Batophobia

I imagine this thread is more an attempt at offering legitimate feelings of the poster rather than offering critique of the developers. If I was worried about how the community was going to respond to something, the logical place to start the discussion would be the forum that community frequents. Don't let the forums discourage you. The majority of players likely won't ever come here. I know there are many games I played a lot of and enjoyed without ever visiting their forums. In addition to that, Kickstarter issues are a bit of a fleeting issue. In the end, the game will need to stand on its own merits. If the game is good, people will play it, regardless of issues it had prior to launch. If the game is bad, users will stop playing, even if the forums have done nothing but pour out praises for it. As far as the confidence problem, remember that building a game is complex and involves a lot of pieces. Each person can only offer their own expertise. For example, imagine your are the best brain surgeon on the planet. If you don't know how to change your oil, that doesn't make you less of the best at brain surgery. Just because Chromatic might have not had a perfect grasp on how Kickstarter would work out doesn't mean their developers and other workers are any worse at their duties. I can't speak for others, but I'm still excited to play DDA when it releases.

The Kickstarter mentioned: Aside from that, I don't know of any official word. Might just depend on if Sony let's their users play with the others or how quickly the DLC can get on all the devices.

Given that my survey link only came a couple days ago and at the end I was number 6,000-ish of the total 11,000-ish, I think it's reasonable to assume that all the surveys haven't been completed. I imagine it would be much more of an annoyance to have to keep going back to request more keys rather than just waiting for all the survey results. And in the event that some people push off doing the survey for whatever reason, there is likely a minimum wait time put in place either by Chromatic or even Kickstarter. It's also likely that the task of dealing with the Kickstarter backers is not the main focus of the team, given that they are excited to start working on DDA and don't want to delay that. Just try to be patient and remember that with over 11,000 people, there's bound to be a few issues, especially when something like the shipping costs thing comes up.

The shipping does seem kinda pricey. I was going to add on a shirt, but paying $30 to ship a $15 shirt is not happening.

I think the idea is to add diversity, which can create new challenges. It's like playing DD1 with a new Squire hero vs. a new Monk hero. One has defenses that are physical and can shoot at range, the other has bubbles that can hit in an area and deal elemental damage. How you build your defenses will depend on what defenses are available. For example, towers that can shoot around corners or be placed on walls would make for interesting builds for levels taking place inside, but probably not as much for larger outdoor areas. New/More elemental options make the idea of combining status effects more interesting. I liked how the bowling ball turret worked on stairs. I could appreciate more towers interacting with the physics engine like that.

Wall-based towers. Can't put them on the ground, only on vertical (or at least nearly vertical) inclines. These can range from spikes to little turrets that can't be attacked to a nest of bees that fly out when enemies are near. Mobile towers. There's a lot of possibilities with this one. You could have something collapsible that folds out into "attack form" and folds back in for transport. Or, you could have something built like EV beams, but functions like a track and towers can be put on it so they can be pushed (or auto move) along the track. Maybe even towers that can be attached to heroes.

Since the huntress seems to be missing a helm: Huntress: - helmet: After remaining stationary for X seconds, gain invisibility until next attack and increased critical hit percent for X seconds after attacking. - helmet: Double damage for X seconds after using Piercing Shot

While I like the idea, I'm not seeing this as something likely to be implemented. If nothing else, because it encourages solo play, since building defenses with other players isn't supported as a save option. Plus, as heroes improve defenses, some positions might become invalid (like if an aura size increases and now intersects with the crystal). However, here's some ideas on how I would implement it. Make it sort of like a "record" feature. You record yourself building the setup (initial wave only) and have the option to save it (which includes time and mana spent). Then, when you attempt to "replay" the recording, it verifies that you have sufficient mana and time on the build timer and subtracts the necessary amount. The time spent may require a more complicated formula, though, since Hero Casting Rate and Hero Speed stats might affect if the current hero could still manage to build that fast. Perhaps just verifying that the values are not lower than when you created the template? If you make each template saved to the hero, you can easily verify the character still exists and use the current stats for the tower. Plus, if you can find a way around the timer issue you can support each player building with their own characters (i.e. I can build my Squire defenses while a friend builds Monk auras). The best option I'm thinking for the time issue is to track how much time is subtracted for the template building and when a new player builds one it checks against that and if their setup took longer it subtracts the difference. Example: 1. Player 1 takes 40 seconds to build Huntress traps (build timer subtracts 40 seconds : total subtraction is at 40) 2. Player 2 takes 45 seconds to build Apprentice towers (build timer subtracts 45-40=5 seconds : total subtraction is at 45) 3. Player 3 takes 30 seconds to build Monk auras (build timer doesn't subtract since 30-45<0 : total subtraction is at 45) This setup also has the benefit of not actually requiring it to be restricted to a certain wave. So long as each tower verifies placement before the template build it, it can be done during any build phase.

I feel like at least one ability/tower needs to have a "slip" effect. Maybe instead of ability 1? For tower, I like the idea of a bubble wall. Enemies stop to attack it, then it pops and causes knockback. Have it setup with a timer to blow up the next wall, and I'd call it great. Maybe even have that be an add-on option for non-bubble physical towers.

One of the things I enjoyed doing in DD1 was going back to Deeper Well and playing Easy Survival with a single tower (on a buff beam) to see how far it could manage. I was thinking of how this could be made into a game mode, since it gives the early levels more replay-ability and highlights just how far the heroes had advanced on their journey. It should also help encourage new builds. I'm not completely sold on my implementation, but here's my thoughts. Basic idea: You have fewer DU to build a map than standard. This could be as simple as a challenge for a single map or as integrated as an option for any map. Idea 1: You start off with 75% DU for the map. Each wave decreases the DU further (this can be a % of the previous wave or a set number). The next combat phase cannot begin until your setup costs less than the new DU max. This might require you to sell some towers (though I'm not entirely opposed to the idea of the game randomly removing some if there's a desire to have a timer). Idea 2: When selecting the map, you can set a DU handicap which lowers the DU from the start and doesn't change it afterwards. I imaging the UI being a DU slider where you can set the value between 0 and whatever the normal max is. If you can beat the map with a single Harpoon, set the value to 6 and that's what it is (or set it to 4 and hope for the best for your Jester present).

I like the idea on this. Some accessories have multiple colors, so it might be nice to be able to pick specific colors to keep. For example, if you have a Yellow top hat with a White band and a Black top hat with a Blue band, you might want the end result of a Black hat with a White band. Not really. It might make it more difficult, but nothing impossible. I imagine it like the final dragon boss of DD1. If ranged fighters could hit it while it flies to deal damage and melee fighters could hit it while landed.

I kinda liked this as well. There were many times when I had to choose if upgrading/building was worth the risk of not getting to switch characters (most of which I tried to build and ended up stuck for that wave). On the other hand, I could see the swap mechanic allowing for more intricate challenges, like having a boss that requires switching between range and close-up combat. If they really want to keep it, I could go for it being removed in one of the harder difficulties or as a challenge mode like Mixed Mode was. After all, the lower difficulties didn't have timers anyway so getting stuck as a builder wasn't really a thing.

I kinda like this idea. Maybe a hero that takes some inspiration from the Spy class in TF2. You can have each ability be disguising as a different enemy type with increasing cost per the enemie's rank (i.e. goblins are the cheapest, maybe have orcs at the highest). Then the player could influence lower ranked enemies, like telling the archers to rush a tower or compromise the kabolds explosives so they blow up immediately instead of getting the chance to charge. Could even take the Barbarian idea and have no towers to allow more enemy types.

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Monk: Krillin (changed to Tien for adult costume) Apprentice: Squishy - I put all the points in Mana Bomb so it could cover the entire tavern, so he dies pretty easily Squire: Leeroy (as in Jenkins) Hunter: Starkiller Summoner: Krona (any other comic book nerds?) Barbarian: Hulk EV: Jolteon Jester: Harley Quinn My co-op partner named their Apprentice Vivi