December Update / Dev Notes

Hello dear Reforged Tower Defense community!

This Sunday is the first of December, and thus the year is coming to an end again. Since I have a few days off around this time of year, as I do this year, I would like to continue the tradition and inform you about the upcoming development steps and release a major update.

However, I don't want to promise too much, as things often develop differently than you think when you have children. Based on the progress so far, I am quite confident that I can release the update before Christmas.

Let's start with the contents of the next update and then see how it continues.

New Maps & Revised Single-Player Mode

There will be at least nine new maps, and depending on how I progress in the next few days, one or two additional maps might make it into the update. These maps will be available in both the standard single-player and challenge modes.

As I already announced in the roadmap, I want to redesign the single-player mode. The first step is an update of the map selection. Even though it was hard for me to part with some old maps, this is necessary to ensure a better single-player experience.

Preview

Heavens Crest

Forsaken Fields

Crossed Path

Floating Citadel

New Creeps & Creep Traits

• Creeps can now have the traits "Overfly" and "Phase Shift," allowing them to ignore obstacles like towers during their movement. - Flying Creeps now have a positive offset on the Y-axis along their path. This offset is particularly pronounced for units with the "Overfly" trait.
• New effect trigger: "Waypoint Effect." This is activated as soon as a new waypoint is reached (a waypoint also includes reaching a node on a platform). Additionally, these effects can contain conditions, such as "only trigger if the unit is not facing towards the next waypoint."These effects ensure that the maze layout gains importance, and it becomes advantageous to adapt the maze to the different unit types.
• The "Bunny Rat Monsters" have been revised and now possess such an effect trigger. The previous effect trigger (an acceleration every 8 seconds) has been removed. With the new effect, the Creep becomes faster as soon as a waypoint is reached and the Creep is not facing the next waypoint. In other words, whenever the unit has to make a turn, its speed increases.
• The "Succubus" now has an opposite effect: They become faster when they reach a waypoint and are already facing towards the next waypoint.
• The "Fungusa" now heal themselves when they reach a waypoint and are not facing towards the next waypoint.
• Until now, Creeps could be immune to various attacks. This system has now been expanded to include resistances and vulnerabilities. For example, units can now have a resistance or vulnerability to slowing effects, causing these effects to be either weakened or strengthened. This behavior applies to all types of attacks, including critical hits, slowing, stunning, executions, silence, damage-over-time effects (DoTs), and abilities.This makes it easier to ensure a smooth transition in difficulty throughout the game.
• Units can now appear as a group, so that, for example, four units count as one.
• There will be new Creeps. Let yourself be surprised :)

Adjusted Talent Tree

• To make the gaming experience more intuitive, I have adjusted the talent tree. Tower upgrades now all cost only 1 point, and you also receive only one point per level up. The values have been scaled accordingly. This makes the decision after leveling up easier and makes distributing the points clearer.Previously, up to 5 points could be distributed after leveling up, which could feel overwhelming at times.

Items

• There will be over 100 new items, including potions, scrolls, as well as items for towers and players.
• There will also be new item effects.

Towers

• New Towers: Poison Tower, Minigun, and Gauss Tower.- Poison Tower: Poisons enemies, causing them to suffer damage over time.
  - Minigun: Accumulates energy over time, with each shot consuming energy. It is characterized by a high attack speed and relatively high damage.
  - Gauss Tower: Has a long range, a slow attack speed, and deals very high damage.The properties may change again.
• Towers can now have damage bonuses or penalties against air units.
• The Rocket Tower now deals 120% damage against air units.
• Towers can now reduce the energy of Fiends with attacks.
• The inventory of towers has been revised. The number of regular slots has been reduced from 6 to 4. Additionally, 2 new slots have been introduced, called Persistent Tower Equipment Slots. These remain after a round and have a lasting effect on the entire group, for example, on all level 1 crossbow towers.

UI, QoL, and Miscellaneous

• The maps in single-player have been changed. Some maps have been removed and new ones have been added.
• The performance of the path system has been optimized.
• The path system has been expanded so that paths can now have subordinate paths. This allows for the integration of optional paths into the system.
• Platforms can now contain areas where towers cannot be built, but units can pass through without problems.
• The layout for platform nodes has been changed. Each node is now displayed individually and can be represented differently depending on the map layout. Also, nodes are now hidden if towers cannot be built there.
• Chat for Double-Up Lobby.
• Chat UI improved.
• New Game Over UI for classic multiplayer.
• The start in classic multiplayer mode has been slightly delayed. Previously, the game could start immediately after loading.
• Clients can now pause the game, provided this option has been enabled by the host.
• Clients can now also start a new wave, provided this option has been enabled by the host.
• Save/load for Double-Up mode.
• New area effects have been added, which are triggered when a unit passes through the area. For example, a unit can be slowed or receive healing of a certain amount.
• Various bugs have been fixed, and numerous other minor adjustments and improvements have been made.

The Next Development Steps

• Depending on the progress, I plan to make the option to play the single-player mode in co-op either directly in the upcoming update or it will be added in a smaller follow-up update.
• In the next and last update before the release, there will mainly be further changes for the single-player mode. Planned are, among other things, bank slots for items, a revised menu, additional aids, and of course, to put the final touches on all game modes.
• Release Version 1.0.
• Even after Version 1.0, I want to continue developing the game, as I still have many ideas for additional content. The extent of this further work will depend on how the community feedback turns out after the release of Version 1.0.
• To name a few points that I could work on after Version 1.0:- New maps with unique biomes
  - Additional classes
  - New game modes
  - Extensions for the Challenger Mode with additional paths and options

Have fun playing and defending!

Cheers, Sascha

Your developer of Reforged Tower Defense

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1044110/Reforged_TD__Tower_Defense/