Talk:TowerDefense

Bugs, Change Requests and Comments

Please enter new topics on top! Wplaat 14:44, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Default name

Hi, instead of setting the name to AAAAAA by default, maybe it would better to use the CONF_GetNickName function in conf.h to get the console name. Like that, there might be less AAAAAA in the high scores. -Crayon (talk) 17:31, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi Crayon. Nice idea. Do you have a example how to us CONF_GetNickName. Could not find a example? Wplaat 21:05, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi, I did some quick test. It seems to work with this code:

    char ValidNick[7] = ""; // 6 characters + the trailing NULL (game limit)
    u8 NickName[22];        // Name stored on the Wii, size is 0x16 bytes
    CONF_GetNickName(NickName);
    char *UpperCaseNick = strupr((char *)NickName); // Convert to uppercase (game limit)

    u8 c, d;
    for(c=0, d=0; c<sizeof(ValidNick)-1; d++) {
        if((UpperCaseNick[d] >= 0x41 && UpperCaseNick[d] <= 0x5A) ||
            (UpperCaseNick[d] >= 0x30 && UpperCaseNick[d] <= 0x39)) {
            // Accept only chars used in the font (uppercase letters + numbers)
            ValidNick[c++] = UpperCaseNick[d];
        }
    }

Next step is to print ValidNick in your drawing function. You may want to check this page for the Nick Name details on the Wii. -Crayon (talk) 06:01, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

I think there is no empty characters (NULL) inside your choice of chars in the Game Settings. So it means you will need to add some letters at the end for Nick Names smaller than 6 characters. One thing you could do is allow the space char (32) and trim the end of the string. Anyway I'm sure you could find a good way to manage that ;) -Crayon (talk) 06:14, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

If you want the code to work without any changes to rest of the program. The easiest way would be just to initialize ValidNick:
char ValidNick[] = "AAAAAA"; // 6 characters + the trailing NULL (game limit)
-Crayon (talk) 15:52, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

• Hi Crayon. Thanks for the Google Code patch. I have tested it. It works great! I have added your patch in the trunk code. Wplaat 19:18, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
  • I just found an error in my code, sorry :( It's related to small Nick Names. They never exit the loop (or they take any valid chars from memory after NickName). So you should use this:

   for(c=0, d=0; c<sizeof(ValidNick)-1 && d<sizeof(NickName)-1; d++) {

Has a reminder, the following code is not needed anymore since ValidNick is initialize to "AAAAAA":

   firstChar='A';
   secondChar='A';
   thirdChar='A'; 
   fourthChar='A';
   fifthChar='A';
   sixthChar='A';

Sorry again, Crayon (talk) 20:13, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

• Hi Crayon. I have corrected the code and checked all possible nickname combinations. It is working fine now. Yesterday evening i have released v0.92 with contain this code. Greeting! Wplaat 14:41, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks

Great game man keep it up --MGordonH 15:54, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

Sprites

monsters and turrets

I'd like to contribute some sprite animations to make it less sparse. Animations for monsters north/south/east/west, and death splats, and firing animations for the towers. All custom just for this game, and following a consistent theme. Fun as it is seeing Kuribos and Domo slide across the screen, I think advancing the graphics a bit and having original IP would go a long way towards gaining widespread acceptance as a game. Would you incorporate such contributions?Applicant 255 22:44, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

- Yes please (ofcouse for free under the GPL license), If the sprites (32x32 pixels) are looking good in the game i will us them in the next release. Please post a comment on my website when you are ready. In the mean time i will remove the two not IP free images. Oeps! —Preceding unsigned comment added by user name or IP (talk • contribs) 04:59, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

I drew some concept art last night. Going to start some modelling now to see what kind of detail resolves well in 32x32. Got stuck playing the new .8 version though for twenty minutes or so. On Easy in the first level, I ended up filling the screen with nukes. Got to level 124 with +1 million points, and the enemies just stopped coming. For a while there were so many on-screen that there was slowdown to around 20fps, but a few minutes after that I had so many nukes on screen that there were no longer enough enemies to slow it down any more.Applicant 255 22:51, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Made a few test animations this evening from the first png frames, to see what I'm getting from the size and three frames for movement.Applicant 255 04:12, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

You are fast! :-} The graphics / art drawings looking great! Some color and optimising for 32x32 pixels and the are ready for use! Tip: The base sprite can be 64x64 pixels. Wplaat

• The blurriness is because antialiasing is turned on, and a bit high for such a small size. The darkness was a combination of the color choice, a darker purple/pink with only a single light in the scene. I'll add an extra fill light and turn down the AA for the next set. Also planning brighter colors for the next models. I'm trying to have it render straight from blender at 32x32. It's faster because then I can just animate it, then render from the four directions, and if I want to change something I can change it once like add an extra frame, or change the materials, or an new light, and re render all 12 frames at the same time.Applicant 255 13:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
• Made a second bug today, and fooled around with the antialiasing options. Updated the texture of the first bug to be a bit brighter. Here's two gifs of the first bug, one with antialiasing on while rendering, the other with it off. Can't really decide between the two - it's a tradoff between looking sharp with jaggy edges, or smooth, but slightly blurry. Which do you prefer? ( both displayed at 128 px to get a good look ) In the gif here it's overlaid with white on the transparent edges, but in the png's it's in an alpha channel, so it will look smooth and blend in well with the background.Found a better, third option, tent filter, 9x9 with a .5 sample size, seems to work well to preserve the sharpess, but still reduces the jaggies. Unless you're partial to one of the others ( or using RGB instead of RGBA, and defining transparency based on a single color ), I'm gonna go with this one.
  

Applicant 255 21:26, 31 December 2009 (UTC)Applicant 255 01:45, 1 January 2010 (UTC)
Applicant 255 21:54, 31 December 2009 (UTC)
North, East, South, West, Splat.Applicant 255 05:20, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

Great work. The last render method give the best results, i agree. When you provide the images to me i need them in PNG format (GIF is not support by the GFX engine). All the frames must be combined in one PNG image as a 2D array. How many enemies and weapons systems types can your created? Wplaat

n1	e1	s1	w1
n2	e2	s2	w2
n3	e3	s3	w3
d1	d2	d3	d4

Do palette swaps count towards the total? I had been rendering frames as PNG, so it's fairly straightforward to combine them - copy and past 16 times. My plan was to do all the bugs and towers in the concept drawing on the right, with a few color variations on the monsters, and some minor shape/color changes on the towers, with 16 directions and firing animations for the guns, an idle animation and firing glowing animation for the laser, and the same for the nuke. Is the nuke a missile that should fire, or a nuclear ray gun, like a radioactive beam weapon? ( 3 variations x 6 bugs x 16 frames ) + ( 2 x 5 towers x 4x16 frames ) = 928 frames? Something like that...Applicant 255 19:45, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

Bug 2. Starting on the third one now...Applicant 255 23:31, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

• Just realized that bug 2 seems to go s,e,n,w, not n,e,s,w....Applicant 255 01:09, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

Bug 3. Applicant 255 17:40, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

• Hi Applicant. About this nuke thing? It is a nuclear ray gun. Today i have release v0.90. Updated most of the background images. I personly think it is now more one thema. When i add you great sprites it will be perfect! Keep on the good work! Greetings from a white (snowy) Holland! Wplaat 19:21, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

Cool. Applicant 255 04:30, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

• Hi Applicant. Can you adapted the color of the Orange or Yellow bug a little bit. Because on a TV screen The color looks the same! Wplaat
• Okay, I've added a bit more yellow dye #2 to the banana flavour.Applicant 255 01:28, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Applicant 255 02:52, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

Applicant 255 00:17, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

• Hi Applicant. I have integrated your sprites in the game. They looking great! Do you want to receive a Beta of this version? We have now 18 animated enemies. Would it be possible to created an other 7. Then the amount of enemies type is again 25. That would be really super! How are the weapons going? Best Regards Wplaat
• Hey. Sad to say, no progress on any new sprites since the last one - back at work, and have been working on a few other projects around home. 2 more types of 3/4 variations shouldn't be a problem. I had some ideas yesterday, but didn't get to start modeling anything yet. Would you like me to start on a weapon sprite next, or finish the last 7 monster sprites? I'm assuming some code would be needed to point weapons in the right direction, but it'd also be nice to complete all the monsters. Your choice, I'll resume modeling work tomorrow.Applicant 255 04:08, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

Bug 7. Applicant 255 04:08, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

• Hi Applicant. I will wait until all enemies (25) are created. Then i will bring out the next release. Do you have also plans to created new animated base sprites (6)? I will adapt the code that weapons can point to the target enemy. I will change the image angle realtime. Wplaat

Bug 8. Yes, next will be tower sprites that with firing animations in 16 directions.Applicant 255 05:15, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

• Hi Applicant. I have released TowerDefense v0.91. This build contain your sprites! Download it and watch the result of your great work! Greetings!

• Excellent, just played it. I see the balance in difficulty has been restored as well - I had to build a bit more variety in weapons before I progressed to nukes, and it gradually began to get very difficult; one or two guys got through, once in a while, but then going back and upgrading a few things or building an extra tower would hold them back for a few more waves. Three things about the sprites:

1. I forgot to go back and fix bug2 - he's got north and south reversed, so it looks like he's climbing down going south, and moonwalking going north. I'll upload a new version - can you swap him out?
2. I should have mentioned the animation frames are meant to go frame1, frame2, frame1, frame3. Frame one is meant to be a neutral standing straight up and down pose, then frame 2 is one foot forward, and frame three is the other foot forward. It's not a big deal, but going 1213 instead of just 123 might make them look a bit less twitchy.
3. When playing on hard on the first map, I put two cannons at the top at the very start of the monster path. Twice early in the game something purple ( I think it was the purple version of bug1 ) had been squished like it was killed, but still had 5hp left, and was moving along. It got shot by later towers, but it was definitely put down to 5hp by the first two cannons, had played the squish animation early, but was still walking, and made it all the way down to the first turn in the road, and then half way down that part of the road, squished. Only saw it happen twice, and only when I had two cannons at the very start of the road.

I'll go fix bug 2's variations and upload them, then work on some tower animations.Applicant 255 01:50, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Updates to bug2 uploadedApplicant 255 02:53, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

• Hi, Thanks for the feedback. I have added the correct bug2 and found the issue with walking squished enemies. In the next release it will work correct! Wplaat

First tower. Applicant 255 23:32, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Tower 2. Applicant 255 02:31, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Saw that the top row 12th frame was offset to the right a bit. Just uploaded the corrected version of that file.Applicant 255 23:57, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Tower 3. Not sure about the fiery red in frame 3... Applicant 255 04:13, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

After a bit of staring, I made frame three more orange.Applicant 255 04:36, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

• Hi, The weapons looking great! No comments soo far! Wplaat

Laser tower.

For the missile tower, I was going to make a missile pod with with missile that points and reloads, but just lights up the tower itself and the missle disappears, and have a second sprite of a missile in flight, which would go from the tower to the monster. Can you do this in the game, or should I make the missile tower like the other towers, just a firing animation?Applicant 255 04:10, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

• Hi Applicant, I prefer the easy approach. No separate missile on this moment.

Okay, Missiles. Applicant 255 02:10, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

• Thanks for weapon 5. When the last (nuke) weapon is ready i will release the next version (v0.92) Wplaat 19:21, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Tower 6, the nuke.Applicant 255 18:54, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

• Hi Applicant. Great! I have added all six weapons to the tonight build. Please download release v0.92 to see the result of your great work! Many, many thanks! Wplaat 22:48, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

• Fantastic! Very satisfying now to see a cannon fire at a bug and splatter it. I see you've made it more balanced again - Got to level 50 this time, but found I had to use a greater mix of weapons. I'm not sure if it's noticeable to anyone else, but it looks as though the towers turn clockwise one frame when they fire, as though they point right the bug, then turn 22 degrees to the right to fire, then turn back 22 degrees left at the end of firing. Let me know if you want changes to these or any new sprites/graphics. Applicant 255 23:52, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

• Hi Applicant, I will checked the 22 degree issue. You are right. ;-{ I will correct it in the next release. Wplaat 14:38, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Too hard to play v0.70

Can anyone provide any tips for getting prepared for Wave 31 and above in version 0.7? I have been playing Easy - Level 2 - and understand the game, but when those guys come fast and furious, all of the ways I have tried to prep have failed and the furthest I can get now is Wave 34. With the limited amount of money to work with, the best strategy I have found is to fill every grass spot with Missiles, but I run out of money when trying to upgrade them and then die. Trying to mix Rifles, Missiles, Lasers, and Nukes leads to less success for me because you have fewer of them due to the higher costs of the latter weapons, and paying to increase the rate of all of them gets expensive. Doing just Lasers and Nukes and upgrading them is more doable since you have fewer of them to upgrade so it is less expensive, but even that only gets me to die at level 31. Doing a layer of Rifles, then Missiles, then Lasers leads to the same result also. I run out of money or die before I can do any upgrades that might save me. In version 0.6, I was able to get to Wave 74 with barely any problem, since the enemies weren't all bunched together moving so fast! Maybe there is a better approach, but I haven't gotten there yet... Help please! --SuperWario 03:00, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

- I am working on a new release 0.80 were the game play is equal to v0.60. Sorry that 0.70 is so hard to play. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wplaat2 (talk • contribs) 04:55, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

- Awesome!! Thanks for listening to comments and suggestions - very cool of ya! ;) Making it less difficult (really the reducing speed and/or density of enemies) would really help me out, but I am just wondering if anyone else finds this version hard also? Maybe it's just me?! Perhaps there is a strategy that I am not considering and making it easier would disappoint those who figured it out... Just trying to think of everyone - not just me. --SuperWario 05:07, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Hi SuperWario, i have release this evening v0.80. So good luck! Wplaat

- Thanks!!! The update was HUUUGE! The artwork looks great and the gameplay is much more fair... I hate to say this, but it is TOO fair... as in I never had one hit to my Tower and was able to max out all my weapons which were mostly Nukes and reached Wave 124 and then it Stopped! I did only play on Easy, but I thought the differences in level difficulty was just on level design rather than anything else. I like how the enemies come out at different speeds - it just never got hard enough for me to ever have any problems... I like how there is a meter letting you know how much your Tower has been hit and I like how the Nukes pack a lot of value for their cost in terms of Range and Power. I might have different high score lists or points scales depending either on what version you play or what difficulty level you play. Also, it felt really laggy once a ton of enemies came on the screen, but I suppose there is nothing you can do about the FPS or whatever, right? And I know this may sound hypocritical but I might make the difficulty somewhere in between 0.7 and 0.8 so that people like me don't run out of levels! (Just so you know SuperWario = Andrew - Cedar Grove: I just put the latter on here because that is how it is on the High Score list) THANK YOU - this game ROCKS!!! --SuperWario 04:32, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

Hi SuperWario, Yesterday evening after releasing 0.80 i saw my son playing the game. He played one of the easy maps and also beat all the enemy waves up to 102 then quit the game because i will continue forever. I have all ready adapted the game core a little to make it much hard after wave 100. So keep posted for release 0.90. FPS issue is related to Wii hardware performance. When +/- 200 enemies and +/- 100 weapons are active the FPS will drop to 17. I can not solve this issue ;-{ Wplaat

Too easy to play v0.90

This game has great potential, but it really needs some work toward game balance. It's still too easy.... so it just gets repetitive. There's no point in buying any weapon except the Nuke (all weapons behave the same, except the Nuke is the best one), and you have enough money to buy one at the start, and one single Nuke will easily get you to level 20 even on Hard level.... and by then you have plenty of money to buy more Nukes. I would suggest playing some other Tower Defense games to get some ideas. The "Bloons Tower Defense" series are some great ones to try. Also "Canyon Defense." Oh, and "too hard" is probably a better choice than "too easy" because with "too easy" you run into the problem where you get way too many guns and monsters on the screen, which causes the slowdown. --Mr. Reaper 00:13, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi, you are right. The game play is toõ easy in v0.90. This is a bug. I had adapted the game play to make it much harder but because of this bug it is more easy then ever before. Oeps! I will fix it in the next release. Wplaat

My Million+ High score never got added to the Global/Today High Score list. :( Andrew - Cedar Grove

- Which version of TowerDefense did you use v0.50? I have removed all highscores of this version because the game play was to easy. Please download v0.70 this score will not be deleted. Wplaat

- I was using 0.6 - my other scores got added but this one somehow did not... I am now on 0.7 and the enemies come so fast in levels 31 and above that reaching that high a score seems nearly impossible! Andrew —Preceding unsigned comment added by SuperWario (talk • contribs) 15:11, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

- I am working on a new release 0.80 were the game play is equal to v0.60. Sorry that 0.70 is so hard to play. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wplaat2 (talk • contribs) 04:56, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

This evening 0.80 is released! Wplaat

Problems placing defense

I think there is a button for this to turn it off but im not sure how...My problem is that i want to place my defense on the left hand side of the screen but the score and stats bar is in the way.. Any one know how to fix this?--Davick 03:45, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi Davick, On this moment it is not allowed to build under the control panels. I am thinking about the idea to make the control panels dragable. So you can decide your self where the panels are located on screen. Wplaat

That sounds like a great idea thanks...cant wait for more updates--Davick 00:18, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Snap weapon to grid

- Done in v0.6 Wplaat

Dedicate some screen space for information display so it doesn't cover the map (can't place guns there)

- This request is rejected! Wplaat

Show costs and stats for guns

- Build in v0.6 Wplaat

- Stats are rather small and very hard to read on CRT TV

- Sorry for the small text size but else it will not fit in the information panel. I have a 32" LCD TV, no problem reading it! Wplaat

Display Tower Hit Points near top of tower? (overscan cuts off bottom of screen)

- On this moment the game is optimised for (640x528 pixels) 50 Hz screens. I will try in the next release to support (640x480 pixels) 60Hz screens. Wplaat

Fixed in v0.80 Wplaat

More variety in guns (lasers, machine gun, splash damage, missiles, proximity explosives, etc)

- Let me think about it. Wplaat

More expensive and more rapid firing weapons than nuke which is spelled nuck in the game - wink wink

I only touch the Laser and Nuke so most of the other weapons are kind of useless in my mind.

- Let me think about it. I will correct the nuck->nuke typo in the next release! Wplaat

Make the corners of the grass transparent so they don't look so boxy --Pikamander2

- I have plans with someone else to improve all graphics in one of the upcoming releases. So keep posted! Wplaat

Overscan problem (V0.92)

With my PAL Wii, 480p resolution, I can't see top and bottom of the screen... --Sca.nab 15:42, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi sca.nab. This problem is related to your TV. On my 32" LCD PAL TV i see the complete screen. Wplaat 18:46, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Do you have a YUV cable ? --Sca.nab 22:14, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

I dont think it's related to my TV. See Developer tips#Video Auto-Detect Routine.
Maybe you should replace :

		...
		// Obtain the preferred video mode from the system
		// This will correspond to the settings in the Wii menu
		rmode = VIDEO_GetPreferredMode(NULL);
		// Set up the video registers with the chosen mode
		VIDEO_Configure(rmode);
		...

(main.cpp - line 4684)

by :

		...
		// Obtain the preferred video mode from the system
		// This will correspond to the settings in the Wii menu
		rmode = VIDEO_GetPreferredMode(NULL);
		if( CONF_GetAspectRatio() ) {
			rmode->viWidth = 678;
			rmode->viXOrigin = (VI_MAX_WIDTH_PAL - 678)/2;
		}
		// Set up the video registers with the chosen mode
		VIDEO_Configure(rmode);
		...

--Sca.nab 22:48, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Why don't you try this fix ? --Sca.nab 12:17, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Music stops Bug

Using / to play next/previous music track breaks the music (music just stops) when you cycle more than once through all the tracks from the menu screen or in game. For example keep pressing until I think you cycle trough all the tracks twice and it will not play anything else after than (it's a real pain as I like to choose music this way). This also aplies to the sound menu, think this bug has been around for some time. It's odd that the sound settings show the correct track but no music is played even if the on screen -/+ icon buttons are used.

Greate game TitMouse 07:55, 3 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks TitMouse for the bug report. I will investigate it! Wplaat 13:36, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

BEST GAME EVER!

BEST GAME EVER! ONE WORD! ADDICTIVE! --Aidan 11:26, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Freeze bug

When I click 'play' it freezes. I downloaded it from homebrew browser. Why? I'm on 4.3.