What makes a good Tower Defense?

I'm just curious what you guys think about what makes a good tower defense. Some things to consider are teams or no teams, how competetive it is, unit or building type towers, simple looks or fancy, and just things like that. I really want to see what you guys think, so go into detail about this
:D

Well its not really about the actual gameplay, but two of the things that piss me off the most are when hotkeys and/or tooltips don't work. I never click on a button anymore, unless i cannot use the hotkey. Moving the mouse over something now seems pointless to me ;)

Would a 4 button setup work for you, with builders building (T)owers, Ad(V)anced Towers, (S)pecial Towers, and (W)alls. Oh, and they are, of course, (B)uilders.

i prefer using Q W E R T as hotkeys for everything, but that could just be my FPS-playerness coming out.

It'd be nice if hotkeys could be variable, wouldn't it?

Its all about t3h gameplay. Fast, challenging, fun and balanced is that way to go. Originality and cool towers and features help :D

And it needs to have a terrain where you can maze good...
thats a part of the fun

I feel that a simple straight forward solo TD that focuses on mazing is the best... And it needs to be competetive... and balanced. None of this team noob shit.

also, throw in a good tactics-build, so you can complete the level with 2-3 wisely placed towers instead of bulking dozens of it....and yeah, make it "side-builded" (so you build on both sides of the "path")
make towers with "has a % chance to do <something>" attack abilities etc... no suber-uber-mega-ultra powered up heros (100+k dmg&hp), no units, just towers....and make sure you write GOOD tooltips, and try to use buildings for towers...
no teams, no split maps (two teams on two sides of the map) and NO BUGS...
as someone said, make good and logical use of hotkeys, try to focus on the left side of the keyboard, so don't use hotkeys like ( ']' or 'p' ) etc... try to stick to the "original" blizz hotkeys (left sided ones)....i'll post some more, but thats my two cents for now :)

oh, yeah, did i mention i don't play TDs ?:))

Okay... let me list a few features of mine and gimme feedback.

Modes: 3
Global team (automatically detects who is playing, and you share lives, even though your locations are split)

Four team "challenge" (last man standing style, can be multiple winners... might have to work on that. Maybe I'll combine it with War if the end of the TD comes)

War mode (difficult to explain... easier if I do a drawing)



One LAST possible feature, and I highly doubt anybody seriously wants this. But, I have heard nothing but good things about "Two Headed Ogres" in WoW. Amazingly, people want the challenge or humor of playing as such a butchered character style. So it would be possible, if two players pick the same race, for the two to play as a two headed ogre mode. Two players, one peon, one gold and lumber resource.

edit: I accidentally hit the post button. Bear with me here.

Okay, here's the image.



No, that is not all possible paths... it's 1/2 of the paths for that side, to be exact. And if say, a unit reaches a certain point... units near him may exhibit group mentality and automatically go to the next. Units will very often skip paths... do not think it unexpected for a single unit to escape your first line of defense... and then have all the monsters in tow skip your maze.

Two things that need to be explained.

First, armies. Between rounds you can purchase them. You pick a race at the beginning (Human, Elvan, Netherworld, Insectoid) and this determines all your towers and armies. Armies are not player controlled, or player trained. You construct one at your town center, and they are disabled for the rest of the time between rounds, and during rounds. They are moderately strong, but outnumbered 2:1 by monsters. If you play solo, recruiting Armies will spawn armies that go both paths (clockwise and counterclockwise). If two players are active, and one stubbornly decides not to ever use armies, not only are you likely destined to lose, but your army would be outnumbered 4:1. You better hope the other side doesnt get involved in the ensuing firefight.

You ask: What is this red line? Well, normally, in Global and Four Team mode, this is where your armies simply poof into thin air. In War mode, they will continue on, and actively attack any towers on the other side. In War mode, opposite sides (top left and bottom right, top right and bottom left) are allied. Normally, armies are weak and pathetic. However, once all the monsters in your region are killed, your armies HP multiplies by ten, retaining whatever percentage they had.


One last thing: I've changed my mind about 50 levels.

There will be an infinite number, using recycling models and creatures.

I will use the mathematical functions of wc3 and the Advanced Upgrade/Ability feature of W.E. Unlimited to its fullest extent.

When levels are reset, your towers are not. You have no new army options, and you must simply survive.

The equation is pretty steep. I will reduce it past level 50, because otherwise within 10 levels monsters would be something like 8 times what level 50 was. I will reduce it probably to about half the curve.

Do not underestimate the difficulty... difficulty is set via unit speed and the speed of these units is extraordinary at the hardest difficulty. That, the group mentality, and the smart navigation (always going to the next waypoint in the line... causing units that are behind to skip waypoints) should make it an entertaining experience.

Sources of influence: Posession TD by CHUNK and Age of Advancement by DominationForce.

How I learned triggers, terraining, etc... trial and error. I catch on pretty quick. I wished somebody taught me variables and arrays earlier, though.

Lookin nice gearhead, thats probably the best way to go. Multiple modes to please a bigger crowd.

I agree with the shark guy that if the map maker is going to use tooltips, they should mean something. I can't stand when I play a td and you get tooltips like: "build towers thye r vry good to kil the bad guyz"... =/

All my tooltips are humorous.

What do you guys think of heroes in TDs? What do they bring to the game, why or why don't you like them?