Init's Hero Arena project

[ikoraiza]

I don't know if anyone remembers Init's Hero Arena from the Frozen Throne beta but I personally liked it. For those who don't know, Init's Hero Arena was a hero arena between even set teams (2v2, 3v3, etc) where you could choose either fixed teams or mixed teams (players would get switched after every round). The game was very skill based and team oriented and was wondering if anyone would be interested in joining me in recreating it. I have the frame work done, all I need is beta testers and code optimizers (my code has leaks, i know it).

EDIT: The beta version is out. Go here for info:

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87070

 

[ZeU-]

I remeber the map yeah.

I'll add to the list of beta testers.

 

[Oats123]

I'll beta as well

 

[JCAbernathy]

Is this still a reality? I LOVE this hero arena and still play it all time on bnet. MSG me on whether you are still working on this.

 

[StasMaN]

Well , I could help you

 

[ikoraiza]

Ok, it might be time to get this going. If you want a copy of the map so far, PM me and we'll take it from there. I could really use a terrainer and a person to look over the trigger infrastructure and help optimize it.

 

[JCAbernathy]

Anything I can do to help man, just let me know.

 

[JCAbernathy]

I'd like to mention how greatful I am to how original you kept it to the version created by Init. You're idea with the multiple battle arenas provides a new strategic depth into each battle. Also, I just wanted to ask you, the fountain in the one arena, is it on a random alternating setting? As in, each round the fountain could switch between health/mana? Anyways, the map looks really great thus far man. I have included a list of balance issues that need to be addressed:



Okay man, I have gathered a list of features that would make it more balanced.


1) Reduce Paladin's divine shield to 5/15/25 sec. The current time frame is highly imbalanced for this type of Hero Arena, it provides the opposing team an invulnerable healer for the entire game. The given amount of time should suffice for the pally to survive a full assault and still give him survivability.

2) Include a Potion of Invulnerability in the shops that will provide a 5/6/7 whichever period of invul. This would help with the poor intelligence heroes that get FF immediately in matches. It will teach agility heroes to be careful on who the decide to target and when. But make it so that the hero can only hold 1 pot. Any more and ppl would stock pile them and it would be another pally problem again.

3) Change the gold format. Make item prices in the 1000's and make 1000 the recorruing amount that each player gets per round.

4) (THIS IS A BIG MAYBE) Add a tome of experience into the tome shop. But make it expensive. This will help allow players that get behind in the levels to have a last resort in terms of catching back up in terms of levels. Has to be expensive, and only provides a mere amount of exp, nothing game changing.

5) Gem of Truesight's should be replaced with dust of apperance. The gem basically cancels out Hide/WW for specific heroes. No item should cancel out skills. If it is put into the game, it should drop upon death. But still be very expensive.

6) There are some bugs in the old version such as - **Players not disappearing after leaving and causes problems within the item shopping area (need this fixed); **Archmage being able to mass teleport back into the arena even after dieing (needs fixing); **Warden needs limitations on blinking beyond the battlefield.

7) Increase the damage the Staff of Negation does to summons, but increase its cooldown.

8) Reduce bash frequency a bit, his bash in late game can take out teams alone, especially poor intell/agil heroes caught by a bolt then in a constant stun by another bolt and bashes.

9) Need to add Clarity potions (maybe) could become imba)

10) Wand of lightning could be a possible item addition. This would help protect intelligence heroes from constant assault from agility heroes. And would benefit the agility/strength heroes in assaults.

11) Mixed teams - I don't know if you did this already in your triggers, I attempted to read through and see if you did but couldn't figure it out =/ We need to make sure that the person in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, are always paired with the people at the bottom so the skill ratio gets balanced out. So for example, 1st guy is always on the team with person in last place. That way we don't get this random unbalanced teams that guarantee the person in first will keep winning.

12) Another thing I just caught while testing it vs some computers. The experience gains from heroes need to be less. I think 30-35 experience should suffice for hero kills. Because if they count the normal way, hero levels will go out of control. This was how it was in Init's, getting lvl 3 was a major achievement because it meant you survived ALOT of rounds to get that level and get to reap the benefits of having a lvl 2 spell. Hoepfully this conveys the point I am trying to make.

These are the most I can think about right now that I have encountered problems with while playing numerous games. Hopefully these aren't too nit-picky and can provide you with some development insight. Until later, peace.

P.S. Is there we can change the terrain? I am not trying to be the one to take over the hard work you put into this map (if that is what this is coming off as =/ ). I was just wondering if we could go with another type of scenery. The old Init was whole "icy" look, I was wondering if we could go into a greener, lordearon or ashenvale tileset. Still, its your map, and there is no place for me to step on your toes in regard to the artistic approach.

 

[ikoraiza]

Thanks for the input. I'm wondering did you play the game with just computers or did you play a game on b.net? As far as I can remember whenever I played with computers they never responded well. At this point, I think the fountain in the middle stays as a fountain of health - I'm not sure though. Whatever it was I think I made sure it was the same as the original.

One thing to remember in my design philosophy for this game is that I tried to stay as true to the original as possible. I didn't want to make too many changes as I admired the original game for what it was.

1) That might be a good idea. I really didn't want to change any of the core values form the hero abilities as I wanted them to stay the same from the melee game but if changes like this are needed then they will be done.

2) There aren't invulnerability pots in any of the shops? ;o It'll be added.

3) I don't remember how much gold I gave players but it should be whatever it was in the original (which I think was 1000 per). I'll double check.

4) Good idea. I'll put it in.

5) Another good idea. I still want the gem in there though, I'll raise the price if needed.

6) I made triggers to fix those problems.

7/8) Again I don't want to change base values unless they are necessary.

9) I thought they were in. =\ Healing Salves will be added too.

11) There's a whole folder of Mixed Teams triggers. The way it works is that it picks the top 2 players and places them on opposite teams, then picks random players to each team until there are no more players remaining. For what I can remember, testing seemed to work well.

As for the scenery, again the original was done using the frozen tileset so I wanted to continue that.

 

[JCAbernathy]

Thanks for the input. I'm wondering did you play the game with just computers or did you play a game on b.net? As far as I can remember whenever I played with computers they never responded well. At this point, I think the fountain in the middle stays as a fountain of health - I'm not sure though. Whatever it was I think I made sure it was the same as the original.

One thing to remember in my design philosophy for this game is that I tried to stay as true to the original as possible. I didn't want to make too many changes as I admired the original game for what it was.

1) That might be a good idea. I really didn't want to change any of the core values form the hero abilities as I wanted them to stay the same from the melee game but if changes like this are needed then they will be done.

2) There aren't invulnerability pots in any of the shops? ;o It'll be added.

3) I don't remember how much gold I gave players but it should be whatever it was in the original (which I think was 1000 per). I'll double check.

4) Good idea. I'll put it in.

5) Another good idea. I still want the gem in there though, I'll raise the price if needed.

6) I made triggers to fix those problems.

7/8) Again I don't want to change base values unless they are necessary.

9) I thought they were in. =\ Healing Salves will be added too.

11) There's a whole folder of Mixed Teams triggers. The way it works is that it picks the top 2 players and places them on opposite teams, then picks random players to each team until there are no more players remaining. For what I can remember, testing seemed to work well.

As for the scenery, again the original was done using the frozen tileset so I wanted to continue that.

The main point regarding hero abilities and changing them is the need to balance the pally's shield. The shield time change i think is a necessity in order to balance it out, because teams that have him end up having an invulnerable healer the entire match once his divine shield gets to be lvl 2/3. This change in its duration would only balance it out so that the team with the pally isn't a gauranteed win.

Oh yea, I played this vs some computers, I didn't go on bnet with it because it isn't protected and didn't want anyone else stealing the idea and making their own crappy version of it.

P.S. Don't forget to address the experience gaining properties within the arena. Gaining 100 exp from killed heroes is a bit substantial.

 

[ikoraiza]

Beta version is out. Go here for info:

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87070