Year 3: Game update: Small group feedback: Implementation of feedback

Small group feedback: Implementation of feedback

AI Update:

after conducting a small feedback session with a close number of friends as I do influenced to the features they suggested to me the first was updating the AI with a new detection system to the towers instead of using a perception system which is inbuilt to the game  I decided to implement my and the main feature of this is that users get all actors to get all the towers on map and then compares their distance to one another to find the closest one.

UI/tower Update:

the second update I have lamented was a resource based system which would check to see if the player had the available resources to construct towers if false it would then display the buttons in the Tower menu as Red  and when a highlighted version of the tower spawns on the ground play when it selected it would be in a red colour to show that it could not be built.

When resources are available:

When resources are not available:

Year 3: Game update: Small group feedback

Small group feedback

Before starting play sessions with my year group I managed to have a small feedback session with a close number of friends giving them around one hour of time playing through the game. 

the main comments on this group was that the game was relatively balanced okay but that there were a few glaring problems with gameplay one of the first was that the AI where unpredictable in their behavior towards towers would often ignore towers directly in front of them and go for towers in strange positions. It was advised that the AI should be updated so that they attack the tower that is closest to them. 

one of the feedback group also suggested a feature that will allow players to see when they do not have the available resources to construct towers given them a sort of visual aids to tell them whether or not they can construct new towers.

Year 3: Game update: Balancing variables

Balancing variables

Before i start to do play test of my game I have tried to balance the game by myself in order to try and make all towers seem fair and equal to one another.

Tower:

Sunflower:

Tower changes:

.Resource cost increased to: Sunlight 300, Water 350 and Food 325

Reason: the reason for increasing the cost of this tower was to keep it balanced as this is the main producer of resources for the player it is tactically the highest costing tower because of this single ability.

Tree:

Tower changes:
.Resource cost increased to: Sunlight 60, Water 30 and Food 40

Reason: the slight increase to resource cost of this tower is because of the previous cost was too cheap and this unit could be spam to easily by the player as well as being able to be constructive early in the game too often.

Disperser:

Tower changes:
.Resource cost increased to: Sunlight 180, Water 190 and Food 180

Reason:  this tower received a massive increase in terms of its cost of resources because of the effectiveness of this tower when it is Buffed by another tower .

Venus trap:

Tower changes:
.Resource cost increased to: Sunlight 100, Water 80 and Food 105

Reason: venous trap received a slight increase in its  resource cost mainly because of the tanking nature and also its ability to shoot

Ent fortifier:

Tower changes:
.Resource cost increased to: Sunlight 325, Water 295 and Food 275

Reason: with further playtesting by myself it was clear that  this tower is essential in creating a viable defense line for the player is the reason I hike the price of the resources so high so that this tower can be constructed by the player too often.

Ent protector:

Tower changes:
.Resource cost increased to: Sunlight 325, Water 295 and Food 275

Reason: The ent protector got a significant increase in its cost of resources the main logic behind this was that fight each nine towers only one of these towers is needed thus making this tower quite expensive is part of its design as the shouldn't be too many of these towers on the map as they wouldn't be as effective.

Death Orchid:

Tower changes:
.Resource cost increased to: Sunlight 175, Water 150 and Food 200
.damage per change to 75
.Rate of fire change to 10 seconds
.Range change the 6000 units

Reason: this star received a significant increase in its cost as well as a change of default variables this was because this tower had effectively become useless as  it was not outputting as much damage as any of the other towers for the cost it was.

Sniper leaf: 

Tower changes:
.Resource cost increased to: Sunlight 169, Water 160 and Food 210
.Damage per change to 150
.Rate of fire change to 7 seconds

Reason: the sniper leaf was changed drastically with the increase in resources and  increase in both its damage and decrease in its rate of fire this was to offset its lower health with high damage to make it of value tower to the player.

Starting Resources:

The staffing resources were increase to 2500 each even though with my own playtesting I was able to reach high waves with just 1500 of each resource going into playtesting many of the players will bar have any idea on how to play this game and may find it difficult to begin with so saying the resource is quite high is a good way to kickstart people into the game without making the game too hard to them at the beginning.

Year 3: Game update: Tower saving

Tower saving

The tower saving mechanic is a key feature in the development of the game. what will give the game the most replayability players and will allow players to hit higher and higher waves the more they collect towers and store them within the system.

the way the system works is once a tower is selected and it has to be a master templates tower. When is selected and the player clicks on the Tower library and clicks and empty button it then proceeds to save the tower to a day of slots which can then be recalled whenever the game restarts.

when the tower is clicked if first checks to see if the data file does exist if true it downloads this day file and gets the relative information so that that's  the tower can then be spawned on the map similar to any other tower being spawned.

 If the data file doesn't exist it then takes all the relative information from the current selected tower then  creates a save and says all the properties of that tower so that it can saved and spawned.

if the player wants to get rid of any of the towers within this library they can simply delete by clicking a button in the full Tower description called remove Tower from live in this simply.

Year 3: Game update: Master template: Mega mutations

Master template: Mega mutations

Mega mutations activation:

when a tower is upgraded and reaches a tier level which is a multiple of five it then has a chance to gain a magnet mutation.  when the tear upgrade script is completed it then goes through a array of branches which checked to see the base tower type of the tower if it is equal to any of the multiple types of tower it then proceed through the branch as true.

upon completion of the macro depending on what the imported-based tower tape is for this tower it will then pulse out an event according to that tower. These come out as mega " Tower name" the event then goes straight into a macro which uses a percent gauge to then complete a true or false events for example if the percent is set to 50 than there is a 50% chance of the event returning is true as it is false. if the event was then turned as true it then triggers the mega mutation variable which then sets the variable depending on what our guitarist a trueas well as changing the Tower icon image and saying the URI description to that when players select this Tower unlocking the mutations are the real see a description of the current mutation at our house.

Mega mutations: Sunflower
The mega mutations of the sunflower allows all towers within the vicinity of the sunflower with the mega mutation to gain the same collection read as starts sunflower for example if there are trees surrounding the sunflower with the mega mutation they will then gain the ability to collect resources at the same rate as the sunflower is in the centre.

Mega mutations: Tree
the mega mutation for the tree works by when ever a mega mutation tree is on the map it then gets all the over tree towers and adds their health to its own effectively making them much stronger than they will before.

Mega mutations: Disperser
the mega mutation for the Disperser uses a Splash damage effect effect which when it shoots the AI it casts to a sphere object inside the AI which if there are any AI currently within that sphere it then relays 50% of the damage from the disperser  is sent to them.

Mega mutations: Venus trap

The mega mutation for the for the Venus trap users a life steel affect it simply takes the tower damage divided by 100 then times that by 10+ is it back to the Tower health  meaning when ever the Tower attacks 10% of its damage is returned to the Tower as health.

Mega mutations: Ent protector
The mega mutation for the end protect the is very simple in that instead of having a 3 x 3 grid range it now has a global range and can reach all towers on the map.

Mega mutations: Ent fortifier
the mega mutation for the Ent fortifier is similar to the previous mega mutation in that instead of having a 3 x 3 grid fact of Rangers now has a global range.

Mega mutations:  Death orchid
The mega mutation for the death orchid now adds a slow rate and increases the range of the poison cloud.

Mega mutations: Sniper leaf
The mega mutation for the sniper leaf adds a damage amplifier for units once they hit this means that when they are hit by the sniper tower for a certain time they receive  bonus percentage in damage making them  more receptive to damage.

Year 3: Game update: Master template: Tier upgrades/Importing properties

Master template: Tier upgrades

Importing properties
The main system that sets set this tower apart from all the others is the what i call tier up grading system. once the master template tower is spawned a copy from the event is launched triggering the mutation begin pulse if first launches into for each loop which  breaks down the variable tower around itself it then uses a sequence which breaks the events into three pulses we then send the first pulse to a macro called compile towers around itself this then cast to all the available types of towersand find their references and sends them to the next macro. The second pulse triggers the macro compile results. And the fared pulse changes the varied up this tower as a mutation to true.

this is inside the compile results macro if their staffs split into a sequence and then uses a macro called compile cast to Tower type.  we then use a reach vulnerable the wayof 0.1 seconds about completion we checked to see if this is the first time the tower has mutated if true we then use a macro called work out percentages of this tower and its false we used improved tower increased here level the macro is used for the first time this tower has been spawned an improved tower node is used after the macro has been used. Upon the completion of the macro the first time towers mutated than equals to false

This is inside the compile cast the tower type what it does is checks to see what type of tower the  power the occupied this round play was by using the important information from the last tower. It then checksthis informationin order to be used later

inside the work I'll percentage for the tower node this is what looks like it uses a work out percentage macro which takes in a percentage and on the likely hood of it being true or false releases and events.  once the events equals true it then goes on to ignore the macro called change tower followed by the name of the applied tower  it is a macro that get all the defaults properties of that tower and then set them to the variables of the new tower this is a redundancy to make sure that the important information for the tie is correct. It is then followed by a custom node which sets of the model of the template tower to the corresponding tower type it is meant to impersonate.

Tier upgrades
if the template tower has gone from its first stages of implementing its default properties and then it goes round is to be upgraded again it then goes through a process in which the default properties of the tower are improved as shown in the images below what if the tower tear is equal to 5 this will be when all the properties which are more important change such as shield properties or Buff  properties or even resource collection meaning that these variables are not changed every tier level or every five in order to preserve balance though this can be tweeting change in the future if needed

Year 3: Game update: Master template: Blueprint Base

Master template tower blueprint

When Making this blueprint it have to be designed as a all-purpose tower to have to have the ability to do every single thing all towers can do. For example it has to have the ability to give a shield as well shoot as well as collect resources and so on.

The master template tower started out as a copy of the default our book went through extensive modifications to make it suitable for the task of being the master template reprints. The weapon system using the line traced by Channel moods has been altered so I can accommodate multiple different firing arrayssuch as a disperser, posion tower or sniper tower.

There's been an update to how the tower find its targets mainly just updating how individual targets are chosen as there were glitches with the previous version whenever the AI would leave the towers range.

The updating resource section has been retrofitted with new information to accommodate forimport from all the towers.

The events beginning process has been added to with many difference new features such as being able to respawn Shields for towers and buffs as well as importing the models from the previous version of the tower and then selling them to the static mesh of the master blueprint.

North run in the feature to take away shields and buffs  from other towers if the  master blueprints can give shield or buffs to other towers around itself.

there were two new system is added to the end of the  upgrading system the way this would work is for example if the shield tower was upgraded and the stats of the shield with the change say the shield health was to go from 100 units 220 units it will then turn off the shield and then quickly turn back on re-pulsing yet all the towers around the updating them to the new shield type this also works with Buffs as well