During these play-tests, is there anything in particular that players tend to do (or not do) that surprised you? Or has everyone pretty much played the game exactly how you expected? #BELIEVEINSTEVE
How do you feel about the burden of knowledge of feeling like someone may need to know every unit's and heroe's abilities? Is it a concern, if so, what kind of on-ramping experience do you envision for new players?
I found learning the abilities more difficult than learning abilities in a MOBA, because in a MOBA there is a direct correlation of abilities <-> hero; while that is true in atlas for abilities <-> squad, the inconsistency in which units are in a battle made it harder for me. A squad may not have certain units available or alive at a given time, requiring a more complex graph of association where its ability <-> individual unit, which is a large map with 21+ different units in a match at any given time.
When I played the game it felt very much like a MOBA with some group micro. Is group unit micro the only RTS element you are trying to include in this game, or are there other RTS elements you are trying to include as well?
Not that Mobas are bad. I found it fun to play. It just isn't very much like an RTS. When I read blogs like 'Day9 makes an RTS' I was expecting more RTS elements (bases, variable unit compositions, key upgrade timings). I am not sure you need to add any of those things, I was just curious as what you are trying to include.
I am having a blast with it. Even though i missed most of PvP on sunday to my own company's servers deciding to stop working!
I noticed in the hotkey menu that there are items listed on the keybinds. These are currently bound to neutral weapons. Did you guys ever experiment with items as a thing in the game? If so what did they do?
It seems very difficult to break positions. Especially with a Celesta in the game. This slow seige tanky style is really hard if you don't have the appropriate squads. If you leave your defense area to go attack their base then you basically lose, if you try a head on attack you can easily get rekt. Is this the playstyle you have seen most? Is the game geared around space control and slow siege? Have you guys given any thought to bunker buster type neutral weapons. Maybe a cube that is quick and self destructs and deals AoE. something to break the lines of ion cannons and purifiers.
It seems that many testers (myself included) would like there to be more flexibility in unit composition. Can you give us a quick rundown of what systems you have tested previously and the problems you encountered?
You mentioned something last week about choosing three units from a list of thirty? What other numbers did you try?
I'm guessing you experimented with a general supply cap. Why did you choose unit-specific supply caps?
My friends and I are having a blast with Atlas. As it so happens exactly 3 of us got into the technical pre-alpha and have been playing a lot (several games a day at least). I've heard that we're losing access to the game coming this Friday for an undetermined amount of time. I was wondering why that was? And if it was possible to keep playing against bots with friends (we've been trying different comps, different tech paths, different iterations on strategies, etc...).
Do you plan on creating an API for in-game builds and out of game statistics? (the best example of this being Dota2's system)
A few buddies and I (along with some totally rad discord community volunteers) are currently planning/working on a Atlas website in the same vain of Dotabuff/Heroesfire/teamliquid. So we would especially like to know when/if an API would be available!
(FYI :: Everyone involved is under NDA, or is on standby)
What has been the best moment for you personally so far during Atlas's development? Has it hit you yet that tons of people have been having and are going to continue to have tons of fun because of something you created?
Sensor wards feel very, very strong in some very strange, not-quite-intuitive to me ways. I don't think this is entirely a bad thing since I think both types of ward/totem provide way healthier/more interesting gameplay than the rest of the neutral weapons currently, but can you explain some of the thought process/testing that lead to their providing vision a) with nearly no build time and b) regardless of where they are/intervening terrain is located (they can see over cliffs/into brush in their sight range regardless of where they're placed)? Stuff like being able to nullify brush's otherwise quite useful vision blocking, instantly, by placing a ward in an essentially completely unrelated location, for example, seems like it reduces the significance of a lot of the vision/map control-related gameplay in rtses/mobas in general by quite a bit, solely because sensor wards are so universally effective/cheap.
tl;dr sensor wards feel like they nullify a lot of otherwise fun vision control gameplay by existing and being so long-range/safe/cheap (in gems) -- which is fun in itself in a way because it feels op but w/e
Or maybe I'm crazy and my balance impressions of wards from having played only 20something matches are just off, who knows
Are there any new squads currently being designed? If so, what is the concept behind that / those squad(s)?
What squads do you think need the most work atm in terms of design? Are there any units you think don't fit in particularly well with their squad at the moment?
Dear Day [ J ] - In your last AMA video you mentioned how Artillery's primary goal right now is to get 3v3 in a playable / fairly balanced fun state. How is that being measured or is that more of a sense of the community / Artillery team of when that is at that point? It just seems like it would be a tough thing to be able to tell when it's "done".
Off topic question - You ever finishing Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs?
Comments
what is some of the most interesting and/or unexpected data you gleaned from the playtests?
During these play-tests, is there anything in particular that players tend to do (or not do) that surprised you? Or has everyone pretty much played the game exactly how you expected? #BELIEVEINSTEVE
What is the most different to its current form that Atlas has been throughout its iteration? What did Version 0.0.0.0.1 even look like?
How do you feel about the burden of knowledge of feeling like someone may need to know every unit's and heroe's abilities? Is it a concern, if so, what kind of on-ramping experience do you envision for new players?
I found learning the abilities more difficult than learning abilities in a MOBA, because in a MOBA there is a direct correlation of abilities <-> hero; while that is true in atlas for abilities <-> squad, the inconsistency in which units are in a battle made it harder for me. A squad may not have certain units available or alive at a given time, requiring a more complex graph of association where its ability <-> individual unit, which is a large map with 21+ different units in a match at any given time.
When I played the game it felt very much like a MOBA with some group micro. Is group unit micro the only RTS element you are trying to include in this game, or are there other RTS elements you are trying to include as well?
Not that Mobas are bad. I found it fun to play. It just isn't very much like an RTS. When I read blogs like 'Day9 makes an RTS' I was expecting more RTS elements (bases, variable unit compositions, key upgrade timings). I am not sure you need to add any of those things, I was just curious as what you are trying to include.
I am having a blast with it. Even though i missed most of PvP on sunday to my own company's servers deciding to stop working!
I noticed in the hotkey menu that there are items listed on the keybinds. These are currently bound to neutral weapons. Did you guys ever experiment with items as a thing in the game? If so what did they do?
It seems very difficult to break positions. Especially with a Celesta in the game. This slow seige tanky style is really hard if you don't have the appropriate squads. If you leave your defense area to go attack their base then you basically lose, if you try a head on attack you can easily get rekt. Is this the playstyle you have seen most? Is the game geared around space control and slow siege? Have you guys given any thought to bunker buster type neutral weapons. Maybe a cube that is quick and self destructs and deals AoE. something to break the lines of ion cannons and purifiers.
It seems that many testers (myself included) would like there to be more flexibility in unit composition. Can you give us a quick rundown of what systems you have tested previously and the problems you encountered?
You mentioned something last week about choosing three units from a list of thirty? What other numbers did you try?
I'm guessing you experimented with a general supply cap. Why did you choose unit-specific supply caps?
Dear Day9,
My friends and I are having a blast with Atlas. As it so happens exactly 3 of us got into the technical pre-alpha and have been playing a lot (several games a day at least). I've heard that we're losing access to the game coming this Friday for an undetermined amount of time. I was wondering why that was? And if it was possible to keep playing against bots with friends (we've been trying different comps, different tech paths, different iterations on strategies, etc...).
Do you plan on creating an API for in-game builds and out of game statistics? (the best example of this being Dota2's system)
A few buddies and I (along with some totally rad discord community volunteers) are currently planning/working on a Atlas website in the same vain of Dotabuff/Heroesfire/teamliquid. So we would especially like to know when/if an API would be available!
(FYI :: Everyone involved is under NDA, or is on standby)
What has been the best moment for you personally so far during Atlas's development? Has it hit you yet that tons of people have been having and are going to continue to have tons of fun because of something you created?
Sensor wards feel very, very strong in some very strange, not-quite-intuitive to me ways. I don't think this is entirely a bad thing since I think both types of ward/totem provide way healthier/more interesting gameplay than the rest of the neutral weapons currently, but can you explain some of the thought process/testing that lead to their providing vision a) with nearly no build time and b) regardless of where they are/intervening terrain is located (they can see over cliffs/into brush in their sight range regardless of where they're placed)? Stuff like being able to nullify brush's otherwise quite useful vision blocking, instantly, by placing a ward in an essentially completely unrelated location, for example, seems like it reduces the significance of a lot of the vision/map control-related gameplay in rtses/mobas in general by quite a bit, solely because sensor wards are so universally effective/cheap.
tl;dr sensor wards feel like they nullify a lot of otherwise fun vision control gameplay by existing and being so long-range/safe/cheap (in gems) -- which is fun in itself in a way because it feels op but w/e
Or maybe I'm crazy and my balance impressions of wards from having played only 20something matches are just off, who knows
Are there any new squads currently being designed? If so, what is the concept behind that / those squad(s)?
What squads do you think need the most work atm in terms of design? Are there any units you think don't fit in particularly well with their squad at the moment?
Dear Day [ J ] - In your last AMA video you mentioned how Artillery's primary goal right now is to get 3v3 in a playable / fairly balanced fun state. How is that being measured or is that more of a sense of the community / Artillery team of when that is at that point? It just seems like it would be a tough thing to be able to tell when it's "done".
Off topic question - You ever finishing Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs?
One fan of many
Final / Daniel
This may be too late or a repeat, but here's my question just in case:
Is there a drawback that is preventing you guys from making the generic upgrades stronger?
Cheers!