What makes a TD enjoyable for you?

As some of you know I have been creating a TD, and now it is out for beta. I have the game engine done and solid, so that isn't a problem, but it just doesn't seem to be too popular among you people. I like it quite a bit, but it seems I am the minority. I will be attaching a new version to this thread so you can test the new stuff. Anyway, I need you guys to help me come up with cool ideas for things. Right now I am kind of thinking that there will be continuous levels for 5 levels in a row. So like every 45 secs a wave of creeps comes out. Then after f 5 levels, you are taken to play one of they many mini-games. Some would be team minigames and some would be solo. It would all be random. Then you play the minigame to get gold and then its back to another 5 levels. Each time you play a minigame the gold you can get increases. Another idea I have is to make a huge hero arena with creeps and stuff so that you can gain levels. It would be a FFA area so you could kill other heros. Every time your hero gained a level you would be able to build a better tower. Those are the two main ideas I have right now. Also, do you guys like competitive TD better than you against a computer? Would anyone like to see 'smart' computers? I don't think that the terrain I have right now is going to stay the same becuase it is just blah. I hope to get a good terrainer to go and overhaul the map into something that looks cool. Please help give me ideas for it that would make it fun. I need minigame ideas if you like the whole 5 level then minigame thing. If you can think of some original way of doing it that would be fine too. I know that right now my TD is completly unbalanced, but I am working on balancing it every day. If you want to test the current beta verison you can get to the thread by my sig.

Many things!

1) Crisp, refreshing terrain/atmosphere (number 1 reason why I loved Wintermaul [Yes, the original] so much).

2) Several tiers of builders, not necessarily as much as Blizzards TD, but 2 or 3 builders.

3) Well thought out towers that are unique to that specific team.

4) Good tooltips and good build-menu tower placement.

5) Different and UNIQUE races/teams each with strengths and weaknesses (number 2 reason why I loved the original Wintermaul).

6) A unique pathing/map design.

7) NO HEROES. Tower Defence is Tower Defence, not Tower-But-Mess-Around-With-Hero-While-You-Wait Defence! I hate hero systems incorporated into Tower Defences.

8) Good "waves" of creatures/creeps, they should have spells (?), and should be challenging enough.

9) Difficulty levels.

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Hope your map turns out/is great! ;)

Interesting ideas mostly, something new.

Heres one I thought of (but dont have time to do it). If anyone wants to, go ahead..

http://www.blizzpub.net/forums/thread.php?tid=28457

The ffa hero thing sounds fun, I worked on a td/hero arena for awhile....
Minigames also sound good, anything original that tds dont normally is fun. Quick, challenging and overall good gameplay will also suffice

Hmm, Id say you need to keep it simple but innovative. Make distractions for waiting while creeps walk but dont make them have any effect on the real game. Make it so there is some strategy for placement. Accurate tooltips. Unique creeps (in blizz TD the SEF pandas were awesome) No minigames. Each teammate must be important (unlike pink/green in mauls.) Balance. Unique towers with triggered effects.

Alright, tonight I am going to go through and write a little summary on 5 different nations. Each nation will have their own attributes. So, lets say the Humbru's live up north where there are fiercely cold winters and not much warmer summers. These people have developed weapons that can freeze any other human being with ease. While down south the Rhamidians live in a vast desert, fierce windstorms rage and heat is always present......etc........

This would set up a story line for each race that I could then draw a tower line from. People may never be exposed to the actual text that I write, but they will get the basic jist of it from the tower names, models, and tooltips. I think that this will add a lot more spice to the map. Right now I have a little hero thing going on, but no one seems to like that so I might just take it out and do the minigame every 5. I definitly need to redo my terrain. If any terrainers are open for a weekend or two I would really like some nice looking terrain for my map. I need something where every player is important. Right now I am working off a map kind of like WM (I started making this when the first wintermaul came out) but now times have changed and noone likes that kind of setup. Could someone maybe draw out a plan or something. I dunno, i'm not creative at all. Don't worry about internal things like leaderboards and such. I am a perfectionist in that area so it is perfect. I am a trigger guru, so all of my triggers are optomized and the game leaks almost 0 memory. Anyways, keep 'em comin.

Minigames between rounds. That's the only way I can stand them. I think it's pretty boring just standing there watching towers shoot stuff....

yeah...mini games between rounds...not every round.. and some TD´s allready have this..."you can uppgrade Towers"...and some good terrain..becuse TD terrain sucks..

Nemo

Interesting towers with clearly defined roles
A wide variety of possible strategies (a player should never feel "locked in" to building one particular sequence of towers)
Challenging creeps, but not impossible ones or ones that can only be defeated with a specific tower
Difficulty levels that are designed to let newbies learn the game and challenge the most experienced of players. The players should feel that they accomplished something by reaching the end of the game; at the same time, reaching the end once shouldn't be the last time a player wants to play the map.
In a team setting, there should never be a situation in which the game ends because of one player's poor choice/placement of towers, especially *early* in the game (specifically on default or easier difficulty levels if multiple difficulty levels are present).
Fair pathing; one player should not have a noticeable advantage or disadvantage due to their position alone.
Constantly engaging gameplay; this can be accomplished through *encouraging* micromanagement (requiring micromanagement in a TD can backfire), such as through towers that slow one target and can benefit from a conscious targetting of unslowed units, through a need to constantly build or upgrade towers in order to keep up with the pace of the game, through the introduction of a Hero, through mini-games, etc. There should never be a complete lull, that is when boredom kicks in. At the same time, players need a rest after periods of intense micromanagement.
Thought-provoking but not mind-boggling; part of the enjoyment in a TD for most people comes from the fact that one doesn't need to constantly monitor every situation and pay as much attention to the game as in a melee game. But a mindless TD is even worse; massing all of one very powerful tower gets old fast.
Inviting terrain; it should be pretty clear where a decent place to start building is. High quality terrain is definitely a plus, as long as it doesn't become confusingly complex to the point that it is hard to find places to build.
Custom units, towers, etc. are definitely beneficial. Familiarity is also important, and if the custom stuff is not implemented properly, it may be confusing to players, so be cautious of that. Of course, too much vanilla can take the interest in the game away from the player.
Difference from other maps; there's nothing worse than playing a map and instantly remarking, "Oh, this is just like _____". Similarity in some forms is inevitable, put if it looks like a clone, it probably is.
Balance!

Mazes all the way, crappy tower defenses like blizzard's an others won't let you think how to organize your towers to make mazes, I hate that.

Blizzard's TD wasn't crappy. :(

EXACTLY!!

cube defence baby.... both strategies are possible, both mazing and strong towers... u probubly domt believe me but i once allmost completed the single hardest level without even one upgrade OO...

my maze was like 1/4 of the total size of the map..

ownage baby.

cube defence is the only TD i could ever enjoy... but its been a VERY long time since i played ANY td... just seem boring when you can play games like ToB and DotA:EX...

Have to agree: mazing, good balance, combinatorics (different towers for different purposes in different places in the maze), constant gameplay (no moments when you are just waiting for the cash to come so you can build more towers).

To all this I would also add: competition. Some people may prefer a cooperative TD, and I actually don't really care, but the competitive version is definitely more dynamic, fast paced, and interesting.

i also agree on that one... or just like cube defence, make both modes possible: vs and coop ^^~!

I have to disagree with that, mazes are fun and all but most mazing people use only one type of tower to maze(a few more types, but not so much), the challenging thing about TD maps(at least i think) is to have good combos of certain towers, instead of mazing with one tower type and not doing anything else. Both TD types are really fun, but I prefer sidebuilding(or however you call it) than mazing.
I would mostly like to see more towers and less upgrades in a TD map, dont count "towers that can be upgraded to towers that you can already build" as towers. Upgrades in a TD map should be for tower's abilities and not for upgrading towers. A good TD map will also need a special feature that other TD maps dont have, but you dont really have to add that so much.
(This reply is made only from opinions ^^)