Defenders!
Today we would like to tell you about a global rebalance that is planned for the coming Off-Season.
The changes are really big — more variety will appear in the game along with them. Lots of abuses and tactics for completing any mission or mine with a combination of cards for damage + fear or damage + stun will become a thing of the past. Even players write in the comments and game chat that they are bored with the system of two or three towers — and in general this situation is not in line with the strategic genre of Tower Defense.
In addition, we are planning changes that will make the combat system much clearer for all players — for those who have joined us recently as well as for those who have already achieved a lot.
At once we will notice that any balance corrections (if they are not about obvious bugs) we are planning to introduce now and in the future, will happen only Off-Season. The reason for this is the fact that players are not ready for balance changes during intense confrontations over mines — and we respect this dedication and do not want to interfere with it.
The process of upgrading towers in battle works in a rather complex way — some towers get increased damage, others get increased range, etc. This system, in our opinion, is not good enough for the following reasons:
- Players do not have a clear understanding of what will happen in a battle when they upgrade a particular tower. This is especially true for new (just received) towers. A hint given to the player when they choose a rune is not always noticeable and understandable.
- In battle, some towers at a certain point ceased to increase their effectiveness with further upgrades.
- Also, this system did not work well with a number of tactics for completing missions.
As part of global rebalance, we want to bring the following to the system:
- Upgrading the tower in battle will only increase the main impact parameter. For damage towers this is damage, the strength of the buffs or debuffs for support towers and the chance of triggering for counter towers.
Here are some examples:
- Now if you upgrade the Accursed Bastion in the battle, it will increase the duration of the curse on the enemy. After the rebalance, upgrading this tower in battle will increase the main impact parameter of the tower — % of damage to the creeps.
- Upgrading the Horrifying Tower now increases its range. After the rebalance, it will increase the chance to make the enemy flee in fear.
Such a change will make battles more interesting, give the player more control over the effective use (and upgrades) of the towers and, of course, make it more simple to understand the result of a tower upgrade in battle.
As for spells, we want them to be more effective at the start of the battle.
- So, spells will get all the improvements (that they receive from runes) at the start of the mission, instead of receiving one star at the beginning of each difficult level.
This change will allow players to have more micro-control at the beginning of any mission.
We continue to work on game effects — to leave out all abusive schemes, diversify the number of tactics and make the way effects work clearer for the players.
Now slowdown works the best (if you do not count the abuses) — it is interesting to play with, can be used in battle with great effectiveness, but at the same time, with rare exceptions, it does not simplify the flow of battle drastically.
Therefore, we decided to use the same mechanics with all effects: parameters that add up.
However, we believe that a more interesting way is to sum up effects from different sources.
Here is an example:
After the rebalance, effects of the curse will be added up. This means that a 20% increase in damage from the Accursed Bastion, 20% of the Spider's Nest and 20% of the Curse will add up and give a 60% increase in damage to the creeps.
At the same time, 20% of one Accursed Bastion and 20% of another Accursed Bastion will not add up.
The same mechanics apply to effects that cause damage over time — a variety of poisons, puddles of lava, etc.
This means that the damage of puddles from two Volcanoes will not add up, i.e. it is no longer possible to lock up the creeps with fear or stun at the location entrance and bombard them with puddles from Volcano.
At the same time, damage from the Hornet Hive and, for example, the Snake Tower will add up since these are two different sources — two different towers.
This change in mechanics of the effects will improve the situation with monotonous tactics for completing missions and at the same time make the system simple and understandable because all effects will work according to one simple scheme.
Another change that we would like to tell you about is the change in effectiveness of cards depending on their base rarity.
Now, almost all cards with the same number of stars (without influence of heroes and runes) have equal effectiveness — damage, range, rate of fire, etc.
We believe that this is not fully logical because the rarer a card is, the higher its effectiveness should be.
Therefore, as a part of the global rebalance, we revised parameters of the cards in such a way that now a card of higher rarity is guaranteed to be better than its less rare counterpart.
We are also planning to give the range of towers a specific system, so they are better suited for balanced use and maximum efficiency.
1. Short range. Towers in this group:
- Deal area damage.
- Buff allied towers with an aura.
- Weaken the creeps for some time (for example, with curse or slowdown);
2. Medium range. Towers of this group:
- Deal damage to one target (with a high rate of fire, but small damage per hit).
- Weaken monsters with auras that spread debuffs.
- Have control effects (landing, stunning, etc.).
- Deal damage over time to one target (for example, with poison).
3. Long range. This group of towers:
- Deal damage to one target (with a low rate of fire, but high damage per hit).
- Create areas on land that deal damage over time (Volcano, Pumpkin Gun).
- Dealing area damage on hit (Mortars).
These are the main comprehensive changes that we wanted to tell you about in advance.
Of course, these are not the only changes that we have made. We also revised parameters of many cards: significantly increased damage of the towers attacking one target; increased range for flying towers; revamped the intensity of applied effects for many towers.
The gameplay will cease to be straightforward, and card deck selection trivial.
Should you maximize the poisoning effect or distribute your resources into slowdown and curse? What is the best way to arrange towers for their maximum efficiency?
Also, these changes will bring back many cards that often remain in collections just to “check the box” or for sale. The situation that both we and the players who lovingly collected and upgraded many cards would like to avoid.
We would like to note right away that our work on the game balance does not end with these changes. We will continue to monitor what is going on in the game and how different towers and spells are used in various cases.