are consistently the mob that deals the final blow. Recently, they have been used more than magma cubes and giants, which are more expensive and require more XP. Either make blazes more expensive or make magma cubes and giants more powerful. I do have tower suggestions that could also deal with blazes.
Giants - Giants are too expensive. I have never seen a giant reach the end of a map. Not to say that it has never happened, but to be 8000 for a level 5 and typically not get halfway seems to show that giants are not worth the price. I don't have a solution off of the top of my head other than the basics: lower the price, increase the hp, or adjust other mobs accordingly.
Silverfish - Silverfish are hardly ever used because they really are not as good of an investment as a blaze. If endermites could teleport, like how enderman could, then maybe they would be used more often. It just seems like a weaker troop that also takes mage damage is not worth the xp.
TOWERS
Flak Tower - One of the main win strategies involves grouping blaze together. There really is not a tower that can splash air troops, which is why potions are typically needed as a defense. The flak tower would serve as an air only tower, which does not exist yet. Blaze, silverfish, and ghast are the only mobs that would be targeted. What this means is that it would be a bad strategy to place a lot of these towers as ground troops would go right past them. The flak tower would serve as an artillery tower in the air. I feel that the artillery upgrades would work well on the flak tower. It would be a good way to fight blazes, which currently dominate the game.
Shield/Barricade Tower - Like the leach tower, this would be a 5x5 tower that could only be placed once. The idea of the tower is to create a wall that troops cannot pass through. The wall would have a certain amount of health (may be upgradable). Mobs would attack this wall until in collapses, sort of how they attack the end of the map. The wall would take some time to build, maybe 2-3 minutes and would regenerate when destroyed, taking another 2-3 minutes. This allows an entirely new type of strategy where you can create a chokepoint if you will where mobs get stuck and attacked. Whether air troops would be stopped I don't know. That could be a possible upgrade. Other possible upgrades would include a castle guard on top of the wall, bombs that are dropped down from the wall, a wall collapse where destroying the wall does splash damage to the wall, or maybe the wall can be constructed quicker but with less health. It would be interesting to see this idea take shape.
Laser Tower - Sort of a baby Zeus on steroids. This tower would be a giant killer. A 5x5 that shoots a powerful beam at the target, dealing incredible damage. 500 damage may be the starting number, as that would kill level 4 skeletons. It would increase in damage and range with upgrades. This tower would also have a decent reload time, since having many in one area could be overpowered. 20 seconds may be the way to go, as it could only hit a wave of 12 normal speed mobs once or twice in that amount of time. The way to beat this tower is swarms of mobs, as well as speed potions.
OTHER
Map Length - One gripe I have with some of the maps is that they may be too long, which means that mobs may never get through with good defense. Two maps that come to mind right away are Demons and Zen. Great looking maps for sure, but above-average defense along the entire track means that mobs are likely never going to get to the end. When making new maps, or when looking to get rid of old ones, I think it is important to take length into consideration.
Armageddon - Where it stands right now, Armageddon is a little inconsistent. In matches where you only have 1-2 other teammates, it is near impossible to survive Armageddon. On the flip side, having 5 teammates in a double income match means that Armageddon is going to be easy. I don't have specific suggestions, but there needs to be a mode where it is going to be roughly the same difficulty for a team of 2 as it is a team of 6.
Balance - I feel like there may be a system in place for this, but I think it needs to be clearer. When the teams are heavily unbalanced, the smaller team should get a boost of funds at the beginning so they are more even. I know sometimes my coins have gone up faster than they should which is why I think this exists, but I also feel like it is a little inconsistent.
Barren - fix the castle health bars because I can't see them thank you
These are just some ideas that would inject a little bit of life into the game of tower defense. I understand that a lot of testing would need to go into these changes, but I think that it will get more people playing this gamemode, especially if it makes the strategy a little more robust than just spamming a certain mob or tower. I would love feedback from community members on other ideas for the game in the comments.
I want to start out by saying that I love tower defense. I just got my 200th win and it is the main thing that I do while on Minecraft. That being said, I feel that the tower defense game mode has become saturated. I want to start out by saying that regular-priced gamemodes are usually fine since you can't build every tower that you want and you have to think ahead for what mobs you send out. In double income mode, however, I usually find games going on for very long periods of time. Double income is my preferred gamemode for sure, as it is faster paced and an individual player can make more of a difference. Since it has been a long time since tower defense has had any sort of significant update, I had a couple of ideas for making the game interesting again. These changes could also alter the current defense strategies that seem to saturate the game.
MOBS
Enderman - The enderman would be a new mob with new abilities that would challenge the current strategy of archer tower spam. The enderman would have two abilities that would change how the game is played. The first ability would be immunity to archer towers. This is because, in vanilla Minecraft, you can't hit an enderman with a bow. This would mean that you could capitalize on defenses that rely heavily on archer towers as a defense for blaze. The other ability that enderman could have is the ability to leap forward once they reach a certain amount of health. For instance, a level 2 enderman could jump 15 blocks forward when it reaches 50% health, while a level 5 enderman could jump 50 blocks forward. This would attack defenses that are extremely front heavy and could be a way to force defenses to spread out, especially in the early game. As for health and speed, I would expect the enderman to have a normal speed while having health that is approximately that of a creeper. I know enderman have more health than regular mobs in the regular game, but If this mob has arrow immunity and teleport, then it would be overpowered to also have it be a tank.
Ghast - The idea for this is fairly straightforward. The giant is a tank on the ground, so the ghast can be a tank in the air. It can also have fire resistance since it is a nether mob. Giants right now are a little overrated in that inferno potions weaken them immensely. The thought process here is a tank mob that is immune to fire. That way, defenses would have to use other potions like Zeus, which is more expensive. It would also require the defense to have air towers. This will change up strategies as if they use a ton of Zeus, then swarms of mobs could get through, whereas if they use archers, then the previously mentioned enderman would have an advantage. Ghasts would force defenses to consider what towers they go with more carefully.
Guardian - I am less certain about this mob, but it is one that is 1.8 friendly. Since the guardian attacks with a beam, it may be a mob that could stun certain towers for a short period of time. For this reason, it would have to be a relatively weak mob, but it could prove troublesome if it is protected well. It would punish defenses that rely on a couple of strong towers. I would expect the stun ability to have a charge time so that when the mobs spawn, it would take some time before they begin stunning towers.
Blaze - I feel that blaze are a little overpowered right now. While strategies have varied a little bit over time, blaze are consistently the mob that deals the final blow. Recently, they have been used more than magma cubes and giants, which are more expensive and require more XP. Either make blazes more expensive or make magma cubes and giants more powerful. I do have tower suggestions that could also deal with blazes.
Giants - Giants are too expensive. I have never seen a giant reach the end of a map. Not to say that it has never happened, but to be 8000 for a level 5 and typically not get halfway seems to show that giants are not worth the price. I don't have a solution off of the top of my head other than the basics: lower the price, increase the hp, or adjust other mobs accordingly.
Silverfish - Silverfish are hardly ever used because they really are not as good of an investment as a blaze. If endermites could teleport, like how enderman could, then maybe they would be used more often. It just seems like a weaker troop that also takes mage damage is not worth the xp.
TOWERS
Flak Tower - One of the main win strategies involves grouping blaze together. There really is not a tower that can splash air troops, which is why potions are typically needed as a defense. The flak tower would serve as an air only tower, which does not exist yet. Blaze, silverfish, and ghast are the only mobs that would be targeted. What this means is that it would be a bad strategy to place a lot of these towers as ground troops would go right past them. The flak tower would serve as an artillery tower in the air. I feel that the artillery upgrades would work well on the flak tower. It would be a good way to fight blazes, which currently dominate the game.
Shield/Barricade Tower - Like the leach tower, this would be a 5x5 tower that could only be placed once. The idea of the tower is to create a wall that troops cannot pass through. The wall would have a certain amount of health (may be upgradable). Mobs would attack this wall until in collapses, sort of how they attack the end of the map. The wall would take some time to build, maybe 2-3 minutes and would regenerate when destroyed, taking another 2-3 minutes. This allows an entirely new type of strategy where you can create a chokepoint if you will where mobs get stuck and attacked. Whether air troops would be stopped I don't know. That could be a possible upgrade. Other possible upgrades would include a castle guard on top of the wall, bombs that are dropped down from the wall, a wall collapse where destroying the wall does splash damage to the wall, or maybe the wall can be constructed quicker but with less health. It would be interesting to see this idea take shape.
Laser Tower - Sort of a baby Zeus on steroids. This tower would be a giant killer. A 5x5 that shoots a powerful beam at the target, dealing incredible damage. 500 damage may be the starting number, as that would kill level 4 skeletons. It would increase in damage and range with upgrades. This tower would also have a decent reload time, since having many in one area could be overpowered. 20 seconds may be the way to go, as it could only hit a wave of 12 normal speed mobs once or twice in that amount of time. The way to beat this tower is swarms of mobs, as well as speed potions.
OTHER
Map Length - One gripe I have with some of the maps is that they may be too long, which means that mobs may never get through with good defense. Two maps that come to mind right away are Demons and Zen. Great looking maps for sure, but above-average defense along the entire track means that mobs are likely never going to get to the end. When making new maps, or when looking to get rid of old ones, I think it is important to take length into consideration.
Armageddon - Where it stands right now, Armageddon is a little inconsistent. In matches where you only have 1-2 other teammates, it is near impossible to survive Armageddon. On the flip side, having 5 teammates in a double income match means that Armageddon is going to be easy. I don't have specific suggestions, but there needs to be a mode where it is going to be roughly the same difficulty for a team of 2 as it is a team of 6.
Balance - I feel like there may be a system in place for this, but I think it needs to be clearer. When the teams are heavily unbalanced, the smaller team should get a boost of funds at the beginning so they are more even. I know sometimes my coins have gone up faster than they should which is why I think this exists, but I also feel like it is a little inconsistent.
Barren - fix the castle health bars because I can't see them thank you
These are just some ideas that would inject a little bit of life into the game of tower defense. I understand that a lot of testing would need to go into these changes, but I think that it will get more people playing this gamemode, especially if it makes the strategy a little more robust than just spamming a certain mob or tower. I would love feedback from community members on other ideas for the game in the comments.
