Fear-based hero

[PajdomanMokri]

I need ideas for a certain hero.

He is a demon-themed hero, caster type.
I'm thinking of making him become stronger when fighting enemies who fear him, but I don't really have ideas on what to do.

After some thinking I think units facing away should receive bonus damage and/or disables.

But that would be easy to counter, so, in addition to that I need more ideas..

I need to make somebody that is initially weak, but when enemies show a glimpse of fear, his powers should grow. So that we have a weak hero, who uses opportunity to chase weak enemies, and grow faster that other heroes when doing that, so that enemies have reasons to fear him, which would make him even stronger.

Think of it like arena-style map. Enemies should always stand their ground when fighting him, because running away actually decreases your chance of survival.

I don't know what would his abilities be like or what kind of "fear system" should I make (currently thinking about making an aura and when he casts abilities, check if unit is affected by aura, then check fear parameters, then deal bonus stuff).

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Chaosy]

Attacking or moving towards low hp targets could probably gain a bonus, as a person is scared when near death.
Sane persons anyway.

I also imagine attacking the same target over and over would also make the target fear you more.
One is obviously more scared after 10 hits compared to 1 hit.

 

[PajdomanMokri]

Attacking or moving towards low hp targets could probably gain a bonus, as a person is scared when near death.
Sane persons anyway.

I also imagine attacking the same target over and over would also make the target fear you more.
One is obviously more scared after 10 hits compared to 1 hit.

That is a good idea, but not quite the one I was looking for.
If somebody stands their ground and fights, the kinda overcame their fear. Also, if somebody finds courage to fight while their HP is low, that is also overcoming their fear.

The hero should punish enemies for running away, because that is an act of fear.
If I implement your idea, then enemy would benefit from running, since attacking would increase fear damage. And I want just the opposite effect. I want the enemy gets utterly obliterated when running away, but have a fair chance when standing their ground.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Problem is game mechanics don't really allow for that, you can tell any unit to attack and they'll do so without fear of death.

How about a passive ability that gives units a chance to force them to run away (and then apply the backstab bonuses), and the chance goes up the lower the unit's HP is?

 

[Chaosy]

Running does not need to be because of fear.

What if a command is given to retreat because of strategic reasons? regrouping, changing formation, tactical retreat etc

 

[PajdomanMokri]

Problem is game mechanics don't really allow for that, you can tell any unit to attack and they'll do so without fear of death.

How about a passive ability that gives units a chance to force them to run away (and then apply the backstab bonuses), and the chance goes up the lower the unit's HP is?

That's why I need to somehow simulate it, make some new mechanics. I would like it to be mind games with the player playing other hero, not some kind of count. So if the enemy doubts his decisions for a moment, that this hero can gain power from it. I was thinking on how players would react if they have lvl 1 hero fighting against lvl 10 hero. Then make a system based on their decisions (frequent retreats, defensive decisions...), because when facing 10 times more powerful enemy, you are afraid.

Running does not need to be because of fear.

What if a command is given to retread because of strategic reasons? regrouping, changing formation, tactical retreat etc

Well... Why are you retreating? You are afraid that your units will die if they stay in current formation (or at least you will have more casualties), or because you are afraid your allies will get killed with no reinforcements... It's a strategy you would use when you are afraid that things might go wrong in current state.

 

[Marcos_M]

Someone who is kinda weak by itself, but stronger when enemies are feared.. Like a being from the realm of nightmares

It should be able to be feared even by players
How about giving him an invis skill that warns the players you just used it, increasing the damage if you use an skill on an enemy to break invis
His BnB skill should blackout the enemy vision for a couple of seconds
And he should have a passive on the invis to increase damage on coward enemies(i would define these enemies by detecting last attack[succesful attack], or last directed ability on enemy unit)
Third skill is easy, some dmg xD
And the ult should place a hero copy nearby each enemy hero, with the real hero placed near the enemy selected hero, and all the cast you make should be replicated by the copies on each of their targets
Lastly, passively should send a message in all chat each time he kills an enemy saying
FEAR ME NOW, BITCH!

 

[PajdomanMokri]

Someone who is kinda weak by itself, but stronger when enemies are feared.. Like a being from the realm of nightmares

It should be able to be feared even by players
How about giving him an invis skill that warns the players you just used it, increasing the damage if you use an skill on an enemy to break invis
His BnB skill should blackout the enemy vision for a couple of seconds
And he should have a passive on the invis to increase damage on coward enemies(i would define these enemies by detecting last attack[succesful attack], or last directed ability on enemy unit)
Third skill is easy, some dmg xD
And the ult should place a hero copy nearby each enemy hero, with the real hero placed near the enemy selected hero, and all the cast you make should be replicated by the copies on each of their targets
Lastly, passively should send a message in all chat each time he kills an enemy saying
FEAR ME NOW, BITCH!

I think you misunderstood. His abilities are not supposed to be assassin-like abilities. Removing vision, copies of hero, invisibility are abilities made for an assassin or illusionist. This hero is not an assassin.

Let me write what I have in mind, since many people don't understand what I need ideas for.
Let's say he has a nuke aoe ability, which does 300 damage, but has a slight delay. If an enemy sees circle around him, he will try to run away, but then he is considered feared, and gets a debuff that makes him deal less damage from the hero and receive more damage.
Now my hero uses his aoe again, if enemy walks forward, towards me, he doesn't get feared, and stays with the same amount of debuff. If ability hits, it won't deal 300, but 400 damage. And if he runs away from me, his debuff gets more potent.

So basically, enemy would have to choose, will he walk towards me and risk getting killed by my allies, walk away from me and risk me becoming stronger in that fight or tank my abilities.

The hero shouldn't have abilities that make people fear him. But he should just benefit from enemies fearing him. That way, when he gets ahead in levels, where people will slightly fear him by default (lvl 5 hero would run away from lvl 8 hero), then he can get even more ahead.
So he is the strongest or the weakest hero on the map, depending on the skill of the player playing him.

 

[cleavinghammer]

You could give him extra experience gain at all levels, and perform better based on the difference in levels between him and the attacking hero.

For example, attacking a weaker hero gives a damage bonus equal to the level difference, while the attacking hero's damage is reduced by that difference as a percentage.

 

[PajdomanMokri]

You could give him extra experience gain at all levels, and perform better based on the difference in levels between him and the attacking hero.

For example, attacking a weaker hero gives a damage bonus equal to the level difference, while the attacking hero's damage is reduced by that difference as a percentage.

Bonus exp was something I did intend to do, but then, by playing with average skills, he would get advantage and spiral out of control. I want him to be a challenge both, to play as and to play against.
However, I might use this level-difference damage bonus just to slightly tip odds in his favor.

But, that still leaves a question open, how would I see if the player is retreating/hesitating to engage (other than detecting his back turned towards me).

 

[cleavinghammer]

You could maybe arrange a system where the game checks if the unit has been told to get away from the hero/the casting point a few seconds after the spell is cast, but it's probably prone to abuse and glitching.

Honestly, I don't think you'll have much luck with detecting "fear" and telling the difference with common sense. Seems to me stuff like causing fear as a status effect would be a better bet.

 

[PajdomanMokri]

You could maybe arrange a system where the game checks if the unit has been told to get away from the hero/the casting point a few seconds after the spell is cast, but it's probably prone to abuse and glitching.

Honestly, I don't think you'll have much luck with detecting "fear" and telling the difference with common sense. Seems to me stuff like causing fear as a status effect would be a better bet.

Well... Since I'm trying to make something new and unique, I am strongly against status effect fear.

I'm thinking about making few auras, each with different radius, to check buffs and see how far the enemies went after the initiation of fight. But that is the best idea I have.
It would get the job done about "running away" thing...

And i guess that's it. Since it seems there is no way to see if the enemy is panicking, because there is no difference in doing combos with abilities and just hitting everything in panic. And there is no way to see if somebody is hesitating to initiate or is simply tanking damage.

Thx for trying to help, everybody. I got some ideas from this, let's just hope it will work. If somebody gets any suggestions that fit the description, I'm still looking for them.

 

[Marcos_M]

You could detect fear not by something like where the enemy is looking

You could detect fear by several things, like not attacking an enemy, using abilities in the opposite direction(like when you are running and place some aoe slow in front of you so people don't chase), not using offensive abilities against you, using tp while on combat, i think those actions are the ones you can say are caused by fear(even if it is the right call to not to die, you are scare of dying and want to runaway)

 

[cleavinghammer]

Or passive effects that get worse the closer the enemy is to the hero (occasional ministun, Curse, Howl of Terror, etc.), though they'd only work on melee units.