Ideas for improving tower defense mode

For what's not in 'Top Priority Game Design'. Post your ideas, visions, suggestions for the game, rules, modifications, etc.

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wobbly
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Ideas for improving tower defense mode

#1 Post by wobbly »

Give nests a 1 in 3? 1 in 4? chance of cloud cover (3 in 4?) or ash (1 in 4?).

Allow adjustment of spawn/growth rates in game settings

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Oberlus
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Re: Ideas for improving tower defense mode

#2 Post by Oberlus »

Game rule to allow monsters to blockade supply.

wobbly
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Re: Ideas for improving tower defense mode

#3 Post by wobbly »

Ok, I believe I have 4 game rules for tower defense/general use:

No Domestic Space Monsters: Nest monsters will always spawn wild. You need the nest eradicator to remove them.
Wandering Monsters can blockade: Gives a 20% chance of wandering monsters stopping in a system
Wild Nest Monster Spawn Factor: 0.5x - 10x Spawn rate on wild nest monsters
Domestic Monster Spawn Factor: 0.5x - 10x Spawn rate on domestic nest monsters

Ophiuchus
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Re: Ideas for improving tower defense mode

#4 Post by Ophiuchus »

Maybe add a monster type which has high significance in tower defence mode but else not so much.

Dont know how you played tower defense/how it is different than the standard set up.

High frequency of monster creation?
  • Maybe go the death stack way - a kind of monster which combines mature monsters into a single fleet?
  • or let that new monster combine into fleets. the more mature ones may start wandering and find other mature fleets in order to merge. different maturity stages provide synergies with each other. e.g. the young ones shell out low-damage/many shots, older ones have shields and fighters, mature ones have few shots very high damage, ancient ones are expert close range. mature ones could spawn young ones from time to time.
High density of monster nests?
  • Some monster which gets spawned on nest eradication?
Long time before monster nests can be tackled?
  • A wandering protector ship/monster for monster nests. It has a chance to stop wandering if it hits a nest. After a while multiple protectors will be there and become a defense fleet. The amount of protectors on nests will be an indication in which direction the protector factory/nest is located. Could also be that the origin of protectors is a species (or a leftover factory of those if no natives; or make those simply planetbound or self-destruct).
Regardless of tower defense something like a suckerfish could be fun. It simply joins a wandering monster's fleet and produces space krill/fighters.
Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.

Look, ma... four combat bouts!

wobbly
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Re: Ideas for improving tower defense mode

#5 Post by wobbly »

We played: high monsters, all players allied

Problems were:
  • wandering monsters never stop, you are immune if you also never stop in a system
  • nests being outposted and turned into domestic monsters
  • experimenters being no match for a combined player force
Re new monsters: fine by me as long as someone else draws them.

wobbly
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Re: Ideas for improving tower defense mode

#6 Post by wobbly »

wobbly wrote: Tue Jun 13, 2023 10:20 am Re new monsters: fine by me as long as someone else draws them.
Drones on the other hand are pretty easy, I can reuse the graphic for variants spawning on later turns.

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Re: Ideas for improving tower defense mode

#7 Post by wobbly »

hunter.png
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cloaker.png
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terminator.png
terminator.png (87.43 KiB) Viewed 1168 times

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Oberlus
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Re: Ideas for improving tower defense mode

#8 Post by Oberlus »

Great!

Can we have one Drone with PD?

wobbly
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Re: Ideas for improving tower defense mode

#9 Post by wobbly »

Oberlus wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2023 10:47 am Great!

Can we have one Drone with PD?
Could switch the radar on the terminator for an arc disruptor?

Edit: Alternatively the base drones do have an empty external slot for a flak cannon.

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Oberlus
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Re: Ideas for improving tower defense mode

#10 Post by Oberlus »

wobbly wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2023 10:58 am Edit: Alternatively the base drones do have an empty external slot for a flak cannon.
Sold!

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Re: Ideas for improving tower defense mode

#11 Post by wobbly »

So there's this:

https://github.com/freeorion/freeorion/pull/4578

which is an attempt to encourage krakens/juggernauts to grow and hopefully create a behaviour that looks "natural". I didn't touch snowflakes which in my head move like floaters. I'd like to do something similar with vacuum dragons for guarding 57s. Anyway needs testing, I'm not sure yet that:

a. The scripting does what it should
b. The resulting effect is good

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Oberlus
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Re: Ideas for improving tower defense mode

#12 Post by Oberlus »

HUNT_PLANET_TYPE might make monsters unable to get farther than 1 hop from the starting growth area, if any other growth area is at more than two hops from the starting one:
1. jump to any a neighboring system
2. now the only neighboring system that has a belt or GG to attract the monster is the one they left, so they go back to 1.

Maybe modify the effect to ensure monsters can't go back the way they came if there are more than one starlane from current system.
Or something that allows them to target another growing area despite it being farther than 2 hops.

Or add a new effect (no idea how) to let overcrowded growth areas to form a fleet of monsters to migrate for a while in some random direction before disbanding and resume normal HUNT_PLANET_TYPE behavior.


Edit: I like more BA's suggestion below, it's simpler and makes all the sense.

BlueAward
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Re: Ideas for improving tower defense mode

#13 Post by BlueAward »

Would be fun if krakens more actively chased after krill

Anyway, there is certain probability of the growth happening once you are in the growth area. You could have two modes of movement, one normal and one chasing the growth area. Make it random which one is activated based on probability of the growth actually happening. Might be skewed somehow like squaring the probability or something

You know, nature calls. If you feel you are really ready to grow, make it priority to find growth area. If you are still young, roam more freely

wobbly
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Re: Ideas for improving tower defense mode

#14 Post by wobbly »

Oberlus wrote: Mon Jun 26, 2023 10:12 am HUNT_PLANET_TYPE might make monsters unable to get farther than 1 hop from the starting growth area, if any other growth area is at more than two hops from the starting one:
There's a probability check in there. It's only triggering 30% of the time for a larval kraken.
BlueAward wrote: Mon Jun 26, 2023 10:41 am Would be fun if krakens more actively chased after krill
So this is basically [[HUNT_SHIP]] with a check for a krill_hull and maybe the sight distance changed to a 1 jump check (otherwise the kraken will rarely see it, and it wont trigger). I agree its cool, I suspect in game effect is more of an Easter egg then a noticeable game effect. It's basically easy for me to add if its wanted.
BlueAward wrote: Mon Jun 26, 2023 10:41 am Anyway, there is certain probability of the growth happening once you are in the growth area. You could have two modes of movement, one normal and one chasing the growth area. Make it random which one is activated based on probability of the growth actually happening. Might be skewed somehow like squaring the probability or something

You know, nature calls. If you feel you are really ready to grow, make it priority to find growth area. If you are still young, roam more freely
So chance of growth happening is based on monster age, and moster age could easily be added into the probability.
It's also possible to get trickier, an inverted parabola where larval krakens stay close to their nest, then range further, then try and return at growth age.

So that gives 3 easy options:
  • Simple probability. e.g. as is
  • Growing probability - starts low, increases as kraken gets older
  • Inverted parabola (or similar) - starts high, dips, returns to high

wobbly
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Re: Ideas for improving tower defense mode

#15 Post by wobbly »

My vote would be inverted parabola.

Probability: 0.5x range 0 - 1 larval
Probability: 0.3x range 0 - 1 adult

Range = 1 at age = 0 and age = guaranteed maturity.
Range = 0 at midpoint

Edit: not sure why I thought it's an inverted parabola. It's a shifted parabola right?

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