When you select an ability (say with the X button) you hold down the button and it creates a transparent line or shape that shows the direction/placement/orientation of the ability. You can and will still move your character with this guide template shown. It is not unlike the arrow lines on a skill shot in LoL. Once you let go of the button (X in this example) the ability fires off in the forecasted way. If you do a basic attack (right trigger) while the ability button is still held down, it will cancel the ability. Think of it as gamepad driven spells using traditional MOBA “quick cast” options.
I really don’t like MOBAs, based on my limited experience with League of Legends. It’s as if someone said let’s take RTS games, and make the incremental victories in an RTS feel less substantial, and make the learning curve hard enough that it takes a long time to understand the subtleties with each character, thereby giving the game a really long shelf life. That’s fine for people with more time on their hands, but since I only get about an hour a week at most of game time, it would take me forever to catch up with any friends of mine who had a deeper understanding of the game. And the long slow climb to understanding feels like a grind from an MMO.
Some of my friends really ended up enjoying it, but they had a lot more time to devote to it than I did. I tried for a few months (about 0.5 every week for 8 weeks, so I guess that’s around 4 hours), but progress was even slower than when I was learning Supreme Commander that way. At least with SupCom, I finally had my aha moment. I finally understood the economy, and how to Rush, Boom or Turtle in the game, and could go to toe to toe with my friends after about 2 months of slow learning. But with LoL I just felt like I was really really far from understanding even after two months.
With all that said, when Tom mentioned on the front page that this is Monolith’s latest game, it makes me want to try it even though I don’t like the genre.
That’s where almost all the depth of most MOBAs item systems come from, though. Otherwise you’re just sticking with the one or two optimal ways to build against unknown competition.
As opposed to Starcraft 2 where if you have quick reflexes you can read some build orders and be ready for the diamond league in a day or two? In LoL if you know a couple characters, before the match you ask your friends what the characters you’re going to be laning against do, they spend ten seconds telling you, and you’re good to go. Will you be awesome? No, but you shouldn’t be any worse off than if you were playing any other RTS with more experienced players.
And no offense, but if the incremental victories don’t feel substantial in LoL, it’s because you aren’t very good. At the pro level, every small victory gives you a significant temporary advantage that helps you to snowball to ultimate victory.
FYI for those considering:
1200 space bucks for game with 20 heroes on Xbox
1200 space bucks for “season pass” to gain 8 more heroes as they are to be released (Bilbo and Bert the Troll are the only known ones), new game mode “survival” (no details yet), and possible new maps.
Season pass items probably to be sold individually at a slightly higher rate
Demo gives standard game with a time limit.
how’s the online community on xbox or ps3? is it easy to get a game online?
No offense taken, since that’s exactly what I was trying to express. I’m not good enough yet to have the incremental victories feel substantial, and this is a genre that seems to be all about the incremental victories that snowball, and at some point i have to ask myself: how long will it take? How long until i cross that magic threshold where things finally click? Is it worth the time investment? Is it at least a fun journey in the process? The answers to those questions are different for everyone. I think for me personally, my gut instinct tells me that it isn’t worth it. That in that time i could be enjoying games in genres that i do enjoy already instead of trying to learn a new one. I’m definitely envious of those that can enjoy a deep genre like this; I know part of that feeling of really doing the little things right that culminate in the awesome big things in a game like Supreme Commander, so I recognize that there is a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow. It’s just not worth the time investment for me personally.
If you don’t enjoy it, you don’t enjoy it. Ain’t anything wrong with that. :)
In my limited MOBA experience, the incremental victories are more substantial than in RTS, because you open a bigger gap with the enemy with each skirmish won thanks to the xp/gold mechanic, in fact they are so noob unfriendly because there is almost no margin for error, and the learning curve is just “long”, not especially steep.
I think hardest part to understand for me in the learning curve was how different is really the MOBAs in comparison with other genres, and how you can’t apply the knowledge in other action or strategy games and have to learn from zero here. IMO it’s very interesting how it looks like at first like a mix of RTS, action and RPG game but really it plays like a new genre.
So yeah, Chaplin and I played some last night.
I totally destroy with Gollum
It sort of sounds like you are implying this is a niche genre for core gamers but that’s not really the case. LOL wouldn’t be the most played game in the world if that was the case. I think there are many ways you can get satisfaction as a casual gamer. The large player pool means that if the ELO system is working well, you will be matched against players of similar skill level so that you can still win matches often enough that it doesn’t get too frustrating. BOT matches can be a fun co-op experience for beginners.
I introduced LOL to a very casual gamer friend (the only game he had played prior was WoW with his wife). I still occasionally see him online about once a week and it’s been over a year. I am sure he is still not very good at it but he’s been consistently getting something out of the game for a really long time. I get the feeling there are a lot of casual LOL fans like him. The hardcore crowd is not large enough to account for the huge player base sustained by the game.
But then if you are extremely competitive and must do much better than breaking .500, then probably playing casually is not going to work out.
Um. Yeah. It was like the entire enemy team was made of ring bearers or fish, or, or SOMETHING. There was some serious "my precious-ing"going on in conjunction with an entirely disturbing level of glee and pleasure coming in over chat as you did it.
For any future team picking, I choose McMaster as Gollum for my team.
Sure the game has warts, but damn, I like it (it is officially do0med now). The biggest warning I have for potential converts is that the net code is lacking and will probably lower the lifespan of a game that was already not likely to live to see prom.
It’s pretty cool. I dig it as well, it just needs polish and a community. I like that the basic match making is 20 minute time limited because it does have the LoL/DotA game length towards the end. You also hit the level cap too fast.
Long queue times during the day. It’s just like playing LoL!
Played a few bot matches to get a feel for how the game works. I really like what they’ve done. Extremely solid game, with tons of depth.
Jumped into a random comp-stomp. First thing that happened was someone kept yelling GOBOT GOBOT GOBOT at me and then proceeded to bitch the entire game about how much of a faggot I was.
Guy #2 sounded like he was about 10 years old, and had some kind of intercom thing in his room that would beep every minute, then his mom’s cackly voice would scream “I TOLD YOU HENRY NO MORE VIDEO GAMES GO TO BED RIGHT NOW!”
Guy #3 was giving Guy #2 “girl advice” the entire match. This was actually pretty humorous, because it was obvious the guy had never even talked to a woman in his life but was definitely an authority on them.
Decided I never wanted to play on line again.
I didn’t even know ther was built in game chat. A blessing of playing with party chat open I suppose as my memories of Heroes of Newerth (built in VoIP) were pretty much in line with the above statements.
Can you turn party chat if you’re not in a party so I can mute hearing anyone else?
I am fairly sure you can make a party with you as the only member, then when the game launches tell it you want to stay in party chat.
OR… You can team up with McMaster, Kato, and me. As part of the deal, I will keep my slurs to a minimum, Kato will dial back his girl advice, but McMaster…if he is playing Gollum, well, while I am sure he is just playing a game, it sounds more like the a mix between the audio of adult entertainment and the “happier than a witch in a broom factory” commercial.
;)
it’s my precious…
Hey! As someone who has all non-friend audio muted - feel your pain. You can, indeed, go into the party section of your menu and I think hit X and it creates a party with just you.
Haha. That is normal for games like this… half of my DOTA games (hundreds) fit in #1.