So, right now there is a growing linearity of opinions on creep upgrades, mainly that angels and priests are pretty much not worth buying, and only serve as a way to inflate the cost of catapults.
I think I have a pretty cool solution to this.
As it is right now, we have a citadel upgrade that unlocks the new type of unit. I would change it so that you ALWAYS get more troops at the noted warscore ranks, of the appropriate kind, and that the upgrades you buy specifically for that troop type increase their effectiveness in special ways:
- Priests gain the ability to heal, or heal more.
- Angels gain additional movement speed and vision range.
- Catapults get greater attack range
- Giants attacks gain some amount of AoE to them.
The advantages we get out of this:
- It smooths out the experience curve. A team ahead on warscore is still doing well, but gives the losing team a little bit of a chance to catch up, by giving them slightly greater gold/xp rates for a while.
- It causes games to finish a bit faster. Since angels and priests are auto included in waves, gold and experience rates will uniformally increase as time goes on. As it is, most 'good' matches end up with both sides trying to 'starve' the experience out of the opponent.
- No more noobs buying that priest upgrade at rank 4, and everyone hating them.
- Makes the troops a little more unique feeling, by showing how they are meant to be used.
- Makes the process of getting more and better troops more integral to the game experience. Troops will upgrade no matter what, they aren't simply a finishing toy for the team that wants to end the game.
Alternative idea would be to make the unit specific upgrades also decrease the amount of xp/gold given to the enemy when they are killed.