Heroes of the Storm has a wide variety of weird characters, even by moba standards. Cho’Gall, Deathwing, Vikings, E.T.C…there is a character for almost every play style!
So here is my question: what would the design look like if we made a character for someone that doesn’t play mobas, or even video games for that matter? A character so simple, that you could safely pull your grandma into a match to hang out with you online?
Ideally, you would want someone with minimal mechanical depth, but enough impact to still feel viable.
Ranged DPS is going to be the easiest way to accomplish that, and even more so an AA hero who doesn’t need to rely on skillshots. Our hero needs to be a Ranged AA Assassin.
The trait needs to be incredibly simple, but still feel rewarding. I’m thinking something that triggers on basic attacks, giving you empowered shots periodically. This gives the kit some depth beyond “click and shoot” but happens automatically so there’s a minimal learning curve.
The hero needs a bit of crowd control, not enough to be a main playmaker but enough to still feel like you have influence. For balance reasons, this will be a skillshot with a medium range, but it has a wide hitbox and very fast travel time. In terms of CC, knockback is the obvious choice as it synergizes with the hero’s AA playstyle without being overbearing.
The other two abilities should NOT be skillshots. With Q as your skillshot, you want the other abilities to have minimal depth and very obvious windows for use. I’m thinking the W is an attack speed stim and the E is a small self-heal. The stim allows players to make the most of a gank or counter-gank even when they may not have mastered stutter-stepping, while the heal provides a safety net against mistakes. These abilities are balanced in higher play by their low utility.
Heroic abilities need to be huge and flashy in order to wow new players, but also not necessarily playmakers. For example, one could simply be a large AoE that damages enemies within it, perhaps one that moves in a direction to give it more flair. Another simple idea is a passive heroic, such as one that summons a pet – although unlike other puppet heroes, losing the pet awards no XP so you aren’t punished too hard if you misuse it.
Finally, I think the character that should represent this is Jim Raynor from the StarCraft series. He’s the introductory character to the campaigns in both StarCraft games. As a space marine, he has a generic and adaptable kit that fits a simplistic game plan and communicates to players “I’m the soldier shooty guy, I’m easy”.
I was thinking we could make an entirely new character, one that goes beyond the options that are currently in the game. Gall might have been able to fill this role, but I tested him with someone that has zero moba experience and they were already struggling even though they didn’t have to worry about positioning or strategy.
Raynor is casual, but not hyper casual - the skill floor needs to be as close to zero as possible. Things that we take for granted like abilities and right clicking are going to be difficult for someone that has never played a game before, especially when they have to factor in the chaos of all the other characters.
Basically, exactly the same as normal murky, only he’s Red and gains xp 4 times as fast. Enough said. Now anyone can soak with Murk like a Pro! Just tell grandma to hide top or bot all match, and whenever the lil’guys run out, knock them down, and hide till the next ones come out, rinse and repeat.
Also Pufferfish does like 3x as much dmg now. That’s it for the changes.
Just go into custom game and setup up five bots against five bots. Get a bowl of popcorn and a drink. Occasionally press some buttons and pretend you are playing.
It would look like Raynor, Li-Ming, Lili, ,Morales, ETC, and Thrall,
What you’re describing isn’t possible. The only Zero skill floor game is online Tic Tac Toe.
You can’t have a character that accomplishes something by doing nothing.
On Raynor, if someone finds right clicking on something too difficult. They can just press the A key towards an enemy. And you can’t exactly do less than Hold Q on lili, press W on something once in a while, and press R when people are low health. Or just pressing Q on Morales would work too.
Having someone who’s never played a game start with HotSmay not be the best idea.
I’m a new player, what is soak? How much damage does it deal?
You mean, like a mobile game à la, Raid: Shadow Legends? lol
Click auto battle. Then either feel good about winning with the great team you built, or blame the A.I. that didn’t fight properly.
Isn’t that the game whose devs spend more on advertising and getting streamers to say nice things about their game? Oh and lots of cleavage? I remember lots of cleavage. and axes. and lots of frustration of the naughty kind.
I tested this out, to famously poor results. I had my elderly mother join me in a VS AI game (set to easy), and put her on Li Li, and the results were wonderfully disastrous.
As my mother has only played games like Solitaire and Candy Crush, she could not understand a simulated 3D environment. She would just hold down her mouse and move forward until she ran into towers and died. She could also not seem to grasp she could move left or right, or any direction but forward.
That’s the only vs AI game I’ve ever lost, but it’s probably the most I’ve laughed playing Hots. Full disclosure, she resides in another part of the country, so she might have performed better had we be in the same room.
Upon reflection, I think I probably should have put her on Gall instead, aside from the bomb mechanic, Gall is pretty new player friendly, at least in VS AI.
I have no idea what Blizzard hero would fit but for a casual hero, I would say a support hero with all small buffs. Like (percentage is arbitrary)
singing: your song boost your allies. Every allied hero morale in range is boosted by your song and deals 5% more damage
feast: lay on a majestic table a feast for everyone to enjoy. Each hero (including the enemy maybe?) can eat a treat and have his hp pool increased by 5%. If a hero sits to table to enjoy the dish for 5 second, increases the hp pool by 15%
familiar: you invoke a small familiar that flies in circle around you and you share its senses. Who said an owl?
Or you could go with different types of effect with different songs.
I think it kinda worked? It got tons of people to download it.
I admit I downloaded the game myself so I could play with DeathKnight. But since he’s not a Legendary char, I stopped pretty quickly (Oh, no, they made a Legendary version of him)
I could see swann being capable of filling the role of a casual bruiser, he could have an aoe slow that’s like him firing a concussive shell on his next attack, a placeable flaming betty turret for some aoe dps and wave clear and maybe a close range conal shot of some kind with a sweet spot in the center which gets people more used to aiming, no clue what the ults or trait would be
I honestly have to stay away from those types of games as my willpower to resist cash shops is between zero and one. I just found the commericals compared to actual gameplay humorous due to the massive difference.
