I hate HATE HATE air levels. Most TD's have them, but I'm not sure that anyone has ever had fun with an air level. Do you like having to build one type of tower that only works once every 8 levels? I don't.
Also there is a huge disparity on the balance of air levels. Some games you can get by with one weak air tower and be fine, other games you hit that first air level and you're just done.
Hey, I was just play testing your map. It's sharp, looks polished, and I think it has potential.
However, I'm afraid to tell you that have a fundamental problem with the game's balance. To state the obvious, a Tower Defense game is about finding the most cost-effective way to deal damage to the creeps, and therefore it's the player's goal to find the most cost-effective solution. The problem is that the cost of your upgrades don't match the damage for the towers.
You have to balance a tower defense game mathematically. Here are the stats for the air towers.
Total Cost -> Damage x Attack Speed
Tier 1: $50 -> 150 damage x .6 attack speed
Tier 2: $200 -> 300 damage x .8 attack speed
Tier 3: $1050 -> 600 damage x .7 attack speed
Tier 4: $5050 -> 1250 damage x .6 attack speed
I noticed first that just going from Tier 1 (basic) to Tier 2 (normal) that you're paying three times as much money for the upgrade to double the damage of your tower. Consider the damage per second value for each mineral spent ($).
Tier 1: $1 = 5 DPS
Tier 2: $1 = 1.88 DPS
Tier 3: $1 = 0.82 DPS
Tier 4: $1 = 0.41 DPS
As you can see, it's most advantageous to simply build only the weakest towers. In fact, the game I was in had one person playing on Nightmare difficulty, and he was exclusively building basic towers and doing just fine in the game.
Consider these two factors from a game design perspective:
All towers have a sell-back rate of 100%, so you can easily build all basic ground towers, then select all and sell all right before an air level, and then build all air towers. I was doing this in my game, and it was very effective at beating the game, but not very fun. You want to give players a reason to stick with their better towers.
Overkill is an important factor of tower defense games. If you have a tower that deals 800 damage to a unit that has only 50 life left, you've now lost 750 damage. As a result of this, investing in higher level towers can some times be worse. It's better to have a larger number of towers that hit for less to minimize overkill.
There is good news, though! This is an easy thing to fix. If each upgrade is more efficient, i.e. it provides more damage per cost, then players will need to upgrade towers to complete the game. This will solve both of the above issues. If you make each upgrade take longer, then players will not want to sell their best towers because they'll just have to rebuild them back to full strength. If each tier becomes more cost effective, then it helps to counteract the problem of overkill.
You may need to do further tweaking on your level difficulty, but this is something that can be fixed and I really think your game will be better if you change it.
I was afraid that there wouldn't be any model that is just the ripple. The Tauren Marine attack is a great suggestion, and since this is an explosion effect, I'll just have to live with it.
Music: Listen to music you like, and imagine what gameplay would be like with that music. Don't go too overboard, you're probably not going to make something as cool as what's in your brain. I have never actually come up with new ideas from doing this, but it gets the brain juices moving.
Start with what you know: Look at the games, particularly SC2 games, and see what you like about them. Try to make your own thing, but better. Find specific ways to improve on the game and add your own twist. Believe me, the games out there right now have a lot of room for improvement.
If you don't have an idea for an overall game, start small. Decide on some very specific gameplay elements and work around it. Keep thinking of new components of gameplay and maybe you'll eventually tie it all together with a cohesive game.
So many b.net games have stupid names like "Marine Platform Wars" or something. For my current project, I first came up with a name that sounded appealing and made the entire game around the title.
I'd also say that at your age, you are going to have trouble putting together a really complete game. I started in SC1 around your age, I made a simple single player map called "Escape from Alcatraz" and finished less than half of it and never released it. As I had more time and more ideas my projects became more complete. I never really had much time to work on custom games until after I graduated from college. Once you're at that point, life really becomes repetitive and you need something to fill up your weeknights.
I need to create a ripple effect, where the terrain looks distorted in a radiating circle. This effect is associated with many animation models, like explosions.
Does anyone know if it's possible to create the ripple effect without the explosion animation?
There's some configurations that are off in your variants. It's easy to fix.
Do a search for this problem in the forum and you will find some solutions. In fact I recommend doing a search before you post any questions. There's so much info sitting in here now that I rarely need to post a new question.
Because of the ton of people willing to help through chat-channels, and my already long list of beta-testers, I see no point in releasing a public beta till those mean bugs are fixed.
I am excited to try the game, but I support this. You only have one shot to make a first impression!
I have made a flying unit that is supposed to attack while moving, just like a Diamond back.
I set this property on the weapon.
Weapon - Allowed Movement: Moving
When this flyer is trying to acquire a unit that is moving away from it, it seems like it just can't keep up. It goes scoot! scoot! scoot! scoot!, inching towards the target but never getting quite close enough to take a shot. While it's scooting it moves so much slower, so I have to manually grab the unit and launch it ahead of its target so it can actually fire.
In this case, the flying unit has a speed of 7 and the attacked unit is going at 2.6, so it should have no problem keeping up.
In the data editor, whenever you switch from one item to another item in the same list, the list of fields snaps back up to the top. IE, you want to copy a hit point value onto eight different units, every time you switch to a new unit the field pane will snap back to the top. If you have all the fields in a single list like I do, you have to scroll back down to the hit points field for each unit.
I want to create a tower using the protoss Sentry unit, and since this unit doesn't utilize a turret, I want the unit to simply turn freely in place as it's attacking an enemy. I copied the Sentry unit and everything was going well until I set Movement - Pathing Footprint: Footprint 2x2. (the Sentry normally has no pathing footprint set)
Now with the footprint, the Sentry does not rotate to face the unit it is attacking. I set its turret to Free Rotate, but that doesn't change anything. Is there any way to make this work? I can't lose the footprint or else the structure can be freely placed instead of on a structure grid.
Is there a way to attach a Sentry model to another unit and make it rotate like the tops of the normal turrets in the game? Maybe use some fancy trigonometry and set the actor's facing direction to the target enemy unit?
Riley, if you figure out the reason why your map is crashing, please post it here. Crashing is a scary problem that is hard to troubleshoot, so I think a lot of people would like to know the cause so we can all avoid it with long maps.
Thanks for your dedication to making what I consider to be the first 'real' TD game in SC2.
You can pick all the units in the region, and set an exclusion for "structure" in your pick unit action. I'm curious, what is the action invoking your trigger that is causing it to run constantly? What conditions do you have set for this trigger?
There is a bug where if you have more than 6 different ability commands to construct the same unit [with the same glossary priority], the starcraft 2 will freeze while loading your map.
This bug has always been present, but I bring this up now because before patch 1.1.2 you could have up to 7 different ability commands to construct the same unit [with the same glossary priority]. After patch 1.1.2, this has changed to freeze after 6 different ability commands to construct the same unit [with the same glossary priority].
My use-case for this is that I want a supply depot to become more expensive every time the builder unit constructs it. First depot costs 5 minerals, second costs 10, etc. I use requirements to show a different ability command with a different cost depending on the count of supply depots.
EDIT: I made a copy of the supply depot, so the 7 one built is a "Supply Depot 2". The map still froze.
I went through all of the data values and discovered that the value "Tech Tree - Glossary Priority" must be different! I changed the glossary priority from 10 to 100 and it's fixed.
Conclusion: If you have more than six ability commands on your builder making the same unit with the same glossary priority, the map cannot load. It may also be true that you cannot have more than six different ability commands to make different units with the same glossary priority. I have not tested this yet.
0
What not to put in to a TD: Air Levels.
I hate HATE HATE air levels. Most TD's have them, but I'm not sure that anyone has ever had fun with an air level. Do you like having to build one type of tower that only works once every 8 levels? I don't.
Also there is a huge disparity on the balance of air levels. Some games you can get by with one weak air tower and be fine, other games you hit that first air level and you're just done.
End this madness, you vultures!
0
Hey, I was just play testing your map. It's sharp, looks polished, and I think it has potential.
However, I'm afraid to tell you that have a fundamental problem with the game's balance. To state the obvious, a Tower Defense game is about finding the most cost-effective way to deal damage to the creeps, and therefore it's the player's goal to find the most cost-effective solution. The problem is that the cost of your upgrades don't match the damage for the towers.
You have to balance a tower defense game mathematically. Here are the stats for the air towers.
Total Cost -> Damage x Attack Speed
I noticed first that just going from Tier 1 (basic) to Tier 2 (normal) that you're paying three times as much money for the upgrade to double the damage of your tower. Consider the damage per second value for each mineral spent ($).
As you can see, it's most advantageous to simply build only the weakest towers. In fact, the game I was in had one person playing on Nightmare difficulty, and he was exclusively building basic towers and doing just fine in the game.
Consider these two factors from a game design perspective:
There is good news, though! This is an easy thing to fix. If each upgrade is more efficient, i.e. it provides more damage per cost, then players will need to upgrade towers to complete the game. This will solve both of the above issues. If you make each upgrade take longer, then players will not want to sell their best towers because they'll just have to rebuild them back to full strength. If each tier becomes more cost effective, then it helps to counteract the problem of overkill.
You may need to do further tweaking on your level difficulty, but this is something that can be fixed and I really think your game will be better if you change it.
Good luck!
-Skrow
0
I prefer hiring high school dropouts to spin signs at intersections.
0
I was afraid that there wouldn't be any model that is just the ripple. The Tauren Marine attack is a great suggestion, and since this is an explosion effect, I'll just have to live with it.
0
Some thoughts.
Lying down: People are more creative while lying down, even science agrees! http://www.quantum-self.com/quantum-library/creativity-quantum-library/lie-down-to-be-more-creative.html
Music: Listen to music you like, and imagine what gameplay would be like with that music. Don't go too overboard, you're probably not going to make something as cool as what's in your brain. I have never actually come up with new ideas from doing this, but it gets the brain juices moving.
Start with what you know: Look at the games, particularly SC2 games, and see what you like about them. Try to make your own thing, but better. Find specific ways to improve on the game and add your own twist. Believe me, the games out there right now have a lot of room for improvement.
If you don't have an idea for an overall game, start small. Decide on some very specific gameplay elements and work around it. Keep thinking of new components of gameplay and maybe you'll eventually tie it all together with a cohesive game.
So many b.net games have stupid names like "Marine Platform Wars" or something. For my current project, I first came up with a name that sounded appealing and made the entire game around the title.
I'd also say that at your age, you are going to have trouble putting together a really complete game. I started in SC1 around your age, I made a simple single player map called "Escape from Alcatraz" and finished less than half of it and never released it. As I had more time and more ideas my projects became more complete. I never really had much time to work on custom games until after I graduated from college. Once you're at that point, life really becomes repetitive and you need something to fill up your weeknights.
0
I need to create a ripple effect, where the terrain looks distorted in a radiating circle. This effect is associated with many animation models, like explosions.
Does anyone know if it's possible to create the ripple effect without the explosion animation?
0
There's some configurations that are off in your variants. It's easy to fix.
Do a search for this problem in the forum and you will find some solutions. In fact I recommend doing a search before you post any questions. There's so much info sitting in here now that I rarely need to post a new question.
Good luck!
0
This looks fantastic so far. Please just stay committed and see it through to completion.
I am excited to try the game, but I support this. You only have one shot to make a first impression!
0
lol
@Ulab I was about to post an almost identical set of screen shots.
Game seemed ok, but so confusing with that broken text blasted all over my screen.
0
I have made a flying unit that is supposed to attack while moving, just like a Diamond back. I set this property on the weapon. Weapon - Allowed Movement: Moving
When this flyer is trying to acquire a unit that is moving away from it, it seems like it just can't keep up. It goes scoot! scoot! scoot! scoot!, inching towards the target but never getting quite close enough to take a shot. While it's scooting it moves so much slower, so I have to manually grab the unit and launch it ahead of its target so it can actually fire.
In this case, the flying unit has a speed of 7 and the attacked unit is going at 2.6, so it should have no problem keeping up.
Anyone know how to correct this goofy behavior?
Thanks!
0
In the data editor, whenever you switch from one item to another item in the same list, the list of fields snaps back up to the top. IE, you want to copy a hit point value onto eight different units, every time you switch to a new unit the field pane will snap back to the top. If you have all the fields in a single list like I do, you have to scroll back down to the hit points field for each unit.
SO annoying.
0
I want to create a tower using the protoss Sentry unit, and since this unit doesn't utilize a turret, I want the unit to simply turn freely in place as it's attacking an enemy. I copied the Sentry unit and everything was going well until I set Movement - Pathing Footprint: Footprint 2x2. (the Sentry normally has no pathing footprint set)
Now with the footprint, the Sentry does not rotate to face the unit it is attacking. I set its turret to Free Rotate, but that doesn't change anything. Is there any way to make this work? I can't lose the footprint or else the structure can be freely placed instead of on a structure grid.
Is there a way to attach a Sentry model to another unit and make it rotate like the tops of the normal turrets in the game? Maybe use some fancy trigonometry and set the actor's facing direction to the target enemy unit?
0
Riley, if you figure out the reason why your map is crashing, please post it here. Crashing is a scary problem that is hard to troubleshoot, so I think a lot of people would like to know the cause so we can all avoid it with long maps.
Thanks for your dedication to making what I consider to be the first 'real' TD game in SC2.
0
@DanOwl: Go
You can pick all the units in the region, and set an exclusion for "structure" in your pick unit action. I'm curious, what is the action invoking your trigger that is causing it to run constantly? What conditions do you have set for this trigger?
0
There is a bug where if you have more than 6 different ability commands to construct the same unit [with the same glossary priority], the starcraft 2 will freeze while loading your map.
This bug has always been present, but I bring this up now because before patch 1.1.2 you could have up to 7 different ability commands to construct the same unit [with the same glossary priority]. After patch 1.1.2, this has changed to freeze after 6 different ability commands to construct the same unit [with the same glossary priority].
My use-case for this is that I want a supply depot to become more expensive every time the builder unit constructs it. First depot costs 5 minerals, second costs 10, etc. I use requirements to show a different ability command with a different cost depending on the count of supply depots.
EDIT: I made a copy of the supply depot, so the 7 one built is a "Supply Depot 2". The map still froze. I went through all of the data values and discovered that the value "Tech Tree - Glossary Priority" must be different! I changed the glossary priority from 10 to 100 and it's fixed.
Conclusion: If you have more than six ability commands on your builder making the same unit with the same glossary priority, the map cannot load. It may also be true that you cannot have more than six different ability commands to make different units with the same glossary priority. I have not tested this yet.