"Fun" Mode

So you've been playing DTD for a while, probably I introduced you to the game if I know you IRL, and you're tired of slogging your way through hard mode. So, you dip into a different menu--Fun modes! But, these modes can be just as hard as the other modes. As I stated in the last post, I do enjoy challenges, even if they can be frustrating at time, because I think that this prepares us DTD players for real life. Not everything is easy, etc. But shouldn't fun modes be easy?



Here are two players, who shared their conversation with me, discussing just this problem:

L: are you playing 10,000 K
L: yeah it's literally impossible
L: like honestly
L: impossible
S: no
S: I will do this!
L: no
L: it's impossible
L: i really think it is Actually impossible

Clearly there are frustrations even at the fun mode. 10K can be quite difficult; at the beginning it's easy, but I think that the glut of gold at the beginning encourages inefficient tower distribution. No internalization of the externalities, if you will. (Of course it would be a whole other story if it was 10,000 K, as in 10,000,000 points, as L stated!)

So, knowing me, I had to figure out what DTD was trying to teach us by this "Fun mode" lesson. As I was thinking about the conundrum--why is the fun mode that is in fact more difficult than the hard mode? It reminded me of a great book, An Artist of the Floating World. In that novel, an artist studies for years with a master of art who paints beautiful scenes of the lovely, night life of Tokyo. In the end, the artist moves on from this mentor, realizing that his beautiful subjects are in fact ephemeral, part of a floating world.

In the same way, perhaps, Fun modes are perhaps supposed to expose to use the floating, ephemeral quality of the "fun" world. Sure, it's beautiful to cover a maze with fully upgraded towers, but the quick success of a 10K maze doesn't often last the first few levels.

Personally, I prefer the 100 level challenge, one that I have yet to beat much less score highly on! But for the fans, here is S's method of winning the challenge. I admire that after he gives up, he suddenly reaches inspiration:

S: CRAP CRAP CRAP
L: yeah you are going to die
S: WHY ARE YOU SO NEGATIVE
S: but yes
S: I am going to die
...
S: but
S: if you got really good at juggling, you could basically do all swarm towers
S: send EVERYONE in at the same time
S: have the swarm towers take care of all the flyers
S: and just juggle everyone else back and forth through a really long maze for awhile
L: but how would the others get killed by swarm towers?
S: they wouldn't
L: then how would that work
S: ok
S: if you send EVERYONE in
S: it will take a long time for all the other to get through
S: especially if you make a long maze
S: but the flyers will go right through
S: so you would need a ton of swarms to kill them
S: right away
S: you wouldn't need to worry about the others so much
S: cause you could juggle them for a long long time
S: and after all the fliers are down
S: wait
S: I've got it
S: yeah
S: so
S: what I just said
S: except other than swarm towers
S: only build snap towers
S: so the swarms will take care of all the fliers, while you juggle
S: then, you juggle for awhile until you can upgrade all your snap towers
S: and since you sent them all in at once
S: they'll be bunched up in a group
S: then set the snap towers off
S: and it will demolish the big groups
S: you'll also need a TON of plus towers
S: like 2 per swarm tower and snap tower
S: you feel me?
L: that will not work
L: but go ahead and try it

So there it is! Not sure how I feel about it, since I've yet to put my feelings on juggling down, but for now let's just say I have a strong ambivalence about juggling.

P.S. why would all spawns *ever* be a fun level??