For the past few months, Element TD 2 has been plagued by a bug where, when a game loads, half the players would somehow get split into a separate game instance, making them appear as though they're AFK at the start and then die.
We've been doing some heavy debugging recently, and we believe we've found the issue. As it turns out, it wasn't caused by us, but rather, a change from our server backend that interacted poorly with our setup.
A fix has been applied in Version 1.6.2. If anyone is still encountering this issue, please let us know! In the meantime, we're still working on fixes for the following:
Desyncs in Ranked
MMR search range being off
Being able to pause after you've died
Chaos being incompatible with Co-op Boss Variants
We hope have fixes for these out within the next week.
Version 1.6.1 - Hotfixes
Fixes
Map-specific Achievements added for Cave, Space & Lowlands
This fixes a bug where, upon previously completing one of these maps, it'd chuck you random other achievements
Fixed minimap offsets on Cave, Space, & Lowlands
Fixed pings not appearing on Cave & Space
Fixed builder not properly moving up/down on Cave & Space
Fixed pressing Esc on the map selection screen going back to the starting Main Menu
Fixed updated desync detector in Ranked
Fixed Cursed tooltip randomizing when selecting it on various towers
Please note, we are aware of the multiplayer bug where, after loading, half the players end up in a separate game instance. Fixing this bug is our top priority! There's also a few other long-time bugs that have been popping up, like the ghost lobby issue, or replays not loading properly, which we're also investigating.
Version 1.6 - New Maps!
It's Friday the 13th, and you know what that means? That's right, it's patch time! New Maps, Map Variants have Leaderboards, Ranked now has a Tower Ban Phase, some overdue Lobby UI updates, tons of bug fixes, the usual balance shenanigans, some love for War Mode, and more!
New Maps
Cave
That's right, we actually added a simple spiral map, which surprisingly was not in the game already.
Cave Variant
This map actually comes courtesies of our #map-ideas channel on our Discord! With some tweaks, of course.
Space
Element TD 2... in space?
Space Variant
Do I want to know how this map even works?
Lowlands Co-op Map
What a calm, peaceful map! Would be a shame if it was covered in creeps.
Map Variants Updated
First off, Variants now have their own maps names! And even better yet, they also have their own Leaderboards!
That's a lot of leaderboards. Start climbing!
Additionally, two of the existing Map Variants have been switched out for better versions from the Campaign, adapted for FFA/Teams.
Temple Variant
It's like someone took the Temple Map from Mission 20 and lopped off the sides.
Wasteland Variant
4 separate paths in a FFA Map? Can you even cover everything on the first wave?
Co-op Boss Versions
You'll notice that instead of Co-op Map Variants, we now have Co-op Boss Variants. Each of these has their own wave order, including some Campaign-only creeps. Additionally, at the start of every 5th wave, a Boss will precede the wave.
And yes, these also have their own Leaderboards.
Transference is here to make everyone suffer.
Engage Warp Speed!
Yes, even this diabolical boss has been added on some maps.
Ranked Ban Phase
At the start of a Ranked Pick or Ranked War match, there's now a 1 minute ban phase:
Both players choose 3 towers to ban, 1 minute to select bans
Singles & Support Towers cannot be banned (1st, 3rd, and 5th rows on Tower Table).
Once both players have chosen their bans (or after a minute has passed), it'll reveal the towers that are banned.
Note, it is possible for both players to ban the same tower. Banning is also optional. That said, 0 to 6 towers can be banned.
A banned tower cannot be built or upgraded to.
Additionally:
Ranked now requires both players to accept the match within 30 seconds
Some backend adjustments have been made, which should reduce the chance of desyncs.
In Ranked, if a game desyncs, it'll now compare networths between both players. If the difference in networths is below 1%, it won't kill the game and should instead keep going.
Now if a tower is OP, you can just ban it. All our balance problems solved! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Improvements
Lobby & Lobby List UI updates:
Selecting a map pulls up its own menu.
There is now a magnifying glass icon on the map preview, letting you Zoom In.
Co-op Map Previews show each players' paths as colored lines.
Map previews actually update when you turn on Advanced Paths. Doesn't apply to Co-op.
Lobby List cleaned up, allowing for all Settings to be properly visible now.
When placing a tower on a spot where another tower already exists, an indicator will tell you that you can't build there.
Co-op Portals now have a different color glow around them, dependent on the player color they're supposed to match.
If a player disconnects, their builder should now vanish.
When viewing a replay, there's now a UI for switching player perspectives.
Ranked Replays should now end when the game ends instead of going further. This includes when a desync happens in the original game.
MMR Search Range no longer scales by games played, everyone gets to search everyone within 375 MMR.
Leaderboards now only show 50 entries instead of 100, halving the load time.
Adjusted how creeps scale visually over time. Should be more consistent than before, and in Chaos in particular, they'll actually grow properly instead of be all over the place.
Campaign adjustments:
Insane Difficulty option added
Inferno Boss fireball now has a max range of 2000
Halved the number of bosses in the last 5 waves of Mission 25 to account for Inferno Boss no longer being cheesable
War Mode adjusted:
Elemental Bosses are freebies, meaning you don't have to kill the bosses
As a result, there's no longer 30 second breaks every 4 waves
Additionally, you can't get Level 2 Elements until the 4th Pick, Level 3 Elements until the 8th Pick, and Essence Upgrade until the 10th Pick
Non-damage effects no longer affect allied creeps
Wait, there's a second row of maps? Since when were these in the game?
Fixes
Potentially fixed mid-game spontaneous disconnects, particularly in laggy co-op games
Fixed an issue where people would desync at the start of the game, causing some players to look like they've gone AFK and die immediately
Fixed an issue where the game pausing caused people to get stuck between the loading screen and the game
Fixed a bug in Ranked where the end-screen wouldn't show up
Fixed a rare bug where a Ranked Game could somehow be set to Normal Difficulty
In the off-chance a Ranked Game doesn't load properly, it should no longer count as a win/loss
Fixed an issue where you could see who your ranked opponent is before the match locks in, which allowed you to Alt+F4 and dodge a guaranteed loss vs. HD
Fixed a bug in Boss Hunt Length where the speed multiplier would decrease over time
Fixed a bug where you couldn't kick someone in lobby under specific circumstances
Fixed FFA lobby settings carrying over into War Mode
Fixed Advanced Paths, No Interest, & No Sell not showing up as settings in the Lobby List
Fixed Ronalds somehow spamming the log
Fixed nullref error on Tropical
Fixed the Tower Table in Menu bugging out if you did 11 element picks and pressed reset
Fixed "Aftersock" tooltip
Now you can walk away for 30 minutes and return without a loss!
Balance
General
Income Upgrade has been removed from the game
Rather than being an "interesting choice" alongside the Element Picks, it's just money with no real downside. We tried various iterations of it, but as the balance kept shifting, trying to get this right was a real pain. Ultimately, we decided to gut it from the game, in favor of "do something more interesting with that 11th Element Pick".
To clarify, the version that's in the Campaign still exists.
Periodic damage reduced from 55000 to 52000
FFA Base HP increased from 120 to 125
Co-op Base HP increased from 150 to 160
War Base HP increased from 125 to 150
The backend adjustments made to reduce desyncs affected the accuracy of range and AoE. It's relatively minor, but you may notice towers clipping spots a little easier than before.
Duals
Atom damage reduced from 330 to 310
Poison duration increased from 16 to 17 seconds
Disease reworked:
Damage increased from 95 to 150
Old Effect: Deals more damage the lower the target's HP is. Formula = [(Max HP/Current HP) + 1]
New Effect: Deals 2.5% / 3% / 4% more damage per 1% HP the target is missing
Vapor damage increased from 1100 to 1150
Ice damage increased from 825 to 850
Solar damage-per-second reduced from 120 to 110
Infernal damage increased from 700 to 750
Howitzer damage increased from 195 to 200
Geyser damage increased from 1050 to 1100
Blacksmith, fixed a bug where its buff wouldn't affect certain towers:
This includes Corrosion, Doom, Plague & Obelisk
Trickery adjusted:
Damage increased from 325 to 450
Range and cast range reduced from 1150 to 900
Clone now deals 100% damage regardless of Level
Duration adjusted from 20 seconds to 10 / 20 / 60 seconds
Clones now carry manual/autocast settings over from the original
Clones can no longer be manually sold
Triples
Astral damage increased from 2000 to 2100
Ethereal damage increased from 850 to 900
Flooding damage increased from 420 to 440
Impulse damage increased from 2700 to 2850
Quake adjusted:
Shockwave trigger count required reduced from 8 to 5
Shockwave damage reduced from 2600 to 1750
Money passive gold rate increased from 5 to 6 gold every 15 seconds
Quads
Quad Element Tower cost increased from 4000 to 4250
Singularity damage reduced from 15000 to 13000
Doom adjusted:
Damage increased from 0 to 1000
Attack speed reduced from 1.5 to 1
Doom stack damage increased from 7000 to 9000
Doom stack damage growth increased from 4% to 5% per second
Doom stack duration increased from 10 to 20 seconds
Explosion AoE reduced from 100 to 0
Damage will now cap out at 25200 damage per stack
Default priority changed from Near to Strong
Fixed an issue where it was trying to hit the "center" of the creep instead of the pivot, meaning it could sometimes "miss" a physically large creep
On the Creep UI Status Icon itself, it'll tell you both the stack count & the current % increase
On the Creep UI, where HP is listed, next to it will list the total Doom damage, in purple
Crystal Spire adjusted:
AoE reduced from 100 to 0 (Note, its AoE previously didn't work, so effectively, this part is the same)
Max spirits increased from 9 to 11
Tsunami shockwave damage increased from 20k, 50k, 85k, 130k to 23k, 55k, 95k, 145k
Rage adjusted:
Damage-per-second increased from 3600 to 4000
Damage amp reduced from 30% to 25%
Movespeed reduced from +60% to +50%
Archdruid adjusted:
Damage increased from 20000 to 25000
AoE reduced from 400 to 300
Life Altar damage/attack speed buff reduced from 45% to 40%
Tesla Tree nerfed:
Damage reduced from 8000 to 7500
AoE reduced from 100 to 0
Gravity Cannon adjusted:
Damage increased from 4000 to 12400
Attack speed reduced from 3 to 1
Speedup/Slow durations increased from 0.2 to 0.5 seconds
Default priority changed from Front to Back
Shredder adjusted:
No longer speeds up split creeps by 5%
Split creep HP increased from 50% to 55%
Creeps split by Shredder now only count for half a kill each for Life Altar
Nuclear adjusted:
Damage reduced from 15000 to 10000
Max slow reduced from 40% to 30%
% HP damage-per-second increased from 0.25% to 0.35%
Effect no longer applies to Elemental Bosses
Fixed a bug with its damage-per-second applying inconsistently within its AoE. This should be an increase compared to before.
Map Tweaks
Changed the advanced path layout for Desert Variant
Autumn Variant side paths now have reduced HP instead of reduced speed
Winter Variant HP reduced by 20% on both paths
On Advanced, only the long path is reduced by 20% HP
Volcano adjusted:
Short Paths 2 & 6 sped up by 15%
Long Paths sped up 20-30%, HP lowered by 10%
Middle mountain finally removed, replaced with build spots
Tundra lower-left mountains pushed back, build spots added in that area
Pinnacle adjusted:
Short Paths changed from +10% HP / +10% Movespeed to just +10% HP
Long Paths sped up 20-30%, HP lowered by 10-20%
Specializations Some of these were updated in Version 1.5, we just failed to note them or update the tooltips properly, so the following list notes changes from both 1.5 & 1.6.
Water Spec 1 bounce range increased from 300 to 500
Water Spec 2 bounce damage reduced from 75% to 70%
Lightning Spec 2 bounce count reduced from 6 / 8 / 10 to 5 / 7 / 9
Vapor Spec 1 adjusted:
Old: Damage reduced by 40%. Bonus damage per creep increased to 6% / 9% / 12%.
New: Range reduced to 750. Bonus damage per creep increased to 5% / 10% / 15%.
Vapor Spec 2 bonus damage per creep increased from -9% / -6% / -3% to 0%
Ice Spec 2 cannot be stunned cooldown reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds
Well Spec 1 range increased to 1500
Blacksmith Spec 1 range increased to 1500
Trickery Spec 1 adjusted:
Old: Range increased to 1500. Clone deals 32% / 96% / 288% damage.
New: Range increased to 1500. Clone duration reduced to 8 / 16 / 48 seconds.
Trickery Spec 2 adjusted:
Old: Range reduced to 250. Clone deals 50% / 150% / 450% damage for 20 seconds.
New: Range reduced to 250. Clone duration increased to 12 / 24 / 72 seconds.
Laser Spec 1 damage gain per nearby creep increased from 500 / 2000 to 1000 / 4000
Haste Spec 2 attack speed gain reduced from 5% to 3%
Quake Spec 1 adjusted:
Old: Trigger count reduced to 4 attacks, Shockwave Damage reduced by 40%.
New: Trigger count reduced to 3 attacks, Shockwave Damage reduced by 30%.
Quake Spec 2 adjusted:
Old: Shockwave Damage increased by 60%.
New: Shockwave Damage increased by 150%.
Money Spec 2 bonus damage based on Unspent Gold increased from 25% / 50% to 30% / 60%
Windstorm Spec 2 AoE reduced from 400 to 300
Where we're going, we don't need roads... just endless space.
Element TD 2 Wiki
If you didn't know, we actually have an Element TD 2 Wiki. Go into greater depth on each map, tower, specific mechanics, and even version history! Big shoutout to a few specific members of our Discord Community for creating and maintaining the Wiki:
draktok
Sacropedia
SilverDeath
What's Next?
Somehow, this patch ended up being larger than 1.4's Quad Element Patch. Despite that, there's a few things we ran out of time to add. Insane in Campaign, but no 5-star score thresholds? New maps, but no new Achievements? No fancy new cosmetics?
Fret not, everything we missed this patch will be coming in Version 1.7, set to release in July. This'll also act as an interim patch while the ever mysterious Mazing DLC is being developed. We still don't have a more specific time frame on it or details to show you yet. We'll start showing off Mazing when we're ready.
In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the new maps, the Variants you didn't know existed due to poor UI, and all the other juicy additions!
1.6 Preview - We're going to spaaace!
This is just a quick preview patch to nutshell what's in the next update. Coming up in Version 1.6, we've got the following:
4 New FFA/Teams Maps (including Variants)
1 New Co-op Map
Map Variants have their own leaderboard entries
"Reverse" versions of Co-op Maps instead changed to "Boss" versions
Ranked Mode will have tower bans at the start of each match
Lots of bug fixes related to stability and crashing
Lobby UI cleaned up
Income Pick removed
Problematic Quads and Trickery dialed in
And more balance and quality-of-life updates!
Version 1.6 will be releasing on Friday, May 13th. See you next week!
Is that a space map? In Element TD 2? What fantasy sacrilege is this?
Version 1.6 - Added Rollback!
Do you hate desyncs? Then hate no longer, because as of this update, Desyncs are a thing of the past. We've gone and replaced our unstable netcode with Rollback! But what exactly is Rollback?
In a nutshell, Rollback netcode is a way to send commands instantly, by assuming you're doing what you did last, and in the off-chance you do something different, things might jump around here or there a bit, but only by a few frames.
But what if you desync? Fear not, feeble minds, because Rollback will just roll back the desync to when it didn't happen, and everyone will be in sync. That is 100% how it works and if you doubt us, try it for yourself on our alpha branch. Just right-click Element TD 2 --> Properties --> Betas, and switch to the alpha branch.
In addition to Rollback, we're adjusting the game's balance, particularly with Quad Element Towers. They're not quite living up to their roles, so we're giving them some minor improvements that should allow each one to truly feel unique.
Quad Balance
Quad Elements can now go on double dates.
Railgun's main gun now has truly global range and can snipe creeps from one game to another. This is what cross-region play was meant for.
Singularity now pulls nearby towers into it, exploding once it reaches a certain threshold. Damage and area is proportional to the total value consumed.
Selling a Doom tower no longer nets you gold, but instead reduces an opponent's life by 1.
Phantom Zone tower has been renamed to the Twilight Zone tower. It will now question the moral sanctity of everything you believed was real, and more.
Plague can be found in the decontamination wing, next to the corpses of Poison & Disease towers.
Crystal Spire no longer has a cap to its spirit count.
Tsunami's tidal wave improved to wash creeps off the path. Spamming it too much will flood the map and drown your towers.
Obelisk has been adjusted:
Base damage reduced from 4000 to 0
Range increased from 900 to 3000
Should it train on a single target long enough to trigger an explosion capable of enveloping the map, it will now crash the game.
Rage now attacks nearby towers, and if there's no towers in range, it'll free itself from the ground and go after your Builder.
Archdruid has been improved to be able to throw your towers into other locations. Relocate with ease!
Life Altar no longer costs lives to activate its ability. Instead, it gives lives to your opponents. There's no need for sacrifice here.
Due to lack of use, Tesla Tree has been removed from the game and been replaced with An Actual Tree. Plant more to save the world.
Gravity Cannon can now adjust the gravitational constant of the universe. It's quite simple, really.
Building a Nuclear will cause a meltdown that annihilates your map and causes you to forfeit. What did you think would happen if you built it?
Shredder can now split creeps indefinitely, halving their size every time. Observe as thousands of miniature Ronalds take over the game!
Lastly, we'd like to address the release date for this patch. Normally, when we drop patch notes, we release the patch at the same time. However, in an effort to help hype everyone up, we've decided to post these notes early.
You can expect to play Version 1.6 w/ Rollback on Friday, May 6th, 2666. The added years is just to make sure we release on time. As you well know, we have a tendency to miss our estimates. However, we have a fallback. In case we somehow miss that date, we'll just roll it back, and it'll be out on time.
Try to desync on Alpha Branch!
Since before release, Element TD 2 has suffered from desyncs, a problem where the game state isn't synced up by the end. We've tried numerous fixes to hack it down over time, but we were never successful.
However, in our upcoming Version 1.6, we've made some more adjustments, and so far from testing, we have yet to desync. This isn't the first time this has happened from testing though, so in order to help cement this (or debunk it), we'd like to ask you all to help.
To try it out, first switch to Alpha Branch!
Alpha Branch
We're opening this to the public! No more password, and no more Discord only. To access the Alpha Branch, right-click Element TD 2 --> Properties --> Betas. Once you have it, you'll be able to try all the latest changes from our upcoming version!
However, it comes with some limitations:
Finding multiplayer games is version locked. If you're on alpha, you'll only be able to find and play with others on alpha.
Scores pulled off on alpha won't submit to the Score Leaderboard.
Ranked Games will not affect your MMR.
Replays from older versions will not run properly due to balance adjustments.
Testing Desyncs
You don't have to do anything special to try and desync the game. Just hop onto alpha branch, convince your friends to join, and play together! If the game does desync, a pop-up will appear and let you know. Should this happen, please let us know and post logs of it on our Discord.
Logs can be found here - C:\Users\%username%\AppData\LocalLow\Element Studios\Element TD 2
Post your player.log and said replay file to the #alpha-bugs channel
If multiple people from the same desynced game could also post a screenshot of the end score screen, that would also help considerably
Our hope is that desyncs are at least minimized compared to before. If you play on alpha branch and don't encounter any desyncs, consider that a win!
Version 1.6.alpha Changes
In addition to our desync fixes, the upcoming version contains some other new features, some that you can try out right now! Included so far is:
Ranked Mode requires a double-accept confirmation prompt
Ranked Mode now has a Ban Phase!
Numerous WIP balance adjustments
You can read all the changes on our Discord in the #alpha-notes channel. If you have any feedback on the changes so far, let us know in the #testers channel. We also have regular test games in that channel, so if you're looking for players to play with on alpha branch, try there!
We also have a few more features we plan to add by the time Version 1.6 officially launches, like new maps and improved Lobby UI, so look forward to that!
Mazing DLC & More Maps coming!
It's been close to year since Element TD 2 officially released. Since then, we've added Quad Element Towers, applied numerous balance patches, added tons of Quality-of-Life features, done a bunch of bug fixes, and more!
However, we still have plans for more content. We did some posts last year about this (What's next for Element TD 2 & Roadmap - Next Few Versions); this post will be also addressing those things + other stuff we're unfortunately not committing to, and reasons for said things.
Mazing DLC
Since our announcement last year about Mazing DLC, many of you have expressed curiosity and excitement about it, and thus far we've remained largely silent. Most of our work in the past half year has gone to Version 1.4's Quad Towers and addressing fixes for it, so we still don't have anything to show you for Mazing yet; however, we can confirm it's in-progress and in a working state.
Due to the amount of content we're packing into this mode, it will be sold as a DLC. We don't have an exact price for it yet, but we can confirm it'll contain the following things:
2 Chapters worth of a Mazing Campaign
Mazing versions of at least 8 FFA/Teams Maps & 3 Co-op Maps
Mazing Leaderboards
For multiplayer, only the host will be required to have the Mazing DLC; everyone without the DLC will be able to join their games.
Expect Mazing DLC to release Q3 2022!
More Maps
Our our Discord, we recently announced we'll be adding new maps to the game, and have since created a #map-ideas channel for people to post their ideas. Many of you have responded with numerous map designs, both for FFA/Teams & Co-op.
Not every one of these will be included (that'd be way too many), but we're looking to add a good few in the next update. In addition to these maps, this update will also include:
Variants & Reversed versions of maps given new wave orders
Improved Map Selection
Improved Lobby & Lobby List UI
More balance updates tailored towards making Quads a supplement to the game, not a requirement
With this update, not only will there be new maps to play with, but some of the existing maps that have been overshadowed will receive some love, too.
The More Maps Update is coming in Version 1.6 and will see a release by Early May, possibly sooner.
Cancelled Plans
Now to address the downer news. In the past, we've promised updates to certain parts of our game that we wanted to add more of. However, in the interests of prioritizing stuff that benefits the larger playerbase (like the above two updates), or things that are simply "too late to add", we've had to cancel plans for these things.
Chapter 5 of the Campaign
For those of you that have played all the way through the Campaign, you'll know that the later missions are somewhat ridiculous in scale, especially all of Chapter 4. Not only that, but the amount of upgrade points you eventually get lets you create some truly game-breaking builds by the end (if you know what you're doing).
In order to extend the Campaign by another full Chapter, it'd involve maintaining a somewhat similar scale, while also addressing how powerful your upgrades are at that point. Each mission of Chapter 4 already took an insane amount of time to create, and that'd only get worse for Chapter 5. Ultimately, we've deemed it's not worth the roughly estimated 4-6 months it'd take to extend the existing Campaign.
Instead, we'll be pouring our efforts into the Mazing Campaign that'll be introduced in the Mazing DLC, as noted above. It'll start the upgrade tree over but progress faster than the original campaign. Expect that to be roughly the length of Chapters 2 & 3 combined.
Ranked Teams
This one's been requested quite a bit. The reason we haven't added this though is because our backend for Ranked only supports 1v1, and the effort it'd take to support 2v2 is more than it sounds like. Plus, until we figure out the eternal Desync Issue, Ranked Teams would suffer from that far more than current Ranked already does.
An Actual Tutorial
To be frank about this one, the main reason we haven't added a full-blown tutorial to the game is, well... it should've been implemented from the start. We know the game is fairly unintuitive to learn, and while the early Campaign somewhat addresses some basics, it's a far cry from what's necessary.
However, that doesn't mean we're giving up on this entirely. Expect to see more tips on the loading screen, as well as tips in the Customize Towers section of the game. We may also find other UI upgrades to the game that could help out. There's also a Beginner's Guide in our Steam Guides section.
Expanding War Mode
Contrary to the lack of support on our end for War Mode, we actually really like this mode. Unfortunately, it hasn't exactly taken off, and it has its own set of problems that make it more problematic to deal with than the standard game. We do have a few things left we're going to try for fixing this mode (like higher Base HP & HP Scaling), but other than that, plans for 4v4 War Mode and other expansions to it have been dropped, sadly.
Workshop Support
This has easily been the most requested feature to get added to the game. Ultimately, the reason we can't add it though is because our backend does not support it at all. In order to do so, we'd have to do some major overhauls, which would not only take forever, but would be likely to break a lot of things, thus taking yet more time.
As always, we'll continue to support the game with our usual updates. Balance, QoL, bug fixes, new cosmetics, etc. And we're still trying to track down that elusive Desync Issue, as always. If you've got any logs and replays that can help us track it down, hop onto our Discord Server and post them in #bug-reports.
Thanks for reading our giant wall-of-text, and hope you look forward to our future updates!
Version 1.5.1 - Hotfix
Fixes
In Ranked, fixed end-of-game screen using Season 2 MMR Values
In Campaign,
*Money Tower** should no longer generate gold during wave breaks
Fixed customize builder/tower having a pitch black backdrop
Fixed a few tooltips that weren't properly updated on Version 1.5 release
In terms of other issues, we're still trying to debug the eternal desync issue. For those of you that keep running into it, we know it's been frustrating to deal with. To help us track down the issue on our end, please send us your logs & replays on our Discord in the #bug-reports channel.
There's also been numerous suggestions regarding our clunky Lobby & Lobby List interface. We didn't manage to get around to it this patch, but we are looking into cleaning our interface up in the next version or so.
Look forward to an announcement sometime next week about our plans for New Maps & Mazing DLC!
Version 1.5 - Quad Balance and Ranked S3
Welcome to Version 1.5! It's been a few months since we added Quad Element Towers, and overall, the reception has been decent. Build options were expanded, creative compositions were invented, and as per usual, you all broke the game. Instead of filling more specific roles, certain Quads ended up soloing the game. And some Quads were just outright bad.
To that end, balance this patch was focused on bringing down the outliers while giving some love to underpowered towers. Not just Quads, but everything.
Other than that, we've got Ranked Season 3, various fixes and improvements, and a couple new builders. Without further ado, read on for the notes:
Accurate rendition of how Version 1.4 was played.
Features & Improvements
Ranked Season 3 has begun! Climb up the ladder in a hopefully more balanced game than before.
Two new Builders added:
Level 60 - Bone Drake
Level 70 - Demon Summoner
In Co-op, Path Indicators are now color-coded, move faster, and linger longer.
Element Prompt now continues to remain up and doesn't act as an input blocker. Has an X button to manually close it out.
When building a Buff Tower (Blacksmith, Well, Trickery & Life Altar), it'll now highlight towers in range of its buff.
You can also see this by hovering over its ability icon.
When hosting a lobby, it'll keep your settings from the last time.
Who knows, Crystal Spire might actually be useful afterall? Nah, probably not.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug where a tower would continue to exist way off-screen for about 10-15 seconds after it was sold.
This included Trickery Clones when they expire.
Since it's way off-screen, it's not in-range for most towers... but certain ones were coded a bit differently and didn't care. Particularly Railgun, Crystal Spire, & Obelisk. All three of these, in conjunction with Trickery, resulted in basically double damage output. EspeciallyRailgun.
Fixed a bug with Railgun where its main gun would be hitting twice.
So instead of dealing 75k damage, it was dealing 150k damage.
This + the Sell-Trickery bug resulted in extreme silliness.
Fixed not being able to select and kick someone in lobby.
Fixed a bug where ctrl+upgrade building from Tower Table wouldn't update the Damage Table.
Fixed an issue with the Average Damage checkbox on the Damage Table where, at the end of the game, it'll list stuff like "In,fin,ity Damage" and -1 on tower counts and the like.
Fixed a bug where you could bypass the tower limit in non-FFA by holding Shift.
Fixed Life Altar listing 0 + 200 for its AoE stat, instead of just 200.
Fixed a bug where, if multiple Trickeries were in range of a chain of Tesla Trees and you switched them from manual to auto-cast, they would all clone the Tesla Tree chain, resulting in a hilariously laggy amount of clones, depending on how much multiplication you did.
Fixed being able to get the Monument Achievement on Easy.
In War, fixed a rare issue where creeps stop spawning.
This caption is here just to confuse you.
Balance
General Balance
Fixed ridiculously stupid logic error that applied Teams Base HP & HP Scaling to FFA. This was legitimately in place since 1.4.2. Words cannot describe.
Expect the game to be up to 10% easier through Wave 55, and start 30% easier from the first Boss Wave.
Diminishing Returns bumped back up from 5% to 6%
Level 3 Boss HP reduced by 10%
Co-op
Wave timer reduced from 8 to 5 seconds
Atlantis creep movespeed increased by 10%
Tundra creep HP increased by 20%
Pinnacle creep movespeed & HP increased by 10% (except on the long paths)
Singles & Duals
Light projectile speed increased by 10%
Darkness projectile speed increased by 15%
Nature damage increased from 90 to 95
Atom adjusted:
Damage increased from 315 to 330
Stack carryover rate increased from 25% to 30%
Lightning damage increased from 180 to 190
Trickery adjusted:
Clone damage reduced from 40% / 120% / 360% to 30% / 90% / 270%
Clone duration increased from 15 to 20
Clones now carry over Cursed stacks from the original tower
Poison duration increased from 15 to 16
Ice damage increased from 800 to 825
Vapor adjusted:
Damage reduced from 2000 to 1100
Damage bonus per creep increased from -4% / 0% / 4% to 3% / 6% / 9%
Solar damage-per-second increased from 110 to 120
Bloom damage increased from 350 to 360
Geyser ability AoE increased from 300 to 300 / 325 / 350
Triples
Laser damage loss per nearby creep reduced from 1000 to 750
Haste adjusted:
Projectile speed increased by 33%
Attack speed gain per attack reduced from 7% to 6%
Max attack speed increased from 5 to 5.5
Golem damage increased from 2300 to 2400
Money adjusted:
Damage reduced from 3400 to 3200
Damage gain based on unspent gold increased from 15% / 30% to 20% / 40%
Tower now passively gives you 5 / 20 gold every 15 seconds
Corrosion damage-per-second reduced from 160 to 150
Quads
Railgun adjusted:
Static field range reduced from 900 to 750
Main gun damage reduced from 75000 to 57500
Passive charge rate increased from 7 to 10
Doom debuff damage reduced from 7500 to 7000
Phantom Zone adjusted:
Shockwave now applies damage in Full/Half AoE, just like all other AoE in the game
Shockwave damage conversion reduced from 30% to 25%
Plague adjusted:
Damage no longer reduces by 2% per second
Duration increased from 20 to 25 seconds
Bounce range increased from 1200 to 1500
Crystal Spire adjusted:
Damage increased from 22000 to 32000
Attack speed reduced from 0.66 to 0.5
Projectile speed increased by 50%
There's now a 0.25 second cooldown before it can launch the next spirit, which should reduce the amount of missed/overlapping attacks
Tsunami clones will now try to automatically trigger their shockwave right before they expire
Archdruid damage now scales by the amount of path skipped. For reference, skipping half the path on Forest will result in a 50% damage increase
Life Altar adjusted:
Damage increased from 8000 to 8500
It now has a 60 second cannot-be-buffed period, matching its cooldown.
Life Threshold increased from 2 to 3 kills
Damage & Attack Speed buff increased from 35% to 45%
Tesla Tree adjusted:
Damage increased from 7500 to 8000
However, the 3000 extra damage it receives per linked tower has been removed. They still combine their damage as they link up.
Gravity Cannon damage reduced from 4200 to 4000
Nuclear max slow increased from 40% to 50%
Shredder adjusted:
Attack speed reduced from 0.66 to 0.5
Split creeps move 5% faster
As per usual, with all our major balance patches, Score Leaderboards have been reset.
Maybe now that he generates a small amount of actual money, this bad boy could have a comeback! Or not.
That's it for Version 1.5! I know it's lighter than our usual fare, but that's because we're working on larger things in the background. We'll have a post up later this month detailing more post-release content for Railgun TD 2Tesla Tree TD 2 Element TD 2. In the meantime, enjoy the patch!
Version 1.4.4 - Hotfixing Campaign Fog and War Mode
Fixes
In Campaign, fixed Fog of War restarting to what it looks like Wave 1 when you load a checkpoint
In War, fixed an issue where Dimensional Rift can start two waves at once
Added an in-game clickable Menu Button, in case you find your keyboard randomly disconnecting in the middle of a match
In the Ranked tab, added a text blurb that mentions Ranked Season 3 will be starting March 4th.
That's all for the hotfix, and the above date is also when Version 1.5 will be dropping. This will largely just be fixes, quality of life, balance, and cosmetics. The attempt at adding 15 Quad Element Towers may have broken more things than we thought, and said patch will be addressing all of that, so look forward to that!
