koth_jailbird – First test, initial thoughts

After weeks and weeks, I finally got my map tested. It wasn’t exactly pretty! It was to be expected. This was my first map ever so I was learning a lot and wasn’t sure I’d make something fun… but, as I saw the admin change the server time to 10 minutes (half the regular time), I realized that something was definitely wrong.

Admittedly, I probably could have done a bit more for the first alpha… using less makeshift terrain (all the area around the spawn points was just crap to be honest), but I mainly wanted to test if the concept was ok. It seemed alright in the main prison cells area… I didn’t really get long enough time with an audience in there. Partly to do with the reduced time, partly to do with the design.

Lesson 1

The yard is just terrible. It’s way too big. Even in an in-game test, it’s very difficult to judge the scale of areas. When in an actual game situation (with enemies and allies), it’s just a massive barren area which doesn’t contribute anything to the map. Seeing as there are only 2 main areas in the map (the cells and the yards), I’ve gotta do a major overhaul.

Lesson 2

I need to focus more people into the central area. While I was naturally inclined to run straight to the point, most people were running down the scenic route… which is meant to be just for a few flankers. The outside walls and yard are big and boring but apparently a temptation for a lot of people. Snipers love that area. Spies love that area (because they love Snipers).  In the end there was about 16 people in the map, 4 on each team were running around the yard and walls.

Conclusions

After playing many community maps as part of the gamedays, I definitely have to step up my game. I wanted to start with something very simple but it just didn’t really work. I like the idea of a prison and I think I should stick with King of the Hill, but I think a complete overhaul is necessary. I need to get into real detail and design the area around the point, routes to that area and ways to focus gameplay to where I want it. Right now, Jailbird is too simplistic and boring.

As the awful Martin Lawrence said in that awful movie Bad Boys… this shit just got real.

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Sam

Anti-Tank Champion – Skill Brainstorm

Update – 16:16 GMT 10th April 2011

Sometimes you get one of those nights when you don’t feel like sleeping but don’t feel like playing games either! It is on a night like this that I like to do a little design work. In my last post, I discussed the dominance of Tanky DPS champions in League of Legends. These beasts are ruling the rift and have been for some time. I want to design a champion that can counter tanky DPS to combat this metagame (because, quite frankly, it sucks!). I concluded that there needed to be 4 things that my champion is capable of doing…

• Kiting ability – Bruisers are all melee, so some way to keep them away from you is a good start. Having a skill which enables you to kite a whole team is definitely worth thinking about.
• Direct HP damage – Either something which reduces enemy resistances, deals true damage or deals damage based on the max HP of the enemy. The only way to bring down these juggernaughts is to have some modifier which lets you circumvent their defences.
• Focus/Isolation – An ability which focuses your team’s damage on a single target. Marking an enemy is sometimes effective, but there could be a way to force damage onto a single target.
• Anti-CC – This champ will need some way to prevent themselves being CC’d into oblivion by the stuns that every tanky DPS champion has. This could be a form of immunity or cleanse, or it could be indirect and linked to the kiting.

Ever since that post, I’ve had this idea for 1 skill in my head and I really want to work on it. Thinking about this skill has also helped me decide on the sort of aesthetic and theme I want to go for. This skill instantly reminded me of the Kommando Nob in Dawn of War II and I’ve just re-installed the game to get a video of it… see how much I care for you guys? It’s gonna take ages to re-download!!!

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Armor Shattering Shotgun Slow*

Champion blasts an area with his shotgun, knocking back nearby enemies, slowing all in the area and reducing their armor by 15%

Originally I wanted an area of effect slowing blast, which could be used to slow a whole enemy team for a short period (allowing kiting). I’ve done a mockup of how it would work below…