What makes you having fun playing a Hero Arena?What you would like to have in a H.A.?

[Happy]

Hey all,

i would like to know
1) what you like when you're playing a hero arena? (like items, eye-candy spells, masses of heroes, etc)
2) what you would like to have in a hero arena? (like more heroes, more items, secrets, another system than the usual recipe system, etc)
3) what makes you having fun while playing a hero arena? (that should be clear )

thanks in advance and for sure +rep for everyone

greetz happy

 

[Narks]

1). i like it when heroes deal lots of damage and there are really big numbers everywhere (like your hero has 1200 str and deals 5000 damage a hit, and red numbers appear on the screen every time you hit)
2). i like lots of secrets, especially secret commands that give you stuff so finding secrets give you an advantage
3). i love hero arenas where you get bash and blink on an item sooo much fun

 

[Curo]

Lol, I like the exact opposite of Narks. Balance is key because it makes all heroes playable at the same level. Smaller numbers are better IMO. When your health gets too high, you can't read it. And higher levels of damage/health also make damage detection systems harder to work around.

Lots of heroes are designed with a gentle balance in mind, so giving them a blink or bash item, or even boots of speed can ruin the balance.

Environmental effects in an arena would be nice (certain areas maybe slow you, or decrease spell damage).

Try to make it more than just one big mosh pit where heroes auto attack each other. I mean it really comes down to whether or not you actually like to play and have skill (like me), or just sit there and be amazed (like Narks). While it's nice to have an easy game that amuses people right off the bat, you'll get more returning players if there is more to the game, and it takes practice to be good.

Another important thing is eye candy is good, however large and flashy is bad. The 2 main reasons are: if people have weaker comps, massive eye candy hinders their ability to play, and also having too many effects going off in the same area makes it hard to see what's going on. I often get overwhelmed in DotA team-fights because I can't tell what's going on, and my comp won't let me react fast enough. So try and make things look neat (like maybe there is a small effect when someone crits, rather than just numbers), rather than overwhelming (a hero uses "nova blast" and 20 different effects/lightnings of different colours fill up the screen).

 

[Happy]

lol....okay....2 excactly opposites

maybe some more opinions?

 

[NeuroToxin]

Hero Arenas -

I like all heroes that have unknown effects. For example, the first time you play Dota, because all the spells in dota are so interesting, it makes yo think before using them.

I also like well balanced heroes, that can get overpowered if you get enough kills with them. Interesting heroes are great too, for example, I have a hero which shoots shockwaves as his attack.

I also like it when heroes can, "rank up", because it gives you a big goal to get to. Maybe a save/load system. But still.

 

[mf-shroom]

I must agree with curo about being able to keep the balance of things in a hero arena without making the gameplay monotonous. Heroes should have a wide array of spells and a multitude of spell effects at their disposal. I.E. not giving every single hero a 10000 dmg nuke that stuns Also, the synergy of the heroes in the arenas must be considered if they just have a bunch of random spells that make no sense together, it might be a problem.

 

[anjobihis]

Hero arenas are cool when it has level 100 limit!

 

[KaerfNomekop]

Of course, the main thing is that the Heroes are original, and can be used together to make useful combinations.
Plenty of items is good, but not too many or it makes gameplay a bit too item-dependent.
There should also be plenty of random events in every game, so that you can never predict what may happen.

Personally, I prefer Hero Arenas that focus on Hero development, as that is the signature of a Hero Arena.

 

[Ignitedstar]

Hero Arenas lack strategy. It's always "who can farm faster" and it kills the entire point. Hero Arenas are at their best when there are no creeps to kill and you are only up against enemy heroes. The redundancy of hero arenas is why I theorycrafted my own dream Hero Arena. It's a long read, the Hero Arena would be complex, and the learning curve in incredibly deep. However, people would be playing this Hero Arena because it is based on skill rather than luck or farming. Check it here.

 

[KaerfNomekop]

But if there are only other Heroes to kill, it means that more experienced players almost always win, whereas new players rarely do. IMO, that's not fun at all - everybody should have an equal chance.

 

[B0ndo]

But if there are only other Heroes to kill, it means that more experienced players almost always win, whereas new players rarely do. IMO, that's not fun at all - everybody should have an equal chance.

I disagree, in my oppinion players that have been practicing for a long time should've a better chance of winning. But the map shouldn't be rocket science, any player should be able to stand a chance.

But this is one hell work of balance, it takes a lot of tests etc.

 

[Happy]

thanks for the answers till now ^^

i would really like to read many more

 

[Ioannes]

1. Numbers don't matter - they are only relative to other numbers. Whether you have 800hp and the enemy has 600hp or you have 80 000hp and the enemy has 60 000 makes no difference. In fact, better keep it as low as possible, if only to be original. I like many unique, themed skills, as well as various heroes.
2. I'd like to not have people who don't get enough kills at the beginning have disproportionally small chance of catching up. KaerfNomekop and Ignitedstar already mentioned the problem. "snowballing/Z-factor"

Spoiler

But if there are only other Heroes to kill, it means that more experienced players almost always win, whereas new players rarely do. IMO, that's not fun at all - everybody should have an equal chance.

Hero Arenas lack strategy. It's always "who can farm faster" and it kills the entire point. Hero Arenas are at their best when there are no creeps to kill and you are only up against enemy heroes. The redundancy of hero arenas is why I theorycrafted my own dream Hero Arena. It's a long read, the Hero Arena would be complex, and the learning curve in incredibly deep. However, people would be playing this Hero Arena because it is based on skill rather than luck or farming. Check it here.

3. I'm making a hero that fights and specializes in something of my choice I like and prevails over other heroes. So there's the element of specializing and making the character custom for me, and also being superior to the other heroes. Which may imply that there better be fewer, more customizable heroes, rather than many, diverse heroes, with fixed skills to choose from. But I wouldn't generalize from what I just said.

 

[Glorn2]

The hardest thing to do in any game, is to ensure that new players can play the game, while allowing much better players to dominate the game. No one wants to learn to be "the best" at a game, with months of playing, only to find that they can be beaten by a noob, or that the learning/skill curve resembles a table.

Also, as said above, you dont want a snowball factor. that is "I got a kill early, so I am much better than them, so I can kill them more." If the goal of the game is to kill your opponents X times, than a well-timed gank brings a team closer to victory. things like long respawn times, huge XP or gold rewards for kills, or increased stats, ECT will not make PVP more sought out; it will simply make games shorter and 1 sided.

also, you dont want to reward people for a loss, simply to try to rebalance the game so they dont suck. that in itself, takes anything away from winning. Especially if you take into account the comparison of an early game strat to a late game strat.

Good ideas to allow the above to work:
Give gold for ending killing sprees. Using variables, you can easily keep track of how many kills a player gets before they die. Reward the killing player based on the dead players killing spree. If you have a spree of 8, chances are, you are good at the game. People might gang up to kill you, so they get the nice little reward; this gives them more to fight back with. It might also cause skilled players not to amass kills on very weak players, due to how much gold they might feed a strong opponent due to it.

Offer experience and gold every X seconds; based on the average level, or kill count (average somethin). Lets say there is a game with only 2 players. Player A is level 20; so can get gold and experience faster than his level 14 opponent. If every 10 seconds all players are given (AverageLvlX10) gold and experience, that is a larger gain for the weaker player, in comparison. If you do not follow the logic, imagine you earn 500,000 dollars a year. I earn 10,000 a year. We both win 5,000 dollars on a lottery ticket. We are both gaining the same amount of money, but that is 50% of my yearly income, compared to 1% of yours; it would have a larger impact on my financial situation.

Balance is important, as is individual unique gameplay. So long as no one ever decided "I can never lose at this game" then it is going to be played a lot. If someone can pick the same hero, and do the same thing every game, and win because of that... well... that player will get bored. Dozens of people will copy his flawless strat, then get bored. Make sure that no hero is better than another hero. No item set is better than another item set. Let the gameplay decide the victors; not the hero choice.

Eye candy is worthless. I cant tell you how many games I have joined and thought "this game sucks" but noticed there were 20 custom import units who looked bad-ass, and every spell I cast looked like jesus having an orgasm on my screen. If you like pretty colors that much, go watch TV; leave video games to people who like playing them. Making a new skill? Create an array of 12 points around the hero, pick an animation to play there, and leave it at that. No more than a few minutes should be spent making a spell look shiny until the rest of the game is finished.

I believe narks was being sarcastic. but he brings up a good point about secrets. They are bad. If you want to hide things in the map, balance them as you would anything else. you want extra heroes? Make heroes that you would make for anyone to pick, then find a way to hide them. Never reward a good player by making them better on the start of the game.

 

[Happy]

thanks for the replies...

but i still would love to read more opinions

 

[8uY_YoU]

Where they must kill and kill
Teammate and kill
nuke and kill

Btw is this supposed in world editor help?

 

[Inflicted]

Skill required challenges and abilities.

 

[darkmik]

i like hero that makes shit kills

 

[SouLEDGE]

Hero development: I rate the most important aspect, as well as team battle.
I created a small pvp style map where all the heroes had 2 ultimate moves but could only choose one at level 25.
For example "The Defender" has 2 "Ultimate Defend" moves. One protects only himself while the other protects everyone else except him.
This made team battles quite interesting as you don't always know exactly what move the hero has chosen in what situation

 

[KaerfNomekop]

Well, unpredictability is always fun to have in any map, Hero Arenas included. If a hero's development is unpredictability, like in SoulEDGE's example, it makes the game more exciting, because there's this feeling of suspense throughout. It makes you want to play more, just to find out what other possibilities you might not have discovered.