Day 2 (PvP) feedback
-Euphoria
Holy crap! What a ton of fun! I had to sleep on my PvP experience before I could give any useful feedback other than “You guys rock!” It feels unfair to give criticism only having played your game a handful of times. I was grinning so hard, my face hurt!
-Better Understanding
The game makes more sense in general now. A day really helps with that. I was afraid it was going to feel like a moba, but it doesn’t. It’s an RTS. That makes me happy.
-Upgrades Woes
I feel lots of confusion when I upgrade. My armories can’t seem to hold hotkeys. I don’t understand when I’m upgrading, and when I’m not. To me, the whole thing feels unintuitive. Maybe an upgrade tree somewhere would help so I can see what I’m getting myself into? Or maybe noob recommended upgrades specific to each squad would help?
-Vela
-Sniping down enemy units with Vela feels very satisfying.
-Staff
You guys are really really nice. It makes me happy to play your game. Good work leading by example in fostering a positive community.
-Harassment
As Vela, Eggplant Assassin, I put my Windray into speedy fast mode and B-lined for their unprotect side expansion. A trio of my cubelets took down their only tower, and their expansion quickly followed. I cheered! Then I wondered, what did that even accomplish?
By the time I wanted to spend gems on harassment, armies were approaching max so they didn’t felt the gold pinch there. (Armies >> upgrades right now) While I was destroying his outpost, my counterpart was free to gem to his heart’s content. I guess I got an upgrade advantage?
The whole successful raid felt unfruitful. Also, my story might be slightly embellished by omitting the fact that afterwards, I decided to strut toward their nexus and then lost my entire squad. But we’ll ignore that part.
The point is, I’d like harassment to feel more worth it. I’d like to use it as a way to break up that post 20 min stagnation, or a way to make that epic come back.
-Feeding
When I lose my hero early, I feel like my teammates are going to yell “STOP FEEDING” to me. I feel doubly bad. One, it sucks to die. Two, it feels like you give the other team a huge XP advantage that’s difficult to overcome. To be fair, when my hero respawned quickly, that was fun because I could get back to playing right away.
I don't play LoL and Dota because of the toxic community. I feel a lot of that comes toxicity from this concept of feeding. If you make an error, not only does that put you at a disadvantage, but it makes the enemy heroes harder to deal with.
In Atlas, after few early kills, and I notice people get frustrated. They say how they can't figure out how to come back from a disadvantage. And then everybody gets mad and points fingers, even though nobody wants to die in the first place.
As Vela, the Eggplant Assassin, I selectively remember doing the majority of the early game hero sniping. It felt satisfying, but also a little sad. I was hoping that nobody was angry at Little Statico or ole’ Uncle Archibob for getting caught out of position.
-Flying Things
I know this doesn’t follow your format of feedback, but it needs to be said. I want things that fly because flying things are cool. I don’t know if it’s that I’m having trouble harassing, or that I’m annoyed at my units tripping over each other, but the current feet:wing ratio needs a stern looking at.
I know you probably can’t balance around medvacs and muta equivalents, and that’s fine. They don’t even have to fly far. Maybe some little dragons that can only fly over units but not terrain. Maybe attack helicopters that only look like they’re flying. A swarm of T1 attack hummingbirds? Maybe a fluttering fairy queen hero? Or a levitating golden budha?
I don’t know how, but something need to become airborne asap.
-Thank you!
It’s been so much fun. A huge thank you to the entire Artillery staff for putting so much hard work and love into something so damn fun to play.
Comments
I'm not sure how to tackle the feeding issue. The Early game needs to be important, but I do agree it lends it's self to salt.
"Maybe an upgrade tree somewhere would help so I can see what I’m getting myself into?"
This, I would love this. Right now I'm frantically trying to read the (non-unit-specific) upgrade descriptions in the heat of the game. Is it possible to add this to the Altaspedia? (as if y'all don't have enough requests flying your way, heh)
It's a tricky problem, but something I feel is worth looking at.
It seems that the early killer earns a double advantage when they kill a hero. 1) An xp advange. 2) A positional advantage.
Maybe loosing your hero is enough. Your squad is weakened and unable to gem while the enemies are. Loosing a whole squad however is devastating, and should be. You can't expand, gem, or deny gems.
Maybe another solution for come backs is the higher the leveled hero in relation to you, the higher XP reward. Getting a few early snipes could give you an advantage, but also place a target on your head.