It was a foregone conclusion that these were not going to last. Glad it took you guys only about a month and a half to get rid of them, they clearly weren’t adding much positive to the game.
My question though is that if we want to do random “themed” events like these, why can’t we just use the brawl function for them like we used to? Why are brawls stuck as just ARAM week to week when they have the potential to spiced up with more variety?
This anamoly didn’t work and was rejected mostly in ranked games where the disruption was too negative. In a brawl environment, that disruption wouldn’t be viewed the same way.
I really liked the lightning anomaly. It gave a little bit of lane clear to heroes who normally didn’t have much. You had the choice to take advantage of the lightning strikes and play bold for a moment to get some farm, at the risk of exposing yourself a bit. That part was fun.
That said, I heavily disliked the other two, so I won’t miss it. Of course, the framerate issues trump everything else, and I’m happy to see a fast response to them.
I’m glad it’s leaving all the maps, but I am sad to see it go cold turkey like this. If they make a new map focused around it exclusively, I think it would fare far better. Fingers crossed for an Eye of the Storm WoW Map.
2 lanes
the flag is a payload
the towns/forts are based off of each capture zone
ALL the Anomaly weather effects + some newer and even crazier ones could happen on that single map. Cycling through, or random pattern.
If any place would be good for that, I think it would be Netherstorm.
Good decision, since it generated drops of fps and that is very annoying making the game unplayable. Focus more on balancing what you already have and not adding unnecessary things to the game please.
For me the Weather Anomaly didn’t really feel that important, like it wasn’t something I got incorporated into my mind along with the map, also needing higher setting to get a biggest visual impact was quite sad… (Mist p.e.).
The concept was really good, but in practice it didn’t feel that awesome…
I’m not too sad to see this one go, but I am sad for everyone who worked on it. I still think the idea could be fun in a brawl if taken further. Leaving snow on the ARAM map seems fine, or having it some weeks in the brawl rotation. I’m super excited to see what happens with the map updates. If Haunted Mines is on the table, I’d be even more excited. I think it’s still the coolest design. Thanks for all the work y’all do in making my favorite game so amazing!
The climate anomaly should not be seen as a failure as an idea. I think it has excellent potential for it’s own game style! Imagine you have two teams fighting over the north and south pole and upon claiming those territories for long enough they got a climate buff for the team! Snow shields, lightning shields or temporary stealth just for them vs the enemy not getting those buffs. Would be a cool brawl idea to try I think!
Weather anomaly was fine as a weather-themed Brawl alone. I am glad though it is removed because people are experiencing issues with it in game.
If possible you can introduce the weather anomaly again in a new battleground in the future. Also it would be nice if you’re going to test anomalies, have them be in the PTR for a month. Yes, not a lot of people playtest in PTR but maybe if you give some reward (gold, protrait etc) to PTR playtesters, then you may get enough people to play the PTR and get a good enough data feedback to decide to put the new anomaly into the live servers or not.
The core concept behind anomalies is a good one. Changing up the rules occasionally on a temporary basis helps keep the game from going stale, particularly as it progresses with “classic” status. It’s hard to keep things fresh, and this is a good idea to try and do that, but it does come with a cost. The trade-off for using live servers as a PTR for anomalies is that we find LOTS of bugs.
The weather effects were a bad idea for the reasons you outlined. They were hard on lower-end processors resulting in fps drops. They were random in nature, which is never good in a competitive game. The rules didn’t always apply equally and interacted in weird ways, which meant they needed more testing. I’m glad this particular one is gone.
It’s fair to remember that the exp globes and tower changes, after rounds of iteration, have been accepted as part of the game and can be considered a success. These are examples of rule changes that do work.
Tying the anomalies to new hero releases is a good idea. It makes the release seem more like an event. Mei was very much a fan favorite from the OW community and this fit well with her story from the game. Temporary changes like this are fine, and given that new heroes are increasing few and far between, it’s nice to really make an event out of it when we do get them.
Thank you for continuing to develop the game. Don’t be afraid to take risks. As long as you’re willing to correct mistakes when they’re made, I suspect most of us will continue to be long-time fans.
we have decided that we will not be pursuing Anomalies at a set cadence like we did this year.
I’m fine with the regular big experiments. I’m also fine with you removing them early if you want. I don’t think you should be afraid to continue doing them.
I thought the weather effects were very pretty and a fun addition. Personally I would have liked to see them optimised and left in.
Can I just say that
THIS IS TERRIFYING. I DON’T WANT THIS. WHO WANTS THIS??
You have GOT to stop introducing changes to ranked before balancing them. For pity’s sake roll big changes to QM and trial them there and only take them to Ranked once they are balanced.
I actually don’t even want to play Ranked right now with unbalanced cassia, brand new Mei AND weather effects causing my potato teams toasters to overheat. If you had just limited weather to quick match FROM THE START. Then half the problem would go away. People can use ranked or unranked while you fix bugs and balance it somewhat.
Ranked should not be a testing ground, and any changes from one season to the next should be well known in advance.
That was a very good decision to make and also the fact that you you respect slow changes and the dev team explain the reason behind their actions to the community is one of the main reasons i love and prefer HoTS over other MOBA’s like Dota 2.
I used to play Dota for more than 10 years (when it was still a Warcraft map) but I slowly stopped playing it in the past months mainly because of the Huge and Sudden changes they do every single patch.
For example, in just 1 patch they added around 40 new items to the game! or in just 1 patch they nerfed all the talents of all heroes by 20% at once (8 *110 = 880 talents changed at once!)! But you guys respect your community ideas and avoid sudden changes to the game.
The entire live game shouldn’t be used. But if it absolutely must, I see no reason why draft modes should be spared. More people play ARAM and QM than they do SL and unranked.
