This is my tamewaster, though my first impression of the changes today is pretty negative.
The last big update (from just before Christmas) is probably the best state the game has ever been in. The new implementation of the underlord characters fixes most of the issues with the original. And at least as someone playing 1-2 matches per day, I’m much happier without the jail.
All the new items are way better than the ones that were removed. They removed both of my least favorite alliances (I don’t know that I ever voluntarily went for Shamans…) Especially with the change to Legion Commander, it feels like there’s more build variety than ever before.
It seems to be universally despised on their forums. While the changes you mentioned are good, people really don’t like the sped up pacing of the standard game. It makes the game feel a lot more luck based, and balance is in a very bad state right now.
This is easily fixable , the question is whether they will or not.
I checked on Twitch and this game has 140 viewers to TFT’s 12.8k. That’s not a great sign. Unfortunate too as I liked this one better than TFT, but the genre as a whole got kind of old almost as fast as it got interesting.
I wonder if it has something to do with watching someone play a “team” vs someone playing a single character. It’s one thing to follow what a single character is doing in a vid game as spectator, and another to try and follow a host of different combos. It’s easier to sort of ‘transfer’ yourself into a single character via mirror receptors etc. No idea if this is a real thing, but watching someone control a squad is just another step removed from being there yourself.
If this was the case fighting game streams would be a lot more popular than they are.
I think there is just something a bit less inherently interesting about watching autobattlers because the skill cap is so low. If you have mastered the meta and understand the economy, you know how and when to roll and when to level, and the rest is basically hoping you get lucky. The skill involved is the skill involved in a card game, taking calculated risks. Being good at the game means you can do the math in your head fast enough to make educated decisions about if you should be rolling or leveling. But you don’t ever see anyone making a mind-blowing play in autobattler like you might if you were to watch a shooter or a moba.
At least that’s my personal read on it.
Edited to add: What is interesting to me is why did TFT succeed where this game failed? TFT had the advantage of coming from a franchise with a larger fan base than DOTA2, but not enough to justify the discrepancy in player interest. The biggest differences are the Underlords and the item systems.
The way that mirror receptors work doesn’t lend itself to watching something 2d on a side scrolling presentation like it does watching something in first person or over the shoulder. For example, you can get better at golf by watching pros play golf. You ingrain the timing, the motions etc. I think it’s the same watching people play something like Overwatch. You pick up on how to move, where to go etc, there isn’t a lot of that in battlers.
You pick up on the same things on fighting game streams, at least in terms of combos, punishment. Neutral not as much.
I think we’re both suffering from familiarity bias here. That stuff you mentioned sounds mega foreign to me because I don’t play those genres.
I’m not super-deep into either genre. When I watch a recap of a fighting game tournament, I may not know exactly what’s happening, but I can see when an amazing exchange occurs and I get excited by the skill. With auto-battlers, I just watch and think, “Umm, yeah, ok.”
Why is TFT more popular than Underlords? Dunno. The people I know that play TFT and League of Legends are crazy loyal to the brand though.
I Know TFT is part of the core game (or part of the launcher), unlike Underlords that is a separate from Dota 2. Also LOL has been always bigger than Dota 2 so proportionally it makes sense if TFT is also bigger than Underlords.
Personally I would like to see a Dominions Autochess :P. It sounds like a joke, but battles in Dominions are of the type of ‘give this army some general order and then see how the auto battle is played, with pixelmans killing each other’ so there is some similarity. Hell, they already have a base of thousands of units, hundreds of abilities, spells, etc to use, so they have already variety and depth out of the wazoo.
I just started playing this and is hooked like I was hooked on Dota2 ages ago.
I’ve just started yesterday but have managed to figure things out and have managed to get into the top 3 in Standard Rated games now. So I just got out of the upstart tier and is now Grifter level 2.
I love figuring out how to deal with the randomness to but towards an endgame set of heroes.
It’s a bit hectic on the hero selection screen though. I cannot count how many times I clicked refresh too quickly and lost a potential upgrade!
Welcome, I’m glad to hear you are enjoying the game! I loved it since it first came out and still playing. ¹
Any favourite strategies so far?
The game is set to ‘launch’ towards the end of feb, and there’s supposed to be another underlord before then.
I found the knock out way too random at the moment. But the short nature of the game is nice.
I started saving up on the coins instead of spending them helps a lot in the standard game. Then tech towards tier 4 troops. Losing some hps at the beginning is ok.
I found myself adopting strategies that manage the RNG nature of the game like these:
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Follow the upgrade curve.
The game offers up new heroes as I level up so the pool expands from predominantly 1-2 costs heroes to 2-3 to 3-4 as we level up.
I have the best -
Stick with the starting pool if possible. Don’t replace all the starting heroes at once or attempt to. The RNG will kill me if I become overly ambitious.
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(Related to 1) Cycling the heroes pool in Knockout is important, but do not waste time cycling if the hero you are targetting only come up once. Once the hero pool gets too large, the chances are that they will only appear once per upgrade round. Just pick and hold and wait for the next round.
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To assist my memory, I will run through all the heroes I need to upgrade in my mind while watching the battle.
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Plan ahead. Sometimes I don’t even watch the fights (after my formation works well). I’ll just look at the shop and plan ahead when my upcoming upgrades. This helps tremendously in the hectic upgrade countdown.
Things get less hectic when you get more experience. You’ll know all the heroes, what works well what doesn’t, and then you’ll find yourself thinking about strategies before the game starts and seamlessly adapting as the shop offers you things. While experience will make this part of the game easier, it opens up the next layer of strategy which is looking at what everyone else is doing with their builds and letting that adjust your strategy.
Yes. I have 3 games in the last few where only myself and a remaining opponent was contending for the first position. I found that when I get beat down real bad in the beginning, I’ll be picking heroes to counter that pesky setup.
Like having a Keeper of the Light in a corner charging. I hate that and have to reposition everyone and build a Bloodseeker + Sniper to counter such a set up.
Usually you can’t get that sniper because you have at least 2 folks going scrappy because scrappy is still op. (and maybe one going hunter too)
It’s not the Scrappy trait I was going for but the deadeye? trait. the one that makes the sniper and blood hunter seek out the weakest hero to attack.
Sniper is scrappy also so it gets picked up a lot.