A super MS increase in a small area feels like it could work; in particular it would compensate a lot for Footman Defend reducing movement speed, if you're using it against a ranged force. A super MS decrease seems like it would be too powerful: disabling your opponents (and possibly a couple of nearby allies) is generally a lot more powerful than slightly enabling your allies (and possibly some enemies): Haste runes and scrolls are reasonably commonplace and anyone can use them, but Earthquake is an amazing ultimate and the structure damage is NOT the main feature.
I'm more worried about the "does AoE damage" ultimate: the pseudo-Forked Lightning and the pseudo-Thorns shield feels like a lot of direct magic damage already, and flat damage can actually be more threatening than Death and Decay against a large number of weaker troops (e.g. Archers).
I suppose you would know best. I had not considered it that way (especially that bit about Earthquake; seriously? Is it all that? I don't know if I've ever noticed that).
If you're worried about "too much (AoE) damage", fortunately your chosen Hero theme allows you plenty of leeway. Blizzard's approach to Arcane has always appealed to me in it's wide range; pretty much anything-
ever goes. Turning things into things, Levitating (PM me), magical snowballs, enslaved creatures, glowing runes, magic missiles... You could incorporate a bit of "D&D" flavor and utilize some weird named ability (in name or function); 'Bigby's Crushing/Forceful/Grasping/Interposing Hand", "Tenser's Floating Disc/Transformation", "Leomund's Secure Shelter", "Otto's Irresistible Dance", "Tasha's Hideous Laughter", etc...
Kinda like Direfury's Arcanist (sorry to draw unnecessary comparisons), you have plenty of options when it comes to "reasonably-generic magic-user" for non-damaging "magical spells". Battlefield manipulation FTW!
Guys, don't you think it's quite awkward? How about removing it so that we have round total score of 50 points?
I agree, imo it is already covered with Theme, Role and Creativity.
While I too was hoping for a nice even number, I really like giving the option to Judges to have some 'subjective "elbow room" ' in their judging. Ostensibly Theme & Role are really supposed to be very straightforward and as objective as possible (Creativity admits for some subjectivity, but see below).
Basically look at it this way. Each Criteria should, ideally, be able to 'stand on it's own', or be 'separable' from each of the others (within reason) (this has some basis in formal logic (which I'm studying now, so bear with me)).
- Starting with the baseline foundation of "Theme" and "Role" being the most basic elements of "good Hero design" (which is the point of the Contest), we consider a Hero can have "good Theme/bad Role" or "bad Theme/good Role", so those are fine.
- Then we look at Creativity; can a Hero have "good Theme/good Role" and still be un-Creative? I'd say 'Yes' (for example, re-creating one of the well-balanced, fun & aesthetically-ideal standard in-game Heroes that Blizzard made (e.g. Paladin, Crypt Lord, et)), so we need "Creativity".
- Then we look at Balance; can a Hero have "good Theme/good Role/good Creativity" and still be im-Balanced? I'd say 'Definitely'; it's easy to imagine a poorly-balanced Hero (either over- or under-powered) that fulfills all the other requirements.
- Then we look at Coding... This was thrown in primarily to avoid having 2 separate sets of Criteria. However, it makes sense that, though primarily a "Design" Contest, the Hero Contests are also, somewhat, a Coding Contest. And you can have a Hero with good Theme, good Role, good Creativity & Balance, but bad Coding, so see above.
- Finally we come to "Awesomeness". Can all the above be done & still result in an un-Awexome hero? Well... Yes and no. Ostensibly, part of it's "awexomeness" is present in the fact that it did fulfill all the above. Moreover, the "Creativity" does (as you pointed out) have some relation here; a really "Creative" idea is generally thusly considered "Awexome". However, an idea can be "creative but not awexome"... Moreover, this serves as sort of the "tie-breaker" category. If two ideas are about equal in terms of all the other Criteria, this allows a judge to inject a little subjectivity into the vote & say, essentially "I really like this one" or "I thought this one was the best". Part of it's presence is to be that little 'nudge' rather than a true 'Criteria contender' in terms of "power" in the judging; that's part of why it has such a tiny score (5).
Anyway, those were my thoughts in designing the Criteria. Cosmicat made a good point; remember that this has been up & available for discussion for quite some time now (months?) so while it would've been great to talk about this earlier, I'd prefer to stick to what we have & see what comes of it (unless, of course, it can be demonstrably proved that something in the Rules or Criteria is simply broken).
Probably, extend all of the scores range to 20 is also better. So we have round max score of 100 and judges can give more precise scoring on each category.
Cosmicat said:
I'm not convinced having more scoring options causes judges to give more precise scores, but this was worth debating weeks ago.
Well, I think 10 is enough; decimals are usable anyways.
10 is plenty enough for precision scoring. Imagine an imaginary number line with 0 being the worst & 10 being the best; 5 provides a perfect average ("equally good & bad"/"meh"/"undecided"), with 4 levels of gradation in between either side ("good/bad", "very good/bad", "better/worse", "very better/worse" (lol)). And that's not enough?
Dalvengyr said:
You better go quick. Don't forget this: at last you will always need to balance your hero which probably takes several times. You need to actually take your Hero into some real melee map battles to make sure your Hero fits nicely and is not overpowered or even retardpowered.
An excellent point, and one that has cost me a few Contests in the past (actually, pretty much
every Contest, now that I think about it :<...)
This is how my supposed final entry's concept went;
Blade Mistress (Watcher Model)
E: I am going to do a last minute entry (a more simple one, at that), but I might go for judging if I do not make it in time.
Necromaster (Living Kel)
Sounds cool... Dude, at this point your best bet is just pick something (simple?) and run with it. Doesn't need to be crazy-advanced.
//Is it okay if countdown loop triggers do not use 0.03? (Just for removing a buff)
Any point deductions with temp variables being array? If they have an 's' at the end.
That's entirely up to the judges. Is it a bad thing? Then probably.
I just realized this contest ends in 4 days. I'm going to do my best to finish it tonight, and submit asap, because I won't have time during the week.
Wish me luck!
Yeah, I noticed that, too (much to my horror). I better get cracking (though for some reason I can't get the simplest things to work...)
It does?! Well, shoot. At least I still don't have a job, so the only thing I'll be stealing time from to cram this thing out is the job hunt. For better or worse.
Of
course it's a good thing.
