Time to invade the forum...

I would not have expected CTW was going to get another expansion. I never did quite finish the last one (they'd gotten too hard/time consuming). I'll still try this one to see what it adds!

Wishlisted at slot 8 of the CTW DLC queue. ;)

Are all the DLCs harder than the base game?

Most (all?) add stuff to the game that happens throughout all the stages. But no, the one stage -- that's like semi-adventure where you're just the dwarves descending through a maze, not really building a base, wasn't harder.

Thanks. I have enough time to get the DLCs one by one and then decide if I buy the next one. I haven't played the base game yet, only bought it like 10 days ago, which I probably wouldn't have done when I would have known that they are still milking it.

Game devs can't win, can they...if they finish a game and move on, the game is "abandoned," but if they still support the game and produce more content for it, they are "milking it".

Anyway, the Temples of 4 Elements, Heart of Evil, and Lonely Mountain DLCs are new campaign levels. The last two are described as "designed for experienced players" and judging from Lonely Mountain I'd say that's fair. (I don't own Heart of Evil.) The other DLCs add bits and bobs to any level. It's totally fine to just play the base game without any of them. I did that for quite a while before buying a few of the DLCs that looked interesting.

is Invasion a new campaign level or does it just add stuff to existing levels? because i'm under the impressions it's a new campaign level but it's not showing up in my level selection when i go to start a new game.

It's not described as a new level. From what I understand, you can trigger it in existing levels.

Luckily a lot of games are in a 3rd state, completed, finished and not touched anymore, but still available for purchase (so not abandoned), which is the state I prefer to buy games in, ideally in a vanilla version, not tainted with any shop specific extensions.

Except those games are labeled as "abandoned". You see it all the time in reviews. According to the internet, games are either "abandoned" or devs are "milking it," there's no room for any realistic or nuanced viewpoints.