They posted this in July after experimenting with some sort of anomalies, which I take didn’t stick. So they haven’t given up on the game entirely but lack good ideas. After wasting years on an aborted Arena mode, sideshow brawls, and now these bizarre anomalies, what is left for these people to do in the manner that they think? I just don’t get it. How many years and how many beside-the-point ideas are they going to try before they either get serious or give up?
What is going on with the development of this game? What is the background thinking process? Who are the people running the show? It boggles my mind how time after time after time, from monetization to gameplay, the developmental pursuits are largely frivolous. I am so freaking confused by these people.
Rightfully so, as everyone is. A lack of transparency and outreach efforts breeds all kinds of harmful things in a community. From paranoia to conspiracy to just general misdirected animosity among its members. That isn’t to say the devs are to be blamed though. There just needs to be the right people handling only the outreach part of the job as their focus.
I wouldn’t mind new anomalies as long as they aren’t too disruptive for gameplay or don’t include RNG effects.
A random thunderstrike giving an enemy hero a sudden burst of speed is a pointless RNG effect, and it’s a good thing it’s gone. Every single hero having a self-cleanse every 300s (Gladiator’s Medallion, which was removed) is a questionable mechanic (greatly diminishes the usefulness of heroes with difficult CC skillshots, like Kel’thuzad)
If I had to make an anomaly, I’d experiment with travel portals (like the ones placed into Warhead Junction lately) then see what people think about them. For balance purposes they could only open after level 10 or so.
The most important part is not messing with core mechanics like damage, speed or giving heroes sudden bonuses out of nowhere. That is sure to make the anomaly uncompetitive and unliked.
Anomalies should also be predictable and low impact.
edit- P.S. The weather anomaly would have been nice if it was just a visual, the snow and rain looked pretty nice. I would turn on the visuals, granted they didn’t cause lag.
This is major change. As a developer you need to be pursuing and testing your own vision, not being afraid of what the minions in your shrunk community will think. At this point in the game they need to think big or go home. Enough with the non-idea ideas.
I’d say that’s a good thing. The base game is pretty solid, random big changes to it are more likely to make things worse than better.
Quite frankly, that kind of ‘change for the sake of change’ is exactly what I was afraid of when they announced anomalies. So far I’ve been very happy with how they’ve avoided my fears; They’ve added a few good ideas, dismissed a few bad ones, and now they’ve actually stopped (temporarily?) instead of randomly adding more potentially bad ones.
Isn’t that exactly what they are doing, by making their own game instead of copying your ‘shrunken minion of the community’ ideas? (Ok, my bad. Obviously it’s only everyone else that’s shrunken minions, you are surely the only person with the vision needed to save this game…)
I’m getting so tired of this ‘game is doing badly*-> the game design is the problem*-> change is needed* → clearly they need to implement my ideas’ (*=because I say so) troll logic that people keep bringing in.
They did and unfortunately it comes with major balance issues, and sometimes really silly things.
For example, the Medallion was perceived a blessing by many and the most upsetting silliness by others. It enabled some heroes too well, and negated the kits of some others. Have you been sailing the waters of Qhira Seas?
I skipped due to wearing a cast, but I believe the weather anomaly was excessively favoring melee heroes, and messing with escaping heroes who would randomly pull mercenaries. People could have adapted, but it was probably too much (draft complexity).
There have been other ideas, like 4v4 or 6v6, brawl maps (3v3, 4v4, 5v5) included in QM or Ranked, individual xp. All of these have been called terrible ideas due to how they would change the hero balance or progression, for example one lane maps prefer heroes with endless push and stacking talents.
At this point in the game’s life people return to play the heroes they enjoyed a few years ago or just yesterday, it’s kind of deterring to realise any substantial change, be it a rework, or a big meta shift.
Of course I’m happy to try changes in their own separate queue, and I like them as long as they benefit me.
Besides that, I would welcome map skins.
I would imagine as long as the game is profitable. Nobody said Hots didn’t make a profit, it just doesn’t make as much as fortnite. So Bobby and the big brains at Activision decided not to put more money in
Since I’m playing their game and not yours (you do have a game out right ?)
you sound like quite the expert…
I think they are doing a fine job and they have decided to stop swinging for the fences and use the limited resources they have to prioritize issue that will return profit, and keep the existing fan base. Sounds like a good strategy to me.
The problem with weather was they took like, two or three tiny anomalies for a spin and then their first stage changing anomaly was global stealth.
Like, we wanted a gradient up to bigger changes, not “exp is visible now” then suddenly it’s invisible ETC. Surely there could’ve been a middle ground.
But the reaction to weather was understandably sour and they kind of just threw anomalies out altogether afterward. Now, we’re just sort of here in limbo, it feels like. Both sides give the air that they feel slighted.
