DDA hopes & dreams

Writing this cause i'm ranting and sad

i bought the game for 3 friends over thanksgiving to play with me, they are totally new to the franchise (i'm a DD1 fan with thousand+ hours played)

today they stopped playing and uninstalled, they got bored and said the game is too slow. i feel i wasted a gift.

 

They mention a good point though, 2004 and 2021 is different eras. Gaming in 2004 was all about grinding, for hours, to see +10 damage gained on a level up in World of Warcraft. Today we have Apex and Fortnite, it's all about instant-action, fast paced games.

 

Can Trendy En  Chromatic just give this an A/B test? Make 1 map/game mode/seasonal to test, like they did with URF at Riot, make the game way faster. Creeps waves walk faster, like a lot, damage from heroes and towers are balanced to meet the new wave design. See if there's any uptick in this scenario/mode being played more than all the other modes.

 

Also, DD1 was successful because it was focused. Levels were more "blend", less "flare" less "art flexing", the levels were easy to read. DD:A's levels have bloom and eye candy everywhere, cool useless obelisks and crystals i dont know what they do they're just walls for gameplay.

Easier to read, easier to play, better design. I have to run up so much closer to the creep waves to realize/see any mana crystals in DD:A, with maxed-out 4K settings. Wastes time running that few extra seconds just to check for mana. Seconds here and there adds up to the overall slow paced ancient way 2001 game style. Baseline stats overall try a sweep to make gameplay faster, shorter tower reload baselines, faster hero movement, etc. 

 

Then run a free demo of this single level/mode on Steam for a weekend, get peeps redbulled up on omg gameplay so fast so exciting it's like Apex Royale but with Creeps and TD. A/B test see if there's any lift on purchase conversion.

 

I enjoy selling and turning in my mana to the jukebox in the tavern too, don't know where that has gone now. it made the tavern whole. not fancy ghost incomplete achievement trophys.

 

thanks for reading rant, i just want my gaming buddies to come back and play this game with me again... until then.. sad.

5 hours ago, happysuperbutton said:

Today we have Apex and Fortnite, it's all about instant-action, fast paced games

First, fast-paced games aren't the only thing popular in current times.  Currently DOTA 2 is the #2 game played on Steam, and I doubt anyone would consider it "instant-action, fast paced".  You can also look at the massive success of Minecraft.  Even Among Us is less about instant-action and more about social deduction.

I think the main problem with your argument is that you are comparing fast-paced FPS games with a strategy game.  Tower defense games are more about where to place what towers to deal with different types of enemies.  After you understand the mechanics, it usually becomes a question of how long your setup can hold.

That said, DD does have a unique problem since it adds in that 3rd-person action style.  While I would recommend the No Towers challenge for those that want more active gameplay, the truth is that towers are are much more important than your hero.  So, you will have to spend the time to plan and build, followed by mostly waiting for the waves to end.

3 hours ago, Batophobia said:

First, fast-paced games aren't the only thing popular in current times.  Currently DOTA 2 is the #2 game played on Steam, and I doubt anyone would consider it "instant-action, fast paced". [...]

Of course DOTA is fast paced, even before getting in a game you rage against your teammates, can't really get faster than that :P

 

Seriously tho, I don't think the grindiness is the issue. The issue is the complete disregard for the player's time. First you had the split in definitely not open and ranked. After that you had the definite nerf when massacre survival came out where half the gear you got was worse than monsterfest. Now I see complaints that rifted gear forces you to remove great pieces for average pieces. Throw in the "accidental" forgetting of making the survival exp scale, not once, but TWICE, once for the base game, and again when massacre came out, add to that the utter lack of communication causing people to not play, reducing the size of the community, garanteeing that barely any content creator will create hype for the game and you got a recipe for disaster.

Maybe you can put some of the blame on facebook/twitter induced global ADHD, but I don't think that's the main issue.

Edited December 21, 2020 by chpoit

Back in the mists of time when I first had a home computer, a ZX Spectrum. You had enough money to get one game and you played it relentlessly until you either got stuck or finished it.

Move onto the Atari ST\Amiga where the advent of things like XCopy and others made pirating games very easy, and you had alot more choice of games to play, then you tended to flit from game to game only playing a game to completion very rarely.

Now you have an almost infinite choice in comparison, also you have the ADHD of the youth of today (no offence, slackers) and you need to have something instantly accessible and constantly rewarding in some way. Everyones dopamine response needs constant feeding these days.

So Chromatic had this tried and tested IP and seem to have dropped the ball, but it needs to be seen in the new landscape of gaming, especially for a small indie team.

On 12/21/2020 at 10:24 AM, happysuperbutton said:

Writing this cause i'm ranting and sad

i bought the game for 3 friends over thanksgiving to play with me, they are totally new to the franchise (i'm a DD1 fan with thousand+ hours played)

today they stopped playing and uninstalled, they got bored and said the game is too slow. i feel i wasted a gift.

 

They mention a good point though, 2004 and 2021 is different eras. Gaming in 2004 was all about grinding, for hours, to see +10 damage gained on a level up in World of Warcraft. Today we have Apex and Fortnite, it's all about instant-action, fast paced games.

 

Can Trendy En  Chromatic just give this an A/B test? Make 1 map/game mode/seasonal to test, like they did with URF at Riot, make the game way faster. Creeps waves walk faster, like a lot, damage from heroes and towers are balanced to meet the new wave design. See if there's any uptick in this scenario/mode being played more than all the other modes.

 

Also, DD1 was successful because it was focused. Levels were more "blend", less "flare" less "art flexing", the levels were easy to read. DD:A's levels have bloom and eye candy everywhere, cool useless obelisks and crystals i dont know what they do they're just walls for gameplay.

Easier to read, easier to play, better design. I have to run up so much closer to the creep waves to realize/see any mana crystals in DD:A, with maxed-out 4K settings. Wastes time running that few extra seconds just to check for mana. Seconds here and there adds up to the overall slow paced ancient way 2001 game style. Baseline stats overall try a sweep to make gameplay faster, shorter tower reload baselines, faster hero movement, etc. 

 

Then run a free demo of this single level/mode on Steam for a weekend, get peeps redbulled up on omg gameplay so fast so exciting it's like Apex Royale but with Creeps and TD. A/B test see if there's any lift on purchase conversion.

 

I enjoy selling and turning in my mana to the jukebox in the tavern too, don't know where that has gone now. it made the tavern whole. not fancy ghost incomplete achievement trophys.

 

thanks for reading rant, i just want my gaming buddies to come back and play this game with me again... until then.. sad.

Thanks for taking the time to write this up. It's a great and detailed suggestion and you clearly both spent a lot of time and thought for it, and you clearly care about the game and having some great times with your friends.

We're on our Xmas break for the holidays atm, but I just thought you would appreciate a response. Many thanks!