Hey guys! I have an experimental update for you. This is something I’ve been brainstorming for a while and wanted to try out. I’m not sure if you’ll like it or not, but I’ll explain why I made the change.
Player levels are too high, uneventful, and unintuitive
After the first 10 levels or so, it’s hard to notice the increase in power you gain from each level. This is mostly due to the fact that the increase in power for each level is additive, not multiplicative – meaning you get the same flat bonus for each level (going from 1 to 2 is a 25% increase in overall power, while going from 100 to 101 is only a 1% increase in overall power)
To fix this, I’ve made power increases multiplicative. Now, every time you gain a level, you’ll see about an 8% increase in power compared to the previous level. Hopefully, this will mean that every level will feel eventful. The downside is that, after about level 10, you’ll notice that each level takes significantly longer to earn than the previous.
You can see a comparison of the Old leveling system and the new one on this spreadsheet. There are a lot of numbers, but I’ve colored the 3 columns that matter most. (The “Power” column shows how strong you are at each level compared to a level 1 character).
Overall, the ratio of power-gained to time-spent-in-barracks is about the same. You’ll actually gain about 10% more power for the time you spend in the barracks.
Neglecting the barracks early-game can be very punishing
This is mostly an issue in low-pop games with newer players. If you don’t spend enough time in barracks in the first round, you reach a point where the entire team needs to be in towers to not leak by round 2. While I do want to reward players for training, the current system is much to punishing.
To fix this, I’ve reduced the increase in difficulty and player power per wave. Training will now be significantly less important in round 1. However, training will still be very important to getting high scores. The change mostly effects the early game.
Reminder: This is an experimental change
I am certain that some players will not be a fan of this change. Please be patient, and give it some time for the meta to adjust. If, after some time, players are unhappy with the change, I will definitely reverse it.
I know that some people like to try to keep their level around the wave#. However, I never meant for this to be an actual metric. I would like to separate the relationship between wave level and player level.
Expect Bugs
This change is especially susceptible to bugs. There is likely something I missed while changing the numbers. Please just let me know if you find any, and be patient as I address them.