The World's Greatest Kingdom Rush Sandbox

The place to make/discuss Kingdom Rush suggestions.

The World's Greatest Kingdom Rush Sandbox

by kevin32 » Sun May 10, 2015 11:19 pm

After playing Kingdom Rush for a considerable amount of time, you become quite familiar with all the gameplay elements: you know the layout of the stages, you know what enemies are coming, you know what to expect. This is a good thing because it frees you to focus on pure strategy to complete the stages.

But after playing the same stages over and over, the predictability borders on the mundane, and there's less of a desire to replay the stages anytime soon. Therefore, I would like to suggest a new way of bringing novelty and freshness to all the stages. Introducing:

Image


The Kingdom Rush Sandbox is a mod of the original game designed to create an environment of unpredictability and surprise. Anytime you play a given stage, the game will randomly select new features and dynamics for that stage that's not available in the original version. Even if you replay the same stage, the features are randomized so that no two plays are alike. Let me set some conditions for this suggestion so that we're all on the same page:

• The Sandbox is *not* a level editor, per se. You can't edit gold or towers or waves. It's programmed for you to see random features and dynamics during gameplay. So at best you can choose how often you see these, if such a options menu is created. Discussions on a level editor can be found here and here.

• The Sandbox is 100% community-inspired content (though not necessarily original content). All the awesomest ideas from the community are put into the Sandbox. If it works out well, Ironhide can consider including it in a future game. Because it's community-inspired, the community and the playerbase as a whole can expand as more people come in hoping to see their idea in the game.

• The Sandbox is a complete copy of the original game, but modded to include new features and dynamics. Because it's a separate game, the original game isn't touched, so any ideas that Ironhide can't feasibly put into the standard game can be put into the Sandbox.

• The original game gives players a predictable experience, while the Sandbox is gives an unpredictable one. This way players get the best of both worlds.

So the purpose of the Sandbox is to create an environment where you always see something different everytime you play a stage. Below is a list of suggested features from the community. If you have a suggestion, hit that reply button. And feel free to comment how you'd like the Sandbox to work. If your suggestion is downright awesome, even I, the legendary Kevin32......might whip-up some artwork for it.


Randomized Strategic Points (suggested by Big Bad Bug)

Anytime you play a stage, there's a chance that some strategic points will be randomly placed in new locations:

Image



Miniboss Battles

Anytime you play a stage, there's a chance that a powerful brute will appear on the final wave:

Image



Specialty Tower Appearances

In this feature, there's a chance that stage-specific towers will appear in other stages to assist in the battle.

Image



Surprise Hero Appearances

Anytime you play a stage, there's a chance that another hero will appear to assist in the battle:

Image



Random Creep Pattens

Similar to random creep patterns in Endless Mode, some creeps will come from different directions or in different waves than the original game, but it's balanced so you only see creeps that match the combined strength of your tower setup. I personally think this one feature should always be enabled for each replay:

Image



Toxic Waste (suggested by Simmonds91)

In this feature, there's a chance of puddles forming on the stage that will cause enemies who step in it to mutate into stronger versions of themselves. Even your ground troops will mutate and become enemies:

Image



Tower-Attacking Creeps

In this feature, there's a chance that some creeps will attack your towers:

Image



Treasure Gnomes

Sometimes, gnomes will appear that will drop treasure or damage nearby creeps when you poke them. For example, Blue gnomes drop gems, Yellow gnomes drop gold, and Red gnomes drop a random Gnome Shop item:

Image
Last edited by kevin32 on Mon May 18, 2015 12:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
User
 
Posts: 935
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2013 11:22 am
Location: In Machu Picchu, communing with the gods of tower defense.

Re: The World's Greatest Kingdom Rush Sandbox

by Big Bad Bug » Mon May 11, 2015 12:26 am

Great! Here are some other suggestions to add on:

Environmental Additions

Graveyards, the Sacrificial Volcano, Gnome Says, and many more can sneak into the level, with their own skins for the environment, and influence gameplay. Optional: Depending on the environment, additions may have unique effects from their original uses, such as the Sasquatch Cave spawning in the Rotten Forest and giving us a massive infectuous monster. I'd also really like it if EAs could crossover between games, such as getting the Sorcerer Stones in Frontiers or Poison Pools in Origins, which would again acquire new effects on gameplay based on their area.

Random Tower/Upgrade Limits

Similar to an Iron Challenge, some towers may be banned from the level, and can be more specific such as prohibiting only Necromancers or Teslas. Random Waves would take account of this, making sure that if there are no mages, then heavily armored enemies or phantoms would not spawn or be rare enough to be possible.

This can also limit how far the Star Upgrade Trees can go. Along with the typical Lvl 1/2/3/4 max, there could be an alternative limit of Stars, so that tenplayer would only get 25 stars to beat the level or be unable to upgrade past a certain area on the tree for a particular tower(s). Again, Waves would account for this to avoid making it impossible.

Enemy Spells

The A.I. creating random waves for the player also gets some spells in its arsenal, similar to an Endless Mode. These spells have cooldowns, which the player can see somewhere in one of the 4 corners of the screen, and will glow when the enemy is preparing to use them (about 3-5 seconds before use). Spells include blocking the use of other spells, blocking towers, trapping troops, buffing the enemy with increased stats of any kind or combination, speeding up the calling of waves, and more. The enemy has a limit of 2 spells that it can have, randomly chosen with random strengths as to how powerful the spells are, with equally altered cooldowns depending on the potency of the spell. In Origins, the enemy gets 3 spells.

Enemy Hero

The enemy gets an A.I.-controlled hero, a nemesis of sorts to your own or simply another enemy unit without much connection to a single hero. The enemy hero would function similarly to the respective game, so that in KR it would have to level up by damaging troops or hindering towers(this would depend on its abilities); in Frontiers it would not gain experience and simply have its 5 unique skills, be they passives or active skills. In Origins the same would apply, but they would also have a Hero Spell, working similarly to the above suggestion.

Adding on to this, the hero can vary in stats, but would have consequences to doing so such as weaker skills or a slower respawn/movement speed, and vice versa. Heroes could be randomly generated, acquiring unique sets of skills and attributes with each new one generated, along with having those skills vary in power, cooldown, and order of importance. This reminds me of the Nemesis System in Shadow of Mordor, and it would be incredibly epic if a certain enemy hero who caused particular trouble to the player would be rememebered and appear again, possibly with quotes or a slight twist to their original form, in attempt to make what was troubling about them even more dangerous.

These enemy heroes wouldn't progress to the exit and take lives. All that would happen is that they hang around the middle of the map and move to various edges depending on the action going on around them, using their attacks to kill your units and having abilities that buff enemies and weaken towers. Random Waves would account for the power of the hero and accommodate. When killed, the hero would have to respawn and will restart at the beginning of the level, giving a temporary bonus of some kind for being defeated. The same could apply if the player's hero dies.
BBB
User avatar
Moderator
 
Posts: 7815
Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2014 5:22 pm
Location: Your worst nightmares

Re: The World's Greatest Kingdom Rush Sandbox

by Kicksave » Mon May 11, 2015 7:11 am

I wonder if there's a better description than "sandbox"...really this is more like a Diablo-like random level generator that keeps the game fresh.

Would love to see this implemented in a VS. mode. If two players are given a new layout, a forewarning about which enemies can spawn, what creeps/friendly towers are active, and a set of level unique rules....they can compete to beat it. They wouldn't be able to rely on a memorized tower placement, but could still have to be very strategic based on what they see/know in the rule set.

I have a wild card idea that would REALLY freshen up ANY level, but frankly is probably in the "too hard to do" category:

On some levels, occasionally allow a few towers from the other KR games (while restricting use of existing towers). I've pretty much memorized how to ace Fungal Forest Veteran via combinations of Teslas, Paladins, Arcane Wizards. Now...make me beat that level using KRF towers. :shock:
User avatar
User
 
Posts: 45
Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2015 3:49 am


Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests