I love some of your ideas but I do have to say that Lightning and Survival mode both play a part in Tower Defense. If there were no ranked players in the game to vote for certain things, a random Armageddon will happen, and having that 1/3 chance for a gamemode is better than have a 1/2 since there would be less options. Survival as well is actually pretty functional, certain players like myself use it as a strategy on certain maps that might be very long, or very short. All in all both do actually contribute towards the game itself.
Secondly, I'd like to say that having smaller games like 2v2s, 3v3s, 4v4s, etc would actually be beneficial, however, I don't think the player base is big enough to make games start quickly. Games like skyways and eggwars have the popularity to start games where players choose what they want, ex: Solo, Teams. There would have to be a selection menu in the hub npc for Tower Defense because you shouldn't be able to select it in the waiting lobby for a game. I might be wrong here, but this is just what I see would happen.
Third, your map that you have come up with is a fantastic idea, but I do think there needs to be more tower spaces towards the middle, not much, but some. Also, I do kind of want to see your map with the gridded pattern in the tower spaces, as well as a few 5x5 spaces spread out around the map.
Thank you for this wonderful idea list!
Thanks for your response!
For non-ranked players, Lightning Mode is the most annoying one because lets say it is normal income and you don't have many maxed towers yet. So, you are really counting on whatever towers you can place (which means placing a lot of lower tiered towers). Plus, it's hard to place a lot and upgrade them all since goldmine upgrades are slower in normal income. Lightning mode comes along and your towers that you took so long to make and upgrade get destroyed. I absolutely hated that because in normal income mode, Lightning Armageddon really made me feel like I wasted my time. I understand that the intent of these Armageddon modes are to force players to attack so that there won't be a stalemate. However, Lightning Mode is one of the main reasons I purchased a rank just so I wouldn't go through losing towers and wasting my time.
For Survival Mode, I'm going to be pretty brutal. This mode is actually a HUGE mistake. I believe the developers wanted to create a similar mode to Co-Op (from the old td server, The Chunk) where mobs were auto-generated. However, this mode is whoever sends blazes first wins because it's difficult to defend against. Blazes are sent early on since there are auto generated witches. And if players know how to defend against blazes, then it becomes a stalemate. I've played against
ranked party abusers who use survival mode to get fast easy wins because they share money and send blazes and witches very early (even before you get 1000 exp).
So in conclusion, these modes aren't fun and forced me personally to buy ranked so that I can avoid them. I'm sure many players agree with me because many complain when someone wants one of these modes. Heck, I wonder if there are statistics for which modes are played so we can get a better understanding of how to make td more balanced and enjoyable.
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I think we can all agree that sometimes your teammates are your own enemies. Misplacing towers, claiming spots and never upgrading, spamming mage, etc. No matter how many tutorials are out there and polite words you tell your teammate to fix their towers, it won't change because you can't force people to play a certain way. 2v2 or 4v4 or partiers to avoid this.
To improve this suggestion, make it so it won't be an exclusive mode such as in egg wars and skywars. If there is a party joining, their team is closed off against the rest of the other 6 players that potentially join. And to make it fair, parties can only join with 2, 3, or 4. Or else if 6 party joins, game won't start until it's a full 6v4, 6v5, or 6v6. Maybe there can be a command that partiers can type to choose to play in party-only-mode game, where their team is closed off from others joining.
So in conclusion, a
party-only-mode where parties choose to play against up to a full other 6 random players or another party.
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As for the Co-Op mode, I should've explained it better. Co-Op mode means that there is no team vs team. It's a mode where 4 players "cooperate" or work together to fight against auto-generated mobs AND mobs that they personally send themselves. The goal is to basically learn how to play (how to place and space towers since you have limited space).
It may look like the map is small, but it's pretty huge since mobs go twice around in the center. Also, your suggestion to add 5x5 towers is great! Possibly one in center so that leach could be placed.