Cube Defense
Notice:
Game development has been halted indefinitely pending changes in the Custom Game system to make it possible for me to update the damn map, and, hopefully, the removal of the popularity system.
So, the map is up for grabs. It's in the Public Domain and you can pick it up, fix it, change it, break it, fork it or whatever.
It you do try to take a stab at taking over, I'm likely available for light consulting in explaining just what the hell is going on in the code.
Best chance of getting hold of me is at rightlyslandom<at>gmail<dot>com
Cube Defense
Remake of the old classic, Cube TD for WC3, by CordialSpam.
Up to 8 players try to keep 30 waves of mobs away from the center, using 5 kinds of towers, 3 of which are upgradeable.
What sets this TD apart, is the fact that mazing is not only possible, it is required in order to complete the game at all. And if you want to stand a chance on the higher difficulty settings, you'd better be ready to understand and abuse the pathing, block the mobs from doing what they want and force them to do your bidding and take the long way around your maze - and preferably run through it two or three times before they get out on the other side.
Defend the Cube either alone, or with an Ally, using the in-game dialog to choose which you prefer. Dynamic team placement allows for any combination of teams of two and solo players in any one single game, meaning you don't have to look for a game with your preferred game mode. Just join up and start defending!
Features:
- 4 Difficulty settings
- 2 Game modes
- Dynamic, in-game Team picking and placement
- Individual difficulty
- Selling of towers
- Working range indicators
- Snaring of flying units
- Anti-blocking feature
- and Awesome awesome gameplay.
Known Bugs:
There is a known, game breaking bug that kicks in for many people around wave 20-25, depending on how many people are in the game. Stuff starts turning invisible and the map becomes very hard to beat indeed. It seems to be caused by a memory leak of sorts, debug tools are non-existant, I am at a loss for what is causing it, and don't intend to remake the game from scratch to try and fix it, at least not until the Custom Game system is "good".
Yeah I'm not too sure about roaches. Don't get me wrong, I think that roaches could be extremely good if you micro like crazy. I was just too busy with my hydra slows to even think about adding on some roaches...it would just break up my mob distribution and timing.
I edit my posts for the same reasons, haha. It's always hard to translate tone over the internet...
Man, I love TDs where you actually have to maze as opposed to building 1-5 extremely strong towers....
i edited my post, so i dont know if $4 is the same #4 u mentioned. i usually edit my posts like that, and it gets less and less rude/cocky, and more and more what i intend to say more clearly.
hmmm bypass roaches eh? u may be onto something.. just skip them altogether u say, hmmm. immortals do more damage/mineral to ground than roach... roach + hydra results in 75% slow whereas just one type alone results in 50% slow... so diminishing returns... if u put the roach money into hydras and immortals, your snares would be more effective too...
ah, good old micro to squeeze out more better damage distribution =] i love that.
the huge upgrading time IS very luxurious... In my experience on hard, with mynear-5-pass setup, there was plenty of time to upgrade even if the train was passing through you and your tower was completely idle for one entire pass. it could be that that is not possible on the insane mode though. but i doubt it. xp
hey u know what? i think u just came up with a great name for a difficulty settting: "impossible"
Oh, forgot to answer your question about roaches / hydras. For some reason, I HATE roaches. I don't know why, they just seem to cause more problems than they are worth.
On the run that I beat it, I ended up having about 6 hydras. I really had to focus fire each one to make it so there would almost always be two of the mobs stacking on each other...otherwise I'm not sure I could have done it.
I did get a roach on the very last level toward the end to make sure no stragglers could possibly get by.
Thanks for the input. I like some of the ideas. I've tried a lot of variations and just liked the way I did it. It just felt good...no other reason really :).
Honestly, the reason I have them walk SO far around in the beginning is simply because I like the time during phase changes to upgrade towers. But opening up that bottom wall is actually a nice idea. Didn't think about that.
Basically, once I got used to a specific build / timing / mazing, it was very hard to stray from that...because the TD takes a while to get through - not much room for errors and experimentation.
I also thought a lot about your point #4. That is one example where I just got used to doing it so I kept doing it. I think you might be right about getting rid of those bunkers...the more minerals the better.
Appreciate the input! It will come in handy if slightlyrandom makes an "impossible" difficulty...but for now I'm drained because I think I spent too much time beating this one. Every other TD on sc2mapster's is so easy compared to this, in my opinion. Props to slightlyrandom!
edit: u beat it. congrats! =] ignore what i wrote here hah
@dog 22
ur map is pretty cool. i didn't think about using that L shaped area like that. http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/8858/cubedog22.png
suggestion:
things i notice:
i tried playing around with your setup like this, http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/2742/dubedog22sug.png but if theres not gonna be the loop in the L, there's no point in having all the immortals positioned far to the right like that. plus, those positions force you to sacrifice two way points, which is worth way more than what you'd get by doing a loop thru the L (not to mention the huge # of bunkers)
something like this would give u just as long of a separation time with naturally existing walls. http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/3607/dog22sug3.png The last 2 waypoints are not wasted, and they cause the enemy to travel a relatively long distance thru your immortals again twice. these extra passes can be thought of as making up for not passing thru the L.
OMG! I just beat it on insane. That is one of the best feelings ever. Thanks slightlyrandom for driving me slightly insane for a while. Love this map!
edit : armor must have made all the difference in the world. It was still incredibly hard. I had to micro all my slow towers / immortals perfectly. I had 4 separate hotkey groups of slow / immortals...man I'm spent after that.
Ok...I've been playing 0.6 for a while now. Ummmm I feel dumb. Trying new version.
lol...
Ok, so here's my attempt at making my maze on paint. Bear with me on this...thanks!
Let me know what you think. They run by the immortals a lot. The mobs are pretty much always in range whenever parallel to the immortals...at least for a bit.
Also, about hydra / roach towers. I haven't really made up my mind about them. I've tried doing it with and without and seem to get a similar result every time. I usually get a few hydras to help out for air levels...I even tried getting 12 once and it didn't work on level 24 :(
I hate level 24...!
Here's link...let me know your thoughts.
I can't beat insane!!
edit : I also didn't make the set up EXACTLY like I do it. For instance, there would be more anti air towers, and my placement is a bit off...but it's a rough idea of what I do.
Grrr, tried another strat and died at level 24 again. Ahhhh!!
I'll get a screenshot of my maze in a little bit. My counting 11 times may not be all too accurate since I'm counting small times in which the mobs are in range of my immortals...I guess you'll see soon enough.
btw level 2 bunker tower is slightly less cost efficient.
2 minerals for a new ground tower = 16 dps. 6 minerals for 3 ground towers = 48 dps 6 minerals for one level 2 ground tower = 40 dps.
did u intend it that way? - to encourage level 1 towers (more initial mazing) - and to place a sort of initial cost to upgrading, so that there is a period of inefficiency b4 it gets way efficient?
@dog, 11 times? definitely do share sometime.
here's the steps i use to make picture.
i understand. but i dont think it's a huge issue since the player gets punished just slightly if units skip over their maze. but of course it would be better to fix it. but i would agree that it's not really high priority.
u bring up a good point about repeatedly selling a cannon or bunker.
whats the IRC channel?
just to let u know, im playing around with the health values on insane mode based on the .71 version to materialize a ballpark candidate for insane mode that requires smart pathing.
so far, lvl 1 = 400 hp lvl 2 = 1250 hp lvl 3 = 2250 hp.
compared to the current health values for insane, u may be thinking WTF is this guy for reals? But rest assured with the simple early wall, it's plenty doable. my goal is to have it be so that u need to do this lil trick, which in turns enlightens players about how much more efficient a setup with the same amount of turrets can be, if u use pathing. it also puts as REAL challenge on self-proclaimed master TD-ers =]
I'm not good with the whole paint stuff and all that...so I don't have time right now to mess with it and make it look nice. In total, they walk by my immortal line 11 times (sometimes not FULLY walking by them. It's a pretty intricate maze. I really like it. Not TOO many low towers or it wouldn't be worth it.
On insane, I die to level 24 air. I'm always thinking of different things to try for it though. I have a new plan but don't have time to put it into action. It might work. This map is totally addicting...I can't stop until I beat it. I'm pretty sure it's the new armor implementation on the air that hurts. I can handle the ground pretty well (only a few close calls).
gwho, the games pathing is a little dodgy when placing buildings right infront of units. I haven't tried to fix this yet, figured it'd prevent a couple of exploits I can think of (selling a building, building a new one, then reverse to create infinite maze, as long as money lasts). As long as you build the building somewhat before the unit gets there, though, there should be no problem.
Digging around in the Editor is slightly non-trivial, come on IRC if you want the grand tour. In short, I call a Tint event when the Unit is created for the color, and the attack effects are tied to the units weapon.
Dog22, how far do you get and what kind of maze are you using? How many times does the mobs have to pass through it? Are you dying to air or ground waves?
This new armor buff is giving me a whole lot of trouble! Ahhhhhhh! Anyone beat insane yet? I'd be surprised >_<
when u build a building right on top of the unit in a certain way, especially along the edges of the water, the unit will ride the edge and go to its designation, skipping your maze.
was this what the the changeling pathing fix referring to? it happens for reapers and supply depots from my personal experience, and possibly all units.
i figured out the snare attack bug: it's only for tiny cruiser. all your airwaves have no option to attack. u disabled them. but it seems u forgot to disable attack for battlecruisers. edit: looks like u figured it out 9 minutes b4 i did xp
btw, is there any way the editor can allow fast forwarding? the function would be exceptionally useful for TD maps
question: where in the editor controls the custom colors and attack effects?
The reason for the air mobs attacking when snared is that Snare disables their movement, so they default to attacking. I have removed their Attacks to prevent them from doing this, but I forgot to do this for the Tinycruiser.
It's also extremely strange that you get the color change on the Hydra, but not on the Roach since they are done in exactly the same way. Guess it is bugged. Sometimes removing and readding something will make it magically work, so I'll do that and upload it in 5 minutes.
My roaches are blue and I drag and drop. Not sure what the problem is O_O