Dali
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 174
Registered: 02-05-2005
IP: Logged

File: DROD TD experience 1.hold (15 KB)
Downloaded 52 times.
License: Public Domain

I'm a fan of tower defense games, such as bloon tower defense, dungeon defenders 1&2, kingdom rush, some other lil flash games too. They're also pretty popular game, so I thaught why not mixing drod and tower defense gameplay? I think this can lead to a fresh new type of gameplay.

For those who doesn't know what a tower defense game is (I highly doubt about that), The player needs to defend a base from incoming ennemies by placing towers around the map, and the player himself is also often involved in killing ennemies, repairing/upgrading towers, casting skills, ...

I don't know how to program games, so I used what I could use for now, which is DROD build section. I did a small hold trying to use this concept, everything is explained in-game. The result is a bit awkward but I hope interesting. Player will have to manage 2 main values, Health base (HP) and a currency, Greckles.
(Note: It hasn't been tested by other than me, it's still experimental)

Some issues encountered and some comments:

-First of all and I think it's the most obvious one, DROD is turn-based game and not a time based game. But we still can use the "turns" to replace the "time" to make some interesting fighting puzzles where the player needs to place the correct towers at the correct place and make the best decisions.

- There are no real elements we can use as a tower, I tried to use mimics, decoy (overpowered :p ), clones and items as "towers", but still I feel something is missing. also huge amount of scripting NPC is often needed to make something viable.

- We can affect to the base a health value, but monsters have no real health. I mean, they die and that's it (with some exceptions). with scripting it's possible to affect them a health value but I couldn't exploit this correctly, I wish a thing such as "wait for player to stab me" or "wait for a sword/weapon to touch me".

- Elements in DROD rarely affects things in range. For example, Aumtlich affects in range with his gaz, and even with that I couldn't use it to damage the base.

Consider this topic as a workshop for this idea.

mauvebutterfly
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 776
Registered: 05-03-2015
IP: Logged

I'm not really that keen on tower defence, but I'm familiar enough with it to get the concept.

Some immediate thoughts based on what you've said:

Towers:
In TD games a tower attacks enemies as they pass by. In DROD there are a number of elements that could do this: fire-trap, hot tile, floor spikes, fluff vents, stalwarts/soldiers (especially if they can't move). Even adders going in circles might work as a funny tower.
The most obvious element though would be the scripted mimic. Have an invulnerable scripted character with a sword that just spins constantly.

HP:
You might be able to simulate having health by having a monster replaced by another monster under some circumstances. Going the scripting route, for instance, a roach queen that steps on a hot tile could be replaced with a roach, or something like that. In general though, with DROD you are probably better off just having more monsters.

Aumtlich beams damaging the fortress:
Have an orb that toggles a door somewhere. Every time that door is toggled the fortress loses one life. Have a stalwart act as the "target" that the aumtlich needs to hit to damage the fortress. Place the stalwart to the W of the orb, facing NE. Place a wubba N of the orb (NE of the stalwart). With this setup the stalwart will always try to stab the wubba, but every time the aumtlich stuns the stalwart the stalwart will rotate and hit the orb.
You might need to fiddle with this to get it to do what you want, but it should help. A simpler setup if you only want the fortress to have a few hit points would be to have cracked/broken orbs blocking a fuse that you don't want lit.

____________________________
106th Skywatcher

Dali
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 174
Registered: 02-05-2005
IP: Logged

In TD games a tower attacks enemies as they pass by. In DROD there are a number of elements that could do this: fire-trap, hot tile, floor spikes, fluff vents, stalwarts/soldiers (especially if they can't move). Even adders going in circles might work as a funny tower.

Ok It's true. There's a lot of items available to use in DROD, we just need to find a way for the player to choose where to place them. otherwise, if these towers have fixed places, the game has no interest.

HP:
You might be able to simulate having health by having a monster replaced by another monster under some circumstances. Going the scripting route, for instance, a roach queen that steps on a hot tile could be replaced with a roach, or something like that. In general though, with DROD you are probably better off just having more monsters.

I was thinking about a monster that needs to get stabbed for example 3 times instead of one, a bit like an adder but in one square.
I hesitated to use NPC as invading monsters, I did it only once in wave 6. then i said let's stick with normal monsters, but with scripting we can come up with interesting properties.

Aumtlich beams damaging the fortress:
Have an orb that toggles a door somewhere. Every time that door is toggled the fortress loses one life. Have a stalwart act as the "target" that the aumtlich needs to hit to damage the fortress. Place the stalwart to the W of the orb, facing NE. Place a wubba N of the orb (NE of the stalwart). With this setup the stalwart will always try to stab the wubba, but every time the aumtlich stuns the stalwart the stalwart will rotate and hit the orb.
You might need to fiddle with this to get it to do what you want, but it should help. A simpler setup if you only want the fortress to have a few hit points would be to have cracked/broken orbs blocking a fuse that you don't want lit.

Cool idea You seem to have some good scripting knowledge. (I didn't even know how the "target" was working ... If I knew that I think my hold would be somehow different.)
It might be a bit ugly to see, but yes it's a nice trick to use.

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3776
Registered: 12-28-2004
IP: Logged

Is this going to be a discussion thread about TD in general in relation to DROD (which makes sense to keep in General forums) or do you want to create a TD hold (in which case I'll move the thread to Architecture board), Dali?

____________________________
My website

Dali
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 174
Registered: 02-05-2005
IP: Logged

skell wrote:
Is this going to be a discussion thread about TD in general in relation to DROD (which makes sense to keep in General forums) or do you want to create a TD hold (in which case I'll move the thread to Architecture board), Dali?

I hesitated between Feature request, General and Architecture. I mainly want to know if people find interesting to make a mini engine like DROD-RPG based on tower defense. If not then we'll explore more options with DROD 5.0 so in this case, this topic shouldn't be here but rather in architecture as you said.

ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2796
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

I feel kinda like DROD already is a tower defense game. Think about it...

You build and release your hold.

Wave after wave of Beethros controlled by different players attack it. Some get through your defenses.

Maybe you could win if your hold was so hard that nobody could beat it.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

---

[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 04-24-2018 10:11 PM]

Dali
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 174
Registered: 02-05-2005
IP: Logged

ErikH2000 wrote:
I feel kinda like DROD already is a tower defense game. Think about it...

You build and release your hold.

Wave after wave of Beethros controlled by different players attack it. Some get through your defenses.

Maybe you could win if your hold was so hard that nobody could beat it.

-Erik

Hmm ok "boss" :p

I might reformulate this idea in an architecture topic, I'll probably remove this thread.

skell
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 3776
Registered: 12-28-2004
IP: Logged

I moved the thread to architecture then

____________________________
My website