Sqdef, My Tower-defense Game

[Alex.]

Nice idea fusion, I'll think about it. The big tower would be the prime candidate for ammo, it could shoot more than one type of bullets at a time. One type would be the standard kind that it would have infinite supplies of, while the other you would have to restock every few turns, and of course would be more effective.

Lately I've been thinking some more about the map editor, and I think it would be nice if it let you adjust the starting health points of the first wave of creatures (the health of each following wave is calculated based on the previous wave), and place pre-built towers on the map. Playing with Guyfawkes' Roundem Up editor really opened my eyes how far you can take a game with a solid level editor

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes when I'll start working on it again (just little more than a month). Thanks again for the feedback and ideas, much appreciated!

As for touchscreen, I agree, it would be quite nice!

 

[fusion_power]

Yupp, the Big tower would be an candidate for the Ammo Idea. And your Idea with unlimited (but compared weak) standard Ammo is also great. So an "empty" tower isn't completely useless. Big Towers also have enough space to display a small ammo counter inside so we always have an overview, which tower is how full. (Ammo-Number turn red or blinks, if ammo is low etc....)

Map-Editor is great to spend hours with it. I still play "Advance Wars 2" and I often use the Map Editor to build the perfect map for me. (Which means I have a big unbeatable Fortress and lots of Units...and the Enemy has nothing :lol: ) The AW2 Map Editor is simple and easy to use and the system would be good for SQDef to.
Its an "clever" Editor, so you don't need to place every direction of tile for roads. They are automaticly connected in the direction you build it, junctions are build automaticly, if you place a road end at the side of an existing road etc. This way, we could build maps in SQdef in seconds.

place pre-built Towers sounds good to. Maybe there are superb strong towers even at the beginning of a game, but without Ammo of course. We need a lot of waves to have enough money to use the towers. (Thats mean, all the time you see the supa dupa tower at the map and you can't use it :lol: ) These pre-built towers could be permanent , non-sellable (as an option) so you can't use the place, where they are...
There are many possible gametypes with such maps. Maybe the pre built towers are not for the player, an AI player use them and you don't get money, if he kills a creature with his towers, to win, you have to kill more creatures than the AI....So a fight for the best places to build towers is started....and maybe at the best places are stones at the ground, where you can't build :lol:

Just ideas of course. ^_^

 

[Alex.]

Hi guys, I'm working on Sqdef once again, and I'll need your input along the way.

Right now I'm coding the damage booster towers. All turrets and towers affected by this booster will have a glowing border around them, to let you know they're 'enhanced'. The little problem is when multiple boosters affect the same building: the same glowing border is displayed. I don't want to make borders of different colours to indicate how many boosters affect it, nor write little numbers or draw little dots, because it looks too busy. There are two options then:

1. Only increase the damage of a tower by one booster, regardless of how many boosters there are in range.

2. Have unlimited boosting capacity, but not have it graphically indicated.

Tell me what you think would work best here

 

[Mr. Ksoft]

I would personally go for the second option because then the player could add additional damage boosters to help keep up with the increasing HP of the enemies.

 

[Alex.]

I would personally go for the second option because then the player could add additional damage boosters to help keep up with the increasing HP of the enemies.

That's how it will be then, and the number of boosters affecting a tower will be indicated in the tower's upgrade window. Thanks for the input

 

[prairiefire]

whoa, somehow missed this thread! i vote 2nd option also.

 

[fusion_power]

Hi guys, I'm working on Sqdef once again, and I'll need your input along the way.

Right now I'm coding the damage booster towers. All turrets and towers affected by this booster will have a glowing border around them, to let you know they're 'enhanced'. The little problem is when multiple boosters affect the same building: the same glowing border is displayed. I don't want to make borders of different colours to indicate how many boosters affect it, nor write little numbers or draw little dots, because it looks too busy. There are two options then:

1. Only increase the damage of a tower by one booster, regardless of how many boosters there are in range.

2. Have unlimited boosting capacity, but not have it graphically indicated.

Tell me what you think would work best here

3. graphically indicated optional: You could enable the visible range of each booster tower with a button or in the Menu...on screen we would see the range-circles of all boosters so we see, which tower is in...
or only, when selecting a tower we see little lines "pipes" or so from each booster tower to the turrets, a small onscreen Number will show the ammount of boosters. Maybe there is space for a little Number besides the Turrets/Towers so we see how many Boosters are active for this building. To prevent your mentioned "busy look", the numbers are only displayed, when tower is selected. Only the "Aura" is permanent...mayb...

Yes, thats maybe not the best way but I think SQdef could need more instant ingame informations, more feedback etc. I miss little things like detailed damage display of selected creatures in numbers, on screen scoreboard and so on.
Sometimes you want to know some informations without going into the Menus.

 

[Alex.]

I played around with little numbers but it simply doesn't look right. Since damage is shown in the upgrade menu, I might as well put the boosters there too. Pipes coming from boosters to towers would definitely work best, but that would be blatantly copying VectorTD :unsure:

I agree about instant info, but that would cover the play area (and since the screen doesn't scroll, something you may want to see will always be covered). If you look at PC TD games, they display this kind of information on separate side bars - due to the GP2X's small screen this isn't an option, and I prefer having a larger play area rather than displaying stats. This is when a wide screen would come in handy I suppose

 

[fusion_power]

I played around with little numbers but it simply doesn't look right. Since damage is shown in the upgrade menu, I might as well put the boosters there too. Pipes coming from boosters to towers would definitely work best, but that would be blatantly copying VectorTD :unsure:

You are the Boss. ^_^
Uh, I don't know VectorTD.

I agree about instant info, but that would cover the play area (and since the screen doesn't scroll, something you may want to see will always be covered). If you look at PC TD games, they display this kind of information on separate side bars - due to the GP2X's small screen this isn't an option, and I prefer having a larger play area rather than displaying stats. This is when a wide screen would come in handy I suppose

A while ago I suggested these "moving Window" idea, the Status messages are there, where the cursor isn't, they flee from the Cursor I could say.

Oh, and of course, all this can be disabled in the Options so we can choose between the normal free screen or always visible Status Stuff onscreen. (The Fusion_Power_Mode ® :lol: )

 

[Alex.]

A while ago I suggested these "moving Window" idea, the Status messages are there, where the cursor isn't, they flee from the Cursor I could say.

Oh, and of course, all this can be disabled in the Options so we can choose between the normal free screen or always visible Status Stuff onscreen. (The Fusion_Power_Mode ® :lol: )

That on-off option for score display sounds good; it won't make it in this version, but I added it to my todo list for the future

The booster towers now work, and they really add a lot to the game. Next on the list is a simple map editor, then release The first editor will be simple, and I'll continue to add to it over time.

 

[prairiefire]

great stuff Alex.

 

[The Last Spartan]

Another couple suggestions. Could you please add TV-OUT support. And have variable speeds for it. That would make this even more cooler

 

[Alex.]

Could you please add TV-OUT support

Did you try the TV-Out Fixer? I'll add TV-Out on the todo list for a future release.

And have variable speeds for it.

By variable speeds do you mean how the boss enemies move faster than the regular ones? I personally think they move fast enough already considering the maps are quite small, and in the new Sqdef there'll be a bonus, harder mode.

 

[fusion_power]

A while ago I suggested these "moving Window" idea, the Status messages are there, where the cursor isn't, they flee from the Cursor I could say.

Oh, and of course, all this can be disabled in the Options so we can choose between the normal free screen or always visible Status Stuff onscreen. (The Fusion_Power_Mode ® :lol: )

That on-off option for score display sounds good; it won't make it in this version, but I added it to my todo list for the future

THX. Thats what I've meant with "Optional Displays". In the Options Menu there could be other useful settings for what is shown on-screen...in the future maybe. ^_^

 

[RHLinuxGUY]

I have an idea for a tower.

It should shoot out bullets like a garden sprinkler shoots water.

It does not lock on to any specific targets, but what it lacks in accuracy it makes up in amount of bullets being lobbed at any given time. (should be able to at least hit 6, or more ONLY IF LUCKY.)

Should have unlimited ammo, and balanced out by it's inaccuracy.

Should be incredibly powerful. (if not the most powerful tower).

 

[Alex.]

You can never have too many towers, I'll put this on the list as well. By the way, the Quad Fortress works in a similar way to what you described, where it shoots a lot of bullets, fast. However, it targets specific enemies as opposed to shooting randomly.

 

[fusion_power]

Hm, I had a Tower-Idea to, a while ago, the great Drone-Tower. It just shoot one single Drone at the first enemy in range. This Drone keeps flying and shooting around the enemy untill he dies or left the screen, then the drone destroys. Only when first Drone is destroyed, a second one appears from the Drone Tower (If there still is an ememy in range of the Tower of course). Drones are very powerful shooters but they not to strong because they can only fire at one Enemy and Drones only started, as long as an Enemy is in range of the Tower. Good for Single Bosses.
Such a Type of Tower should be placed near the path-start of course.

Oh, and then there was the Idea with the Bridges for the path...

 

[Alex.]

Yes I remember the bridges, never say never

 

[RHLinuxGUY]

You can never have too many towers, I'll put this on the list as well. By the way, the Quad Fortress works in a similar way to what you described, where it shoots a lot of bullets, fast. However, it targets specific enemies as opposed to shooting randomly.

Yes I understand, so then the Garden Sprinkler tower should be thrice the power of the super tower, take less space, and cost a hell of a lot.

The strategy behind it could be to put it at close quarters that is next to a road that forces the mobs to go a long way before it is out of the area of effect of said tower. So the spread isn't so large and hits more then when further away.

 

[Alex.]

Yes I understand, so then the Garden Sprinkler tower should be thrice the power of the super tower, take less space, and cost a hell of a lot.

I don't have the time or the energy to add it in time for the next release, however I'll put it for sure in Sqdef 1.3, because it looks like it would be a lot of fun. It will look nice too I think, shooting buckets of bullets in all directions

Good news by the way, Sqdef 1.2 will be released sometime tomorrow!