So I got 3 games in at PAX, they had 3 demis for play (Torchbearer, Regulus, Rook.) and 6 machines, 3 network 'co-op' machines, 2 machines where you get one demigod on a team with the other two, and one where you could play on the lava map. The opponents were Queen of Thorns, Vampire Lord, and Unclean beast .(The generals units were oddly missing, they said they were mainily showing off the assassins.)
Now I have a critical eye, I spent quite a bit of time at the stardock booth (but I checked out a lot of other cool games), now I don't have video as I don't own a camera, but I read quickly and have a pretty much near photographic memory so I'll do my best. Games lasted like 10 mins, as it was pretty tipped in our favor (we start at level 15 with tons of money, and the AI was a little daft, people died more by the defences then the enemy demis)
Levels: (They said shipping with 8)
Objects: Tower of light(like prisms in RA), Arrow tower (Weak), Portals (Captureable with flags or destorying it?), Gold mines(Captureable with flags or destroying it?), Forts (fatter arrow towers, will eventually upgrade with catapults according to a dev who's name I didn't catch), Item shop, and of course the strong hold(goal), and a strange little crystal in the back of the base.
Flags were doted around levels, as you stand near them you capture them and things linked to them(?, because I only observed this partially I don't know, but I do know some how a player captured a portal and gold mine on a side lane (changed art styles)) . Also there were War Banners (like flags) that increased the spawns you get.
When I say defenses, I mean 2 Towers of light and 2 Arrow towers. (Towers of light are also dotted through the map)
Waterfall level:
Each side lane has a portal with a gold mine and some defences and a flag, the middle has a war banner that the creeps don't go to, and the middle lane goes, defences, fort, defences, item shop, stranghold (with ToLs(Tower of Light) dotting around the stranghold). Creeps travel from their port to the middle, run by the strong hold, take a left and then a right (meaning two lanes, and a middle with out creep support), and then follow the path of the enemy creeps (meaning they hit the strong hold before the portals)
Lava level:
A 1v1 or 2v2 map according to said dev (^) the level was partially finished (gameplay wise), there was one creep wave, that takes the 'middle' path, the top path has a war banner, and the bottom 'lane' between the two bases has a flag with a gold mine. defences were 2 forts, 2(or 4?) ToLs, and 2 (or 4?) archer towers.
Also mentioned Tyo/Frogboy were a level with a giant wheel, and in an air bubble underwater.
Creeps: Creep waves get bigger over time, the pecking order (*I think*), minataur, archer(seraphimy thingys), priest (i.e. fat guy on floating chair), catapulsars, angels, giants.
Heros:(Shipping with 8, and more soon after)
All demis have a skill 'tree' with level requirements rangeing from 1-10 and 15, also each demigod has an 'attribute boost' which give health, damage, energy, energy regen, health regen, ect. ranged about 10 levels I think.
Each demi has 4 abilities, one achivement item (the progressive mode thing, kinda like tf2 acheviment items I think, not game breaking but more flexibility), and 3 consumebals, I'll get to items in a sec.
Rook Abilities: (ability names are most definetly wrong most of the time, active first then passives)
Hammerslam: Slams the hammer dealing extra damage (like a third of QoT health) and aoe damage.
Building Sucking: Heals health by hurting a building, long cd.
Rock Roll: Rolls a rock which causes weaker units to go flying, and stuns stronger ones.
Summon tower of light: Rasies a defencive tower of light, long cd. (Can create chains) (ultimate like, high levels)
Gods weapons: Damage bonus 50% a level 4 levels. (passives now)
Sholder Towers: I think these were seperated, because we had 10 pre bought abilities, I don't really know much about these abilites.
Torch Bearer Abilities:
Rain of ice: Aoe rain ice, non channleing (*i think*)
Permafrost: Stun on unit or tower
Frost nova: Aoe frost
Relive the Immolation: Enters fire mode for 50 seconds
Rain of fire: Above with more damage
Fireball: Damge nuke
Fire Nova: Aoe fire
An ability I never got as I won too quick.
Regulus Abilities:
Snipe: Nuke
Wings: Fly up and aoe burst damage (dodges QoT's thorns )
Mine: Damage dealing proxy mine
Stun mine: 'Ultimite' (need high levels) like above but stuns
Maim: he aims for the knees and does something (damage I think) (passives now)
Range Increase: .. duh?
More I think
Items:
There were only a couple of items, according to Tyo he has 150 items to choose from 50 about of which will be in game (hopefully we get to choose some of those), we have tabs according to frogboy in the full build.
Consumeables were mana, health, scroll, and some sort of orb that does more damage.
There were also 5 slots on the demi for permanent items, like gloves with attack speed, an 'all fathers' ring which gave hp and regen.
Other things:
When you died you dropped a one use consumeable, unclear on wheather its from your inventory or not. But health potions and mana scrolls.
Vampire Lord: Because we have no pics of him yet: he's vampire likeish, with armour that has something like tubes on the shoulder pads, in very red armour. Ok i'm a horrible describer, i'll stop now.
It allready looks to be an interseting game, and lots of people were like "OMG that game's awsome looking" or "it's gunna be awsome!" and they were selling pre-orders, so hopefully and influx of more people.
I also heard one staff say that beta starts thursday.
I asked and they said they planned only 8 demi's for release.
Controls: QWER are abilities I didn't check the items. Arrows are camera, and spacebar, holding it, rotates the camera.
When you hover over a unit it shows the health and portrait at the top of the screen. Your health and mana, as well as xp, were at that bottom of the screen, meaning you can allways see it, also there is 'heart beat' when you get low health.
Also the maps don't use 'tiles' they are sculpted like a model.
Chris Taylor (maybe frogboy) said it cost $100,000 dollars for a demigod's art assets. (and if you think about it, all that software and the hours)
So how's that for a hands on?
p.s. Frog boy seemed suprised that I knew all 8 demi's
Because I wish I could because it was awsome!
only 8 demigods is rather fail..
If anything will kill the games success it'll be that seeing ash ow theres already a bunch of people saying they don't want to preorder because of that. :/
I can't believe there will be only 8 demigods, it's really, really, few.
And I also want to know if the eight at release is for Beta release or retail.
They need a way to delete things, and a more reliable edit system...
I'll say it again, from what I can tell it is 8 at release, i.e. retail release (from the big name people i.e. Chris/Frogboy). But some employees framed it as 'commited' to 8 meaning there might be the possibility of there being more before retail release.
From what I have read it seems to be pretty neat! Cant wait til Friday aug 5, though it will probally release on the 4th, a Thursday.
On anathor note:
From the research I have done, the camera will be very similar to the one in Supreme Commander. Mouse Wheel to Zoom, arrow keys to pan (Or just move mouse to edge of screen)
So it should be simple enough to use , kudos to Chris Taylor!
I remember talking to you!
I bet that if you added two more, it'd be very very well recieved. Maybe even well enough to make it worth your while, who knows?
I think that the unique option won't work in games bigger than 4v4. That's the most likely solution.
xthetenth has it right. Unique option available up to 4v4, unlocked to 5v5 when we release additional Demigods after release.
Just to clarify. Is that a WHEN or an IF?
I want to see screenshots of the upcoming demigods before the game goes gold
If you aren't going to be starting on the new Demigods until after the game goes gold, i imagine that means it'll be a while until they're done, which means ugh..
And I'm going to guess that that's a "when".
Would it be better to delay release of Demigod until you have 10 polished Demigods, instead of going with 8?
That's an interesting question. I think that it'd go over better if they promised they'd be part of the free updates and released on time rather than postponing, but that's just my 2 cents.
Well I actually like the idea of only have 8 demigods...it is easier to balance out 8 then it would be 12 to 15 at the start...as far as the micro transaction deal I would assume they would have plenty of content released before the first year of free updates is done...For me personally though the micro updates is going to depend on price and how often they update and how much i still enjoy playing the game to decide if i will continue playing the game by then. I believe they have not made anything official about those updates with demigod and was just trying to get consumer feedback from it.
So I'll start with the good stuff, as I feel like I've killed a lot of the entusiasim of demigod. With people saying they're canceling their pre-orders and what not.
So 8 is a little lower than I expected, and I'm a little disappointed, but having actually played the game, it won't be that bad, and with the promise of updates and content, and 'achivement items' it will definetly have a bit of replayibility. Plus most demigods feel like 2-in-1, like I could go either way, and in shorter games you will probably never even use some skills, then play the same guy and use a completly diffrent subset of skills until late game. And plus it will allow them to be better balanced, and thats the reason I still want to be in the beta, to help them improve the game, offer ideas, and hopefully convince them to release with 2-4 more demigods.
p.s. whats the whole deal with key assingments... just make them BINDABLE, such a strange concept...
8 isn't a bad start. It seems rather small only compared to DOTA. Compared to many fighting games, classes in FPS games, and RPG games, 8 unique heroes is pretty normal.
I'd expect the work and attention to detail put into these 8 (animations, special effects, spells, balance) will make it worth it. Plus, the curve will be that less steep to learn the skills and gameplay with these core.
Looking forward to Thurs/Friday
I actually think dota has to many characters to choose from...
I'm looking forward to thurs too. I think that if the heroes are made distinctive and deep enough, then they should be different enough by late game that the repetition won't be that bad.
WHOA, wate the demigods dont start at level 1
I duno if i miss read it but that kinda makes me mad.
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