AoS 2019: The Storm Rages On...

[MOTHER]

Greetings!

Now is as good a time as any to reflect on where we've been and where we want to go. It's been a bumpy humbling ride since we moved to the new map almost two years ago. Just trying to balance everything around the new playing field and not betray the way the game made me people happy for so long was a huge undertaking. I'd like to think that Adam and I did well by you, and I hope you feel the same.

You never really understand the work that goes into these things until you put yourself in that situation. My respect for the developers that came before grew tenfold as result, and also for the responsibility we are left with. Despite everything and everyone saying to the contrary, It's amazing we all kept going for as long as we could.

And keep going we will.

So I'd like to take a moment to share what's ahead for us...

Balance Patches

Unless something is truly broken and the community feels strongly about it, the frequency of these types of patches will be dropping to 1-2 per year. Here I am referring to major (re)balance patches like the one just released. I'll try to make these major patches coincide with Blizzard's own SC2 content patches which are released at a frequency of about 1-2 per year as well. This way when we get back to development of these big patches, we will have a lot more to work with, and in turn a lot more to give you. 

It also takes a moment (or two) for a major patch to settle and a meta to develop from it. Less is more in this case. There will of course be smaller minor follow-up patches whenever they are necessary.

 

Optimizing the Game

SC2 has changed a lot for the better from when AoS was first made during WoL, and by extension so has the SC2 Galaxy Editor. The resources and tools available to us now are just massive by comparison. Over the last 2 years we've tried on all fronts to make use of these resources to polish AoS to the best it can be. And there's still a lot of room for improvement in 2019!

 

Community

We've been playing together for years most of us and I know most of you, and hopefully you know me by now (and suffered my feeding!). Community matters above all here and it's the lifeblood that kept and keeps AoS alive. After the Mumble heyday, we've tried keeping up with channels of communications and staying in touch via Discord and now also the Bnet Chat Group. If you haven't joined these channels yet and downloaded the apps, do it! Because nothing is more satisfying than a set of organized games. We've been on a roll lately, so let's keep this up.

Also starting next patch, we'll be introducing a new 'Honored Player' title that includes a badge and colored name ingame. These will be handed out by community nomination in recognition of the rare few who take it upon themselves to balance lobbies and improve the quality of AoS games for players - Veterans and newbies alike.

 

Site Upkeep

The hub and center of all things AoS will continue to be this website for its rich history and ease of communicating maybe-long-winded blogposts such as this one. EKCO has been very transparent with us all about upkeep and graciously continues to take the time to support our community.

If you would like to help keep this place alive, kindly take a moment to donate any amount you would like to afford here. 100% of your donations go to maintaining this website and forum.

 

New Heroes

After moving to the new map, we had to shift focus to balancing the gameplay experience and faithfully adapting it to the new terrain field, while still trying to add enough new stuff to keep it fresh and improved. But nothing beats adding a new hero yes? So we will be shifting gears back to bringing in new characters and concepts to the game much more frequently than before.

The next hero is Viler.Nemesis, and he will be bringing a great many torments upon the Forests of the Imperial Sanctums - next month!
 

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Thanks for the read and looking forward to a good season together.

[BlackCat]

Thanks for all the hard work! You've supplied us with countless hours of enjoyment and all types of emotions. 

Tried to donate but apparently PayPal doesn't support PayPal donate in my region. Hope the thought counts (lol, obviously doesn't). Let me know if there is another way to do so. 

[Fisher]

When does the beta testing for  Viler starts 🙂

[MOTHER]

47 minutes ago, Fisher said:

When does the beta testing for  Viler starts 🙂

Let's say first week/weekend of May, followed by an official release a week later. We were able to pinpoint Vorazun's strengths and weaknesses fairly quickly thanks to the back to back tests we did together (Jomoney also really has a knack for finding and exploiting OP traits). So I'm optimistic we can do the same for Nemesis.

[PIENSA]

Después de haber jugado varias semanas, puedo aportar mi opinión sobre el juego.

primero deberían llamarlo "Aeon of Farming"(sarcasm) ya que si no farmeas(creeps) lo suficiente eres inservible en el juego con cualquier héroe, aunque tengas todos los items en el casillero. Por lo cual te ves obligado a estar farmeando cada partida, y el juego en equipo queda en segundo plano. Ya que si farmeas lo suficiente puedes destruir tu solo a todo un equipo con solo apuntar con el cursor y teclear "A"

[MOTHER]

Some heroes need farm and XP to reach their full potential and when they do, they become very powerful. When you recognize these heroes, you and your team should stop them from farming by warding their jungle and ganking them as frequently as possible. If you allow them to free farm, this is your fault and you probably deserve to lose to them.

However, even when these heroes reach their potential, there are heroes and items to counter them almost always.

You should also note that recently in AoS, killing heroes, towers, sanctums, and killing bosses gives you a lot of money, as does it give you more advantages than AFK farming.

[PIENSA]

Bueno era mi opinión después de haber jugado muchas horas. 

Ahora entiendo por que se repiten los mismos héroes partida tras partida haciendo monótono el juego.🤔

[MOTHER]

The same heroes may be repeated because you are fighting against the same players whenever it is you are online.

Play support heroes if you don't want to farm for 40 minutes. They need little-to-no farm to be significantly effective during early and mid game. Late game they can still turn the tides of battle without needing a 5.5k item.

[PIENSA]

No soy novato en los juegos de moba, y siempre pensé que la estrategia y el "juego en equipo" eran los fundamentos del juego.

Y es la primera vez que un administrador me dice que si no me gusta algo lo deje y busque otra cosa 😯 (solo era una opinión, parece que no le gusto mis comentarios😔 )

saludos

[MOTHER]

Pretty sure there is a language barrier at play here because I did not say/imply...

7 minutes ago, PIENSA said:

Y es la primera vez que un administrador me dice que si no me gusta algo lo deje y busque otra cosa 😯 (solo era una opinión, parece que no le gusto mis comentarios😔 )

^ That.

Or that teamplay was not fundamental to the game.

Saludos.

[PIENSA]

me alegro que haya sido un malentendido 🙂.

regards

[Aphonia]

Was expecting some kind of AoS wrapping up post.

Glad it's not. 

 

Salam,

 

Jamal

[MOTHER]

7 hours ago, Aphonia said:

Was expecting some kind of AoS wrapping up post.

We're just getting started! ^_^

[DreamCrusher]

can we discuss editing the damage done by towers? Seems almost insignificant during later points of the game 

[BlackCat]

2 hours ago, DreamCrusher said:

can we discuss editing the damage done by towers? Seems almost insignificant during later points of the game 

Seconded. I would dare say it becomes so even from mid game. 

[MOTHER]

Tower damage against creeps or heroes or both? Cuz they both scale. And which towers cuz they all have different degrees of penetration.

This is a tricky part of the game because a buff to towers could prolong game time which is something I want to avoid. Games ideally should average at 35 real minutes. So please be specific about what you think should be changed.

[Aphonia]

There were days when AoS on average I reckon would take 40 mins to 1hr 20+. Back when turrets had a lot of regen, were mega tanky and easy to defend. I get the appeal of having tanky turrets because it makes people think twice about diving - in LoL get to Plat+ and people are tower diving 24/7 and with plates it's YOU whose defending the turret rather than the other way around. But at the same time it makes AoS more diverse, I look back and there were so many times in IH when people used to 1v2 lanes. In fact it was the norm rather than the exception on long lane. You simply cannot do that in other MOBAs and AoS's uniqueness should be cherished instead of pertubed..

 

Conversely it's 2019, ain't nobody got time to play a game for an hour (+draft etc). IH players have to be realistic - you may have time for this but the average player does not and that's who you need to keep this game alive.

Else the vicious cycle of:

45 min "shap GTG guys soz",

every time 4v5, shap game

bunch of rtards

fk this

[Player proceeds to never return]

[DreamCrusher]

Good question, does tower do % of health and scale upwards, or just a set amount of dmg and scale Up?

 

I agree with your premise though, I'm not looking for towers that make it impossible to push or dive, but i do feel their should b some punishment for players diving, I often feel they can stay under threat of tower for such an extended period of time, that it literally warrants no protection of the player who's defending it.. which to me seems silly... not asking for a huge buff by any stretch, just a better understanding of how it currently operates

[MOTHER]

Currently, T1/T2/T3 towers deal 150/200/250 (+3% Target Max Health times the number of Consecutive Hits on the same Target Hero) Physical Damage with 40/55/70% Armor Penetration.

Against Creeps it deals a constant 17.5% Target Max Health with 100% Penetration (So creeps will always need 5-6 hits by towers at any stage of the game). 

The Artifact Towers deal 225 (+3.25% Target Max Health) True Damage (75 of which is dealt in an AoE around the main target).

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Based on your concern and the general requirement of not prolonging games unnecessarily, we could try buffing Lane Towers armor penetration by 10% at each tier without disturbing game time too much. We'll test this and possibly other approaches out during the Nemesis beta soon.

[Bile]

On 4/19/2019 at 7:16 AM, MOTHER said:

Tower damage against creeps or heroes or both? Cuz they both scale. And which towers cuz they all have different degrees of penetration.

This is a tricky part of the game because a buff to towers could prolong game time which is something I want to avoid. Games ideally should average at 35 real minutes. So please be specific about what you think should be changed.

What about adding two mini towers near each lane tower? Or adding a slow aurora near the towers, mobility above all is what makes or breaks game in my opinion and with items like ghosting, diving tower is incredibly easy- no ghosting? pop a speed item and galatic and tower isn't so useful to hide near. 

[MOTHER]

Even though towers emit an armor and spell armor bonus for ally heroes, more times than not, you are meant to defend your towers not the other way around.

That’s why items like Tyde Pods, Korhal Vanguard, and Spell Buffer have actives that buff your towers. And why Space Gems allow you to tp to towers at any time.

[Bile]

16 hours ago, MOTHER said:

Even though towers emit an armor and spell armor bonus for ally heroes, more times than not, you are meant to defend your towers not the other way around.

That’s why items like Tyde Pods, Korhal Vanguard, and Spell Buffer have actives that buff your towers. And why Space Gems allow you to tp to towers at any time.

The items in game also counter hugging the tower like never before and make it hard to defend when a team can just straight up dive you and tank the tower, this is happening as soon as like level 4 in game with some heroes. MY biggest beef is the last tower though. IF all 3 towers and supp fall, even in a close game that main tower doesn't stand a chance- it need's some sort of aoe imo. I don't want to drag games out either but honestly I agree with Dream. Towers don't do much to defend anything in the current state of the game. 

[MOTHER]

46 minutes ago, Bile said:

iF all 3 towers and supp fall, even in a close game that main tower doesn't stand a chance- it need's some sort of aoe imo.

If you lose all 3 towers and suppressors, you should lose soon after. This is intended hence why creeps get a special buff in these conditions. The last tower does have AoE btw.

We'll see about what can be done about tower diving however.

[Bile]

1 hour ago, MOTHER said:

If you lose all 3 towers and suppressors, you should lose soon after. This is intended hence why creeps get a special buff in these conditions. The last tower does have AoE btw.

We'll see about what can be done about tower diving however.

Ok. I think the slow is a good idea 😄 I've noticed that sometimes the creeps are getting stuck in lanes too. A few games now, a whole wave has gotten stuck at the tower for some reason and they don't move past it. 

[MOTHER]

Oblivion is all that awaits...