sentrywiz
S
sentrywiz
The complexity thing is limiting me though. Usually my heroes would require a trigger or two per ability.
Complexity doesn't equal complex abilities or a complex hero. It means the balance point between simple and complicated.
Take for example, the Frozen Apparition and Sven from dota. To me, they are on the opposite sides of complexity. Sven is a one trick pony, he comes, throws all his spells and the enemy team dies. Plain and simple. Khaldar or Khaldir or whatever the name was, is on another different level. His spells have multiple levels of complexity and he has a myriad of ways to kill you. He also has map presence with his spells, causing him to participate in almost any fight that arises anywhere.
Both of these heroes are okay. One is complex by design and has more depth offered per spell. The other is simple by design and offers various mechanics and items builds to compensate for the straight path of play.
You can do either of these, as long as you know WHAT you're making.
If you set to create complex spells you have more to optimize and tinker
with because the hero has to be balanced and it has to have synergy
between his mechanics. On the other hand if you set to create a simple
hero, do take into mind that simplicity is good only when you add lot of
depth and choices to the player. If you design a simple hero, make up
for his lack of complexity in spells with various choices a player has to
make like item builds, jungling potential, ganking, awareness... in other
words give them simple but unique or powerful abilities.
For abilities you should go with the following formula:
Complexity vs Power
Simple abilities should have the greatest power.
Complex abilities should have various effects, but
lose the power in the process. Balance is key here
because imagine if you make a spell that does 4
things at once and it deals more damage than any
other ability and has NO DRAWBACK. This will clearly
score no points in balance and the hero score will be
low because the hero will be broken on design.
EDIT:
Can this hero be created into the chosen map? If yes, what is the complexity required for a playable state? Approximately how long would an average creator need to create this hero?
Oh. Well that too is tied to the design. The more complexity you put into a hero,
the more skill is required from the creator to put that hero into a map. You should
balance it, so that it doesn't go out of control.
Basically if it cannot be done in GUI, you did a poor job and your hero is clearly in
some way broken.