EvoStar's Atlas Review

I'm going to post once a day with new thoughts and concerns about this great game.

After my first two games I felt like I had really accomplished something. However, I used pretty much the same strategy on both heroes (control mid diagonals and farm gems till spamming glass cannons)

Feedback:
1. I was very confused about the gem respawns and what causes them to grow. I feel like a timer or a unique sound(maybe there is I'm not sure) to signify when teams should push for gem nodes.
2. I really enjoyed the AOE abilites but they seem a bit strong. I feel for enemies that have abilities with a cone they should deal less damage to those in the back of the pack.

Questions:
1. Will there be a 1v1 game mode or is this primarily a team game?

123Thanks for letting me test your game :)

Comments

  • EvoStarEvoStar Member
    edited December 2015

    I did some testing today on graphics, but I got one solid game today. I progressed significantly slower this time seeing how the game would evolve.

    Feedback:
    1. I feel the late game is too based on the nexus. I want to harass the side but I have to walk all the way over or send my neutral weapons in a weird path. I think if we had a low cost neutral weapon that allowed us to warp in units near it would add some tactical depth. To balance the creation of units you could make the distance increase the build cost or time.
    2. Today I noticed the coin deposits actually disappear! I had no idea! Maybe a sound or a notification can be added even if it's just a place holder.
    3. I used control groups on my buildings and when I upgraded the structure it would remove it from that control group I had it assigned too. Nothing major just something I ran into.

    Questions:
    1. Will I ever be able to rally my units onto my hero? I quite like this from previous RTS.

  • Day9Day9 Member, Administrator

    Feedback:
    1. I was very confused about the gem respawns and what causes them to grow. I feel like a timer or a unique sound(maybe there is I'm not sure) to signify when teams should push for gem nodes.
    2. I really enjoyed the AOE abilites but they seem a bit strong. I feel for enemies that have abilities with a cone they should deal less damage to those in the back of the pack.

    1. We definitely need more clarity around gemming. I'd ask you to track your sense of gems as you play throughout the week. Does it become more clear/intuitive over time? Some things need explaining only once, so we don't want to overcrowd the screen w/ timers that people won't consistently need.
    2. AoE will naturally be strong in an RTS context. That said, they have telegraphs and weaknesses as well so tell me how PvP goes! Bots tend not to dodge them right now :P.
    1. Will there be a 1v1 game mode or is this primarily a team game?

    We are focusing exclusively on 3v3 right now. Though we eventually want other game modes, making ONE excellent mode is really hard, so we're just trying to conquer that :D.

    123Thanks for letting me test your game :)

    No Thank You!

  • Day9Day9 Member, Administrator

    Feedback:
    1. I feel the late game is too based on the nexus. I want to harass the side but I have to walk all the way over or send my neutral weapons in a weird path. I think if we had a low cost neutral weapon that allowed us to warp in units near it would add some tactical depth. To balance the creation of units you could make the distance increase the build cost or time.
    2. Today I noticed the coin deposits actually disappear! I had no idea! Maybe a sound or a notification can be added even if it's just a place holder.
    3. I used control groups on my buildings and when I upgraded the structure it would remove it from that control group I had it assigned too. Nothing major just something I ran into.

    1. The map structure is a little flat right now I agree. We'll be rebuilding the map post pre-alpha. Warpin weapon sounds pretty cool.
    2. Yeah! We wanna add a thing where you click on the pool to see it's remaining resources
    3. Already on the bug docket!

    Questions:

    3. Will I ever be able to rally my units onto my hero? I quite like this from previous RTS.

    YES! Not before pre-alpha is done though lol.

  • EvoStarEvoStar Member
    edited December 2015

    This will be recount of everything involving the test today.

    First game: I got into the game rushed T2 units or team focused on gathering gems very early.
    Unfortunately two people on the opposing team left/dc. Over all the game lasted about 7 minutes.

    Second game: we had someone dc during squad select and it failed to start. There was no way to leave the game without forcing it closed through task manager or alt+f4

    Third game: I got into started great, but some one dc'd at the five minute mark. Playing from behind seems very challenging especially when your AI bot that replaced your teammate just runs off doing whatever. Still a fun game though!

    I had a bug when we were forced to "wait" for a player mid match. I tried to type something but was unable to backspace entirely lol. Esc did clear the chat though.

    Fourth game: This was truly an awesome game. Everyone stayed in. I was microing glass cannons on the side of the map while fighting for gems in the center. We were ahead most the game but one of their hero had a huge AOE ability that kept us from killing their nexus. Ended up in a huge battle on the 3 may roads to the nexus and took likes of ion cannons to bring down their defenses. 10/10 would play again.

    Overall daily review
    This game is fun but can get out of hand for either team pretty quick.

    By far my favorite thing to do in this game is marking people's hero and one shotting them with Vela's Peaceful Resolution lol or dodging Celesta's Ultimate.

  • EvoStarEvoStar Member
    edited December 2015

    Hello! I didn't have much time to play today but I did manage to micro hard enough to kill a green camp at lvl 1 with only T1 units and +1 attack. Overall not hard but if the enemy knew you were doing this it could end badly even with that tower guarding you. I really enjoy the upgrades on the heroes but took me while to figure out where to find them lol. I'm mainly practicing Vela for the next PvP event. I feel like she will be very strong against the slow moving heroes such as Hydros.

    I do feel that you have a higher advantage from gem collection over coin expansions. I just don't feel like 3 or even 4 income buildings yield a high return. I also felt like the bots were a bit harder today. It was great!

    Feedback:
    I feel like the minimap is great but with only wards being able to lighten areas I tend to focus more on whats in front of my squad. Only time i look at the map is when a notification is up or gems just spawn. If there was anything that could temporarily give vision of the map or even permanent vision if defend I'd really enjoy it. For instance. I don't know what the mega nodes do besides drop tons of gems for the opponents maybe they could grant a small field of vision around their structure.

    Still having a blast playing it though. Even against bots!

  • EvoStarEvoStar Member
    edited December 2015

    Wow I feel pretty silly!
    I was playing the new art map today and I ran down to the "purple" coin deps cause there was ZERO neutral monsters and I thought I hit the jackpot for coin. After about 30 minute of going "why do I have no coin income" it hit me. IT GIVES YOU GEMS. OMG xD

    Aside from this, great map. I don't know what capturing the zone does but I did it lol.
    Still have pretty bad visual discoloration but the game is playable nonetheless.

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