I missed the 10th anniversary, but I’ve been playing this game since the Alpha days. I’m the one who came up with the idea for the removal of the hero level limit back when the cap was only 20. I don’t post on here often though but I always try to deliver something meaningful.
I still play this game because it’s fun, but it’s only fun when it is balanced, and when I say balanced, I don’t mean every little thing has to be even, I mean each side has to have EQUAL chances to win. So pairing a Lili vs a group of a bunch of auto attackers doesn’t work since the one side can’t hit anything because of that blind of hers. And things like high health heroes vs low health ones. I don’t know how difficult it is for the algorithm, but this is the ‘balance’ that I’m referring to.
So far it seems okay, 1 tank or bruiser on each side, healers, but I’ve seen it happen too many times were one team gets stomped over and over again simply because of this imbalance and it’s NOT FUN, even if I’m on the WINNING side. And when we get destroyed, we just resort to saying “gl next” to get a better matchup because it becomes a waste of time to even try to win.
One of the reasons for this is CC. Many times (like the blind I mentioned), one side has a bunch of CC while the other has none, again, there is an imbalance here and the other team suffers. I get that sometimes it’s nice to have these wacky games where these crazy stuff happen, but that usually happens when both sides have equal CC and equal tricks to play. It does not fair when you have heroes like Jaina who can keep you rooted permanently through Cone of Cold while the other team has nothing to counter her. But when both sides have something up their sleeve, that is when the game is really fun, when it’s neck and neck, because at the end no matter whether you win or lose, you can say “gg” because the game was that good.
This other one is a pain. PYROBLAST should be the ONLY spell in the game that does more than 50% damage in 1 hit (for certain heroes). It’s been like this and it should stay like this, because of it’s long cast time. But many times I’ve seen heroes click ONE BUTTON and get off HALF my health!! I’m looking at guys like KEL’THUZAD and IMPERIUS. A single hero should not be able to kill another in 1 single hit, or ANY combo, but they exist and I’ve been witness and victim to them many times. Don’t ignore Murky in this either.
This 1-hit-death combo concept should be removed, because though it might FEEL good, it’s NOT FUN. I don’t know in terms of numbers, but Pyroblast should remain king.
Also, the voting system is outdated, we vote, but to what.
What if: If you end up on the board, one of the five on the victory screen, that you get bonus exp, or points to collect a free loot chest, or SOMETHING COOL. I don’t have to give away all my lame ideas, I’m sure you guys can come up with something better, but right now the voting is not adding to much, except recognition of skill that goes NOWHERE. But if voting led to something, then players may feel incentive to do their best to end up on the board so that others vote for them so that they get that awesome… whatever it is.
Lastly, Valla does not need 3 vaults, 2 is more than enough considering she already drops Caltrops that slow you down behind her. This change sticks out to me more than any other because every Vault gives a reset on her Q (Hungering Arrow) making her very hard to counter.
I’ve played this game, and I like it a lot, and if you developers feel the same then you’ll consider these things, because it’s only fun when both sides are in a tug-of-war and not a 1-sided steamroller every time. There are other issues that I might be overlooking but for now these are the main ones that come to mind.
They did enforce comps once. It created much better games. But people cribabed about the extra 20 seconds of queue times. So they reverted it at the speed of light.
@phaseshifter: Oh, okay, didn’t know. And it makes sense since the system has to look for the players as well, didn’t think of that.
@Morthion: No, it was specifically at auto attackers, but any comp, like mages vs mages, tanks & bruisers, ranged vs melee, that kinda stuff. In some games, one side can’t even get the objective so it becomes a lame match.
I find the worse map for mismatched comps is Battlefield of Eternity. Sometimes your team cannot race the immortal at all, but you also have worse team fighting ability. And since your PVE damage is low and it’s a 2 lane map, you can’t macro either.
I had a video somewhere where at lvl 10, my team managed to win two teamfights and wipe the enemy team, but our damage on the immortal was so low that they still respawned and won theirs first. It’s pretty discouraging and I can understand how some people would want to just quit the game and not go through the motions.
Exactly it, and I’d want to quit too in such a scenario, and it’s because other people have noticed the same is why I posted. It’s disheartening and frustrating.
I got the feeling that the game was getting more popular since I’ve often been grouped up with new players, meaning the timer to find players wasn’t an issues, but which hero they pick plays a part as well. On average it’s less than 2 mins.
I’m okay with losing a 1-sided every so often, but nowadays it’s like almost half my games are like this, and it’s been more noticeable as of late.
for the umpteenth time, the issue wasn’t extended queues, the issue was player not getting a game. When you funnel players through a 20% role required that is only met by 10 - 11% of players, it means half of the games aren’t matched, so people leave queue, and because their queue didn’t make a game, the estimated wait time doesn’t update.
The rapid change was due to a lack of games (getting a match) not a slightly longer wait.
When you make a game based around a solo fantasy, and then force team roles with wildly divergent fill, forcing roles maths to players not playing the game.
Well then I guess Blizzard just liked me, as I never failed to get a game and I played much more during that time since the game quality was up.
Also I remember a lot of complaints about queues tsking longer. But I can’t remember threads about people unable to get in a game. But I may have forgotten
That’s a bit too simplistic. When waiting takes too long, people leave.
The HotS team wasn’t particularly in the habit of listening to crybabies (see: all those threads where people complained that they couldn’t rank up did not result in those people ranking up). If they reverted the change, it’s a much more likely explanation that they did see a significant drop in active player count/active matches because of the change.
I don’t think so. Back then the forum was full of backlash threads from players angry that they "didn’t have access " to those skins. I remember telling people how irrational it was to complain about the 2% of content that had to be paid for when they had access to 98% of them for free AND that said content was completely optional and had no effect on gameplay.
Blizzard made them free even though their revenue was way down from before, and the 2.0 system was way more generous than anything in any other MoBA, even if you did buy skins. They were about the only thing they could generate revenue with since they removed paid loot boxes.
There was no point in HotS history where it was unprofitable. And it’s entirely impossible that those skins specifically would reduce revenue from the game.
Can you explain exactly how removing the only paid content would generate more money than keeping it?
You say they failed at producing revenue, but that’s not what Blizzard said when they were removed.
And the majority of players said they didn’t have a problem with the skins having to be paid for, but with the fact that you had to buy the whole set and could not get only the color you wanted. Players were willing to buy them.
Actually, it’s not impossible. All it would require is people who had been spending money to support the game to discontinue to do so in protest of the gem-only skins. If that lost income is greater than the income brought in by the gem-only skins, overall profits will shrink, even if the game remains profitable.
As to what actually happened, what did Blizzard say when they were removed? I’ve tried to find a source, but my searches aren’t turning up anything primary.
Nevertheless, everything you said is a reason why they tried the gem-only skins in the first place. It has nothing to do with whether the skins succeeded in their purpose.