Towers of Thana is about making the right decisions in the midst of chaos. To make the right decisions, you need to have the right information easily accessible. This is where the new Indicators come into play.
Indicators
On the edge of the screen, we have placed new icons that provide vital information about what’s happening outside of your field of view. This will allow you to keep an eye on the different strategic points on the map.
For each Vessel, enemy cluster, Super Tower, and the Core, you’ll see an indicator tracking each one. Except for the enemy cluster, each of them tracks how much health they have. When the Core or a Super Tower is under attack, the Indicator will blink, alerting you that providing support should be considered.
Enemy Clusters
For the enemy cluster, we opted for a unit counter instead. The reason we chose this over a health bar is worth explaining. We realized early on that we didn’t want an indicator for each unit on the map. The screen would be completely swamped in some scenarios! So, we thought, “Let’s create an indicator per wave, easy!” But after more thought, we realized that waves could split. What happens then? We should have two indicators.
So, instead of tracking waves, we’re tracking clusters. How are clusters defined? They are simply groups of enemies that are bundled together within a radius of five meters.
In the image above, if one of the units were to move outside of the blue bubble, it would create a new cluster. If a fourth unit entered that bubble, it would join that cluster.
“Well, that’s all interesting, but what does it have to do with the unit counter?” It’s all because of the ability of units to jump in and out of clusters. Sure, at any time we can show the total health of the units relative to their full health in a cluster, but what happens when a unit leaves or joins the group? Then the ratio jumps around, and the progress bar means nothing.
Let’s give an example:
Imagine the three Cupids above all have their full health of 100/100, except one unit that is at 20/100. In total, we’re at 220/300, which means that about 73% of the health bar would be filled. Next, the unit with 20HP is eliminated, and the cluster is now at 200/200, or 100%. By eliminating a unit, the cluster’s Indicator would behave as if they had healed themselves by filling up the bar. We don’t want that!
In other words, the bar would end up jumping around erratically, and as units leave or join the cluster, these jumps would render the health ratio meaningless, which is why we opted for the unit counter instead.
Thank you for taking the time to read this far, and let us know in Discord what you think about this new feature!