Nud, [Strategy] A TD with adjacency bonuses Options

[th15]

NUD
Download Here: http://www.wyrdysm.com/nudgame.php
This is my latest project, NUD is a tower defence game that will emphasize patterns in the way you build towers. The towers in the game, called NUDs, provide adjacent NUDs with various bonuses. This means that you need to come up with the optimum pattern of NUDs to maximise firepower. By emphasizing the way you build instead of relying on the usual formula of damage types vs armour types I hope to make the complexity of the game more transparent since no complexity is hidden in the creep stats or behaviour. The smooth undo/reload wave system also allows you to correct your mistakes painlessly instead of having to restart the level/game and waste time getting to the same level.

This is the first beta build that I've got up. I've just got all the technical aspects coming together so the gameplay isn't quite fleshed out yet.

Features:
- Full Undo/Checkpoint saving system that allows you to seamlessly go back and correct mistakes
- Adjacency bonuses. NUDs will provide combat bonuses to other adjacent NUDs.
- Mazing, you can build your NUDs to block the invaders and shape their path.
- Three NUDs to build, each with three levels of upgrades.
- WarpNUD. These NUDs move the invaders backward in time. Merely slowing them just ain't good enough.
- LancetNUD. These NUDs have a fixed facing, meaning that you have to carefully plan out where you put them
- Basic UI functionality, it still needs a lot of polish

Planned:
- Another three NUDs to build
- More levels, lots more levels
- Map/NUD editor and user content (the game is already setup to handle user content easily)



I'd love to get any comments/suggestions from you peeps, hope you enjoy the game.

This post has been edited by th15: Mar 28 2009, 05:24 PM

[karzahnii]

This Tower Defense is awesome. I especially like the graphics style, I'd give this WIP a 9/10. I'd like to see the next version with the new NUDs!

[dimitri]

Loving it. Here are a few suggestions:

- When placing a turret, it would be nice if the player could see the new path of the drones(?) should the nud obstruct the currrent path.
- Maybe you've already planned it, but having the drones come from multiple spawns would add a bit more difficulty to it.
- Show the player what 'wave' they are currently up against.

Sorry I'm a little dry on ideas/suggestions here, this game is quite original.

[Tarik]

Looking good, I will be checking back for more updates!
What do you reckon the scale of the game will be, a mini game, or something more story-based such as Rinku's TDish game?

[general sirhc]

Error duplicate path

I made an entire wall of the normal turrets one to the right of there spawn
it was the entire screen tall except for 1 missing at the top

EDIT:
if you place too many units (Eg wait till you have $50) place 5 of the 10 units the enemies will stop spawning

I love how simply fun this game is!

This post has been edited by general sirhc: Dec 31 2008, 08:05 AM

[th15]

New Version Released
Download: http://www.wyrdysm.com/NUDv002.zip
Huge changes in this version. I've gotten the menu and other things up, so it's actually a full game. There are 6 fully playable levels now.

On top of that, each level can be played in survival mode. In this mode, the game will randomly generate waves of creeps to match your playing ability, so you can essentially play forever (it will eventually get too hard to continue at some point though).

Everything looks better in general, there is even an option for players with less-than-stellar computers to reduce the quality of the graphics, speeding up the game somewhat.

[Fiender]

It's a pretty good game! It'd be nice to have a larger variety of units, but the lack of diversity doesn't really hinder the game play.

Good work.

[th15]

New version release
Download here: http://www.wyrdysm.com/NUDv003.zip

Got a new version out. Should address most concerns so far.

CODE

v0.03
-Added a couple more levels
-tweaked adjacency bonuses, higher level nuds now give better bonuses
-tuned the survival algorithm better
-lancet nuds now only fire when a target is sighted
-tweaked baby steps so it's easier
-$ payout per invader killed increased 50% so you get to build more nuds
-tweaked some other levels too

[general sirhc]

1 suggestion

get rid of the semi colon after the dollar sign lol

EDIT:
OH I lost =(
Dont worry press load and your lives dont get fixed
Huh?
Well look your on -1 lives
Oh I just died again..
Click load untill you finished this wave you on the last wave anyway
Alrighty

Hehe you gotta fix that

This post has been edited by general sirhc: Jan 4 2009, 03:15 PM

[photocopier]

what does "NUD" stand for?

[th15]

I think I fixed the problem with loading, it wasn't clearing savefiles properly. I'll have the new version up when I've done more levels.

[th15]

New Version Released
Download Here: http://www.wyrdysm.com/games/NUDv004.zip

CODE

v0.04
-Increased interest amount slightly
-Lance nuds now have 200 range at all levels
-increased mononud range by 20
-Added a third quality level. now you can use lo, med or hi quality.
-Added pause key. Press P to pause the game
-Greatly increase performance when the game is accelerated by decreasing the draw rate
-Implemented new algorithms for creep balancing. Game should be more balanced now

Also, I implemented an online highscore system so you're now given the option of uploading your scores after a game. Normal levels are scored on how much resources your gained (including selling all NUDs). Survival is scored on the wave you were at when the game ended.

Clicking yes when the dialogue asking you if you want to upload your highscore will pop open your webbrowser to submit the score.

[Fiender]

Would it be possible to make different enemies reward different amounts of money? Like, each successive wave would add +2 to the amount you get from them.

[general sirhc]

Well I was here from near the start and im back

Th15 its addictive as hell but you need to do something about those warps when you play for long enough you will realise that 70% of the time they better replaced with a turret not to mention the turret it cheaper at first

Apart from that I hope someone feels like beating my level 50 in baby steps survival

[th15]

New Version Released

Quick bug fix, there was a problem with the highscore submission system. Updated the link above.

Fiender: Yea, but later, these are essentially the tutorial levels that you're playing now.

sirhc: I think i might reduce the warp speed and icnrease the duration in the next version.

[general sirhc]

th15 here is a little more in depth list of ideas

EDITTED (Please re read)

lancet = range upgrade to nearby units <already in game>
mono = fire rate upgrade to nearby units <already in game>
warp = crit upgrade to nearby units (since pushing enemies back just makes it more difficult for turrets so this needs to be crit upgrade to make it useful) <should be added>

[Idea for new units]
hammer = has rotation speed which is affected by fire rate. Has slow fire rate but does a fair about of damage. Gives bonus to nearby units damage

If you go with the hammer idea that allows the player to be even more stratigic about how they place units

This post has been edited by general sirhc: Jan 13 2009, 06:00 AM

[th15]

Huh, the NUDs already provide those bonuses to adjacent nuds.

[Lcldlstheway]

-after placing a turret, i get annoyed that i have to click to cancel and see that stupid "insufficient money" banner. it's just a personal thing here.
-on the other hand, it doesn't tell you when you're blocking the path.
-upgrading only helps when there's no space to give other towers a boost.
-what does NUD stand for?
-towers miss too much (instead of expected-position targeting by velocity, use the path, maybe?)
-warp towers cause towers to miss even more, i think.
-$15 per kill has to change sometime.
-it's kind of stupid to ask to submit your score when you can only answer yes.

[rinkuhero]

I was going to try out this game (on your request) but I got a 404 error for the file. Did you remove it or something?

EDIT: Nevermind, it's working now. Downloading. Before it got a 404 "host gater" message for some weird reason.

EDIT 2:

- I like the basic idea, it's an original variation of the genre. It's a good start.

- I feel that the bonuses given to other nearby towers should be much higher. As it is it's negligible and doesn't play into the strategy for placement much. If it were increased significantly it'd be more of a factor. I.e. instead of speed of attack -4 with base 60, it could be something like speed of attack -10 with base 60 -- it'd be much more important then, and actually matter. The difference between 60 and 56 isn't noticeable or significant.

- This was mentioned, but missing is a problem. I know missing happens in my game too, but in your game it's more annoying because it doesn't feel like it's a part of the gameplay (since it's less about physics and more about pure strategy for your game). Perhaps make missing impossible, and the shot graphic merely cosmetic. I.e. as soon as the shot is fired, do the damage, don't wait for it to hit?

- The slowing/time reversal tower is not really effective at all, except for the critical bonus (which I'm not sure what it does, the game doesn't define what a critical hit does: single-hit kill? double damage? etc.). The third tower (the one that fires straight) is also seldom if ever useful. I managed to win the levels just with the first tower, which is the most powerful and useful by far of the three. The tower types need more balance, they should each have their uses, not have one totally dominant one.

- I feel as if you should make this game for Flash, not GM. I know this is a strange comment, but this game is better than most Flash TD games, and would get hundreds of thousands of plays if it were in Flash, and make quite a bit of money through ads. On Game Maker, it'll get very few people playing it, maybe a few thousand tops, and (unless you're going to make it commercial, which you didn't mention in the thread so I presume not) make nothing back for the time and effort you put into it, and more importantly far fewer people will ever see it or enjoy it. It's probably too late to convert it, but perhaps you should consider a Flash port of it one day (I could even help you out with that, since I'm learning Flash now).


This post has been edited by rinkuhero: Jan 14 2009, 05:10 AM

[th15]

Yeap, the game is designed to encourage as many possible approaches to the same maze as possible. However, the current levels are designed pretty much to be the tutorial levels (each one introduces a new concept) so they shouldn't be very challenging at all.

It's difficult to increase adjacency bonuses much without breaking stuff. Increasing trinuds to give +10 fire rate would make a lancet surrounded by 4 trinuds become DEATH STAR LAZER. So yea, I'm tweaking it but there's a limit to how far i can push it.

As for accuracy, there's currently a bug in the way nuds do target dead reckoning (aiming ahead) that manifests with warp nuds. This will be fixed in the next version. That, along with a bullet speed boost for the mononud will increase accuracy to 85-90% (the new version has full stat tracking per nud).