3 replies to this topic

[Ethaw]

Hello ! I've quite a lot of ideas to improve the map, so here's the list (be ready):

Pure improvement:

• Freeze the game for some seconds at the vote window (something like 8s) to let people vote in the chat or select the difficulty without losing time
• Rename the tower attack speed upgrade so it starts lvl 1 to lvl xx or whatever (don't know how many of them there are), would be more coherent with the rest of the upgrades in the game, and we directly know which one we have; additionally, the 0.5% attack speed means nothing, but I don't know how the AS mechanic works in W3 (it doesn't make sense though, compared to a 125% cursed larceny)
• Pure detail: right align the fsa difficulty/version on both reduced and extended table so that it doesn't move when we switch from one to the other
• More detailed patchnotes: currently, a lot of changes are just not listed (sometimes even big ones...), and some are very fuzzy for people who like numbers like me :'(   just keep a .txt with every change you make while you modify the map, won't take you long but will save hours for players trying to figure out the changes not listed ^^
• Remove the survivor attack; the -kill command exists for a reason, and it will prevent some deaths due to weird unit aggro (had my survivor killed once by air units when 15 marines were near him...)
• Remove the Undead Captain autoselection when we get him (it's really annoying)
• Add a tooltip to towers telling us what the "special attack" from the upgrade is (with the numbers please )
• Change the Electric Fist tooltip to tell us the frequency of the proc (I think it's 10%, from the forum...) and the numbers on the active

Changes/additions that I would like to see (it's my opinion - however I think they would be beneficial for everyone):

• The walls able to see invisible units after a certain rank (maybe mithril walls and beyond)
• Bunkers should be able to hold at least 4 units (I'd personally make this 5, and much more if units can't do anything while inside), and it would be great if units inside could fire (but I guess it's probably hard to script since it's not a mechanic that exists in W3); and bunkers should benefit from the hp upgrade of walls OR supportive buildings + eventually the wall armor upgrade -  it will always be weaker compared to a wall and its upgrade, and it would give people a way to deal with air without having an op hero (and don't tell me about the wall + aa tower combo, the aggro of air units is really weird and always destroy my towers often before the wall unless you have a crazy big base in which you can put enough space between)
• Buff the tesla tower - I compared towers between them, and this one has absolutely no reason to be used, other towers exist with higher damage AND higher range; this tower should have the highest damage to compensate its very low range (and maybe change its attack type to magic, so it would be a river tower with higher damage but lower range) [The flame tower has almost the same dps but with a chaos attack; the river tower has much more damage even taking into account the attack type, with more range]
• The merc hp upgrade modified to add a flat hp amount + a percentage (so that units with low base hp are affected, not only the high hp ones); it would make some merc more viable in the late game too ("more" not meaning they ARE viable though :/, but it's one step further to improving the situation) [or add a flat hp upgrade in addition to the current % one)
• Reduce the lifetime of monsters to reduce, or even remove the stalling technique. I think this mechanic shouldn't have such a huge use in this game (stalling for 30mn is quite ridiculous), and you should do everything to remove its existence. Another way to deal with stalling would be to add an aura to monsters, only affecting others that spawned too long ago (similar to the aura that some bosses have, but with conditions on its activation). Might be tricky to implement though, but would be more precise than reducing lifetime (fe. the former would impact games in which monsters walk too long in the map before finding the base, while the latter would be more consistent because it would only affect monsters in front of your walls) [Nightmare difficulty would probably need some nerf if this change was implemented]
• For the next contests: force a specific version of the map (and a release one, not beta), and forbid custom hero/items, besides the one that are obtainable in game (wings virus etc), so that everyone has the same chance (and it's easier for you to judge the replays); eventually specify use of easter eggs/quest/load too

Very optional:

• Add an option at beginning (along with air inv etc): Easter Eggs/No Easter Eggs and Quests/No quests (mainly for the contests) (and even Custom items or not)
• A book to get an insta upgrade on the next level of wall armor (but very expensive, maybe 3k wood)
• A backpack system (like in the Wilderness Survival map for example); I think the system used is a huge invisible hero (that can't be moved) following the survivor -  I wouldn't directly benefit from that one, but I saw replays in which people had so many items they had to -load after starting their base; and it would make inventory management easier
• All type of towers with the same number of upgrades, so you can normalize the price between different types of tower, and it's just more coherent - this change is highly optional though (I just like when things are homogeneous, lol.)
• The forge master is a great idea: it doesn't interfere with the base layout and can't die, and give something nice, you should do more of that (with other building like towers but with the same principle). It really give a base some identity rather than a random X99 base we can't even remember the name, in conjonction with the -claim change I suggested before. For instance, you could do the base "The manufactory", with a lumber mill production base already made (maybe with small bots having the factory spell, hence reducing the space needed - being the specific advantage of this base; or upgraded technicians), but separated from the main layout of the base (like the forge master) ; or replace the bases with a shop by an invulnerable npc

Thanks for reading, I had a .txt with all the changes that crossed my mind and finally posted them here (I'm not a huge forum user so I'd rather post all of them at once). I think all of them would be a positive addition to the game without any negative consequences (besides the creep lifetime change and the armor book maybe), but feel free to discuss / tell me I'm totally wrong

Ps: Some of the changes I'm suggesting are related to the -claim change as well, that I really hope to be implemented (Nevo liked the post, so I considered that was a yes ^^) & some of them might already have been suggested, I didn't check the whole suggestion forum.

 

Edit 12/05/2015: items in green are the one that have been implemented (version 6.52)

Edit 22/05/2015: updated

[Baby Michael]

Thanks for all of your wonderful ideas  We need these kinds of things.

 

Send a message to nevo quick to get you part of our public skype chat and possibly our dev chat.

 

Your attention to detail in the game is phenomenal and we need more of it!

[12th Archivist]

These are some good suggestions!

• Freezing the game would help not just the players occasionally but also Red (player one) all the time. Since he has to select the difficulty and settings anyway, he's often the last player to start moving and thus has the last pick of which base to claim. Freezing the game until a setting is chosen would remove that disadvantage.
• I actually like the tower speed upgrade names. I think they add a bit of flavor to the game. Although I agree that, at the least, the upgrade level should be in parentheses to the right of the name. I also agree that 0.5% is too small an upgrade for the large cost and the very, very long upgrade time. Unless players are supposed to build a command center specifically for chain-upgrading this, like they do with the wall armor upgrade, I think this upgrade is woefully underbalanced compared to spending the lumber on something else.
• The survivor attack is marginally useful, and possibly a bit faster than typing if the unit is right next to what you want to destroy. That said, if having an attack does raise the survivor unit's kill priority on monster lists, that's a problem.
• I've always been curious about exactly what each special attack does. It doesn't help that regular enemies die so fast and most bosses have some magic-immunity by the time you can afford the magic upgrade. Since the Night and Electric Barrier upgrades get a tooltip on walls, it's only fair that each tower type gets a similar tooltip with the information.
• I've never understood what the point of bunkers was. I've never seen anyone use them.
• Tesla towers seem like they could be really useful, but only if their dps when attacking units with mana was higher than any other tower's dps. That would make them at least situationally useful. Enough bosses and monsters have mana so that if mana burn damage was increased, Tesla towers would probably be a good alternative to boss-killer towers. Especially if more bosses had strong abilities with high-mana cost, since Tesla towers would constantly burn their mana away and thus prevent them from ever using those abilities, while boss-killers would only deal damage but not stop those nasty abilities. Like above, I've never seen anybody use Tesla towers.
• Most mercs aren't very useful, generally because they don't have enough health like you implied. On one hand, they could be more useful if they could get a lot more health, or, better yet, a lot more armor. On the other hand, the only useful mercs are already long-range, so they would only better survive Snowman, Imp/NM Stealer, Behemoth, and air units. Actually, that might be a pretty good idea...
• I guess this one depends on your opinion on stalling. Is it a legitimate gameplay method? Or is it a "clever use of game mechanics" that detracts from the experience? I think a good stall is pretty hard to pull off, and not a very obvious tactic. So while stalling could be reduced a bit, I don't think it should be removed completely.
• Do you mean a book that instantly upgrades your walls to the next level? Now that is something I would spend lumber on. This might be an especially good addition because it would offer even more variety to what you would normally spend your mounds and mounds of lumber on.
• Ways to increase inventory size has been discussed before here (http://fortress-surv...nded-inventory/). A backpack is certainly one way to do it.

Just some of my thoughts on your thoughts.

[Ethaw]

I actually like the tower speed upgrade names. I think they add a bit of flavor to the game. Although I agree that, at the least, the upgrade level should be in parentheses to the right of the name.

Good compromise ! I'm more focused on gameplay than aesthetics, so it didn't cross my mind.

 

Tesla towers seem like they could be really useful, but only if their dps when attacking units with mana was higher than any other tower's dps. That would make them at least situationally useful. Enough bosses and monsters have mana so that if mana burn damage was increased, Tesla towers would probably be a good alternative to boss-killer towers. Especially if more bosses had strong abilities with high-mana cost, since Tesla towers would constantly burn their mana away and thus prevent them from ever using those abilities, while boss-killers would only deal damage but not stop those nasty abilities. Like above, I've never seen anybody use Tesla towers.

I was refering to the Tesla Coil, not the Arcane tower that you are speaking about (whose utility currently exists, even though it would need some tweak to be really interesting). And it seems the tesla one is so useless you didn't even know what I was speaking about proving my point ^^

 

Do you mean a book that instantly upgrades your walls to the next level? Now that is something I would spend lumber on. This might be an especially good addition because it would offer even more variety to what you would normally spend your mounds and mounds of lumber on.

I was thinking about the armor upgrade, but the same thing for a wall upgrade could be done too and would have great use for emergency situations. My main goal with this change was to let players a way to catch up their armor upgrade when they have a huge wps but are late with their armor upgrades (without a loss of balance through a high cost)