Trendy Please step your game up

[islandboy84]

This may be lengthy maybe not. I have a degree in game programming so I know a little bit. Also I have been playing dungeon defenders since it was dungeon defense. I have over 400 hours in game. Dont take this bad Trendy this game rules. Theres a reason I have so many hours in it. New games come and go (Diablo 3) but DD still has me hooked.

1) In game design we went over what makes gamers play games. What is there motivation? This being said the longer you play a game you should feel like you accomplish something. DD is terrible at this.

Like I said I have been playing this game alot but some new players start and a month later they have better equipment than me. I try AFK shops but never find anything useful. I try hosting and never make any money.

2) End game is NM but progression is very hard unless you use outside sources. I can farm survival maps all day long but rarely does any upgrades drop (im talking armor cause weapons are useless without them). Why the hell do so many weapons drop in NM. Weapons are already pretty much useless unless you get one from a event (boss drops challenges, etc) but they are 50% of the drops during NM. Really how many 200^ weapons does someone need especially when there damaged is greatly reduced on NM difficulty anyways. Now how many 200^ armor drop, rarely.

I guess this could be worse, if player shops weren't around everyone in the community would have the same problem trying to upgrade gear and progress in the game. If you try to find it (gear) yourself you are punished by wasting countless hours trying to get a good RNG on gear. This game then becomes about farming instead of playing.

3) Why haven't you developed a centralized shop yet. You already host servers why not setup an auction house or trading server. Heck you could even make it a DLC if cost is what your worried about. I would pay 5 - 10 for a better shop system. It takes hours off my play time having to check AFK shops or defenders store and trying to meet up with someone trying to find better gear. If you go defenders store route you better hope they accept your friend request and are on the same time as you.

4) With all the new characters coming out it seems the old ones are becoming insignificant (apprentice). Instead of a stupid accessories content you come out with perks or something game play related and not purely aesthetic. How bout perks that allow dual pets or dual weapons.
Heck maybe even dual load sets so we dont have to level multiple characters of the same class just to get a tower builder and a hero type.

5) I love monks, probably my favorite class, but why is there dual damage for there weapons (range or melee). If there suppose to be jack of all trades why make them choose a type. How bout instead they merge the damage and only let you do one or the other. If you want to switch maybe they mediate or something (like rangers reload after ammo runs out) and then you can use the other .

There probably more peeves I have but this is long enough for now.
Right now you have a game that forces you to play alot of hours that just seemed wasted. Gotta farm survival or whatever just to make mana to upgrade your gear which may only last you a couple levels ( maps) before you need to find stronger gear to do the next. This game currently requires alot of hour played just for a little reward/progression.
When this happens you make your game a big target for cheaters. While cheating is bad some of it has altruistic purposes. You sped a week farming the perfect gear drop and next thing you know you need alot of mana to upgrade it to make it useful which also requires farming. This is what would cause a legit player to start look at services such as real money for in game items. I simply do not have the time to put in the game to progress at what I feel is a reasonable rate.

So yeah I have alot of hours invested but most of it is useless hours. I feel like I make very little progression for the amount of time I invest. This is what cause me to stop playing for 2 months before.

[nexor]

Trendy should consider your issues.

[thiameat]

Omg an upgrade or some kind of perk system for each character will really bring this game onto a whole different level! A good one that is!

[Iyashii]

A decent read and valid points.
I would argue the loot farming is preferable to certain people, but that is beside the points you are making.

[cjur3]

What about skill trees for all characters? It would be great if you could add a little chance to stun any enemy with ensare aura or the chance to remove any elemental immunity. Or gas traps to do damage over time. There is no tower doing poison damage.

Somehow i am really missing specializations. People are rated solely by tower stats

Let's work something out to inspire trendy

[Guizmus]

Some feedback about what you said.

1) In game design we went over what makes gamers play games. What is there motivation? This being said the longer you play a game you should feel like you accomplish something. DD is terrible at this.

The game changes with your progression through weapons (unique weapons drop in late maps), pets, or even trophies and crystal skins. I found it rewarding to have a Trendy crystal, or the sky o love one.

2) End game is NM but progression is very hard unless you use outside sources. I can farm survival maps all day long but rarely does any upgrades drop (im talking armor cause weapons are useless without them). Why the hell do so many weapons drop in NM. Weapons are already pretty much useless unless you get one from a event (boss drops challenges, etc) but they are 50% of the drops during NM. Really how many 200^ weapons does someone need especially when there damaged is greatly reduced on NM difficulty anyways. Now how many 200^ armor drop, rarely.

True that. The summoner is going to solve this problem though (as it seems).
Like you said, if you try to get it yourself, you gonna take a lot of time. But this is the game and I feel the RNG is what make us play too. If drops were stables (i.e. every reward was pre-calculated like in WoW), the game would loose a lot of "content".

3) Why haven't you developed a centralized shop yet. You already host servers why not setup an auction house or trading server. Heck you could even make it a DLC if cost is what your worried about. I would pay 5 - 10 for a better shop system. It takes hours off my play time having to check AFK shops or defenders store and trying to meet up with someone trying to find better gear. If you go defenders store route you better hope they accept your friend request and are on the same time as you.

Greeeeeat idea! The current system is very long and painful. But you are loosing the "shop" customization with items on the floor, trophies, ... Some would be for, some would be against.

4) With all the new characters coming out it seems the old ones are becoming insignificant (apprentice). Instead of a stupid accessories content you come out with perks or something game play related and not purely aesthetic. How bout perks that allow dual pets or dual weapons.
Heck maybe even dual load sets so we dont have to level multiple characters of the same class just to get a tower builder and a hero type.

You can always change gear on the char. Once the gear is upgraded, you can give it a name, so it's more or less easy to know what to put on who if you are a little organised. But the idea of changing specialty of one char has some flaws. For example, the towers adapt to your stats when they change (and thanks for this, we can progress during waves/maps, very important low level). Your idea would make us "save" the building stats of every tower, meaning no progression with changing gear.
Why would you want the apprentice to have dual anything? You really think its insignificant? There are still lots of usage for every single class in my opinion. I don't use my apprentice a lot because of the graphic lag it induces (too many fireballs is evil), but 1 fireball every now and then is very useful for cleaning little mobs, but mostly getting aggro of every single ogre coming on its way. Just an example.

5) I love monks, probably my favorite class, but why is there dual damage for there weapons (range or melee). If there suppose to be jack of all trades why make them choose a type. How bout instead they merge the damage and only let you do one or the other. If you want to switch maybe they mediate or something (like rangers reload after ammo runs out) and then you can use the other .

Monk weapons are different, depending on the weapon type. If you take a long spear, good chance it's gonna have 1 range dmg, not more, and it seems logic. Other weapons have weak melee and lots of projectiles. If you want to go from range to melee, just change weapon ! No other class has the choice between melee and range, this is already a great ability of the monk, no need to make it stronger.

So yeah I have alot of hours invested but most of it is useless hours. I feel like I make very little progression for the amount of time I invest. This is what cause me to stop playing for 2 months before.

I agree with you, as much as I defend the RNG, I think the problem is more the quality calculation of items that make them too bad too often, and still be considered by the game as "great quality".

[DarkSoul]

the major issue is a simple one the game is perfect in a sense because easy to insain was the real game and easily scores 10/10 for design, the nightmare mode is the issue becuase it breaks away from the mechanics set in the real game and trys to do something else but remain the same game thus issues happen. Due to it being post development makes it even worse for the devs to fix.

There are some new action rpg loot games being released that progression is far far better than DD due to advertising rules cant post there names in this context. However there is one I would recommend that is not what everyone is going for atm but is going to be the best one to go for in my view.

[zingfharn]

It's not advertising to name other games.
Advertising would be where you derail a thread to put a link to your store in it.

So, what other games do you mean?

[SyDiko]

Good ideas, however...

1) In game design we went over what makes gamers play games. What is there motivation? This being said the longer you play a game you should feel like you accomplish something. DD is terrible at this.

This statement doesn't make any sense.

How can you spend over 400 hours playing a game, say a game 'rules,' and NOT feel a sense of accomplishment? What do you think has kept you in the game for so long? I'll tell you, it's wanting to achieve even more each session you're defending your precious crystals! With that said, I disagree with your point whole-heartedly, because Trendy has persevered in an extremely diffcult genre. If you want to see a tower defense with no true feeling of accomplishment, give Sactum a go!

[MalenkoMC]

I would like to point out that fixing number 3 would fix the economy of this game. I realize we can't up the 2bil cap, but I am not a fan of tokens. I use them, but I am not a fan of them. They cost too much to make, even at 600m they are worthless to many (50 tokens for a Godly shield accessory is outrageous!!!).

I think having a vast open market that is accessible to all will help balance the game.