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Heroes of the Storm Technical Alpha Thread: [Artifacts Removed]
- Thread starter fluffydelusions
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My issue is that it's all Warcraft. Despite what the folks on the forums claim, every map is that same colourful, tongue in cheek pop reference humour that Warcraft runs with.
Where's the grim diablo style map. Or the ultra-shiny Starcraft map? There's so much more they could be doing with the art and having it all the same generic fantasy style just feels incredibly lazy.
yeah i agree, they need to scrap all these shitty maps and put in some proper thought, i hope this is just placeholder. for a game about there franchises you think thats the first shit they would have done.
EDIT: ugh never mind there just going to sell you map skins with themes -_-
I usually hate having one on my team because nobody either a) knows how to play with one or b) the Murky sucks.
Usually it is b.
Started up Zagara today. Neat hero.
UnrealEck
Member
This game's presentation is so high. I find it hard to call it an alpha.
The graphics are great. The art in the game is very high quality. Those skins are the best I've seen in a MOBA. All the spell and ability effects, the icons, the interface. Top notch.
The sound is great too. I like a lot of the voices. Particularly the announcer on the pirate ship level. The music is also really good. Some of the best I've heard in any game. That main theme tune.
The graphics are great. The art in the game is very high quality. Those skins are the best I've seen in a MOBA. All the spell and ability effects, the icons, the interface. Top notch.
The sound is great too. I like a lot of the voices. Particularly the announcer on the pirate ship level. The music is also really good. Some of the best I've heard in any game. That main theme tune.
Added you.
If any other gaffers are new to the Alpha I'd like to team up and learn the game. Btag Quadratic#1998
The Lamonster
Member
I agree. All of Blizzard's games are like this. The Hearthstone beta was amazing as well.
Part of why they are my favorite game developer
That said, they take forever. I'm waiting to truly dig into this game until they announce no more wipes, which will probably be at the tail-end of the open beta which is very far away.
Agreed. I'm 30, btw.
I really hope Blizzard doesn't add non-Blizzard characters to this game. Part of why I love it is all the Blizzard goodness and if they add Wreckit Ralph or Superman or some completely random external character it will totally collapse the entire premise of what makes this game so awesome.
There's something like 80 characters worth of audio files recorded in the game, and all of them are Blizzard universe characters. I don't think you need to worry about them branching out, they have enough to last them forever.
(After all, dota 2s roster comes from just one of their games).
(After all, dota 2s roster comes from just one of their games).
I think DOTA 2 having to change the names of some of their "mainstay" characters (i.e. Skeleton King) is a good hint as to some of the up-and-coming characters to the HOTS roster.
Granted it is most likely, first and foremost, a copyright thing - but it's fair to think a lot of their DOTA counterparts will be introduced into the HOTS scheme.
Granted it is most likely, first and foremost, a copyright thing - but it's fair to think a lot of their DOTA counterparts will be introduced into the HOTS scheme.
I thought you were one of the guys I had recently played with (hence the whole "that was a good game" right when I added you back lol).
Well, me and my friend just got in, so I think a new batch of invites went out.
Seems like good fun so far. People will damn me for saying it, but I like the casualised experience. No need to fight for last hit, mana costs are quite permissives, and games are relatively short.
Will hero unlocks transfer over to beta and retail?
Also I don't have Valla despite preordering D3. T_T
Seems like good fun so far. People will damn me for saying it, but I like the casualised experience. No need to fight for last hit, mana costs are quite permissives, and games are relatively short.
Will hero unlocks transfer over to beta and retail?
Also I don't have Valla despite preordering D3. T_T
Valla preorder is for when the game actually comes out. Same reason your first question's answer isn'tvalid yet - it's still alpha, none of this is going to transfer. expect AT LEAST one more wipe of everything. It's not even on the real battle.net yet, it's on the 'beta/alpha' set of servers, no friends list carryover etc.
Anything you buy with real money isn't just 'lost', you'll get the equivilent balance back onto your Bnet account and they're making sure to re-offer bundles when they do wipes in the future, just so you can get what you've gotten before.
Ill get back into this game as soon as they release a traditional moba map with creeps that actually matter.
Its really hard to get into these weird maps trying to collect dubloons and fire off cannons. Its cool for the first couple of games, but then you just start wishing you could choose what map you play. Then before you know it, your back to dota or lol because HOTS isnt a true moba.
Its really hard to get into these weird maps trying to collect dubloons and fire off cannons. Its cool for the first couple of games, but then you just start wishing you could choose what map you play. Then before you know it, your back to dota or lol because HOTS isnt a true moba.
Maybe not having to play the same map every single game is appealing to people?
If you don't think creeps matter you haven't played very much.
Having not played the game. Would I be correct in saying what you gain in variety, you lose in complexity?
No? For instance nothing is stopping them from making another map in DotA or League (Heck, league has some, but I mean the exact same setup with just a different actual map), why would it change any of that? Adding mechanics to the maps only makes it more complex not less.
fluffydelusions
Member
I feel like I will never get into this alpha 
Then you won't ever be back. Sorry!
It's like the threads on blizzards forums asking for last hitting, or items - this game isn't another moba in the same vein as LoL and Dota 2. The market already *has* those games. Blizzard are trying something very different for a different audience. We don't need another dota 2, we need more companies trying different things because otherwise the entire genre is going to remain stuck in a very limited design space.
Personally, I much prefer hots - games are faster, it doesn't have the same stupid barriers to entry that traditional players are so proud of yet it still retains a huge amount of depth and team tactics.
(Also - when you find a map where creeps don't matter, please let me know because they matter a lot in every HoTs map!)
sobaka770
Banned
With all the news this week with Apple event, Destiny release etc. etc. it's important to remind people that the new patch for HotS is out!
Chen is in, finally a proper pandaren with the keg, fire brearg and a split ultimate (who the hell is Lili? GTFO!). Tons of balancing and visual upgrades, UI rework, Daily Quest and gold generation changes and more...
Also the 64-bit client is coming
Full patch notes are here:
http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/15787795
his MOBA is slowly starting to take shape and get that polish which was lacking in previous builds (just check out the new horse models, Arthas cloak physics and compare Nova first face with blue eyes of death with the new one - now animated!).
Chen is in, finally a proper pandaren with the keg, fire brearg and a split ultimate (who the hell is Lili? GTFO!). Tons of balancing and visual upgrades, UI rework, Daily Quest and gold generation changes and more...
Also the 64-bit client is coming
soon
Full patch notes are here:
http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/15787795
his MOBA is slowly starting to take shape and get that polish which was lacking in previous builds (just check out the new horse models, Arthas cloak physics and compare Nova first face with blue eyes of death with the new one - now animated!).
His latest patch is utterly dreadful. I'm definitely not interest in playing at all under the current arrangements.
Massive nerf to gold gained from levelling, increase in the extra hero gating, ridiculous price for the new hero (and only one after two months). Every patch this game gets worse in terms of the supporting mechanisms.
Oh, and the changes to 'dailies' are ridiculous. On what planet do they think that playing **8** games counts as a daily? It's a hugely penalising patch to casual players across the board in my view.
Massive nerf to gold gained from levelling, increase in the extra hero gating, ridiculous price for the new hero (and only one after two months). Every patch this game gets worse in terms of the supporting mechanisms.
Oh, and the changes to 'dailies' are ridiculous. On what planet do they think that playing **8** games counts as a daily? It's a hugely penalising patch to casual players across the board in my view.
Agree that 8 games is abit too much, but it can be done/stacked across 3days.
so that is acceptable.
removing gold reward from every 5 account level is just pure greedy.
not to mention 15k Chen.
Also need to remove Talent Gating which nobody like.
This just doesn't make sense. You need to play more and get into the meta game of these maps. Creep control is so important in this game its not even funny. More so than dota 2 that's for sure.
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
If anything, merc camps are as important as objectives once you understand the flow and balance of each map. Timing is everything.
Various changes this last patch - perhaps mostly the Hammer and healer nerfs - seem to actually be making the gold earning and daily quest changes even worse, as now every single game seems to last 30+ minutes. I actually like the game enough and prefer balanced games, but there's no way I can get more than about 6 games in in a night anymore.
Various changes this last patch - perhaps mostly the Hammer and healer nerfs - seem to actually be making the gold earning and daily quest changes even worse, as now every single game seems to last 30+ minutes. I actually like the game enough and prefer balanced games, but there's no way I can get more than about 6 games in in a night anymore.
So, they're shutting the alpha down for a week starting the 22nd (3 days) and after that it'll be on REAL bnet and they don't intend to wipe anything again. You get a mount if you buy something with real money before that too.
Beta the 29th? or shortly thereafter?
http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/15951562/final-phase-of-technical-alpha-coming-9-19-2014
Beta the 29th? or shortly thereafter?
http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/15951562/final-phase-of-technical-alpha-coming-9-19-2014
theMrCravens
Member
Wow. Thought I'd get an alpha invite by now.
At the very least before final wipe. :/
At the very least before final wipe. :/
You've lost me, Artifacts were gone almost two months ago. They've revamped the UI, added more heroes and added another map since then. Not sure what you expect I guess.
Yeah, aside from the UI, those are standard content updates, though. It feels like the artifacts were the last "big thing" they had to add, and that we probably would have been in Beta a lot sooner had they never implemented that silly system. Not meant as a slam/slight, they've been putting in a lot of good work, and I'm planning to give them money this weekend.
What I mean is there are a ton of more complex mechanics to the Dota map as far as using alcoves in the trees to break sightlines, pulling, stacking, cutting trees to gain various beneficial effects, bumping creeps to move the equilibrium toward your tower, etc. What i was asking is do you lose this kind of stuff and gain a raid boss or does it have similar refinements or is it straight lanes and a raid boss?
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
Gonna have to get my fill this weekend. Good time for this to happen though, work is killing me right now. Guess I gotta find something to blow 60k on
KojiKnight
Member
Got a second invite on the same account yesterday, and then an e-mail about the tech alpha closing down. Glad to see a lot of progress, I haven't touched the game in months... burnt myself out playing Murky to max level.
Glad that my account is finally being refunded the money I spent on the game. I spent it knowing I was going to put that money to WoD when it came out (I'm fine with grinding out my characters after wipe, it's not too bad at all since I don't play a lot of different characters at once) and was getting worried that Tech Alpha would last past WoD release.
Glad that my account is finally being refunded the money I spent on the game. I spent it knowing I was going to put that money to WoD when it came out (I'm fine with grinding out my characters after wipe, it's not too bad at all since I don't play a lot of different characters at once) and was getting worried that Tech Alpha would last past WoD release.
There isn't anything to do that on, everything is unlocked until they shut it down.
KojiKnight
Member
They've refunded the money from HotS to my B.net account... now I have to make the tough decision if I'm going to gut that money for Hearthstone, LoD, or just some WoW time... decisions decisions...
Not yet.
brainzelda
Member
What's the deal with getting access to this alpha? Is it just wait until Blizz sends me a key? Or can I beg somewhere... 
Also, I heard it was going into Beta soon. Should I just wait for that?
Also, I heard it was going into Beta soon. Should I just wait for that?
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