Day[9] AMA for Test Weekend 3!
Day9
Member, Administrator
As is tradition from our last test weekends, I'll be recording an AMA to answer any questions or comments about Atlas past/present/future.
Post your inquiries here and I'll answer literally ALL of them in video format post TW3 :D.
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Comments
What prompted the move to 1 resource?
We have two resources what do you mean @mrwizard70 ?
What is the teams idea of what the players should do in between fighting off the starting enemies and waiting for gem shrines to open? So far I just wander around.
Also, why have those enemies in the base in the first place?
No question. I just love you and your show. Thanks for doing everything you do man.
Two questions: How many hero/race options are you planning to create in total? Also, what aspect of the game do you enjoy working on most?
Do you have any a-list esports pros signed up to jumpstart Atlas' competitive scene? How do you plan to advertise running up to release?
Is there anything planned in regards to leveling up, apart from the "Ultimate" ablity it doesn't feel very rewarding to level up, perhaps certain passives could be acquired?
Can we expect any environmental destructibles such as boulders blocking a path to a lane or base?
Also, SF or LA?
First of all, love you long time dude!!
A few questions:
What is the target audience?
What is the vibe you're trying to portray, specifically when people go onto the ranked ladder? Is it the "no dicking around" style like on sc2 1v1 ladder? Or is it like hearthstone ladder where you can be competitive, or just mess around with fun builds that may put up some kind of fight?
Are there any other formats planned other than 3v3?
Will there be a single player campaign?
How many maps are planned?
Can you enable an auto-deploy mechanic?
How many heroes are planned for launch? Do you plan to continue to release more over time like many other mobas?
How would you classify this game? It seems to be a moba blended with RTS elements. What do you guys call it?
And a fun one - How much weight have you lost recently and was it due to playing this great game so much that you forgot to eat?
Is the awesome beard a part of the NDA?
I know the video is, I'm just being silly. I just wanted to say thank you for inspiring me to finally follow through on a long-unfulfilled desire to make video games. I'll try to be as active as I can in providing feedback but I'm going to wait for when I haven't been awake 28 hours! May have a serious question sometime shortly. Lots of love. <3
I feel like when i play it usually makes the most sense to keep everything together since splitting up my army weakens it a lot. Are smaller side skirmishes not really a focus? I think out multi-tasking is a really satisfying way to win in an rts (starcraft).
Also what are your thoughts on squad selection? For now it's seems like you can only have one of each squad per team, but are there plans to change how squads works? i.e. adding more squads, limiting to one of each squad per game, picks/ bans like dota, or allowing teams to have more than one type of squad, etc?
Last question, we can only have a certain number of each type of unit in the game. I feel like this limits diversity and forces pretty static compositions since i can never have more than 4 purifiers for example, so I have to use the rest of my pop to make wisps/mercs etc.
Last last question, what's your favorite thing about Atlas so far? :D
Has there been any thought into how the game will be monetized? Is Artillery leaning towards a base free-to-play model like most MOBAs, or buy-once-play-forever like traditional RTS games? The Shop tab at the top makes me curious what direction the game would go. I dislike having to "purchase" heroes ala cart (LoL, HotS, etc.), but would love the opportunity to buy skins or voice packs for squads I enjoy!
What was the team's reaction to the feedback from TW2? Did the feedback generally line up with what y'all were expecting/thinking? Or were there any things that caught you completely by surprise?
How do you turn playtest feedback into something specific to implement and/or test?
Will there be a ground unit that will be able to walk over smaller ground units added into the game?
An example of this would be the Bramblethorn Goliath pathing through the Seedbots instead of being routed around them due to his lanky legs elevating him.
One collectible resource...
Have you thought about more flexibility regarding possible unit compositions/combinations? As it is now with 8 squads, and 5 Merc choices, I find it decently flexible, with room for creativity, but perhaps once a player gets a firm understanding of the game, they might be able to mismatch with squad units, and mercenaries.
For example, Hydros and Ryme both share a water theme, and thus could be connected in a way where you could share unit choices with them. Similarly with Alder/Grath, Eris/Vex, and Celesta/Vela. You could find the Hero you love most, in addition to your favorite squad to accompany that hero.
As far as mercenary combinations go, I imagine after enough experience could be gained, one could unlock a "custom mercenary" selection, where a player would be able to choose their desired 5 mercenaries, obviously in a limited way, to not allow someone to have several Tier 3 units, but it would be limited to certain mercenaries per tier the way it is now. I bring up this idea because some mercenaries overlap in other mercenary groups in the game's current state, I'm not sure if this was due to lack of mercenary development, or by intention, but if it was by intention, I definitely like the idea of creating a custom Merc Comp.
I like these ideas because I'm a competitive starcraft 2 player, and starcraft 2 has always done a solid job at giving each race solid composition flexibility all the way into the late game, while I feel Atlas could limit what you actually want to do because your hero's squad doesn't do what you want, or inversely, your squad's hero.
In starcraft 2, a terran player who prefers mech more than bio, can go mech. Their opponent will not know they are going mech until the mech tech is scouted. The opponent now has the knowledge they need to play against the playstyle his opponent is using. This could be translated to atlas, where you might see a Vela, and notice she's being accompanied by Wisps. Now you know you're going to need to focus on building units with a powerful AOE, or at least try not to get trapped by the massively DPS powerful wisp ball of death.
Terran often goes bio but can go mech if they enjoy the playstyle. A protoss often goes PICA but can go stalker heavy if they enjoy blink micro. A zerg can go a roach/rav/hydra/lurker comp, or go a muta style if they like that. Some of these ideas can be counter by "But what if the protoss opens X, then the zerg can't tech to Y", this is where having a more flexible merc comp would come in handy, as you could strategically plan an expert build, and know how to use it against different builds going into the game.
Anyways, I hope I explained my thoughts well enough, but other than really feeling funneled into the type of playstyle I have to commit to, It's an extremely fun game. I enjoy the harassment potential, the scrap/economic openings vs aggressive/stock openings. Cool stuff.
So outside of the game i had been doing chores and i had not realized the time (my bad). So i came into Atlas just at the end of PvP session so i joined a last minute game. My game crashed and i fell out of the pvp and became very frustrated.(thanks to trumpetmcool) i found out the game was still running but i felt really sad when i missed my chance at playing PvP because i could not reconnect. I believe other people as well would also enjoy a reconnect feature or function implemented.
There's a very interesing contrast in this week's playtest with large, decisive battles/pushes compared with TW2's heavy reliance on resource economy. The games I've played remind me of sc2/bw's custom games.
My question is regarding the gem, as we've seen it as a resource for tech-heavy mercs last month, and now as a very indirect way of gaining stock. Do you think there is a way to let gems incentivize players to diversify their roles on a team (such as a jungler, or a squad that aims at sniping enemy bases/workers), instead of bringing squads of 2 or 3 together to collect/defend gems and then defend/push with their juggernaut?
Having played quite a few games now, I feel like ones heroes and army are often times better played separately. By that I mean, it seems more effective in many instances to have your army in one place and your hero in another. For example, when the gems spawn it can be effective to send your army to the 2v2 lane and let your hero linger in the 1v1 lane to gather gems or vice versa depending on where your base is located.
Is this type of splitting encouraged by design? Also, is experience acquisition global or does ones hero need to be within a certain radius of an event in order to receive XP?
How much of the art/sound/music final vs just a placeholder? There are some things that I'd like to give feedback on but I'm not sure if you guys are just planning to change them anyway. Are the models for squad heroes and units mostly final, or base concepts to iterate on later? What about the map art/textures/lighting?
I'd like to see more options inside the game in which players can make a notable difference without juggernauts at every stage in the game. I'm terrible at micro, but it is one of my favorite things to watch inside of SC and other games.
Some things I was looking forward to dealing with/trying to do ... entering behind the initial towers to harass workers, stealing camps, deep wards (vision is power), or even pick off healing towers/reinforcing units as they spawn. After all, a good (or poor) reaper harass can end a game before it begins.
What time in the game do you consider the sweet spot for the first big play of the game? One that is different enough to be considered a unique strategy decision of risk vs. reward.
Dear Day9, are there any plans to allow for a player to shine more in individual skill? The game is a lot of fun with team cooperation, but in the future I can imagine it being extremely frustrating to solo queue and not have a cooperative teammate. Right now there it costs too much to expand or harass solo, and if you spawn in the top pair you will not be able to contest the guardian spawns by yourself.
Hey day9! Do you have a favourite unit or skill or team comp you recommend I try? just had LOOOADS of fun with Deadeye's skill-shot-sniper-pewpew ability.
I don't understand why people think that there's this dichotomy, where one competitive ladder is more serious than another. I think this only happens because people make it seem that way, and I think there's some sort of fallacy about that. Nothing about the game itself says that you can't "dick around" in SC2.