Jump to content

Developer's Blog


EKCO
 Share

Recommended Posts

I'm going to be using this section more frequently to talk about game design elements on a regular basis.

 

Since the old forum was lost, I haven't kept a good public record of development updates, so this should shed some light on the process behind how our systems are designed to work with each other, and how this system cohesion grows as I continue to work on AoS.

 

 

In other news, diaries make you more employable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Advertisements seem unlikely for an unpaid custom game.

 

For my part, I could certainly learn the cinematic triggers in hopes of making a cool video for Youtube.

 

Yep Wrath, I know one thing is bound to other but not necessarily speaking about pay for a game. There are many ways to earn money or whatever for a product.

 

AoS is one of the arcade games with most personality, specially since new UI, I mean when I play AoS I'm thinking I am playing AoS not an SC mod ( Though I'm doing it really). And I like Starcraft too, but when I want to play something different I want to be envolved in that atmosphere as inside as it is possible. ( I hope you understand my Sux english).

 

Videos is a nice way of publishing so I d like to see it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well since this is a discussion area, I would love to get some input on the assists system. There are 2 major issue I see with it at present:

 

1)

 

There are a number of skills/item actives that do 0 damage, and as such can easily result in you not getting an assist for using them to aid in a fight if for whatever reason you die / aren't in proximity range when the target dies. Most notable of this list is Raynors Mark, and Tassadars swap. If you mark someone from max range (15) its pretty easy for them to die before you are close enough to do any damage / be in proximity and as such you will get no assist for helping even though you made the target 30% easier to kill. If you swap with tassadars clone to pull someone from a tower, and the clone dies in the process you will not get an assist for the pull even though there would be no kill without it. To fix this I think that abilities/actives that do no damage but assist in a fight should be changed to do a token 1 true damage.

 

There is a full list here along with a much bigger explanation:

http://www.aeonofsto...for-using-them/

 

-----------------------------------

2)

 

The current proximity system seems like it could benefit from a rework. My understanding is that it was implemented so that medics actually got assists while healing their team, but it seems like more often than not it just ends up rewarding people who did not actually do anything to help and just happen to be in the area. Instead of having everyone nearby get assists regardless of whether they actually did anything, could we not just make it so that you get assists for any kills made by a hero you buffed or healed in the last 3-5 seconds or so and do away with proximity entirely?

 

This would make it easier for medics to hang back and heal without sacrificing assists (because they wouldn't need to worry about proximity), and when moves like geneva ult or maar shields are used, you would still get assists for helping, encouraging people to use support spells more instead of just spamming whatever attack spell they happen to have so they get credit.

 

 

I look forward to your thoughts on the matter, as it would really improve the overall game to address these issues ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you want to discuss changes, I would take a page from Riot's new S3 book-- example for SS's removal:

 

-Disabled Omega.Starscream

This was done as Starscream's Flight Mode caused all projectiles to lose tracking and thus deal no damage.

 

Or alternatively; regarding the Shrapnel Cloak change (assuming new items have been added)

 

Following Changes: Auto-Attack carries were being shut down too hard by chain-Shrapnel Cloak. To fix this, the power of Shrapnel Cloak has been reduced, and new items are in the works.

 

-Shrapnel Cloak Attack Disable reduced from 3 seconds to 2.

 

As that would deter much rage if the playerbase knows why you changed something in the immediate line after they see the change. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well since this is a discussion area, I would love to get some input on the assists system. There are 2 major issue I see with it at present:

 

1)

 

There are a number of skills/item actives that do 0 damage, and as such can easily result in you not getting an assist for using them to aid in a fight if for whatever reason you die / aren't in proximity range when the target dies. Most notable of this list is Raynors Mark, and Tassadars swap. If you mark someone from max range (15) its pretty easy for them to die before you are close enough to do any damage / be in proximity and as such you will get no assist for helping even though you made the target 30% easier to kill. If you swap with tassadars clone to pull someone from a tower, and the clone dies in the process you will not get an assist for the pull even though there would be no kill without it. To fix this I think that abilities/actives that do no damage but assist in a fight should be changed to do a token 1 true damage.

 

There is a full list here along with a much bigger explanation:

http://www.aeonofsto...for-using-them/

 

-----------------------------------

2)

 

The current proximity system seems like it could benefit from a rework. My understanding is that it was implemented so that medics actually got assists while healing their team, but it seems like more often than not it just ends up rewarding people who did not actually do anything to help and just happen to be in the area. Instead of having everyone nearby get assists regardless of whether they actually did anything, could we not just make it so that you get assists for any kills made by a hero you buffed or healed in the last 3-5 seconds or so and do away with proximity entirely?

 

This would make it easier for medics to hang back and heal without sacrificing assists (because they wouldn't need to worry about proximity), and when moves like geneva ult or maar shields are used, you would still get assists for helping, encouraging people to use support spells more instead of just spamming whatever attack spell they happen to have so they get credit.

 

 

I look forward to your thoughts on the matter, as it would really improve the overall game to address these issues ;)

 

 

The assist thing is something I've thought of as well. One possible solution I've thought of would be assists being awarded for any damage amplified, mitigated, or done directly, as well as any ability or activated ability used on a hero (either friendly or hostile). Essentially, the idea is that if you influenced the net damage of a team fight (within some amount of time) you get an assist, thereby eliminating assists for just being close to the hero who died. The ability/activated ability being included is secondary to the idea, but i think it is justifiable to get an assist for using an ability without having directly influenced net damage. This would cover a number of things.

 

1: Amplified damage: Raynor's mark, etc

2: Mitigated damage: Covers medics as well as heroic passive abilities that have am AOE (Raynor, others)

Another note about these two categories: this could cover spell buffer, etc so proximity of team member with AOE items would get rewarded as well.

3: Direct damage: self explanitory

4: Ability/Activated ability: Micro's throw moving friendly hero away, boros' bola on a friendly, darpa silence on caster, lockbox on an initiator, shrapnel cloak, etc.

 

The timeframe for each category could be adjusted to whatever you guys thought needed. Thoughts, comments? Am I missing anything?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Hello guys!

 

I just registered to the forum, but I play AoS (and sotis..) since the one of the first versions was released. I'm a fan of you. :)

My profession is UX designer so I believe I can add some useful feedback for you. I don't want to add suggestions for the game balance, because I only play public games, so there are many players who know it better.

I'm planning to give you more input about the overall user experience and the UI, I hope it can help your work.

 

First of all, I've read a post on Facebook that you want to implement a HP/EN bar at the bottom. I would ask you even if you see it useful, please make it turnable off. HP/EN bars are very contextual that means you need to see it when you are in combat, and when you focus on that you are looking at your, and enemy hero. So you need more time to get the information about your health because of the distance, even if it's a big red rectangle. A small, lightly transparent bar AT the player's hero is much more useful I think.

 

What I miss from the UI so much, is a small indicator that is customized for some of the heroes. You already had this for Maar for example (the 3 dots). I think it could be very useful in many cases:

Cain - number of projecties shot with ultimate

BioTron - CD of burrow when you are burrowed (that show when can you use it again)

TBone - number of clips

Balrog - number of stacks from ultimate

Tychus - stacks of Rip'N'Tear

Vorpal - number of spheres

Justicar - delay of "Q" skill

Leo - delay of mirror force

Darpa - stacks of dots on the current target

 

and I could continue this list if you'd like it..

 

 

An other idea is that indicate on the character selector panel that which heroes are selected (on the list at the top), so players can see if they should select a tank, or a dps hero. Now they need to press tab to see selected heroes.

 

Now I don't have time, but if you want, I can post more.. :)

 

I hope you can use my ideas

 

Best,

Sam

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote: "What I miss from the UI so much, is a small indicator that is customized for some of the heroes. You already had this for Maar for example (the 3 dots). I think it could be very useful in many cases:

Cain - number of projecties shot with ultimate

BioTron - CD of burrow when you are burrowed (that show when can you use it again)

TBone - number of clips

Balrog - number of stacks from ultimate

Tychus - stacks of Rip'N'Tear

Vorpal - number of spheres

Justicar - delay of "Q" skill

Leo - delay of mirror force

Darpa - stacks of dots on the current target"

For tbone, the number of clips is indicated in the bag of his back. no clips nothing, 1 clip, one part of his bag shines, and 2 clip both shines. In darpa, red points are easy to see too, but, per example about stacks for balrog tychus etc, I see this as good idea, and even more for ambush of bio (cooldown) and egon's stacks of Q and many other things. yep that will be nice

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not sure why you're so obsessed with the UI, no one besides owl has any problems with it atm. Sure you can improve it once the game is balanced and bug free, but it looks like you're not quite there.

 

Well, displaying Spell and Physical Resistance has long been asked for. When we devised how to do that, it made sense to revamp the entire stat display to also include Movement and Attack Speed. Now that that's done though, you can't currently view other players' stats, short of estimating from their items. This is why we're making the target card, to display the stats of your target in the top left.

 

Additionally, the small HP/EN text in the bottom corner was one of the things complained about most (except perhaps decreased item size), so HP/EN bars are being added to the ability bar. That part is already in beta.

 

Edit: Also, the benefit of the target display card is that we will be able to lock enemy unit selection, so that players will be much less likely to deselect their heroes when attempting to target somebody.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I support those changes, but just like the old UI revamp I really don't think it should be a priority. If you forget about the UI threads caused by the UI changes there are probably around 5 players that mentionned this on the forums in the past year, when the bug forum is very active and people report a lot of them still (a lot of them get fixed ofc) and the balance forums are very active as well.

 

edit : I get that as a developer it's probably more rewarding to revamp the UI, but if your goal is to have to provide the best experience for players, it's not very important at the moment

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't worry, we're not just doing what we feel is rewarding to us as developers. You're right in that at least I find working on the UI to be rewarding, but the changes we're making are changes that people have been asking for. Namely the Spell/Physical Resistance, and as I pointed out, that has necessitated other changes.

 

And I agree that bugs are very important. This week I plan on holding tests in an attempt to determine the cause of both the passive disappearance and the freeze at end-game bugs. These are certainly the most pressing issues at the moment, but they're also difficult to debug -- they may not even be an issue with the code so much as a limitation of the engine. Another example of how they are difficult to debug is that I've been attempting to debug the freeze at end-game bug several times this week and have simply failed to because it hasn't occurred in any of my games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know stacks are already shown for darpa and cow too (and more..) but what I meant is to show it both on the UI and at the characters. Just an example: you can see what kind of spheres does Maar have, but when you attack it's a frequent case that you focus on the target and the player hero is not visible on the screen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For DARPA there's already dots on the target that are pretty easily seen...

What delay on Justicar's Justicar Strike [Q]? Same with Leo's Mirror Force. I haven't seen any...

 

Also a searchable character select would be really cool.

 

Delay of Justicar Strike: I don't see that other player use it often but usually I use ultimate to pull enemies back. What I meant it would be nice to know how far can I go back with the tether on (so I can pull).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Delay of Justicar Strike: I don't see that other player use it often but usually I use ultimate to pull enemies back. What I meant it would be nice to know how far can I go back with the tether on (so I can pull).

 

What you're referring to is neither Justicar Strike nor his ultimate, it's his taunt, the W skill.

 

If it doesn't currently display the duration of this, then I agree that it should, and that would be a simple change to make.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What you're referring to is neither Justicar Strike nor his ultimate, it's his taunt, the W skill.

 

If it doesn't currently display the duration of this, then I agree that it should, and that would be a simple change to make.

 

Oh damn, I'm a fool. Just realized I mixed the names.. :) I didn't even talk about Justicar, sorry :p

I meant Penthos. I'm talking about the duration of Penthos Q skill that can be useful if you want to pull.

oops.. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...