Hi there,
i am no mapmaker myself, to begin with, but i have played TDs since Starcraft 1. And i played a lot of TDs. So since the release of SC2 i havent come across a TD that really caught my interest and i wonder why. I dont know if this is accurate, but i thought the SC2 editor is more capable than the WC3 editor. Meaning there should be more possibilities in general?
Anyways, i know that through the pop system , i only get to see whatever is played by the mass, if i dont search for the maps explicitly (which means i have to know of them). So if there are nice TDs, i could / should try, i would appreciate hints. The only TDs i played more than once (and somewhat liked) up to now are:
Elements TD - quite polished, but known from WC3 (Elements TD)
Squadron TD - quite polished, but known from WC3 (Legion TD)
Formation Defense - new, interesting concept, not polished enough yet
Char Tower Defende - like the concept of powering towers, terrain design is lacking, known from WC3 (Power Towers)
So these are just my opinions, of course. I kind of feel, that the more polished SC2 TDS, that i know of, are concepts taken over from WC3, even though i thought, that the possibilites of the SC2 editor are greater. The problem with this is, that i feel like i could rather play the WC3 maps, since they mostly run much smoother and are more complete. Now dont get me wrong, i appreciate all the work and i just want to try to give ideas. Therefore i quickly want to talk about the TD, that is, in my opinion, by far the best up to now. This would be YOUTD in WC3. I would seriously recommend everyone, developing a TD map, to play this map for ideas. I want to point out the strong poinst, that make it great:
-It's hard - Beating the usual 120 lvls on easy is not as easy as you think. Beating the neverending mode's 360 lvls on medium or hard is an accomplishment and is only possible by a well thought strategy
-Builder - There are 15 builders (from memory). There are basic ones with slight advantages. And there are Specialists with great advantages and severe weaknesses at the same time
-Experience - First, you as the builder, gain lvls. Each time you finish a game, you gain exp and get a save code. For each lvl you can spent a point into something like atk speed, damage, etc (which will affect all your towers). This means, that you can try out different strats on higher levels through customization. Also your towers gain level ups and experience, which is essential.
-Items - Every dead enemy has a chance to drop an item. These items can be placed in towers to improve them or give them abilities. And there are tons of different items. There are also oils, which increse the base dmg, spell dmg etc. of towers. There are 4 rarities of items and lower ones can be converted to random higher ones
- Levels - There are tons of different abilities, that the waves can have. Like Immune, Strong, XArmor, Regeneration, Invisible, Seccond Chance (Chance of revival on death), Speed, etc. Later waves can have Combinations of two abilities. This makes for great variety and the levels are generated randomly, too.
-Towers - There are 7 Elements with 371 towers implemented right now (from memory again) and everyone in the community can create their own towers through the developed Script Engine, which makes creating towers really easy. The created towers may then be accepted or not accepted to be implemented in the next patch. The maps also supports so many different triggers. There are towers, which deal spell damage dependend of your current money, towers that create items on every 30th attack, towers that grant other towers exp, etc. etc.
-Next Level Button - So in Solo mode you can decide, when to start your next level. Basic feature, but essential. I think you even get a slight exp bonus, if you start faster
-Challenges - Regularly there are Challenges (boss and mass). You dont have to kill them, but if you do, you get more exp, tower exp and eventually items.
The combination of these things creates so much possibilties, which make this TD by far the best in my opinion. You always have to manage stuff and have few downtimes and it is just really complex. I just wanted to share these thoughts, so i get to know about TDs in SC2, that i dont know of, and to make people aware of YOUTD for ideas, in case they havent played or seen it.
So what are your all time favorite TDs and which concepts do you like?
I am going to be troll'd so hard for this, but my favorite TDs are ElementTD and SquadTD. ElementTD is, like you said, from WC3. Because I never played WC3, it was a fun and new experience for me.
As for SquadTD, the map is miserably unbalanced, and in my opinion the creator should have someone designing the game while he codes it... But it is a good idea. It was just executed, once again IMO, horribly.
But yeah, other than that I agree with Mephs... I tend to stay clear of TDs.
Very well made, a cool concept, which randomized the towers just enough, that not all games are the same, but not so much, that you feel you have no influence. Polished, balanced, difficult to master. Probably my favourite.
Power TD
Interesting power concept. Polished, balanced, fun, infinite waves mode, allows epic team mazes. And its open source!
You TD
Huge variety of towers, because of the whole concept of the map, being a tower defense with towers built by a large community. However, it tried a little too hard imo; many good features, but it feels slightly overloaded. Still, a very nice piece of work.
Element TD
Well, same as the SC2 version ;). Well-known, polished and balanced TD.
Azure Tower Defense
Blizzards first multiplayer TD map. Not hard to beat if you know how. Emphasizes teamwork and assisting heroes and supportive units. Not updated; has some nasty bugs and balance issues, but very polished and fun. Has some nice features I never see in any other TD (besides others made by Blizzard), like the heroes or the creep waves composed of multiple unit types. It does not feel like the oh-so-standard TD enemy line, more like a composed army with tanks, light units, air units and occasionally mini-bosses leading the charge. Why does hardly any TD do anything similar?
Blizzard TD
And another official Blizzard funmap. Again, emphasis on hero and support units; also you can build a hero tower.
Unlike in Azure TD, you have to decide for 1 hero. Heroes have different strength (focus on aoe damage, another on summons or w/e).
Another twist: Building space is limited and blocked by trees. Every hero gets a tree-clearing spell at lvl 6, allowing this additional building space to be used.
And once again, creep waves composed of multiple types (usually some units + one/few leaders), interesting bosses.
SOS TD
Cute map :) Interesting concept; one child represents a live. In each round, a new child spawns, followed by the current creep wave with a little head start, but slower movement speed. If you manage to slow/kill the wave, before it reaches the child, you earned yourself an additional life.
Also, children can be upgraded for more hp, later to men, which can attack, then footmen, stronger fighters etc. so they can take care of smaller leaks.
Huge variety of towers including damage, slow etc, but also movement speed bonuses or healing for the children. Polished, challenging, fun.
Yeah i would agree with you TacoManStan, that the maps you mentioned, as i did too, are the most polished SC2 TDs you come across, as a casual player, right now. Thats why i mentioned WC3 maps, since people might not even be aware of the TDs that already exist, even though they provide a huge base of ideas and concepts.
@massatmapster: Go
I would like to suggest you try my td. "Infinite TD"
Yeah i sure would and tried already, but i i couldnt find it, because i am on Europe i guess? ;( In case you want to take a look at the YouTD towers and items for ideas by the way, check them out at link. In case you dont own WC3 to actually try the map out. I forgot to mention, that YOUTD was actually created as a Bachelor Thesis, since the programming of the Tower Creation Tool wasnt that easy i guess ;)
Funny thing, just as i mentioned Power Towers, i saw a post on the front page of a SC2 version today :D And the provided promo vid looks quite promising, too.
Very well made, a cool concept, which randomized the towers just enough, that not all games are the same, but not so much, that you feel you have no influence. Polished, balanced, difficult to master. Probably my favourite.
You are right about that one. Totally forgot about Gem TD. That is a nice one. I am not entirely sure, but wasnt there a map like "Sprout TD", too. I think it was good, but can't really remember :D
Massacre TD. Allthough mostly suffered losing fast after team sucks. Overal fun towers and you get lots of stuff to kill. I also enjoyed pokemon tds and ff tds :D....when you can build your favourite stuff its awesome :D...
I still think that Blizzard TD and Elements TD are my two favorites of all time. Blizzard's game has excellent level design, Elements TD has excellent tower design. I also think that I have a really strong preference for the static track style of TD rather than mazing.
Outside of SC2 and WC3, I think the best TD of all time is Plants Vs. Zombies.
I think all the listed TD-s in this topic are crap, they have no replay value... ( expect maybe the original W3 power towers)
My favorite td was the mazing contest. (which aint really TD)
Also TW-s just have much more replay value...
I think all the listed TD-s in this topic are crap, they have no replay value... ( expect maybe the original W3 power towers)
My favorite td was the mazing contest. (which aint really TD)
Also TW-s just have much more replay value...
Hearing "Hater gonna hate" always makes me think of this pic:D
And massacre td really was fun, too. Havent played that for ages. Only downside was, that you always died to the hero and air lvls, when you had noobs in the game ;)
Also i just remembered a TD style form BW, which i havent seen in WC3 or SC2. As i remember, you didnt exactly build towers, but units instead, which you could then position with "hold position", so that they formed a maze. Also i think, that once the waves started, it didnt stop spawning units, meaning you had to kill tons of units, which made it fun. Also the stress level was raising fast, because of the constant units flow. If you messed up your maze (leaking) just for a blink, units would start pouring through and it was really tough to close the gap. Cant remember what the TD was called at all though.
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Hi there, i am no mapmaker myself, to begin with, but i have played TDs since Starcraft 1. And i played a lot of TDs. So since the release of SC2 i havent come across a TD that really caught my interest and i wonder why. I dont know if this is accurate, but i thought the SC2 editor is more capable than the WC3 editor. Meaning there should be more possibilities in general?
Anyways, i know that through the pop system , i only get to see whatever is played by the mass, if i dont search for the maps explicitly (which means i have to know of them). So if there are nice TDs, i could / should try, i would appreciate hints. The only TDs i played more than once (and somewhat liked) up to now are:
Elements TD - quite polished, but known from WC3 (Elements TD)
Squadron TD - quite polished, but known from WC3 (Legion TD)
Formation Defense - new, interesting concept, not polished enough yet
Char Tower Defende - like the concept of powering towers, terrain design is lacking, known from WC3 (Power Towers)
So these are just my opinions, of course. I kind of feel, that the more polished SC2 TDS, that i know of, are concepts taken over from WC3, even though i thought, that the possibilites of the SC2 editor are greater. The problem with this is, that i feel like i could rather play the WC3 maps, since they mostly run much smoother and are more complete. Now dont get me wrong, i appreciate all the work and i just want to try to give ideas. Therefore i quickly want to talk about the TD, that is, in my opinion, by far the best up to now. This would be YOUTD in WC3. I would seriously recommend everyone, developing a TD map, to play this map for ideas. I want to point out the strong poinst, that make it great:
-It's hard - Beating the usual 120 lvls on easy is not as easy as you think. Beating the neverending mode's 360 lvls on medium or hard is an accomplishment and is only possible by a well thought strategy
-Builder - There are 15 builders (from memory). There are basic ones with slight advantages. And there are Specialists with great advantages and severe weaknesses at the same time
-Experience - First, you as the builder, gain lvls. Each time you finish a game, you gain exp and get a save code. For each lvl you can spent a point into something like atk speed, damage, etc (which will affect all your towers). This means, that you can try out different strats on higher levels through customization. Also your towers gain level ups and experience, which is essential.
-Items - Every dead enemy has a chance to drop an item. These items can be placed in towers to improve them or give them abilities. And there are tons of different items. There are also oils, which increse the base dmg, spell dmg etc. of towers. There are 4 rarities of items and lower ones can be converted to random higher ones
- Levels - There are tons of different abilities, that the waves can have. Like Immune, Strong, XArmor, Regeneration, Invisible, Seccond Chance (Chance of revival on death), Speed, etc. Later waves can have Combinations of two abilities. This makes for great variety and the levels are generated randomly, too.
-Towers - There are 7 Elements with 371 towers implemented right now (from memory again) and everyone in the community can create their own towers through the developed Script Engine, which makes creating towers really easy. The created towers may then be accepted or not accepted to be implemented in the next patch. The maps also supports so many different triggers. There are towers, which deal spell damage dependend of your current money, towers that create items on every 30th attack, towers that grant other towers exp, etc. etc.
-Next Level Button - So in Solo mode you can decide, when to start your next level. Basic feature, but essential. I think you even get a slight exp bonus, if you start faster
-Challenges - Regularly there are Challenges (boss and mass). You dont have to kill them, but if you do, you get more exp, tower exp and eventually items.
The combination of these things creates so much possibilties, which make this TD by far the best in my opinion. You always have to manage stuff and have few downtimes and it is just really complex. I just wanted to share these thoughts, so i get to know about TDs in SC2, that i dont know of, and to make people aware of YOUTD for ideas, in case they havent played or seen it.
So what are your all time favorite TDs and which concepts do you like?
greetz
TD thread. Must eradicate.
Mephs hates TDs, pay him no mind :D
Oh, and welcome to SC2Mapster!
I am going to be troll'd so hard for this, but my favorite TDs are ElementTD and SquadTD. ElementTD is, like you said, from WC3. Because I never played WC3, it was a fun and new experience for me.
As for SquadTD, the map is miserably unbalanced, and in my opinion the creator should have someone designing the game while he codes it... But it is a good idea. It was just executed, once again IMO, horribly.
But yeah, other than that I agree with Mephs... I tend to stay clear of TDs.
Great to be back and part of the community again!
@massatmapster: Go
I would like to suggest you try my td. "Infinite TD"
I plan to include most the content you recommended from YouTD
Still not very complete I warn you but, Ill prolly be working on this till the end of time.
I enjoyed following TDs in WC3:
Very well made, a cool concept, which randomized the towers just enough, that not all games are the same, but not so much, that you feel you have no influence. Polished, balanced, difficult to master. Probably my favourite.
Interesting power concept. Polished, balanced, fun, infinite waves mode, allows epic team mazes. And its open source!
Huge variety of towers, because of the whole concept of the map, being a tower defense with towers built by a large community. However, it tried a little too hard imo; many good features, but it feels slightly overloaded. Still, a very nice piece of work.
Well, same as the SC2 version ;). Well-known, polished and balanced TD.
Blizzards first multiplayer TD map. Not hard to beat if you know how. Emphasizes teamwork and assisting heroes and supportive units. Not updated; has some nasty bugs and balance issues, but very polished and fun. Has some nice features I never see in any other TD (besides others made by Blizzard), like the heroes or the creep waves composed of multiple unit types. It does not feel like the oh-so-standard TD enemy line, more like a composed army with tanks, light units, air units and occasionally mini-bosses leading the charge. Why does hardly any TD do anything similar?
And another official Blizzard funmap. Again, emphasis on hero and support units; also you can build a hero tower.
Unlike in Azure TD, you have to decide for 1 hero. Heroes have different strength (focus on aoe damage, another on summons or w/e).
Another twist: Building space is limited and blocked by trees. Every hero gets a tree-clearing spell at lvl 6, allowing this additional building space to be used.
And once again, creep waves composed of multiple types (usually some units + one/few leaders), interesting bosses.
Cute map :) Interesting concept; one child represents a live. In each round, a new child spawns, followed by the current creep wave with a little head start, but slower movement speed. If you manage to slow/kill the wave, before it reaches the child, you earned yourself an additional life.
Also, children can be upgraded for more hp, later to men, which can attack, then footmen, stronger fighters etc. so they can take care of smaller leaks.
Huge variety of towers including damage, slow etc, but also movement speed bonuses or healing for the children. Polished, challenging, fun.
If Mephs doesnt like TDs, thats ok.
Yeah i would agree with you TacoManStan, that the maps you mentioned, as i did too, are the most polished SC2 TDs you come across, as a casual player, right now. Thats why i mentioned WC3 maps, since people might not even be aware of the TDs that already exist, even though they provide a huge base of ideas and concepts.
Yeah i sure would and tried already, but i i couldnt find it, because i am on Europe i guess? ;( In case you want to take a look at the YouTD towers and items for ideas by the way, check them out at link. In case you dont own WC3 to actually try the map out. I forgot to mention, that YOUTD was actually created as a Bachelor Thesis, since the programming of the Tower Creation Tool wasnt that easy i guess ;)
Funny thing, just as i mentioned Power Towers, i saw a post on the front page of a SC2 version today :D And the provided promo vid looks quite promising, too.
You are right about that one. Totally forgot about Gem TD. That is a nice one. I am not entirely sure, but wasnt there a map like "Sprout TD", too. I think it was good, but can't really remember :D
greetz
Massacre TD. Allthough mostly suffered losing fast after team sucks. Overal fun towers and you get lots of stuff to kill. I also enjoyed pokemon tds and ff tds :D....when you can build your favourite stuff its awesome :D...
I still think that Blizzard TD and Elements TD are my two favorites of all time. Blizzard's game has excellent level design, Elements TD has excellent tower design. I also think that I have a really strong preference for the static track style of TD rather than mazing.
Outside of SC2 and WC3, I think the best TD of all time is Plants Vs. Zombies.
I think all the listed TD-s in this topic are crap, they have no replay value... ( expect maybe the original W3 power towers)
My favorite td was the mazing contest. (which aint really TD)
Also TW-s just have much more replay value...
Haters gonna hate
Hearing "Hater gonna hate" always makes me think of this pic :D
And massacre td really was fun, too. Havent played that for ages. Only downside was, that you always died to the hero and air lvls, when you had noobs in the game ;)
Also i just remembered a TD style form BW, which i havent seen in WC3 or SC2. As i remember, you didnt exactly build towers, but units instead, which you could then position with "hold position", so that they formed a maze. Also i think, that once the waves started, it didnt stop spawning units, meaning you had to kill tons of units, which made it fun. Also the stress level was raising fast, because of the constant units flow. If you messed up your maze (leaking) just for a blink, units would start pouring through and it was really tough to close the gap. Cant remember what the TD was called at all though.