Rundar's Feedback
Heyo Artillerites!
First I wanted to say thank you for inviting me! This is my first time doing anything like this and I am excited to be a part of this!
So how I felt first. I went into this Pre-Alpha thinking that you guys had been working on something similar to Starcraft, which was the assumption I had because I found out about you guys through watching Day9 on youtube. When I watched the intro video, I was like huh, so you guys are injecting the MOBA into this game... Now don't get me wrong, I love MOBAs, I recently started Dota 2, and I am in love with Heroes of the Storm, it is a great genre. However, it seems a lot of games recently have been trying to inject the MOBA elements into their game, and that was my first impression here. I love both the RTS and MOBA genres, but I honestly felt disappointed at first.
After my first two games, my thoughts had mostly changed to a positive outlook on the game so far, which were confirmed by Day9's AMA. A lot of issues I had found with Starcraft had been eliminated, the biggest one being that one culminate battle makes or breaks a game. I also didn't feel as rushed, which was nice for a change. Now, for my specific feedback.
Feedback on parts of the game that could use improvement:
The spawn/respawn text on some units can be hard to read at times. If I remember correctly, the units showing up on the right had white text, which was difficult to see on the character icons. Perhaps having a better border around the numbers? The biggest thing for me though was the respawn text, there was writing over where the numbers were supposed to go, so it was hard sometimes to expect when I would get my units back until they were near the end of their respawn cycle, perhaps remove the black text that covers the respawn timers or move it.
The spawn audio could use a little work. In the beginning I sometimes mess up the timing for pumping out all my units, so when they all say they are completed, I get a blast of repeating audio that interrupts itself, which made me feel a tad annoyed. Perhaps instead make it so that way one audio queue plays completely through before playing another one if a unit was completed after the initial audio queue.
- Pings could be better, the colors for different ones are good, but it can be hard sometimes to understand what specific ones are besides the general ping. Perhaps add some text that is visible for everyone on your team to see and understand, like "Attack here!"
- Parties are great. They allow better coordination, to the point of using voice chat. This however, is extremely bad to go up against. During the first PvP day, you could clearly tell when another team was a party, and even when they were using voice coms. In the future, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have matchmaking separate the solo-queued people from those in parties so that way people don't become frustrated. I know that this isn't a focus right now, but even in this Pre-Alpha I did notice it, seeing as I both did solo and both versions of a party.
- I did see something about this somewhere, but right now you can hear some sounds globally as opposed to regionally. This was the most evident on the first map, and I used this to do a lot of early denials on gold bases. I liked having the intel, but at the same time this intel should not be kept. I do believe one of you Artillerites mentioned plans to fix this in the future though.
- Speaking of denials, I often tried to and often successfully denied gold bases, on both maps. This however never really felt important to me, it didn't seem to impact the enemy really at all, so I eventually abandoned the idea. I am not sure of a fix for this.
- The gem bases...they are on the outsides of both maps, and also a cool base that I believe could be useful. Right now though, it doesn't seem that way, and even if you increase the gem harvest rate I do not believe that would completely solve the issue. The reason why is because initially you rely on the random gem spawns for your gem income, which you use for getting your tech and building your gold bases, which gives you units and upgrades. By the time I personally have enough gems to think about a commitment like leaving the battlefield for the gem base (sorry I don't have a specific time for this), I already have most of my units, and I am focused on upgrades. At this point, I am also trying to end the game, which the majority of the time requires me to use the "special" units which are built using gems. Additionally by this time, you have been involved in battles, and as such leveled up. With leveling up, you are given more and more gems. By the time you reach a high rank, it seems your rank-up gem momentum is so large that there is no need to even run for the random gem spawns, let alone the gem bases. Also, the battles seem to revolve around the middle, less so in the art map but even then it still largely revolves around the middle. So either you are using your gems for something else, your gem momentum from leveling is too great, or you are occupied by the main battle area. The only time I have really seen a use for them is when the game dragged on for a loooooong time, and still the gem-rank-up momentum was able to supply me just fine. Perhaps, in addition to raising the gem harvest rate, you move them inward a little so that way they aren't a decision to ignore the majority of the time, but still don't remain in the battle intense area.
- I noticed that there were periods of idleness in the early game, which left me feeling bored. I believe that increasing initial gem spawn rates would probably help this issue out, however they should spawn limited numbers of gems so that way the early game build up isn't dashed and develops into a need to feel rushed.
- Heroes don't feel great to me as they are right now. When someone says hero, I think a unique unit, able to take a hit, a game changer, and you guys do well with some of these points. Their abilities are really useful, and they can't be built, so you fit the unique bill quite nice. However, their health and speed seem too low, they die pretty easy, and other units seem to catch up to them just fine, even after ranking up. This I would normally not have a problem with, except for the fact that the combination of having longer cool-downs on their abilities along with having a VERY short respawn timer makes them feel less special. I often just set my hero up, get their abilities out, then have them tank the damage while the rest of my forces destroy the enemy, and well before the battle is done, my hero is already back and ready to battle, often right as the cool-downs are finished. There is no feeling of punishment for losing my hero with this combination, in fact my hero feels more like a unique worker than a hero feels. The only time I have felt remotely punished by my hero's death is when they died right in the beginning of the match, and even then it did not impact me really at all, since gem harvesting is easy to do. A fix for this would be to possibly increase the respawn timer (scaled as the game goes on of course), lower the ability cooldowns, or even increase the speed/health of them so that way I don't feel a need to toss them away when I am done with their abilities.
What could be added:
- Voice coms. Voice chat is amazing, and any team with them seemed to dominate in this game, and for me, any game that requires teamwork really is in it's best element when using coms.
- More squad specific flair! Add more sounds to the game, make the bases and towers you build more unique to the person that built them. It would help keep the game entertaining, and perhaps could add some more depth to the intel within a game.
Besides all of that, I really really enjoy this game, I look forward to its future. Keep up the good work Artillerites! Hope you all found this helpful!
Comments
Yaaay! Though many of the mechanics initially "look" MOBA-esque, we hope the "feel" will be a bit more RTSy. Super glad some of those feelings came through
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Definitely needs some sort of hover/additional info.
On the to-do list
On ze to-do list as well!
Right now gold is not in a good place at all. There's very little to do to come back & very little way to influence your/your enemy's gold production. We want this resource to be a little swingier.
Gem bases are one of those things that, though initially don't feel as important, wind up being key in many games (so long as the income is significant). For players who've played the maps more, these gem bases wind up being critical.
We're definitely always on the watch for how those early game gemming numbers go. As you note, this is exactly what will drive the pace of the game. We want to try to balance making gems important and tense BUT not make it such a loudspeaker that it's all you should do.
Heroes will need work to fit right. I'd describe them (and many of our other systems) as having all the right pieces -- leveling up, increasing in power, different abilities, supporting army etc -- but not doing it in the most right or impactful way. Shall be tuned over time
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YES and YES! :D
Thank you so much! Twas awesome :D
:D Thank you for the reply and insight! Hope it added to your feedback, and I look forward to the future of Atlas!