Playtest 236: New UI, New Hero Ability Power Spikes, New Portraits, Balance

TreiskTreisk Member, Administrator
edited August 19 in Patch Notes

Playtest 236: New UI, New Hero Ability Power Spikes, New Portraits, Balance


General Gameplay

  • Two primary structures have been renamed

    • Nexus ⇒ Archive
    • Shield Generator ⇒ Healing Generator
  • The basic Critters are now called "Grubs."

UI & Audio

  • BRAND NEW USER INTERFACE!

    • NEW FEATURE: Warp-In View! Now shows what units you have available to deploy
    • Charge counts for abilities are much more clear
    • No more top bar!

      • Known issue: Units at the top of the screen will play the "off-screen damage taken" indicator if enabled.
  • Contextual pings have been removed.

    • for now! These will make a return eventually!
  • Fog of War has been visually improved; players will find it much easier to navigate terrain they don't have vision of!

Art

  • New portraits have been added for most units! There are still a small handful of exceptions. Hang tight, we'll get there!
  • A portal to a parallel world (purely visual) has been added to the center of the map, where the Titans do battle.

Bots

  • Bots no longer choose a random hero, but, rather, will choose a complimentary hero.

    • Unit choices are still randomized
  • Assortment of bugfixes; your bot-game experience should now play a bit more smoothly!

Units


Blue

  • Hydros

    • Resist per level: 4 ⇒ 3
    • Healing Waters

      • Healing: 75 ⇒ 80
      • New power spikes.

        • Level 5: Healing increased by 40
        • Level 15: Healing increased by 80; if the target is not Hydros, Hydros also receives 100 healing
    • Turn the Tide

      • New power spike.

        • Level 20: Health threshold increased to 40%; duration increased by 4 seconds
  • Ryme

    • Frostbolt

      • Damage: 25 ⇒ 30
      • Freeze duration: 3.5 seconds ⇒ 1.8 seconds
      • New power spikes

        • Level 5: Freeze duration increased by 1.8 seconds, cooldown reduced by 3 seconds
        • Level 15: Shatters on hit, damaging and slowing units beyond the first target, cooldown reduced by 3 seconds
    • Frozen Orb

      • No longer leaves behind a slow zone
      • New power spike

        • Level 20: Leaves a slow zone at the target area, radius increased by 1.
  • Frostcaller

    • Energy cost: 5 ⇒ 6
    • Frostfall

      • Movement slow: 40% ⇒ 35%
    • Northern Winds (Upgrade)

      • No longer increases casting range
      • Now increases Frostfall's damage and slow efficacy
  • Shadow

    • Energy cost: 4 ⇒ 5
  • Ancient Ice Frog

    • Icy Breath now has an indicator for what units are in its area of effect
    • The Deep Freeze upgrade now works correctly on the Ancient Ice Frog, and correctly does not work on Ryme's abilities.
  • Aquadillo

    • Unit Cap: 4 ⇒ 3
    • Cannonball

      • Cooldown: 40 seconds ⇒ 30 seconds
      • Damage type: Normal ⇒ Piercing
  • Dredgecrawler

    • Tech requirement: 2 ⇒ 3

Green

  • Alder

    • Living Vines

      • No longer deals damage
      • Cooldown: 20 seconds ⇒ 16 seconds
      • Travel speed: 10 ⇒ 12
      • New power spikes:

        • Level 5: Deals periodic damage to rooted targets
        • Level 15: Grows 4 Saplings along the cast area
    • Deeproot Terror

      • Duration: 26 seconds ⇒ 25 seconds
      • New power spike

        • Level 20: Now grows 6 saplings around the Deeproot when cast; radius increased by 1.5; gains 200 Physical Resist and Magical Resist.
  • Grath

    • Stone Form

      • Duration: 5 seconds ⇒ 4 seconds
      • No longer half duration when self-cast
      • New power spikes

        • Level 5: Cooldown reduced by 4 seconds, healing per second increased by 15
        • Level 15: Cooldown reduced by 4 seconds, healing per second increased by 30
    • Bestial Rage

      • New power spike

        • Level 20: Gains 200 Physical Resist and Magical Resist for the duration
  • Terrapin Trooper

    • Size increased by ~12%!
    • Energy cost: 4 ⇒ 5
    • Health: 210 ⇒ 260
    • Damage: 16 ⇒ 20
  • Bramblethorn

    • Protosynthesis

      • Healing per second: 5% of max health ⇒ 3.33% of max health
    • Efficient Synthesis (Upgrade)

      • Efficacy buff: 60% ⇒ 100%
  • Abominable Sludge

    • Unit Cap: 3 ⇒ 2
  • Batterhorn

    • Unit Cap: 4 ⇒ 3

Red

  • Eris

    • Dis-Array

      • Danage: 45 ⇒ 30
      • Damage type: Projectile ⇒ Normal
      • New power spikes

        • Level 5: Damage increases by 10
        • Level 15: Damage increases by 10, and now passes through enemies
    • Volley

      • Range: 16 ⇒ 15
      • Now has an indicator for what units are in its area of effect
      • New power spike

        • Level 20: Range increased by 5
  • Vex

    • Scorch

      • Cooldown: 12 seconds ⇒ 10 seconds
      • Damage: 20 ⇒ 15
      • New power spikes

        • Level 5: Radius increased by 0.5
        • Level 15: Radius increased by 0.5; Spitfires deal an additional 8 damage to units that are On Fire
    • Pyroblast

      • Fixed a bug that caused the range indicator to misrepresent the ability's actual range
      • Range: 28 ⇒ 26
      • New power spike

        • Level 20: Width increased by 0.5, range increased by 6
  • Spitfire

    • On Fire bonus damage: 7 ⇒ 8
    • On Fire damage type: Normal ⇒ Projectile
  • Devilkin Dervish

    • Energy cost: 4 ⇒ 5
  • Pyrosaur

    • Flamethrower's VFX should now more accurately represent its area of effect

White

  • Celesta

    • Illuminate

      • New power spikes

        • Level 5: Damage increased by 6; range increased by 20
        • Level 15: Damage increased by 6; cast range is now global
    • Cleansing Light

      • Damage type: Projectile ⇒ Normal
      • No longer affects structures at all
      • New power spike

        • Level 20: Radius increased by 1, damage increased by 1000
  • Wisp

    • Attack cooldown: 0.6 ⇒ 0.7
  • Deadeye

    • Energy cost: 5 ⇒ 6
    • Take Aim

      • Damage: 140 ⇒ 160
  • Zephyr

    • Unit Cap: 6 ⇒ 4
  • Conduit

    • Damage type: Projectile ⇒ Piercing

Mercenaries

  • Cryowalker

    • Unit Cap: 6 ⇒ 4
  • Engineer

    • No longer disappears into the Ion Cannon to construct it, but is still (currently) invincible and untargetable.
    • Fixed a bug that prevented Engineering from affecting Healing Generators and Warp Spires
    • Ion Cannon

      • has received a new model and animations!
      • Damage: 125 ⇒ 75
      • Attack cooldown: 4 seconds ⇒ 2 seconds

Comments

  • cdisscdiss Member
    edited August 18

    Initial feedback from a bots game, before PvP starts.

    New HUD is awesome! Art team continues to do a great job (there and other places).

    Noticed a few odd bot behaviors. (Replay G741f6946c2964de7b044657ad5aa70c9.) Bots tend to plant multiple observer wards (sorry don't remember the right name for them) in the same place or nearly the same place; happened on multiple occasions. I also noticed similar behavior with some other active abilities, e.g. Emberfiend, where the bot released three AOEs in almost exactly the same time/place. Finally, just as an FYI, bot chats still refer to the "Nexus" instead of "Archive".

    Not sure if it's just my settings (1080p monitor, 50% resolution iirc) but the minimap seemed like it was much worse resolution than the rest of the screen / than previously.

    I'll add more feedback here after playing some PvP.

  • snkzsnkz Member, Administrator

    @cdiss said:

    Noticed a few odd bot behaviors. (Replay G741f6946c2964de7b044657ad5aa70c9.) Bots tend to plant multiple observer wards (sorry don't remember the right name for them) in the same place or nearly the same place; happened on multiple occasions. I also noticed similar behavior with some other active abilities, e.g. Emberfiend, where the bot released three AOEs in almost exactly the same time/place. Finally, just as an FYI, bot chats still refer to the "Nexus" instead of "Archive".

    Thanks cdiss!

    Yea bots arent good at picking unique locations for abilities right now, thats something will take a look at in the future for sure.

    Great catch on the Nexus thing!

  • New Interface

    (1.1) - I didn't entirely grok the new interface with the few games on it so far. Just need to get used to it, but initial feedback was that it seemed like a lot of the numbers blended together, in part because of uniform size, and because in some places it felt like they were in different areas. Like, in one box it was in the top right, and in another the top left. As I say, though, I think it is just getting more time on it.

    (1.2) - I liked the fog of war better, felt hazier and more obvious when it would clear. This in hind-sight, though, thinking back.

    Balance

    (2.1) - I'm still really enjoying the challenge of working through the progression system, and having just junk match-ups which necessitate different play-styles and relying on my teammates more.

    (2.2) - I definitely exploited Juggernaut unit blocking tonight. I feel like they should have unit walking for T1s (maybe they do?), but like that another juggernaut can body block them. Amazingly, makes them almost defensive.

  • Looks like levels could be divided by five. (useless multiples are a slight pet peeve of mine) If this pattern sticks, a visual representation of basic/ult upgrades might be clearer yet.

    UI: I have to search for my current level a bit. May improve with familiarity.

    Might be some habit, but I miss having the resources right next to the action grid. I'm comparing them both for which generators I need, and for costs of things.

    Terapin dash is hard to use against opponents in critter regions; the critters end up blocking most good lines.

    AlderBot ruined me with his ult a few times.

  • MotivaMotiva Member
    edited August 18

    Yea, I'm not a huge fan of moving the display of what I have selected to the bottom right. It seems less clear/harder to parse.

    The UI seemed a little too big @ 1440p, but overall I like that it provided a lot more feedback. It seems a little cluttered, maybe 5 steps forward 2 steps back in my book <3 (EDIT2: If I had to choose between the last UI iteration and this one, I would take the last simply because of a few basic layout details [maybe for people who like the minimap on the left?] I like the art of the new one, but it doesn't parse nearly as well.)

    The game overall feels like it's in a better place than any previous build. Here are my current thoughts:

    The Ion Cannon and Juggernaut seem a little redundant, Just as a side suggestion, has the engineer building forward juggernauts instead of ion cannons been tested? I really like the engineer's defensive utility but that alone is usually not worthy of a slot, but I like the way juggernauts force teams to be all over the map. But I don't know. Maybe they're fine. :)

    The Terrapin change to 5 energy seems significant. They seem pretty fragile right now in general, with their main utility being more for surrounds and picking off retreating units than dedicated tanking... This isn't a horrible role, they just seem a little weak at the moment. Or At least they just fall off hard. Slight buff to their upgrade? lol.

    I'm enjoying the progression system overall. I feel like it does cause some balance trouble when a hard counter becomes necessary to kill a group of aquadillos for example, and no one has one unlocked, let alone in their deck. :dizzy:

    I look forward to be able to play more often. It's difficult to get enough games to form an opinion by the time you change everything. I enjoy the improvements, but I'm usually slow to really finalize an opinion. I hope to provide better feedback as things slow down. I feel like I'm still just getting a handle on thing.

    <3

    EDIT:

    Also, one of you made the big announcement in discord. I didn't see who, I was in a game. but Congrats guys! I'm really excited.

    But a few questions/things I wasn't clear on.

    Are you closing PvP to restricted times? I didn't catch the reasoning behind this other than concerns about long queue times. I hope those of us who have been willing to endure 8hr queue times will still have the opportunity to do so, or some solution. :)

    Will there be a progression reset?

    How "open" is "open"? Open as in NDA free, or open as in free to play?

    Will it be the same client, or will there be another layer similar to staging, where the daily testers can play during the closed pvp time (if not can I get on staging? lmao I love you.), or will it be all on the same server?

    idk <3 I assume you'll let us know all of this. Just putting the curiosity out there.

  • TokOwaTokOwa Member

    @Motiva I think PVP will be restricted at the open alpha. This is to create times when people reconvene. Hopefully we get a few games in the dedicated times rather than 0 games 24/7 (which will usually lead to a gradual reduction of playerbase). You can still create custom games for PVP outside of the times.

    Everything is subject to change, if playerbase is high enough to maintain queue times throughout the day then they will probably be really quick to move away from the restricted times.

  • MotivaMotiva Member

    @TokOwa said:
    Motiva I think PVP will be restricted at the open alpha. This is to create times when people reconvene. Hopefully we get a few games in the dedicated times rather than 0 games 24/7 (which will usually lead to a gradual reduction of playerbase). You can still create custom games for PVP outside of the times.

    Everything is subject to change, if playerbase is high enough to maintain queue times throughout the day then they will probably be really quick to move away from the restricted times.

    I gathered as much, though I thought I heard them say that they -think- we should be able to do customs outside of that time. I just figured this is a good place to bring it up.

    Furthermore, I'm just curious because if people like the game and anyone can come play some, then it just won't be a problem. I know if most of the daily testers could just invite all their friends to play we would probably have a game or two going most afternoons and evenings.

    We're not far off from being able to get games most weekdays with the dedicated few we have. :) I'm just curious on the details because I like just randomly checking at 3pm on a Tuesday and seeing that I can actually get a game. It's great :)

  • TokOwaTokOwa Member

    Yeah, hopefully they will react fast when circumstances arise. It seemed like they expressed that they are no changes to custom game availability as well as no plans to make any changes, so I wouldn't worry too much.

  • FoambornFoamborn Member
    edited August 21

    It will take me a while to adapt to the new UI to provide good feedback. Right now I'm looking in all the wrong places for information.

    I think there needs to be a prominent UI element for finished production. Currently it is difficult to know when units finish if you aren't glued to your production queue or listening to the audio cue. Maybe something similar to the warp gate availability element in SC2. As Protoss you would develop a sense of when to warp in since the gate CD never varied. In Atlas warp in time differs by unit build time and the time the unit was queued so more feedback would help players macro.

    Also, kingpin nerf? You monsters.

Sign In or Register to comment.