Anathyma Dev Diary #2

While most existing enemies, as is normal for Tower Defense, are built around pushing directly into the player’s lines, some of the upcoming Modern units are intended to make staying comfortably behind your defenses much less reliable. These units are meant to force the player to respond, reposition, and find ways to deal with them as they whittle down their defenses. On the other end, these units can be particularly useful to protect in the Breakthrough gamemode.

Machinegunner

The first of these is the machinegunner. Armed with a heavy machine gun, this unit can set up in place and unleash a sustained stream of fire at an extremely high rate. Once deployed, the machinegunner becomes a static but highly dangerous source of damage, able to shred lightly defended positions. Unlike more mobile ranged enemies, the machinegunner is also highly vulnerable from their static position, giving a clear weakness to exploit, with either your own long-range towers and/or weapons, or by pushing their position with a quick strike.

Sniper

The next unit is the sniper, which trades damage output for safety. Snipers engage from extreme range, far beyond what most early and even many midgame defenses can comfortably answer. Snipers do not have a dangerous damage output, which can make them go unnoticed when combined with their out-of-combat camouflage, but a sniper left unchecked can slowly dismantle a defensive setup, especially if multiple snipers start to accumulate. While the machinegunner can be dealt with somewhat easily due to the moderate range, snipers are less dangerous but require a more dedicated effort to deal with. To help players notice the sniper fire in the chaos of combat, their shots also leave a small trail.

Engineer

The last on the list is the engineer. Rather than being a direct damage threat on its own, the engineer supports nearby forces by digging trenches that other units can enter to receive cover from enemy projectiles. This makes enemy units much harder to remove with ordinary ranged fire, allowing them to cause damage from a safe position. The two main ways to deal with entrenched units are melee combat, and area denial weapons, like the Tar Tower's burning tar. Engineers are especially dangerous when paired with other Modern units, as they tend to have ranged attacks to fire from the trenches.

The pacing on this one is a bit awkward because of length and file size limitations.

Stay tuned for next month where I will finish up the foot soldier section of the diaries.