u/Project-C-Games

I've been working on a project based loosely on the novel Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I grew up loving the book, so I was really disappointed with how inaccurate the final battle was in the movie. So I've remade the scene in blender, with a focus on accuracy. The goal is to have this animated and used for a different project.

The human spaceships are based on the Star Captain designs from Bloons TD Battles 2. The Asteroid miner acting like the carrier ships, and Jericho's Starship being the fighters. I really love these designs, the fighters are VTOL/hover capable and well designed. As stated in the book, 20 Carriers, each with 4 fighters. The buggers I made myself.

https://preview.redd.it/kcqvizjfrhjh1.png?width=871&format=png&auto=webp&s=2474427ab286541457b67235c2038e5b05cb5a0f

A lot of people loved the last wallpaper post, so I've been animating the starships for another little teaser. IK the project looks random rn, but this is gonna be the best btdb2 video ever :3

Battles 2 bug where flying towers occasionally use the wrong model.

80 fighters, 4 per ship. :3

For a while, I've felt like the way BADs affect the game is somewhat unhealthy, but I couldn't really place why. But after watching a few of the late game boltrix videos, I think I kinda get it.

Since fBADs take so long to pop down, they are really effective spaced out. And it's very possible to send 5+ between rounds ~30 and 35, and have then all on screen at the same time. Which means that players still scrambling to afford defenses from grouped DDTs and fZOMGs suddenly have to afford defenses for 5+ fBADs. That's an order of magnitude more expensive to defend. It punishes weak synergy instantly, and kills players who have fallen behind economically.

To an extent, this is intended. Obviously players who aren't economically strong or running a strong synergy should be punished.

But in practice, the round 30 difficulty spike kinda splits the game into round 30 strats, and round 40 strats (pre BAD and Post BAD). If you're confident in defending 5+ fBADs, you are probably willing to fight into the late 30s and 40s. But if you aren't confident, than it's significantly easier to force an end game before round 30 than it is to weather 5 fBADs. Especially if the 30s are really draining economically. I believe this is why so many strats run in HOM/ZOMG arenas are things like Sniper Dart Farm w Etienne. Or the older Tac Farm Wiz (or sub tac dart if you're tapped in). These strats are cheap and able to be excessively aggro since they aren't expecting to survive 30+. Why bother to play with BADs if you can just all out DDTs/ ZOMGs. I'd argue it's why so many players don't see BAD play at all. It's rare to see both players agree to go all the way to round 30 without someone choke rushing.

To clarify, I don't want to nerf BADs, but I think they need to be changed in a way that allows for a more natural flow into the late game.

Here's my hypothetical rework: BADs now unlock round 28, and grouped DDTs are now delayed until round 30. However, BADs are price nerfed from 15 k to ~25/30k. This pricing remains in effect until round ~33, where BADs are dropped down to their regular pricing of 15k.

This should theoretically turn the harsh difficulty spike into a more gradual but harsh difficulty curve.

First, that curve starts earlier, which hurts a lot of round 30 strats. It gives them less time to afford a truly lethal rush, and removes gDDTs from the picture. It still gives space for pre BAD strats to function, but it's now a lot more punishing to go without BAD defenses.

Second, the price nerf means that early BAD sends are going to require a lot more forethought. You can't just wait until round 30 and send 5+ fBADs, you have to save early, and your eventual rush will be significantly weaker. This makes an early fBAD a game changing investment, and one that requires a lot more skill to use.

Third, unfortified BADs are now encouraged. I think this is a lot healthier leading into the late game. It might not be worth it to invest in a fBAD if you think the opponent might defend it, but a regular BAD to force defenses might be perfect. I already see this a lot on round 30. A round 28 BAD would ease players into the late game without the shock of an fBAD.

There's a few other things that could be done to ease that mid-late game transition, like buffing purple eco earlier and maybe buffing spaced DDTs, but I don't want to get too far off track.

I'd love to see what people think of this down in the comments, love it or hate it, having this discussion now makes the game healthier overall, so lmk what you think.

So I've been working on making a longer video talking about a novel I grew up with. Ender's game is such a cool book, and making a btdb2 video about it has been kind of a trip. It's been a lot of fun trying to make this project work, but also hella stressful. I genuinely can't wait for the final version!

Just a really good back and forth with both players really drained. ggs

Some fanmade wallpapers of the PSpace spaceship. PC and Mobile versions.

Almost done with the moab class bloons! Just have to finish the ddt and fortified property.