At last, the time has come. The Mazing Expansion has finally released!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2177070/Element_TD_2__Mazing_Expansion/
From now through December 9th, you can get the DLC on sale for 20% off at $5.59!
We've also got a fancy trailer for it, courtesies of community member
wadebbqwall2. Check it out below!
For the full details of what this expansion entails, read on for the full notes!
Mazing Mode
How Does Mazing Work?
Located on the left of your
Build Bar, you have access to the
Blocker. This is a limited resource that costs no gold, meant to make the path longer.
https://i.imgur.com/k61zZE1.gif
As you place Blockers, the path will automatically adjust.
By default, you'll start with
20 Blockers. Each wave you clear, you gain
1 Blocker, and every 5 waves, you gain
2 Blockers instead.
- The bonus you get every 5 waves increases over time.
- The number of Blockers you have also acts as your Tower Limit.
- In Co-op, you start with 30 Blockers.
However, these aren't just for increasing the path length. They also let you build
Towers directly on them.
- Selling a Tower will always leave a Blocker behind. This way, you don't accidentally open up a hole in your path.
- Changes made to the maze mid-wave won't cement in place until the next wave starts.
- This prevents you from accidentally opening a hole mid-wave, or routing creeps through an infinite loop via buy/sell abuse of Blockers.
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What are those yellow portals?
What's in the Mazing DLC?
The expansion contains the following:
- A Mazing Campaign featuring 14 Missions
- This has its own Loadout & Progression, separate from the Main Campaign
- 10 New FFA/Teams Mazing Maps
- 4 New Co-op Mazing Maps
- Mazing Leaderboards for each of the new maps
- With 10 Pick + 10 Random + 10 Teams + 4 Co-op Leaderboards, that's a total of 34 Mazing Leaderboards!
- Tack that on to the existing leaderboards, and we've got 72 + 34 = 106 Total Leaderboards
- New Achievements specific to Mazing
- To be precise, including multi-tiered Achievements and "clones" for each map, there are 174 Mazing Achievements. Happy hunting!
In order to access any of the singleplayer content or host games, you need the expansion.
However,
you do not need the expansion to join Mazing lobbies online.
- You're also not restricted from getting Mazing Achievements or getting entries on the leaderboard. It's just going to be a lot harder to practice any of that relying solely on others to host lobbies though.
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Check out this magical Railgun snipe that perfectly avoids clipping the terrain or architecture.
Mazing Q&A
Below is a list of questions and technicalities we've seen people ask about over the last few months.
What are those yellow Portals I see on certain maps?
Those are
Teleporters. When creeps pass through one, they appear through a different
Teleporter. You'll be able to see based on how the path line goes through them.
Is it possible to completely block the path?
No. The game will prevent you from placing the tower or blocker that would block the path. It'll also give you a pop-up message.
Can I build a tower without a blocker beneath?
Yes! Well, to clarify, if you build a tower on a space without a blocker, it'll build the tower with a blocker beneath it.
How does drag building work in Mazing?
It works two ways:
- If you're drag-building over open space, it'll drag-build over that open space.
- However, if you're drag-building and **any blockers** are under the selection box, it'll only build towers on blockers.
Also, if your drag-build would happen to block the path in any way, it'll cancel your entire drag-build order and give you a message.
I don't have enough Blockers. Why is there a limit at all?
We chose to have a limit that scales over time so that the game isn't a complete joke at the start of the game due to having a ridiculous path length.
However, there is an option that lets you turn the
Blocker Limit off, and it's accessible in multiplayer, even in
Co-op. Do note that toggling this option will make the run illegible for leaderboard.
Is it me, or do the creeps speed up over time?
That is not your imagination. Each wave, the creeps speed up just slightly. Their spawn interval also decreases a bit. This way, when you do eventually gain a ludicrous maze, it doesn't take 3 minutes for creeps to get all the way to the end. Even with this in,
Mazing takes longer to clear than the standard game, especially in
Co-op.
Is there a separate balance for Mazing?
No. We decided to keep the balance the same for the whole game. In fact, we actually made some changes back in Version 1.8 to account for
Mazing while also keeping it (theoretically) balanced for the rest of the game. In particular, the shockwave changes on
Earth, Quake, & Nova, and the adjustment to
Mushroom's damage formula.
How does Multiplayer work?
In
Mazing FFA & Teams, we've made it so that
Casual Mode is on by default. This means you're not at risk at getting rushed out by someone camping the entrance, which in
Mazing, is kind of counterintuitive anyways because you naturally want to make really long mazes. Of course, you're welcome to turn
Casual Mode off and experience the rather... unique game style.
That said though, there's a chance we may do a
Mazing Tournament in a few months, and if we do,
Casual Mode will be off for that.
In Co-op, am I restricted to my color zone?
You are not. We decided to colorcode the build zones in
Mazing Co-op because A, the maps are way bigger than the standard game, and B, they're a little less intertwined than the standard game. This way, it kind of provides a guide for each player.
However, there's no actual restrictions. You can build in other color zones, and heck, you can even build your towers on allied blockers.
I feel like I've seen the Avalanche map somewhere before. Is it based off something?
For those of you that played tower defenses during the
Warcraft 3 days, there was a popular map called
Wintermaul.
Avalanche's map design is based off of that, with some tweaks.
I'm one of the crazy people that plays the Co-op Boss Mode. Will there be support for it Mazing?
For now, no. However, whenever we get around to
Version 1.9, we may look into adding it.
Is there a Ranked Mazing?
For now, no. We're not sure
Mazing is properly balanced, especially since it's not getting a separate balance adjustment. If it plays well over the next few months and there's enough demand for it, we'll consider it.
What about War Mazing?
Between it being a buggy massacre that'd be a huge pain to fix, and the fact that it's easily the least popular part of the game, probably not. Honestly, we think it would be cool to see it happen, but the truth of the matter is that the mode has numerous design problems that conflict with
Element TD 2. Unless we figure those problems out, we're unlikely to add
Mazing War Mode.
If you have any more questions about technical details or suggestions, feel free to ask about them in the comments, on the Steam Forums, or our Discord. There's even a dedicated #mazing channel on there.
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Yep, this map looks familiar alright.
Additionally today, we're releasing
Version 1.8.3, which contains numerous fixes and improvements,
Specialization tweaks, and *le-gasp* some new
Cosmetics. Read on the full notes!
Version 1.8.3
Cosmetics
- New Builder: Level 45 Demon Watcher
- New Builder: Level 55 Gyrobot
- New Builder: Level 65 Lava Ray
- New Builder: Level 90 Cutie
- New Hat: Level 65 Cookie Hat
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The Cookie Hat: Makes towers 100% tastier! But not necessarily more edible.
Fixes & Improvements
- Added the ability to adjust Hats on Towers:
- Everyone: See everyone's hats on their towers. This is the default option.
- Self Only: Only see your hats on your towers.
- Nobody: Hats on towers are hidden. Not that you should do this, unless you're trying to save a bit on performance.
- Campaign - You can now toggle Tower Recommendations on and off in the Loadout.
- Campaign - Whenever you press the Ready button, the game will save state again, so that if you made a bunch of changes during the wave break, you don't have to redo them all on loading checkpoint.
- Campaign - There's now an indicator of the mission-specific Achievement in-game, and whether you've flunked it or not.
- When in-game, the Game Mode UI has been updated to display the primary mode in the middle of the screen. Upon hovering over it, you'll see a list of all the game's modes and modifiers.
- The game now remembers the state of the Play Offline setting in the Singleplayer menu.
- Managed to dampen the snow effect on wintery maps so that it's less foggy on towers and creeps.
- Fixed Cannon Tower's cannons tilting up/down on creeps.
- Fixed Impulse Tower not being highlighted on the Tower Table when hovering over the 1500 range setting.
- Fixed a bug where Geyser Specialization 1 wasn't reducing its damage by the intended 25%.
- Fixed a bug in Mega Survival where your camera and builder would not start in the proper location on certain maps.
- Fixed a bug where, when viewing the Map Previews in Teams, if you clicked the magnifying glass to zoom in, it'd display the incorrect preview image.
- Fixed a visual error between water and Fog of War that'd make it unusually dark depending on the camera angle.
Specializations
As we were testing and polishing the
Mazing Campaign out, we ran across numerous
Tower Specializations that were either underwhelming or blatantly silly.
- Astral
- Specialization 1
-- Old: Damage increased by 50%. Range reduced to 900.
-- New: Damage increased by 60%. Range reduced to 900.
- Specialization 2
-- Old: Every 9 seconds, this tower shoots up to 12 creeps at once.
-- New: Every 12 seconds, this tower shoots at up to 12 creeps at once. Attacks can stack on one creep.
- Darkness
- Specialization 1
-- Old: Damage increased by 35%. However, attack doesn't bounce on kill.
-- New: Damage increased by 40%. However, attack doesn't bounce on kill.
- Poison
- Specialization 2
-- Old: Damage-per-second reduced by 40%. Duration increased to 35 seconds.
-- New: Damage-per-second reduced by 35%. Duration increased to 35 seconds.
- Disease
- Specialization 1
-- Old: Damage reduced by 25%, but Range increased to 1150.
-- New: Damage reduced by 20%, but Range increased to 1150.
- Specialization 2
-- Old: Damage increased by 25%, but Range reduced to 750.
-- New: Damage increased by 30%, but Range reduced to 750.
- Runic
- Specialization 2
-- Old: Damage increased by 300%, but AoE reduced to 0.
-- New: Damage increased by 225%. AoE reduced to 0.
- Vapor
- Specialization 2
-- Old: Range increased to 1500. Bonus damage per creep reduced to 0%.
-- New: Range increased to 1500. Bonus damage per creep reduced to 1% / 2% / 3%.
- Corrosion
- Specialization 2
-- Old: Damage Amplification increased to 25% / 50%.
-- New: Damage Amplification increased to 25% / 50%, but Duration reduced to 4 seconds.
- Mushroom
- Specialization 2
-- Old: Damage reduced by 30%. Primary target is slowed by 10% / 20% / 30% for 1 second.
-- New: Damage reduced by 20%. Primary target is slowed by 20% / 30% / 40% for 1 second.
- Impulse
- Specialization 1
-- Old: Range increased to 1750, but Damage reduced by 20%.
-- New: Range increased to 1900, but Damage reduced by 25%.
- Root
- Specialization 2
-- Old: Slow is doubled, but Duration is reduced to 2 seconds.
-- New: Slow increased to 30% / 60%, but Duration reduced to 3 seconds.
- Geyser
- Specialization 1
-- Old: Damage is reduced by 25%, but every 3rd attack does a 300 AoE attack.
-- New: Damage is reduced by 20%, but every 3rd attack does a 300 AoE attack.
- Muck
- Specialization 2
-- Old: AoE reduced to 0, but Slow increased to 32% / 64%.
-- New: AoE reduced to 0, but Slow increased to 40% / 80%.
Lastly, regarding
Localization, we're aware it's not fully up to date, especially with the
Mazing DLC and the above changes. We'll be getting it properly updated next week.
Special Thanks
We'd like to give a shoutout to everyone that helped us test the
Mazing DLC during the
Open Alpha & Beta periods, as well as everyone that's continued to support the game. Special kudos to
wadebbqwall2, for doing the trailer, screenshots, and any promo art you've seen in the past year!
What's Next?
Now that we've released the
Mazing Expansion, what's next for us? We can't provide too many details yet, but we're working on our next project already. Expect to see a formal announcement about it in
Q1 2023!
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Well, it's official. Element TD 2 is now a sci-fi game. Have fun mazing!