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Demigod: Preview of Day 0 Update

By on April 7, 2009 3:25:13 PM from JoeUser Forums JoeUser Forums

Lead Designer Mike Marr at Gas Powered Games has put together a list of some of the balance changes being implemented based on player feedback that will be in the released (day 0) version of the game.

From Mike:

The focus of this balance pass was stop slows and chain stuns from ruining gameplay. Past that, our goal was to increase the viability of Generals and reduce the aspects of the Rook, Torchbearer and Unclean Beast that were proving to be imbalanced.

Slows. From feedback, it had become apparent that slows were negatively impacting gameplay past the point of fun. To fix this issue there is now a slow cap that prevents a Demigods movement by being decreased more than 33%. Thank you all for your input on this issue!

Chain Stuns. This is a problem that has plagued Demigod for some time. Well, this time we think we addressed the issue thoroughly. There is now Stun Immunity. When stunned by Boulder Roll, Mass Charm or Freeze a Demigod becomes immune for twice the duration of the stun. Our thanks goes out to the community, and especially Sorian, DalzK and others, for their brainstorming and feedback on this issue.

Teleport. When teleporting the target location of the teleport displays a tell, indicating that someone is coming! Thanks to Chirmaya for helping in bringing this issue to rest.

In addition, there???s been a lot of changes to the cost and effects of Citadel upgrades based on feedback that we think peopel will really like.

What about the Demigods themselves?  We???ve all be lurking the forums, reading people???s concerns and ideas. Then we go and try to verify the concern. It???s hard on the demigods because whenever someone loses a game, they argue that their demigod was under powered or that the guy who beat them was overpowered. So we end up spending a lot of time having to simulate the matches people post about to see if there really is a legitimate issue.

That said, here are a few highlights:

The Rook

The Rook's health and armor have been reduced, as has the damage of Hammer Slam and the stun on Boulder Roll.

Torch Bearer

The Torch Bearer's damage potential through Shatter has been reduced as well as the amount Permafrost and Frost Nova slow enemies. Circle of Fire's radius has been increased.

Unclean Beast

Beast's damage as he levels has been reduced. The effects of Inner Beast and Diseased Claws has been decreased. Venom Spit is now more potent but costs more mana. Ooze deals more damage.

Regulus

We see a lot of discussion about Regulus but the issue with those who say Regulus is too powerful isn???t Regulus per se but the effect items have on Reglulus.

Now, the generals have gotten beefed up a bit since, as many people noted, Assassins, even though they don???t have minions, still tend to win and the statistics bear this out. So considerable time has been spent revisiting the Generals.

Queen of Thorns

Queen of Thorns now deals more damage and has more armor. Many of her abilities have had their cooldown timer reduced and cast times sped up.

Lord Erbus (The Vampire Lord)

Erbus was a significant challenge because, as most beta testers concluded, he was by far the weakest of the Demigods. As a result, Mike???s team spent a great deal of time over the past few weeks re-imagining him.

Erebus now moves as fast as the Unclean Beast, has better survivability and deals more damage in melee. Bite is more effective as is Mass Charm against creeps. Mist drains more mana, but deals more damage.

Oak

Oak deals more damage in melee, both to start and as he levels. Penitence's debuffs are less effective, but the damage is increased. Surge of Faith can be cast more often and affects a larger area.

Sedna

Sedna now has more health and deals more damage. Pounce is stronger and she can cast Yeti's more often. Silence has a larger radius and can be cast more often, bust costs more mana and doesn't last as long.

Items

There have been a lot of changes to items, particularly Favor items.  The Warpstone, for instance, has a longer cooldown and costs more to purchase. Summoning idols are a lot cheaper and casting time is much quicker. We???ll have a more detailed list at release day as this is pretty lengthy.

 

Community Features

The Demigod betas have had a chat feature which is better than nothing but the goal has been to make sure people can send messages and such to their friends.  Impulse Phase 3 also includes the Impulse Tray so you???ll be able to get messages from friends outside the game if you want to invite them to your game.

image

Not pictured above are the profile features which are still being worked on.

Overall, we think people will be pretty happy with the work the team has put in here.  Obviously, not everyone will agree on which Demigod is ???overpowered??? and such. But we feel pretty confident that these changes will ensure the game is even funner than the most recent betas have been and create a good base for looking at future balance change requests.

+912 Karma | 61 Replies
April 7, 2009 6:27:43 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Yeah, these changes are going to make generals overpowered in my opinion, but I'm OK with that.

I am worried about the 33% slow cap if it works like the favor item.  If it caps based on base speed that means that 6.0 speed, buffed to 10.0 still slows to 4.0 which is as good as dead, even though you dumped 15k into move speed while the opponent spent only a few thousand on slows.

April 7, 2009 6:44:33 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

'Does this affect the shatter mechanic? Will it just not freeze him?'

Secondary effects still work. You'll still take damage, be slowed, etc.

April 7, 2009 6:45:41 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

'If it caps based on base speed that means that 6.0 speed'

It caps based on modified movement speed. So, for example:

A movement speed of 6 can be reduced to 4.
A movement speed of 10 can be reduced to 6.

April 7, 2009 7:08:44 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

nice, all the major gameplay problems seem to have been solved. I only hope that the netcode has followed the same path.

I am not so sure that the rook needed thoses debuffs,  the problem was more coming from his towers in my opinion. But i imagine you know your game better than me

April 7, 2009 7:18:26 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Looks great. Did that scroll of rebound you were talking about make it in?

April 7, 2009 7:37:06 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Great job on the balance guy.

April 7, 2009 7:45:44 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Great update!

--Question--
only question i ahve is the citadel upgrade going to make it so u cant buy 2 and cost 1, if u click them fast enough in conjunction with one another u get the 2nd upgrade even though u bought a diff upgrade and should not have enough for the second one!

April 7, 2009 8:08:43 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting Tyo,
Snap. There's one big change that did not get into that change list- Minions now deal more damage.


Hmmmmmm Ill have to wait and see if this makes minions playable. You got my hopes up now

April 7, 2009 8:48:05 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting Tyo,
'Does this affect the shatter mechanic? Will it just not freeze him?'

Secondary effects still work. You'll still take damage, be slowed, etc.
How about UB drainstun and interrupts? Will UB still cast if target is immune to stun? Are interrupts affected at all?

 

April 7, 2009 8:54:13 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Good question Kitkun.

Yay for more damage done by minions I just hope though they also put minion hp down a bit too so other DG's will actually bother to attack them.

April 7, 2009 8:56:35 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting Kitkun,

How about UB drainstun and interrupts? Will UB still cast if target is immune to stun? Are interrupts affected at all?

Foul Grasp is unaffected by stun immunity, and it will not trigger stun immunity. Interrupts are unaffected.

And yup, minion health went down a bit.

I should say that the system we used for stun immunity is pretty versatile. For example, if we wanted Foul Grasp to not be affected by immunity but trigger it, we can certainly do it.

April 7, 2009 9:05:11 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

And yup, minion health went down a bit.

Thank God. Didnt want a repeat of Oaks Spirits...everywhere. These updates keep getting better and better

Foul Grasp is unaffected by stun immunity, and it will not trigger stun immunity. Interrupts are unaffected.

Interesting. I wonder if the new combo will be UB + TB or UB + Rook....We'll wait to see. Thanks for answer Vundar

April 7, 2009 9:11:47 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting Vundarbread,

I should say that the system we used for stun immunity is pretty versatile. For example, if we wanted Foul Grasp to not be affected by immunity but trigger it, we can certainly do it.

Now you got me curious. Can't wait to see the code you came up with.

April 7, 2009 9:13:31 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums



Lord Erbus (The Vampire Lord)
Erbus was a significant challenge because, as most beta testers concluded, he was by far the weakest of the Demigods. As a result, Mike’s team spent a great deal of time over the past few weeks re-imagining him.
Erebus now moves as fast as the Unclean Beast, has better survivability and deals more damage in melee. Bite is more effective as is Mass Charm against creeps. Mist drains more mana, but deals more damage.

Hum. 

-Faster movement, very cool.  This has been a fustration when trying to fight opponnets due to his mostly short range attacks.

-More survivability, means you don't have to spend as much time in mist form, unless you want to.

-More melee damage might mean you don't want to spend as much time in mist (honestly I wish this was more of a buff to your minions).

-Bite more effective, Yay!

-Mass Charm, hum.

-Mist drains more mana but does more damage.  It's cool that it does more damage, the more mana might completly take away the play style of hide/delay in mist form (but seeing how you're invincible that can be pretty powerful).  Hoping that with items you can still gain enough regen to play this way.

Overall I'm glad the Generals are getting a buff, they seemed like they need it. 

In some ways I wish the buff came in the form of increasing the damage of thier minions Vs buffing the heroes themselves I think buffing there summons would help to enforce the diffrences between Assassins and Generals.

-Jara

 

April 7, 2009 10:50:41 PM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

The updates look very promising (especially the buff to minions)!

I already liked playing Oak before, I'm sure I'll love him come retail.

April 8, 2009 12:16:18 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

those updates are perfect cant w8 for day 0 patch!!!!!! but i wish connections are  alos a lot better at release so i can spam games easily!

April 8, 2009 1:02:57 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

A promising start. 

April 8, 2009 1:20:31 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting Tyo,
'Are you serious or are you just pulling our legs?'

Serious. They deal more damage, cost less to purchase, use less mana to summon, cast faster and have a shorter cooldown. My goal was simple- better minions, the ability to have money to purchase items and less time getting your army setup.

I see you went in the complete opposite direction of my suggestion.

April 8, 2009 3:42:01 AM from Stardock Forums Stardock Forums

You guys have been working hard, and its paying off. A very nice list of improvements.

April 8, 2009 10:02:18 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

What about the constant 1-2 secs freezes that happen so often during the games?

Will that disapear on the release version?

April 8, 2009 10:02:23 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting db0,

Quoting Tyo, reply 21'Are you serious or are you just pulling our legs?'

Serious. They deal more damage, cost less to purchase, use less mana to summon, cast faster and have a shorter cooldown. My goal was simple- better minions, the ability to have money to purchase items and less time getting your army setup.
I see you went in the complete opposite direction of my suggestion.

Well I'd like to think in the future we'd see something like that, but they didnt have time to implement something like that. I even posted a similar idea the other day, but we probably wont see anything like that till an expansion or something. https://forums.demigodthegame.com/345402

 

April 8, 2009 11:08:38 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting Tyo,
Snap. There's one big change that did not get into that change list- Minions now deal more damage.

I hope that includes general specific minions, and you fixed the minion pathing/order ignoring issue. Otherwise, you've just made Generals even more generic and Assassin-like.

April 8, 2009 11:22:12 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Quoting DatonKallandor,

Quoting Tyo, reply 17Snap. There's one big change that did not get into that change list- Minions now deal more damage.
I hope that includes general specific minions, and you fixed the minion pathing/order ignoring issue. Otherwise, you've just made Generals even more generic and Assassin-like.

Of course that includes the unique minions why wouldnt it?

April 8, 2009 11:32:18 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Oh! Minion goodness!   I love it!

April 8, 2009 11:36:40 AM from Demigod Forums Demigod Forums

Interesting. I wonder if the new combo will be UB + TB or UB + Rook

 

Yah looks like UB has replaced Rook as the anchor in a stun team - Rook boulders, UB grasps, Rook hammers, gg. 

I'm not sure why Foul Grasp is being given a pass here but at least they can turn on immunity-trigger easily when it starts to get abused.

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