Reflection with current DDA

I have stuck with DDA and its development since I backed the Kickstarter and watched carefully the direction the game seems to be going in. Sadly for the past year this forum has been more or less dead with almost zero interaction from players or developers. This has made me a little reticent to post long form discussions as I did here often up to shortly after the official launch. I am hoping with the release of the new game we will get some activity here again. I want to put my overall thoughts with DDA as it stands currently positive and negative to see how it compares to others in the community. I do still have some enjoyment with the game, but some of the decisions on game direction has left me questioning if it reflects the vision first presented back in Kickstarter.

It clearly lacks identity still to stop the constant amount of people thinking it is a DD1 remake. Even with the changes in gameplay and newer maps I still see many people asking where is X or Y from DD1. I am not sure how best to move away from that given the majority of maps still come from DD1(11 0r 12 depending if you include the CDT addition of Arcane Library to DD1) only 6 out of the 19 maps are completely new at present. It is difficult task to explain to others how its not a remake and was never supposed to be a remake. I often wonder if an actual remake would of actually been the better option considering where we are 3 years from KS announcement, might of been possible to complete quicker with just adding some QOL to the mix. Before DDA was announced there were numerous posts from console players asking "DD1 on modern consoles when?". It clearly something the community was wanting myself included. Considering the consoles never got much of the pc content I still think DD1 complete console edition or such would sell well. 

Massacre difficulty was a good idea in principle but came with issues with the new enemy the Siren. Being the only difficulty where physical damage can be resisted and having to mix up all elements is great in theory, but did lead to allot of frustration with heroes like the squire becoming pointless for defences and only useful in DPS. Having no real upping for hero HP and damage but further restrictions to defences resulted on have a squire DPS or fail the boss survival waves when playing solo for the most part. I played a glass cannon Apprentice which was so fun until Massacre and now wouldnt play Apprentice DPS if you paid me. You have to pile on HP just to survive hits no matter the hero and that just seems too restrictive in style of play. Then the new enemy the Siren its often better to just ignore her existence completely there isnt much reward in killing her compared to just letting her leave after her timer runs out.

Rifted mode is one of those things I was most upset with with how it was implemented and still have the same issues. It makes you concentrate on one defence per hero so you then need a hero for any and every defence you ever want to use. Just like in DD2 until you can put a second defence on the hero you need multiple copies of each. The Arcanist helm from the Lycan Keep Boss does allow you to add defence 1 to any hero BUT makes Ancient gear totally obsolete except in a few niche cases. Only letting heroes currenty in the hero deck keep the fusion effect or any other armor passive effect doesnt really sit well with me. Why would I bother even getting sets for all defences when I have to pick 6 heroes to build on at best? I still fail to understand the point of it being in earlier difficulties trying to only ever playing Rifted mode has obvious issues and regular armor is pointless in Rifted mode. Elemental effects other than fusion become totally useless meaning everything has to have the fusion effect applied. The double damage to all rifted enemies is just plain ludicrous to be honest, it makes the Rifted mode turn into easier than regular survival but offer the best stat rewards in items dropped. It to me is just false difficulty only presents a challenge until you complete the first damaging defence set then turns into easy mode. It is a little weird to me that Rifted mode was not added to Mixed Mode and I rarely see anyone play MM now since only in select cases would it be worth doing. What is most frustrating is almost 98% of any worthwhile loot is restricted to the end game chests of survival nothing else is worth picking up other than an off hand or accessory in the run. With Pure Strategy it is more understandable why it does not have Rifted toggle, it would need allot of thought to even consider bringing it in there.

Tests are rather disappointing like mastery in DD2 only worth doing once if at all. After playing the newer game the arena boss fights just instantly more fun and would rather have those. There is no reason to ever replay them, perhaps even having a random cosmetic drop like the Djinn Hat or such would be worth looking into. The prebuilt heroes offered hmm I am not that sure comparing it again to mastery in DD2 I feel restricting existing heroes would of been better, I would like to be able to customise the stats and pick the hero not just play apprentice or monk the way we give you kinda thing.

Challenges are sadly lacking any reason to play other than for trophy hunters. There are no rewards there I care about especially with no reward having anything fusion related. There are still many maps with no challenges at all and I can see why few people are even aware of that - nobody cares about them. I would really like the challenges to be where those starter fusion rewards went similar to the survivals could offer target farming for a set piece or fused weapon if Rifted mode stays as it is presently.

The addition of bosses to survivals was a double edged sword. It was a good way to get those boss rewards at the best possible stats and added challenge to those maps. The problem again goes in how heroes scale in Massacre so many heroes clearly do not work effectively against those bosses for the most part its pick between the Rogue or the Squire if you are playing solo and to some extent even in multiplayer. This really ruined the gameplay experience for me, I dont particularly like either hero and dont like feeling forced to play a particular hero in order to complete content.

Customisation was not handled in the best way in my opinion. The Transmog thing is fiddly to use at best and frustrating especially if you want the exact colour throughout. I would much prefer something like X item pick colour box A pink box B red box C bright Red etc. I would also appreciate some sort of presets like we had in DD1 with Jungle, Princess, Hazard etc. I have also a strong desire to bring in actual costumes for DDA at the moment even the paid DLC cosmetics are jsut variations on the base skins or silly add on parts for the alligator. I would happily pa whatever if I can dress up my heroes as a skeleton, vampire, princess, or whatnot. The cosmetics in DD2 sell pretty well and the ones to unlock in DD1 everyone does whats needed to unlock those. So I dont understand why customisation is just so bland in DDA.

The last update to stats and how they are distributed between the items left me rather confused. Only active hero counts for pets, weapons and off hands so if I never intend on dps on any hero allot of items just became obsolete. I only really need one of each type of pet I'd ever want and just put it on whatever hero I am going to be active on. Weapons and off hands I just ignore unless I know for sure I will actually dps on that hero - most of the time I wont be - will never dps on Apprentice, Warden, Squire, Huntress or EVA EVER so why even bother getting weapons or off hands for them? Most players from casual to end game will always have a favourite hero and other than an initial trying out will leave out dps for many heroes. With still needing multiple copies of heroes for rifted mode and only being able to play active on one hero at a time it really makes me question the reasons behind this move. I would understand this more if the hero deck functioned more like it does in DD2 and there was some sort of hotswapping during combat. The passives on regular armor was a nice thought, but when would I ever use regular armor unless I avoid Rifted mode and massacre. Even in regular Massacre fusion sets have a clear advantage due to no enemies being able to resist them its basically the massacre version of what physical was before massacre, then add on if you do want to hit sirens double damage there.

Replay ability is important in any loot based grind game and it is almost non existent currently in DDA. You might run some survivals for the target farming if you need the stats for last map or wish to min max but otherwise? Almost every item is more or less the same but a different flavour, you might get a different shot type or weapon model but thats about it. Nothing has that unique feeling like in the other titles weapins like the Pumpikinator or Purge Evil staff in DD2 or Gladius in DD1 or hunting those pets like Seahorses, Dice pets with perfect rolls in DD1 would make many farm some maps well over 5000 times. I cannot name anything other than at best the Arcanist helm for convenience I care about farming in DDA. It means between updates the playerbase drops like a stone. With many opting out between the long time between updates it is not surprising many players just move on entirely to other games. You need to keep players playing and engaged or you lose whatever playerbase you have. Currently you are lucky if more than 50 players are playing DDA at any given time and that is not good for any online game still getting developed. It is surprising somewhat the game hasn't closed down by now props to the developers still sticking with it, many others would of abandoned the game by now.

Overall to me it seems great idea poor implementation throughout the development of DDA. I can see where they want to take the game and they clearly have good ideas, but the way they bring those ideas into the game just doesnt work for me. Perhaps I am just not the sort of player they are trying to appeal to and thats fine, the game shouldnt be centred around me. The problem is when you think back to what they said during kickstarter and how much of current DDa reflects that vision. It does feel they strayed from that initial vision trying to create DDA and appeal to a slightly different audience than the DD1 players like me were looking for.

With Episode 2 in the pipeline to drop soon it might be the point in which I decide if I will continue or not. From what we have seen it seems pretty interesting and might help turn the game around. I feel allot of others feel the same way, so I hope they get it all dialled in and polished. There is still allot I like in the game, but I worry with how much its changing like what happened with DD2 if it would be better to quit while I still find it fun. I persisted too long with DD2 to a point I ended up hating the game with a passion with the changes over time. Even now although its in a better state I simply refuse to go back. I have to ask myself is the game still for me or do I just move on and I am always torn. I still want the IP to survive and would be very sad if it ends as no other game can scratch that itch, but I do not have anywhere enough money by myself to keep them afloat.

DDA needs to stop adding on new ideas and going in every direction. It needs to focus on a single vision and polish it instead of changing the entire game with every update. 

37 minutes ago, dizzydiana said:

It clearly lacks identity still to stop the constant amount of people thinking it is a DD1 remake

I myself am someone that wished for a DD1 remake, but a "new" remake. I think many of us would have preferred a game with a loot system and a pet system like DD1, but with new heroes and new maps. Simply making a copy/paste of DD1 wouldn't be great for me, but it would be better than the current DDA for sure. 

I think a lot of people think like me, since the game clearly lost a lot of the playerbase when it started to stray away from the core fundamentals of DD1. 

40 minutes ago, dizzydiana said:

Rifted mode is one of those things I was most upset with with how it was implemented and still have the same issues. It makes you concentrate on one defence per hero so you then need a hero for any and every defence you ever want to use.

I personally think rift mode itself isn't the problem, but fusion is. Rift mode should had always been an optional toggle like ruthless in DD1 redux, meaning stronger mobs and less mobs, but no unique loot attached to this mode. Fusion was just a terrible idea that with time destroyed the game. 

42 minutes ago, dizzydiana said:

Tests are rather disappointing like mastery in DD2 only worth doing once if at all.

I still find it weird that Lawlta in his recent post said that boss tests were a huge hit in the community. Spoiler alert, it's not. NO ONE likes boss tests in DDA. We just did them once to get the skins, and never ran it again. If you make it so we can't use our own heroes, and make it so there are no loot drop from completing boss tests, what's the point? Sure, I'm a huge "Challenging dps content" person, but if you dont give me loot and make it so I can run it with my heroes, I wont play that mode. It's also the reason why I dont play the new DDGR that much. It needs to be like TBR is in DD1 redux. Even TBR in DD1 vanilla, although very cooked, is much better than boss tests. 

47 minutes ago, dizzydiana said:

The addition of bosses to survivals was a double edged sword. It was a good way to get those boss rewards at the best possible stats and added challenge to those maps. The problem again goes in how heroes scale in Massacre so many heroes clearly do not work effectively against those bosses for the most part its pick between the Rogue or the Squire if you are playing solo and to some extent even in multiplayer.

Agree with this. Survival was a good addition to the game imo, but massacre scaling for dps has always been a problem. I feel like rift mode just amplified this problem. Having 2 separate resist stats (rift armor and regular armor) just makes things more complicated, confusing, and harder to balance. 

49 minutes ago, dizzydiana said:

The last update to stats and how they are distributed between the items left me rather confused.

The loot change in the last update is what really killed the game imo. I'm baffled the devs highly disagree with this. The drop in the number of players barely 1 month after the update is clear and hard to argue with, but it seems devs are still sticking to their position and their vision for the game. 

DD1 and DDA have always been games about farming loot. When you cripple the loot in DDA, ofc people are going to stop playing really quickly. I'm still surprised devs dont get why we are mad at losing builder pets. They think "a builder pet is just another gear slot for stats like armors", and they couldn't be more wrong. Builder pets are entirely different than builder armors. Armors are stuff I should be able to farm anywhere, like checking ground drops on a survival map. Builder pets are a choice I should make for builders and target farm on a specific map where they drop. Like in DD1 I can go Diamond pet for 800 stat cap, or decide to go turkey on treadmill for the 55% movement speed, although it caps at 700 (soft cap) and 750 (hard cap), or Treadmill on Treadmill if I'm not as endgame, etc. You have a choice for your builder pet and target farm different maps depending on what you want. 

Also, like dizzydiana said, if I only play a few heroes for DPS, should all my other heroes have empty offhand and pet slots? (need builder weapon for casting). 

55 minutes ago, dizzydiana said:

With Episode 2 in the pipeline to drop soon it might be the point in which I decide if I will continue or not. From what we have seen it seems pretty interesting and might help turn the game around. I feel allot of others feel the same way, so I hope they get it all dialled in and polished.

Episode 2 will also probably decide if the franchise dies or lives. Although I feel like a lot of stuff from DDGR that is coming in episode 2 are really nice, it's not enough to make episode 2 good enough imo. All of that is just nice additions, but what episode 2 needs to bring is a fundamental core change to the game to bring back the old DDA players. 

I wish the devs the best and really hope the game succeeds, but I can't see that happening with the current way the game is going. I sincerely hope the devs listen and save the game. 

Even though my initial post was very long I didnt really go into vast detail as I understand many would be put off by the size as it stands alone. The two main areas that almost made me quit and move on was Rifted Mode and the gear change with stats distribution. The ideas seem to be pulled straight from DD2 playbook and I did not like those sort of ideas there either. It is why I wonder if I am just not the sort of player they want to cater too. DD2 has its players that love the systems there but allot of it runs counter to what people who prefer the first game enjoy. I can understand the desire to get a game that both DD1 and DD2 players would enjoy, but I am really not sure how possible that really is one or other of the communities will feel cheated. When this game was announced 3 years ago the vision seemed to be lets go back to the DD1 gameplay loop but in a modern flair and with a new spin. DDA does not live up to that vision as it stands currently. I shall expand on those 2 main issues that ruins it for me.

Rifted Mode

This just feels like chaos tiers but somehow worse. It offers a challenge but also gives you the exact tools to make the challenge obsolete, just like C1 avoid the chaos issue by spamming auras, C2 avoid issues by spamming towers etc. The gear sets remove any dififculty presented with a few key sets and a fusion weapon you are basically overpowering the content. The huge focus on fusion everything and making anything without fusion damage very much useless forces you in a direction and punishes experimentation if you dont use fusion on every single thing. Trying to only ever play in Rifted mode with how the fusion sets drop is more or less impossible, with the need for fusion damaging defences and non fusion defences other than cc serving no real purpose(pre massacre once in massacre it only amplifies the requirement for fusion). It would take far too long before NM survival at best to take time out to actually complete a single set, the progression in the game doesnt really have a pause to grind moment except to reach hero levels to unlock NM or Mass. Even in getting to lvl 70 for NM you dont spend that much time getting the hero lvls required that would warrant the time needed to complete sets with the inevitable failing with the Dark Elf Warrior Rifted mechanic. Dark Elf Warriors in Rifted mode are arguably the most difficult mobs out of the selection presented. Having fusion so much better than any other element and the mode seemingly balanced around that makes gear sets between any other mode and rifted before Massacre not very compatible. Unlike with DD2 and onslaught vs chaos it is not that easy to jump from one to the other as you progress. The way the gear at present works Rifted mode should not be a toggle for all difficulties from Easy to Massacre it does not make sense. If as Mushroom said the same gear could be used between the toggles like in DD1 Ruthless vs Hardcore in Redux and you are just chasing better stats to complete the content the mode would instantly feel allot better. Losing the use of elemental damage when looking to do Rifted mode will never sit right with me even with pre Massacre where physical damage offers some advantage over elemental damage there is still some use for using lightning towers or flame bursts, etc with the SDA. The elements offered some things physical damage alone could never do especially with CC, mixing up defences was required and you would not wish to only build with 1 hero. Fair enough with Rifted you still need a mix of heroes but you still want the fusion element everywhere using a regular gas trap over the fusion one? It just seems to remove the unique things every element did like poison = slow or stun. It just like in DD2 where elemental damage other than the combo effects dont really do much compared to non elemental damage. The hero deck restriction for which defences are currently fusion just exacerbates the issue when each set at best only affects 2 different defences. You need multiple copies of any hero you wish to use more than one defence of but have to pick 6 heroes for the deck. There is not much desire to try different approaches in building out the map unless you have allot of patience and time, picking the most 7/8 helpful defences and call it good is just the way you have to approach it. 

The change to stats on items

I understand making the stats distribution more simplified and easier for causal players to get heroes to utilise, but its made things more complicated too. The previous putting together of any 4 ancient armor pieces and completing a set (or other types) made more sense than the match passives and complete sets with one ancient piece 2 militia and a primitive type of thing. How new players are supposed to understand that I have no idea it is far from clear how those sets actually work or are put together. I sort of feel the whole hybrid hero approach was a result of the issues with Rifted mode outlined above. Many players when running Rifted would end up making some sort of hybrid with having to pick 4 heroes and go before the hero deck update to 6 slots, I am not sure how best to explain the whole builder vs dps hero thing in a way that could convince the developers enough when it comes down to those who do spend over 1000hrs in the games and actually will buy all the DLCs they release. I shall try anyway. Hybrids as an option was always a thing in DD1 but it came with some drawbacks that we were aware of, some hybrid heroes were useful over builder/dps ones. Having the stats for damage on heroes and defences are important as soon as you go into survivals,(anything really after one completion of campaign) you want to really dial the hero in to be the most effective on what role you gave them. You wanted the active hero pumping out as much damage possible and not caring at all for their defences, you would look for everything best damaging pet, best weapon and so on. With heroes for defences it was the same in reverse you want all defences able to do their job in the most efficient way everything form builder weapons to pets would focus more on one defence stat than others tower health for walls, tower damage for towers, range and health for cc like auras, etc. You would spend many many hrs into getting these sets all dialled in and farming for all the different weapons whether your fighting on the hero or only ever using them to build. It added allot more grind time to the game, instead of running the map a couple of times until you find a piece with all 3 dps stats or all 4 builder stats you would be there for 1000's of runs. With all gear more or less functioning the same regardless you actually lose some customisation with heroes and is way more restrictive in which option to go in. Having the stats split where weapons, off hands and pets only ever giving hero stats means if you are not active on the hero they have zero use. The armor only giving defence stats means for heroes liek the Rogue they had to make alterations to how those stats function, plus with fusion only 4 of the 5 sets do anything where devices are concerned. The accessories are really the only items where there is overlap between dps and defences since passives will affect one or the other, but still not much scope if you want to specialise the hero. I feel the devs think that casuals who play the game for 2 hrs a week at best is who they should build the game around, but I am not that convinced. Yes the game has to be accessible to get people at least interested in the game, but many of the casuals still quit after getting through camapign and dont stick around. You cannot build the game around the top 1% which I am certainly not a part of. There is a large playerbase willing to play to end game, but way more relaxed (this is where I put myself). I will take a much longer time to get to end game than others, but will persist anyways. I will be failing often, dying allot and need more stats than others to even complete maps. I am nowhere extremely highly skilled, but I will stick around buy every DLC and multiple copies on every platform. So if the hybrid thing was supposed to appeal to players like me it fails.

In Conclusion

So much loot falling on the ground I would never have any use for is in no way rewarding and was one of the largest turn offs in DD2 for me. So many heroes with just armor and shards and one relic was the most frustrating thing and with all the changes in DDA it is becoming the same thing all over again. Between regular armor being nothing more than gold gain and items of no use to heroes I am not active on its just so tedious. Check wave 25 chest look quickly at 3 items, repeat for bonus wave and more or less ignore EVERYTHING else. The only other thing that might drop during a run I care about is the occasional accessory that might spawn before end game chest. The off hands dont really need much thought you can wait until last wave and then see if anything is better for the hero you actually dps on but even then its very boring. The whole gameplay of loot hunting down perfect versions of items dropped is just not there, if you want to appeal at all to people who love DD1 that right there is THE issue. Even if you are looking to bring on DD2 players they will still not like the lack of anything approaching Incursion items to farm. This has to be addressed or you are beating a dead horse at this point.

Edited April 4, 2022 by dizzydiana

I'm withholding extra commentary for now but I just want to say I've always found your opinions on these matters very well thought out and mostly on the mark.

Then there's the topic of having a dev kit for the community.  DD1 Had the benefit of releasing new stuff fairly quickly, even if it was just holiday-themed challenges.  But on top of that was the community maps.  Even if you finished all the currently available official content, there was a plethora of user-generated stuff to keep you going.  The fact that DD1-redux exists should be more than enough proof that such a feature is worth it.

1 minute ago, Batophobia said:

Then there's the topic of having a dev kit for the community.  DD1 Had the benefit of releasing new stuff fairly quickly, even if it was just holiday-themed challenges.  But on top of that was the community maps.  Even if you finished all the currently available official content, there was a plethora of user-generated stuff to keep you going.  The fact that DD1-redux exists should be more than enough proof that such a feature is worth it.

I agree myself that would certainly help to keep the players engaged between updates the issue is that only works for those on PC. It would require allot of work to try in anyway to give any community made content available on consoles. The adding in the promise of cross saves if it survives long enough what do you do with players like myself who own DDA on all the platforms wishing to take their save to all of them? There are so many issues involved unless you want something of a repeat of the DD1 console vs PC debacle. The amount of frustration of anyone on console feeling like second class citizens cannot be ignored if you want to have a good relationship with the playerbase. If there is any way to work around the issues so some community content could exist on all platforms they should look into that  at their earliest convenience.

With trying to work out how best to correct DDA and player retention in order to make it financially viable we need to look at what the audience is for a game like this. With tis unique mix of action and tower defence you will attract those who will tend to prefer one aspect over the other and some who like both equally. It will always be difficult to keep each section happy to the same degree. We have a very vocal section of the community constantly complaining there is not enough for the hero to do during combat and lacking action. With this is mind its no wonder the developers try their best to cater to them, but there is the section of the community rather silent who like me much prefer the strategy aspect working out the best builds or how towers interact and dont really care for the action aspect as much. I find allot more pleasure knowing the defences can do the work and my build can alone complete the wave other than bosses. I dont find much fun if its required to run around all wave only treating the defences as last resort, I dont mind having to burn down an ogre or boss too much though. In DD2 I didnt mind how it worked having to take notice of mini bosses and being able to build to ignore most of the other mobs. If you even care to really work your build, you can build around mini bosses and afk allot if you so choose. It is possible to build for AFK in DDA but even then there isnt much strategy involved especially in Rifted mode. I try to be fair to all sides I understand those who want fast paced action and clearly they need something to cater to that, but I think that be its own mode. It even fails for people like me trying to puzzle out what can work and wont. I am one of the few who actually enjoy Pure Strategy and its a shame that at present its still a waste of time for grinding. I would like something like PS for those who prefer the action and keep the other modes some better balance of both aspects. We need main content to appeal to all sides with optional content geared to either action or defence. The assualt challenges can be fun, but I am not sure if thats what would be best suited to the action focussed community. Perhaps some restricted PVP mode might be something we could look at? Having resctrictions on heroes making PVP fair and would be very fun for I think a decent section of the community could bring some life into the game. Tower Wars was probably the most fun ever in DD1 for example, but the PVP event maps were very annoying. I am not sure how best to balance the main content other than having something like mini bosses and most mobs be handled with defences alone. I wonder with those who have played all of the titles would be able to offer ideas? If we can all agree on basic points so the developers can at least know where the problems lie and a possible fixes we can save this title. So few take the time to actually give constructive feedback and yet we just expect the devs to deliver what we want. As a community as passionate as we are we should be allot more active and be prepared to take the time to explain what the issues are if we are to ever expect to have a game that we actually will play.

Edited April 2, 2022 by dizzydiana

I bought DD1 on console as soon as it came out, and I poured about 700hrs into it. Easily became one of my favorite most played games, Mistymire forest was the last update I played on console, as that was the time someone had mentioned to me in game- that there was a PC version and it had lots more content, and a lot of it was never going to be introduced to the console. I looked it up on steam and saw all the amazing stuff that was in that version and I never touched the console version again.

I played the PC version for another 1500 hours. I even bought several copies for friends. You put all this time into grinding your gear and developing your squad. Building heroes around that one specific item you got that had insane stats-the best you ever saw so you had to build a new character around it to show off its power. And after all that, I couldn't bring myself to play another game, I never played DD2, or DDE, I couldn't bring myself to put down DD1 and all the time and love I put into it. So when DDA came out, it was also a hard pass for me. I did buy it though. For how much I loved DD1 I decided that at least I could support them in some way. I played an hour, and went back to playing DD1. Its hard to turn your back on your heroes and gear you worked so hard to collect, and upgrade.

But one day I decided I would give it a real effort to get into it. And before I knew it I was 500 hours into it. I had 40 lvl 100s all with different specialized armor sets and everything, having a blast with the game. Then rifted came out and it was nice to have something new and different to overcome and develop the skills to conquer, and new armor sets to complete with fusion towers to make. I thought the fusion towers where a nice addition, I mostly like to play online with people and friends. So having everyone get their different specialized heroes for specific things, make it more interesting for multiplayer modes. You don't just have one person build every single defense anymore, everyone can chip in to get an entire build with fusion, people would actually offer up their defenses, it made it a lot more engaging. You could plan your builds ahead with your friends and set your characters up so everyone could have the strongest-whatever the build could use in fusion. And not just have one person build every. single. tower. In DD1 it was always just me building, you always just had so many heroes with exactly what you needed to get your build done. But with only having the heroes in your deck able to have fusion towers, suddenly having other people build was viable. Not that it was impossible to do it without. It just was easier and easier with the more fusion stuff you put in. It was loads of fun for me!

Then there was an update... I hadn't seen any patch notes or anything, I saw that I downloaded it when I went to play but I didn't think much of it, but when I logged in every single heroes armor and weapons and pets were all lvl.1 stats were changed some things didn't have stats that they had before. It was like a nightmare came true for me. At that point its like everything I worked for was gone, I mean it was still technically there I guess... I mean there was money to re-upgrade the gear and weapons, but at the same time it felt like it was a big slap in the face. when you have 50 max level characters with maxed out gear it was just a daunting, and overwhelming task to go through and re upgrade everything and everyone. And get new weapons and so much stuff had changed! I literally just turned the game off, and I haven't even been interesting in going back. That update ruined the game for me, its kind of hard to explain I guess. I just don't think I should have to deal with that again, it felt like I was starting all over again- which I had put off doing so many times before. It took a lot to just start playing DDA instead of DD1. 

Edited April 4, 2022 by CombatHigh

On 4/3/2022 at 9:14 AM, CombatHigh said:

Then rifted came out and it was nice to have something new and different to overcome and develop the skills to conquer, and new armor sets to complete with fusion towers to make. I thought the fusion towers where a nice addition, I mostly like to play online with people and friends. So having everyone get their different specialized heroes for specific things, make it more interesting for multiplayer modes. You don't just have one person build every single defense anymore, everyone can chip in to get an entire build with fusion, people would actually offer up their defenses, it made it a lot more engaging. You could plan your builds ahead with your friends and set your characters up so everyone could have the strongest-whatever the build could use in fusion. And not just have one person build every. single. tower. In DD1 it was always just me building, you always just had so many heroes with exactly what you needed to get your build done. But with only having the heroes in your deck able to have fusion towers, suddenly having other people build was viable. Not that it was impossible to do it without. It just was easier and easier with the more fusion stuff you put in. It was loads of fun for me! 

I understand the desire to have each player have their own lane, the issue has always been once you get to a certain point it goes back to the whole one player builds everything especially with the few defences you actually need. The other issue when you hit end game there are many players who will simply refuse to let anyone else build and it is just understood unless the host specifies otherwise you do not build anything and only upgrade and dps. Other than giving each player their own du I am not sure if this would ever change even in DD2 where it has allot more flexibility it still has the builder and dps support players in public games. Perhaps even some modified version of Tower Wars could also help especially with playing in some sort of PVP mode could even do perhaps a king of the hill type thing or whatnot and have players using all the tools. There is scope in a game like this to make every player count in all areas. but I feel this works best in a separate area from the main content.

Edited April 4, 2022 by dizzydiana