Perk System in detail

So I say I'll do a break down of the perk system and here it's.

Start with individual perk item. Each item can be assigned a name, icons (included unavailable, available and purchased) and description which will be used for in game UI. Then there's a type, which define what this particular item is for. That means unfortunately the purpose of any item is still needed to be pre-defined and partially hard coded, so there can be a finite number of type available. Currently there are 34 perk type available, some are quite similar to each other. Basically it can be categrorized into 4 major group, they are:

• Life related
• Resource related
• All Tower stats or cost modifier
• Specific tower stats or cost modifier

Full list of the perk type available is listed at the bottom of this post

Naturally for each item, you can specify the cost required to unlock. Then comes the requirement for each item. There are 3 of these:

• wave count requirement - player need to survive at least how many wave before the item become available
• perk point requirement - how many item player need to purchase and unlock before the item become available. Note that purchase an item gives player 1 perk point
• pre-req perk -  what are the perk/item needed to be unlocked before the item become available. You can have as many of this. Even a perk that require unlocking every other item in the list!

Finally there some type dependent variable(s) that is tied to the functionality of the perk type itself. For instance, 'UnlockNewTower' would require selection of a towers assigned to TowerManager, 'SpecifedTowerStun' would require two numerical value, success percentage and stun duration, instant resource bonus would require an integer array the length of total resource count. Some of these value can be set to be interpreted as percentage range from 0 to 1.

So basically you can create a list of item. Each item would act as a tech upgrade, a perk or indeed an in game shop item. PerkManager in each level can be be used to enable/disable any item in the list as well as unlocked them prior to the game start.

Example UI for both unity default UI and NGUI implementation has also been added as a compliment element to the perk system. I wont say the sample UI is very flexible for customisation but it does have some option. And I'm still looking for ways to allow the item list of the perk window to be customises with greater flexibility.

Finally here's what I secretly plan to do next. Add in active player abilities, like AOE damage effect, boost tower speed for a fixed duration. Probably a energy system to go with it. Like using each ability cost energy which will then recharge overtime . Then I'm probably gonna add a lot more perk to complement the ability system. Wouldn't that be awesome?!

Anyway, I think I covered pretty much there is to the perk system. As promised, the full list of the perk type available:

TowerUnlockNew,
TowerBuildLevelBonus,
TowerBuffHP, 
TowerBuffAttack, 
TowerBuffDef, TowerCritical, 
TowerCriticalChance, 
TowerCriticalDamage,
AllCostReduction
BuildCostReduction, 
UpgradeCostReduction,
LifeIncreaseCap,
LifeBonus,
LifeBonusWaveClearedLifeRegen,
ResourceBonus,
ResourceGeneration,
ResourceGain,
ResourceGainCreepKilled,
ResourceGainWaveCleared,
ResourceGainResourceTower,
SpecifiedTowerLevelBonus,        
SpecifiedTowerBuffHP,       
SpecifiedTowerBuffAttack,
SpecifiedTowerBuffDef,
SpecifiedTowerBuffRange,
SpecifiedTowerCritical,
SpecifiedTowerCriticalChance,
SpecifiedTowerCriticalDamage,
SpecifiedTowerAllCostReduction,
SpecifiedTowerBuildCostReduction,
SpecifiedTowerUpgradeCostReduction,
SpecifiedTowerStun,
SpecifiedTowerSlow