So I mention this briefly many other places, but I'm thinking the game would benefit from a basic cover mechanic. I don't mean a potion, cloak, or spell that gives me invisibility for 10 seconds. I mean a feature of the map that allows me to duck into a hidey-hole to heal out of line-of-sight, or that I can pop out of to ambush a greedy opponent.
Yes, I know, we are playing in artificial arenas, but right now they are clinically beautiful and lifeless. Give them quirks and character.
Yes, I know, these arenas are pre-rendered and incredibly difficult to alter and balance once crafted. I can think of at least one way around this:
Instead of altering the map implement a set of invulnerable buildings, walls or towers (from here known as Blinds) that serve only to interrupt line of sight. Each lane would have a set of several along its edges. Some towers would have them near the base. Each flag would have a couple nearby.
Blinds would have a few interesting properties:
1. You will be hidden only when behind the blind in relation to the viewer's opponent Demigod. If you are playing as Rook you will not be able to hide completely, but LoS for an opponent will be reduced by 40% (they won't be able to see you until they are closer). Minions are hidden only if behind a blind, so if you are a General you need to either keep them elsewhere or make sure they are well hidden.
2. Blinds do not act as barriers to anything but sight.
3. Lines of Blinds can be created on some or all maps that allow "tunnels" or walls inside of which or beyond which LoS is restricted.
What do you think? What else do blinds need to incorporate? Devs, am I wasting my time, or do you guys have a cover mechanic in the works/would consider one?
Peace
You can look at any direction so you wouldnt really be OUT of LoS. Would be funny though if you thought you were covered but weren't
what he means is that for the enemy you are cover in fog of war when u are behind cover, and i agree that would be a good idea, just to make the maps more... interesting^^ and gameplay deeper
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Well, I disagree. But a lot of people disagree with a lot of my ideas, so I'm probably just out of my mind.
Very much doubt it'll happen due to hardware requirement restraints. You'd have to have every single unit on the map check for actual line of sight - that's a tremendous CPU drain when you have as many units as Demigod does.
Hmmm, seems like every unit is already doing that to some extent with Fog of War...if it's not easy to work around for LoS just make each blind a FoW generator, units within a meter or two of it are not visible until you are within 5 meters of them, etc...
Well, currently units are checking a circular area - if something is in there, they can see. Real LoS requires several checks because you need to check for geometry blocking the Line of Sight. A blind spot would probably be a CPU-friendly workaround.
Rather than that, I would recommend simply customizing the terrain with water & mud etc. - a skirmish map taking place in a graveyard might have areas where heroes of Light are buried, giving a penalty to vampires fighting on it, and another area ruined by evil spirits that gives a penalty to Light side folks. Just ideas off the top of my head.
Mud is easier to envision: just slows movement of any ground-born units trudging through it.
Right now, as beautiful as they are, maps don`t have any consequences attached to their natures. Nothing beyond map size and shape. For the sake of example, Mines could feature random spewings of lava up from the earth around the map, landing on non-base spots upon the playfield and lingering for a time, burning any who venture across (or even who get beaned in the head by said blob...). Nothing gimmicky (like moving blocks or whirly-blade spinning pillars!). I`m with Ke5trel in wanting to see more mechanisms associated with/inherent to the maps themselves.
Warlok I think that may have been the point; the maps seem very arena-ish. I will agree thought that some variety with map terrain would be interesting, at least to try.
I suppose it would be interesting to have an arena that looked as if it had been played in before, so it would be worn and cracked in places, and maybe one part would be significantly broken by some cataclysmic game ending battle.
Or just asymmetric arenas, because too much perfect geometry does look a bit strange.
These are good ideas, WL, but the issue I am trying to work around is that (in my understanding) the maps are pre-rendered, which makes them difficult to alter without rebuilding outside the game engine (prohibitive cost).
To allow use of the maps we have I thought we could introduce "buildings" with cover/concealment properties. (No reason we couldn't look at buildings with water or mud characteristics, in this model, and you should definitely make a post about it)
Unfortunately I don't know if using buildings as a workaround is viable at all, let alone with this mechanic. Any thoughts, devs?
I have no trouble with symmetry in the arenas, especially since asymmetrical maps are hard to balance in competitive play. I am pushing for less complete information within those perfect arenas, something that will make the game deeper and richer, imo.
Mind you, not every arena ought to have , umm, 'gnarly' features to it...
Some asymmetry would be good.
A map made up of multiple suspended broken asteroid platforms in space would be great. Each one would be connected by static instantaneous teleportals, maybe linking 3 to 5 asteroid platforms together. Random inspiration there.
I`ve posted about stuff like mud before (terrain features)... hopefully I don`t sound like a broken record. Hopefully I don`t sound like a broken record. Hopefully I don`t sound like a broken record.
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