S2 , the company behind the popular moba game Heroes of Newerth (HoN) , announced their new moba title "Strife".
According to their announcement post on the HoN forums :
"Strife is designed to be a more approachable MOBA, one that has removed some of the intricacies that often deter first-time MOBA players. HoN and Strife will co-exist to provide players with a comprehensive MOBA experience of their choice."(Source)
A later comment by an S2 employee :
"For those who are doubtful for any reason, it will be a Free to Play game that is aiming to push the boundaries of the genre. Try it out if you have doubts and make an assessment based off of your experiences with the game. Maybe the game is not for you but maybe its nothing what you expected and surpasses every expectation you had. It might leave you pleasantly surprised." (Source)
Marc Deforest, Chief Executive Officer of S2 says the following :
"Strife will “prove to be one of the most played and most beloved games in all of PC gaming"(Source)
“Strife is meant to be less ‘hardcore’ than HoN , it’s very, very easy to get into. We made sure that many of the design decisions we made, from art to UI, to how you actually play the game, is very straightforward. That fills a specific niche. It’s still very difficult to master, and it brings depth, but it doesn’t bring depth through unnecessary complexity. That doesn’t mean HoN players may not play Strife and enjoy it, but there are a lot of players who have played [other MOBAs] and felt they were way too hard. But you’re still getting the appetizer, the meal and the dessert with Strife. It still has depth and strategy.”(Source)
S2 released this teaser video earlier today :
S2 also linked this article on their facebook page (a good read to get to know what the game is all about , and the changes they made) :
This is an interview with [S2] Pi Liu , an excellent read for those interested in a more technical point of view (balance , development , objectives behind developing this game , character design ) :
Strifeapedia aims to provide players of S2 Game's future MOBA, Strife, with information about it's Heroes, Items, and Minions. More information will be provided as it is released by S2.
Gameplay and art-style specifically. When I play HoN I have no idea what anyone does and I'll die because of it. Strife is much more clear in what is actually going on. For instance there's a skill in HoN that if you move you take damage, there are no/little burden of knowledge skills in Strife (nothing to that extreme). Additionally stealth in HoN and other MoBa's is very burden of knowledge. Our stealth mechanic telestrates that there's someone stealthed but you can't target them except with skill shots. Out of range stealth characters are fully invisible.(Source)
By far the most surprising aspect of Strife is its pets. Each pet serves as an ally that grants the player with bonuses specific to the pet. As I played more with my cute support kitty -- at least I think it was a kitty -- I earned the pet more experience toward unlocking new passive bonuses and abilities. Earning enough experience will not only level up the pet but morph the pet into a more grown-up version of itself. Essentially, pets are Pokemon that help replace the talent trees found in other MOBAs.
The passive bonuses of talents are also made up within the crafting system. Players earn resources as well as experience at the end of each match by selecting one of a variety of chests to open. These resources are then used in conjunction with patterns to customize the items you can find in the store during a match. For instance, a basic blade item that grants 15 attack power could be given the bonus of more health, more mana, more run speed, and so on through crafting outside the match via materials earned. I put more mana on an item outside of game and the item suddenly had bonus mana each time I bought it during a match. These bonuses also have multiple tiers up to legendary that require rarer materials, all earned through playing the game.(Source)
3- No regenerating barracks and mana pools play a large factor in the game. + Show Spoiler +
According to this s2 employee on the HoN forums (Source)
4- Heroes of Newerth is not going anywhere , S2 will continue to support the game. + Show Spoiler +
Heroes of Newerth developer S2 Games has no intention of abandoning the title in light of its newly announced MOBA, Strife, chief executive officer Marc DeForest said during a recent press event (Source)
With all the moba games that are out right now , and the ones in development by other companies (Blizzard , EA...etc) , what do you guys think of this attempt ? we didn't get to see anything yet so I dont think we can make a sound judgement of the game , all I can hope for is that S2 learned from some of their mistakes in HoN , and I really hope the genre moves forward with more titles from different game studios.
I will definitely try this game out , but I hate most of the graphics I've seen (too lol like) , and no last hits ......what the hell ?? honestly I can live with those..... but if they port that fucking "monkey king" from HoN , screw this I aint playing this shit XD
Hm I play HoN a lot (midwars :D) and I'd switch to dota2 if it had the mod. I can't find anything appealing in Strife. It clearly is a ripoff of LoL. I like the wide lanes tho and it surely is clearer than HoN right now.
I like S2, they do great games (Savage 1/2 are awesome) but I can't see them going in the right direction with Strife. Still hope they will meet success.
On August 09 2013 04:13 Tchado wrote: Ok now to comments , I can be more liberal here
I will definitely try this game out , but I hate most of the graphics I've seen (too lol like) , and no last hits ......what the hell ?? honestly I can live with those..... but if they port that fucking "monkey king" from HoN , screw this I aint playing this shit XD
Monkey King damage was a bit too insane but the creativitity of the hero was definitely unique imo, MUCH more creative than LoL Monkey King who was just a Shako + Garren mashed. Either way, I dont think people should judge the graphic too much since it is only Alpha version. Some concept does look interesting but I really dont like the no last hit thing. They say they are trying to split the gold between the player that are in lane to allow support to get item but I think this is flawed because this will only promote support to not lane therefore allowing all the money and EXP to go to the carry. Either way, not much a fan of this and not really a game I am looking forward too playing.
unfortunately, nothing about it seems interesting to me. i'd really like something that goes off in an entirely different direction while still keeping team RTS elements
Shrug. Some designer should really learn wtf Next-generation mean. Bloodline champion had lot more different core gameplay mecanic but was never consider a next gen moba.
And can someone please tell how removing last hit will solve toxicity ? lol.
If I play with someone who cant last hit, I tell myself, he's new and try to cut him some slack. Most toxicity come from stupidity in general (stupid play, stupid comment, etc.) and I dont see at all how "we ll remove last hit and ward mecanic so teh game isn't toxic anymore". This only tell me these people, even if its their 2nd game in the genre, still aren't sure how to deal with this.
I'll go against the grain and say I think it has some potential. I look at it from the perspective of "could this be a fun game to play?" rather than "is this going to be an esport with million dollar tournaments?" If I look at the people who play dota2, 95% of them basically want to play the game in a style similar to this anyway.
It doesn't look hugely ground breaking, and the game will have to have little to no issues when it first comes out to have any chance, but I'll look on with interest.
On August 09 2013 18:40 marcjpb wrote: Shrug. Some designer should really learn wtf Next-generation mean. Bloodline champion had lot more different core gameplay mecanic but was never consider a next gen moba.
And can someone please tell how removing last hit will solve toxicity ? lol.
If I play with someone who cant last hit, I tell myself, he's new and try to cut him some slack. Most toxicity come from stupidity in general (stupid play, stupid comment, etc.) and I dont see at all how "we ll remove last hit and ward mecanic so teh game isn't toxic anymore". This only tell me these people, even if its their 2nd game in the genre, still aren't sure how to deal with this.
They also created this "karma" system , and you cant chat with the opposing team , I'm not sure what direction they wanna go with this shit , but in the end I said it once and I'll say it again , there is not enough info to make a sound judgement yet.
Moba are trully this generation's MMORPG. :/ Make them, throw them, try everything to grab the pieces that may be bored of LoL and DotA. Just like when everyone was trying to grab WoW players.
And everything will probably end all the same, Dota will keep doing its stuff with the ridiculous amount of exceptions and details that no sane developer would straight out implement (and we love it) in their game and LoL will keep being the flagship for the other approach.
On August 09 2013 18:40 marcjpb wrote: Shrug. Some designer should really learn wtf Next-generation mean. Bloodline champion had lot more different core gameplay mecanic but was never consider a next gen moba.
And can someone please tell how removing last hit will solve toxicity ? lol.
If I play with someone who cant last hit, I tell myself, he's new and try to cut him some slack. Most toxicity come from stupidity in general (stupid play, stupid comment, etc.) and I dont see at all how "we ll remove last hit and ward mecanic so teh game isn't toxic anymore". This only tell me these people, even if its their 2nd game in the genre, still aren't sure how to deal with this.
As far as I can tell you just randomly throw out the term "toxic" and then suggest your design principles lower "toxicity" with no real explanation. This is just how you design a MOBA in 2013
Oh my god, I just read that "stealth is burden of knowledge" quote by the designer. Please let this be an elaborate prank
On August 09 2013 18:40 marcjpb wrote: Shrug. Some designer should really learn wtf Next-generation mean. Bloodline champion had lot more different core gameplay mecanic but was never consider a next gen moba.
And can someone please tell how removing last hit will solve toxicity ? lol.
If I play with someone who cant last hit, I tell myself, he's new and try to cut him some slack. Most toxicity come from stupidity in general (stupid play, stupid comment, etc.) and I dont see at all how "we ll remove last hit and ward mecanic so teh game isn't toxic anymore". This only tell me these people, even if its their 2nd game in the genre, still aren't sure how to deal with this.
As far as I can tell you just randomly throw out the term "toxic" and then suggest your design principles lower "toxicity" with no real explanation. This is just how you design a MOBA in 2013
Oh my god, I just read that "stealth is burden of knowledge" quote by the designer. Please let this be an elaborate prank
If i understand it correctly , it will be a blur on the screen ? like a DT or a banshee ? if that is the case , yet another WTF !!!!! and why even have stealth in the game ???? and dont forget that the warding mechanic is gone ( as mentioned in the videos ) , but I'm not sure if that includes revelation wards , or dust of appearance.
Judging by the gameplay trailers, they did not remove last-hitting, they just split the gold among whoever's around when the last hit connects. Which seems bizarre, because then carries are forced to solo and will quickly outfarm the duo lanes.
Anyway, I don't have high hopes for this game. I have played HoN with varying activity ever since the beta, and S2 really is a clueless company when it comes to design and balance. The only reason HoN was even halfway decent is because it began as a carbon copy of DotA. I do not trust S2 to add strategical depth to the genre, and from the sounds of the trailer, it seems they aren't trying to.
There's not much to show off in the alpha gameplay. I mean the background textures look fine and good for otherwise early development but they obviously expended some effort into stuff like tower (cannon) animations and they look pretty bad.
Why are they so concentrated on advertising this game as "more than meets the eye"? --or that they acknowledge their game is in a fine little niche of its own, but it's worth giving a try anyway? They have their goals but it all seems a bit redundant if you ask me and if i were a producer i would let the gameplay do most of the presenting/talking.
Just watched the first clip: no dewarding, no clear roles - this game isn't going anywhere in such a contested market. Graphics remind me so much of the WC3 Addon campaign. Mixed LoL and Dota stuff - do we really need more of this? I just playtested Infinite Crisis lately and this looks like another blatantly useless clone.
On August 10 2013 00:59 ain wrote: Just what we needed. Another dota clone. Because farming gold isn't boring enough in just one game.
People seem to forget that AoS came first and thus Dota was born after.
People seem to forget that its not weather or not AoS was first, its about who made it big.. first.
Case and point? that fps is such a Doom clone... i mean Wolfenstein clone... i mean Catacombs 3D clone.... i mean Hovertank clone..
I think you get my point.
No, I don't get your point because there is none to be made. It is also not a matter of "Cloning". Dota was created because they were inspired to create it because of AoS. People become inspired by what they see and or play and thus create something bigger and better. Who is to say without AoS that Dota would even exist? AoS was the stepping stone for Dota.
On August 10 2013 00:59 ain wrote: Just what we needed. Another dota clone. Because farming gold isn't boring enough in just one game.
People seem to forget that AoS came first and thus Dota was born after.
People seem to forget that its not weather or not AoS was first, its about who made it big.. first.
Case and point? that fps is such a Doom clone... i mean Wolfenstein clone... i mean Catacombs 3D clone.... i mean Hovertank clone..
I think you get my point.
No, I don't get your point because there is none to be made. It is also not a matter of "Cloning". Dota was created because they were inspired to create it because of AoS. People become inspired by what they see and or play and thus create something bigger and better. Who is to say without AoS that Dota would even exist? AoS was the stepping stone for Dota.
That is all that matters.
Do you even know what the word clone means? It means the game that another most closely resembles/is trying to imitate. None of these games are trying to imitate AoS, because AoS was not a fully fleshed out game. HoN is clearly a DotA clone and not an AoS clone. LoL more closely resembles DotA than AoS, though I wouldn't call it a clone of anything. DotA was originally an AoS clone, but now, the modern generation is building upon what DotA has done since then.
Yango said it best - years too late. I'd like to get excited for a new game but at the same time there has to be something exciting about it. Seems far too...stale...I guess would be the right word.
LoL has already taken the spot as a moba with low entry barrier and limitless skillcurve, while Blizzard allstars is looking to take the spot as full casual. Strife just really came out at a bad time. However if they just recycled most the code from HoN, then it's not a very expensive investment.
On August 10 2013 03:47 Boblion wrote: meh, S2 should have made an RTS....
That's what they did before making HoN. It didn't work out so well.
They went bankrupt ?
I don't know anything about their finances, but S2 started out making RTS games. The games were practically unplayable WC3 clones. That's one reason why I'm skeptical of their ability to design anything original.
On August 10 2013 04:04 Boblion wrote: Savage 1&2 are WC3 clones, you heard it here first folks.
lol
Savage is obviously not what I was referring to, good job.
Then what were you referring to ? S2 only has the following titles :
Savage: The Battle for Newerth (2003) (Windows, Macintosh, Linux) Savage 2: A Tortured Soul (2008) (Windows, Macintosh, Linux) Heroes of Newerth (2010) (Windows, Macintosh, Linux)
Savage is no way near a wc3 clone , so what game are you talking about ?
On August 10 2013 04:04 Boblion wrote: Savage 1&2 are WC3 clones, you heard it here first folks.
lol
Savage is obviously not what I was referring to, good job.
Then what were you referring to ? S2 only has the following titles :
Savage: The Battle for Newerth (2003) (Windows, Macintosh, Linux) Savage 2: A Tortured Soul (2008) (Windows, Macintosh, Linux) Heroes of Newerth (2010) (Windows, Macintosh, Linux)
Savage is no way near a wc3 clone , so what game are you talking about ?
The first titles that S2 created were terrible RTS games. That's what S2 was founded on before they got ahold of HoN and became a real company. It's not exactly surprising that these games are no longer supported, since nobody played them, is it?
They may have been created before or after the original Savage, I don't know. Either way, vaporware.
On August 10 2013 04:04 Boblion wrote: Savage 1&2 are WC3 clones, you heard it here first folks.
lol
Savage is obviously not what I was referring to, good job.
Then what were you referring to ? S2 only has the following titles :
Savage: The Battle for Newerth (2003) (Windows, Macintosh, Linux) Savage 2: A Tortured Soul (2008) (Windows, Macintosh, Linux) Heroes of Newerth (2010) (Windows, Macintosh, Linux)
Savage is no way near a wc3 clone , so what game are you talking about ?
The first titles that S2 created were terrible RTS games. That's what S2 was founded on before they got ahold of HoN and became a real company. It's not exactly surprising that these games are no longer supported, since nobody played them, is it?
They may have been created before or after the original Savage, I don't know. Either way, vaporware.
Um what? I am almost certain that Savage: The Battle for Newerth was their first game. I honestly think you are mistaking them for someone else, if not, please provide a source, because you made me Google and nothing seems to indicate that you are correct.
On August 10 2013 00:59 ain wrote: Just what we needed. Another dota clone. Because farming gold isn't boring enough in just one game.
People seem to forget that AoS came first and thus Dota was born after.
People seem to forget that its not weather or not AoS was first, its about who made it big.. first.
Case and point? that fps is such a Doom clone... i mean Wolfenstein clone... i mean Catacombs 3D clone.... i mean Hovertank clone..
I think you get my point.
No, I don't get your point because there is none to be made. It is also not a matter of "Cloning". Dota was created because they were inspired to create it because of AoS. People become inspired by what they see and or play and thus create something bigger and better. Who is to say without AoS that Dota would even exist? AoS was the stepping stone for Dota.
That is all that matters.
Do you even know what the word clone means? It means the game that another most closely resembles/is trying to imitate. None of these games are trying to imitate AoS, because AoS was not a fully fleshed out game. HoN is clearly a DotA clone and not an AoS clone. LoL more closely resembles DotA than AoS, though I wouldn't call it a clone of anything. DotA was originally an AoS clone, but now, the modern generation is building upon what DotA has done since then.
Yes, I know what clone means but thank you for the unneeded explanation. Also, you clearly didn't get what I was saying.
The market for dota-like games is growing. Its playerbase is huge. Why wouldn't they try? I think LoL will remain the king of this genre though. Having said all this, I still don't really play any of them. lol
The Savage games were some seriously innovative/next-level stuff. The only other game that compares in Natural Selection. S2 sucks but to completely discredit Savage as WC3 clones (which they're not) is stupid.
market is oversaturated.. the more simple you try to keep it the more stale it gets. how many unique 4 ability kits can people come up with that isnt just another stun, knock up, aoe type thing? heroes purposes start to overlap and the newer ones overshadow the older--its a relationship even league is suffering from now. ill admit that the boss condition that forces a end game push is a nice idea, but may be a little over powered. And i agree with the xel naga towers over wards, but without pidgeon holing team positions like support, is it going to turn into a shitstorm brawl?
Will these guys eventually release an decent game? I mean they keep trying looks ok I'll give it a go, however watched those vids while I had TI3 running on my second monitor and I find it hard to beleive people would play this over Dota 2 or Lol
On August 10 2013 04:04 Boblion wrote: Savage 1&2 are WC3 clones, you heard it here first folks.
lol
Savage is obviously not what I was referring to, good job.
Then what were you referring to ? S2 only has the following titles :
Savage: The Battle for Newerth (2003) (Windows, Macintosh, Linux) Savage 2: A Tortured Soul (2008) (Windows, Macintosh, Linux) Heroes of Newerth (2010) (Windows, Macintosh, Linux)
Savage is no way near a wc3 clone , so what game are you talking about ?
The first titles that S2 created were terrible RTS games. That's what S2 was founded on before they got ahold of HoN and became a real company. It's not exactly surprising that these games are no longer supported, since nobody played them, is it?
They may have been created before or after the original Savage, I don't know. Either way, vaporware.
If you can't name those games don't even try to argue. Also if you think that after developping S1&2 and HoN they don't have any competent artists and programmers you are clueless.
It's been taking them a long time replacing and updating their old Savage 2 engine which was used in hon which was horribly ugly on the inside. Dat k2 turd.
Savage was a really neat idea. Super fun to play around in. However the only thing S2 has proven to me with HoN is their ability to completely shit the bed every patch. They did nothing but break the game patch after patch after patch. Heres some new cosmetic crap! What about the network issues, what about the being DDOSed forever, what about the mega broken heroes?
Maybe someone is mistaking the Commander view in Savage for WC3? I mean I guess it sort of kind of looks similar. However only 1 player on either team was a commander, they played the game like a RTS spending the money and building structures. Everyone else on the teams were playing a FPS where they were the "units" going around and gathering or killing. It certainly was nothing like WC3 or any other game for that matter.
Hon doesn't really have mega broken heroes at high level play a few rare instances, but there are certainly heroes that take a whole lot less to play well and stomp pubs. What S2 does great with hon, hero and ability creation is so easy in their engine they really stream lined the process, unless it's a completely new ability concept you just mismash calling already done scripts add skin and model and done. Plus it just feels smooth imo compared to the rest, ionno if it's their animation or what but it feels better. I have no qualms that their new game will run well it's just they aren't a popular company it's hard to snatch people away, esp with this kind of game that really people come in packs they play what their friends play.
What I find hilarious from my personal point of view , is how s2 is promoting this game as a noob friendly "non toxic" game , this whole notion of "community toxicity" is making me sick honestly , humans are humans and you can't do anything about it no matter what they do , and s2 itself has some elements in this.
I think with this kind of publicity they are indirectly hurting the reputation their other game and it's community , there is no doubt that the HoN community is full of foul mouth , trash talking elitists , and you know what ? I fucking love it , it's what got me into the game in the first place , HoN is a place where your skills determine your status , you wanna shut someone up ? show some big plays , earn your respect in the team , now I will admit that noobs and beginners will have a hard time with this , but that is why custom games and team ques are for , hell that is even why chat is around for , when I was a noob I used to tell me team that I was new or that I sucked with a certain hero and ask for help , no one ever complained (I have over 3K games played in HoN) , there is no reason why other people cant do so.
I recently read a strife article where the author starts off with with something like "when I first played hon , i was called a noob , a fruit fly had more skills than me , and my mother's sexuality was discussed , that was the end of my time with hon" , then the author goes on to praise strife and the karma system , how can s2 possibility allow this ?
Last note , S2 made money off this"toxic" notion too , the taunt/smack down animations and quotations , just look at these smackdown animations , a flying trash bin or god hand that smashes your opponent , a chipper that rubs his "nuts" on your face , a Micheal Jackson like zombie that dances on your grave....etc , what about some hero taunt quote ? bubbles : "I knew your mother back in the day" and others , and the announcer smackdown calls ? badass announcer " KISS MY ASS !" , pimp announcer : "BACK HANDED !" , british gentleman "KNOW YOUR PLACE PEASANT !"......alot of s2 content follows this line of thought and production.
S2 directly made tons of money off what they are now looking down upon , and it makes me sick.
I think people are right saying this is too late, yet I still think there's a possibility that Blizzard's version comes out and just swoops up all the doubters, just like they did with WoW. I, for one, hope we aren't left with 4 competitive scenes from basically the same game.
Ok, after watching those videos I've got only one comment about this game: "hahahahahahahahahahahaha this is gonna fail so hard". At first look we have the graphics which looks like a poor ripoff of LoL, which has terrible graphics in the first place. Then the whole "anti-toxic" elements, which dumb down the game to the whole new level of dumb. Let's remove the mechanic that lets you get advantage in the early game (last hits). Let's remove the mechanic that let's your team get advantage and safety (wards). Let's remove team play element, that can also be shut down by the other team if you are not careful (courier). Let's remove hero diversity and only leave carries in the game, so that nobody will need to play support. I think this whole Strife game is gonna be a real failure. No idea why S2 wants to create new moba game if they already have one, that's way better than this new project. It might have been a good idea if they really wanted to make something new and better, to beat the crap out of DotA and LoL, but Strife looks like total shit so far and I highly doubt that with their attitude they are gonna make anything remotely good.
Why so much hate on HoN? I love that game. The first few heroes are direct ports from Dota but wasnt IceFrog involved in the beginning?
And the heroes cant be that overpowered. In TI3 we had bans on Wisp and Batrider basically every game. In pro-HoN the bans are more against what team they are facing.
I play both HoN and Dota 2. I was in both betas. In Dota whenever i play a game, it turns out a 4v5 in about 3 mins after someone loses their lane and leaves. You have the same amount of shit-talk, the communities are basically the same. The only thing i feel is that Dota is more slow, almost like I have som kind of lag, like Im playing in syrup.
I think a lot of HoN bashers are just people that played Dota and felt Dota was better, thus HoN was "crap"
I prefer HoN. Im not a good player, and people tell me that every day IN CAPS LOCK!!!!!!!! but the game is fun and I can take it
This new game, i dont know. Casual MOBAs arent really that fun, they are basically multiplayer Diablo that ends in 40 min
On August 11 2013 21:38 maartendq wrote: Isn't the MOBA market already saturated with League of Legends and DOTA2?
The MOBA market seems way less saturated than the FPS market or the MMORPG market. What could make you say that there is no room for another title ?
Well, besides LoL, HoN and Dota2 there is already Smite, Bloodlines Champions, and various other f2p titles that are already out.
They are also making that game that is based on DC comics franchise as well, Infinite Crisis. So I would say the market for these sorts of Dota-clone like games is pretty saturated right now.
On August 12 2013 19:34 Spykiller wrote: Why so much hate on HoN? I love that game. The first few heroes are direct ports from Dota but wasnt IceFrog involved in the beginning?
And the heroes cant be that overpowered. In TI3 we had bans on Wisp and Batrider basically every game. In pro-HoN the bans are more against what team they are facing.
I play both HoN and Dota 2. I was in both betas. In Dota whenever i play a game, it turns out a 4v5 in about 3 mins after someone loses their lane and leaves. You have the same amount of shit-talk, the communities are basically the same. The only thing i feel is that Dota is more slow, almost like I have som kind of lag, like Im playing in syrup.
I think a lot of HoN bashers are just people that played Dota and felt Dota was better, thus HoN was "crap"
I prefer HoN. Im not a good player, and people tell me that every day IN CAPS LOCK!!!!!!!! but the game is fun and I can take it
This new game, i dont know. Casual MOBAs arent really that fun, they are basically multiplayer Diablo that ends in 40 min
I played HoN for a year or two between DotA 1 and DotA 2. A lot of DotA 2 pros did as well.
In TI3 compared to TI2 I didn't see any truly fucked up heroes. There was no Naga sleep into dark seer vacuum into wall of complete rape lolololol you're all dead sort of stuff. Nothing that was horribly OP and broken. The chinese obviously don't find wisp OP since they don't bother with him against other chinese teams. Batrider I don't think is really broken so much as he's really fucking good at jacking someone and removing them. He's really no different in pudge in that regard except there's no skill shot involved, but pudge has a shorter cooldown to do it. Either way you're grabbing 1 guy, blowing his face off and suddenly its 4v5. The finals had plenty of team specific bans. They let wisp and batrider through but navi was always first banning naga because EGM's naga had been crushing. Every team bans sylla or furion against bulldog. People will ban Chen or Enchantress against Puppey or Akke, etc.
I don't know where all these leavers reside, but I very very very rarely have a leaver in a game. What I remember from HoN though is "CC at 15!!!!!!!" "Kick madman, he won't concede!!!" I certainly don't miss that shit. Shit talking exists, as it generally does in any online, competitive, team based game. Speed has never bothered me any, makes no difference to me between DotA 1, HoN, and DotA 2.
Savage was cool, I enjoyed it. But every HoN patch just fucked shit up. They'd drop the ball, then drop a different ball, then a different one, all without ever having picked up any of them. People can only take so much of that shit show before they give up. Once DotA 2 showed up, many of the HoN players that had come from DotA to begin with jumped ship back to the mother land. For me all HoN ever was is DotA on a less clusterfucky client than WC3 was. As soon as TI1 happened it was over for me.
So basically the support role is going to have to leave the lane and roam to activate the observation posts, and be sure to be outside the aoe of me lasthitting creeps, but be within range to save my ass if something goes wrong, sounds like an improvement... I guess?
On August 12 2013 20:20 BlueBird. wrote: So basically the support role is going to have to leave the lane and roam to activate the observation posts, and be sure to be outside the aoe of me lasthitting creeps, but be within range to save my ass if something goes wrong, sounds like an improvement... I guess?
I think s2 needs to rethink this over , the support role as it stands now is gone , there is no player dumb enough to do that.
By definition if the support only roams , activates observation posts , and stays away from the lane to not get gold at all , it sounds to me like a 4v5 , at least in HoN , supports can squeeze in a few last hits ( if the carry misses ), get some gold via assists , pull creeps thus getting some core items to be beneficial in the late game while warding through out the game.
I think the support role in strife wont exist , unless they go back to the designing table.
On August 09 2013 18:03 Jetaap wrote: Why not, could be a fun casual game for people that don't want to invest the time required to play lol or dota.
Isn't LoL the fun, casual game? Yep, pretty sure it is.
Takes more time to play the game on a high lvl than most people actually think, I tried to explain the general basics of some of my DotA mates but they didn't understand shit about it, and they are still trying hard to play the game for like 2 months now. Some of them aren't even lvl 30 yet.
On August 11 2013 21:50 aseq wrote: I think people are right saying this is too late, yet I still think there's a possibility that Blizzard's version comes out and just swoops up all the doubters, just like they did with WoW. I, for one, hope we aren't left with 4 competitive scenes from basically the same game.
Just that the blizzard version is really terrible (at least what little we have seen) and I think they Blizzard knows this. That is why it hasn't been released yet, don't you remember how it was supposed to be out like 1-2 years ago?
I like his analysis, even though he keeps repeating his point for the last 20 minutes. As for the playing with noob friends, shouldn't they remove a lot more stuff from the game that you have to learn? The barrier of 100 heroes x 4 abilities is really high, I can see 10 heroes x 4 abilites working way better (about the amount of spells BW has).
On August 12 2013 19:34 Spykiller wrote: Why so much hate on HoN? I love that game. The first few heroes are direct ports from Dota but wasnt IceFrog involved in the beginning?
And the heroes cant be that overpowered. In TI3 we had bans on Wisp and Batrider basically every game. In pro-HoN the bans are more against what team they are facing.
I play both HoN and Dota 2. I was in both betas. In Dota whenever i play a game, it turns out a 4v5 in about 3 mins after someone loses their lane and leaves. You have the same amount of shit-talk, the communities are basically the same. The only thing i feel is that Dota is more slow, almost like I have som kind of lag, like Im playing in syrup.
I think a lot of HoN bashers are just people that played Dota and felt Dota was better, thus HoN was "crap"
I prefer HoN. Im not a good player, and people tell me that every day IN CAPS LOCK!!!!!!!! but the game is fun and I can take it
This new game, i dont know. Casual MOBAs arent really that fun, they are basically multiplayer Diablo that ends in 40 min
Being banned every game does not make you overpowered. Bat rider only had a 51 % winrate.
They say it a noob friendly game but honestly it doesnt seem THAT noob friendly. It seems slightly below LoL or around LoL but definitely more noob friendly than DOTA. From the description I was expecting something more noob friendly. Some interesting concept though not sure how I feel about money getting split.
IT seems like the best method for laning will be the primary farmer within the jungle area, with a laning support with a secondary farmer, and then two duelists in other lanes. The primary farmer doesn't split jungle gold, while the duelists can be giving 1/8 their gold to the primary farmer. and the laning support + the secondary receiving larger portions of the money than the duelists, but the kills being given to the secondary farrmer.
It'll create a 1/2/3/4/4 method of distributing farm, where the dual lane and the jungle will have the top 3 farm, and the two solo lanes get the least gold, but most xp.
i watched it and i absolutely love the direction of the game. I would love to pick up a less competitive dota so i could share a game with my more casual gamer friends. I just hope they dont blow this over by going too P2W as well as trying to compete on the esport market.
On August 10 2013 19:37 Tchado wrote: What I find hilarious from my personal point of view , is how s2 is promoting this game as a noob friendly "non toxic" game , this whole notion of "community toxicity" is making me sick honestly , humans are humans and you can't do anything about it no matter what they do , and s2 itself has some elements in this.
I think with this kind of publicity they are indirectly hurting the reputation their other game and it's community , there is no doubt that the HoN community is full of foul mouth , trash talking elitists , and you know what ? I fucking love it , it's what got me into the game in the first place , HoN is a place where your skills determine your status , you wanna shut someone up ? show some big plays , earn your respect in the team , now I will admit that noobs and beginners will have a hard time with this , but that is why custom games and team ques are for , hell that is even why chat is around for , when I was a noob I used to tell me team that I was new or that I sucked with a certain hero and ask for help , no one ever complained (I have over 3K games played in HoN) , there is no reason why other people cant do so.
I recently read a strife article where the author starts off with with something like "when I first played hon , i was called a noob , a fruit fly had more skills than me , and my mother's sexuality was discussed , that was the end of my time with hon" , then the author goes on to praise strife and the karma system , how can s2 possibility allow this ?
Last note , S2 made money off this"toxic" notion too , the taunt/smack down animations and quotations , just look at these smackdown animations , a flying trash bin or god hand that smashes your opponent , a chipper that rubs his "nuts" on your face , a Micheal Jackson like zombie that dances on your grave....etc , what about some hero taunt quote ? bubbles : "I knew your mother back in the day" and others , and the announcer smackdown calls ? badass announcer " KISS MY ASS !" , pimp announcer : "BACK HANDED !" , british gentleman "KNOW YOUR PLACE PEASANT !"......alot of s2 content follows this line of thought and production.
S2 directly made tons of money off what they are now looking down upon , and it makes me sick.
The thing that's hilarious to me is that your entire attitude only justifies the measures S2 are taking. My guess is that they just sold you guys what they knew you wanted since they obviously weren't about to change you or the game itself easily. A new game is a good opportunity to find a new niche and the casual niche much bigger than the "we're-foul-mouthed-elitists" niche. Making HoN 2.0 was never a good option since LoL and DotA ate that end of the market.
On August 12 2013 20:20 BlueBird. wrote: So basically the support role is going to have to leave the lane and roam to activate the observation posts, and be sure to be outside the aoe of me lasthitting creeps, but be within range to save my ass if something goes wrong, sounds like an improvement... I guess?
I think the support role in strife wont exist , unless they go back to the designing table.
I think you're right with this. I also think that it's by design. It seems to me that they are creating an environment where more casual players can thrive better. I'm using my own experience as a fairly low level DotA 2 player and going from there as to what this kind of gold sharing will allow. On ladder, at least at my level, which is most certainly a very casual level of DotA, people don't want to play support anyway. It's more fun to be getting gold, get last hits, and get your items. This way, with the gold sharing, even if you aren't directly getting the last hits, you still can get big items. Getting the last hits yourself is still beneficial, since you still get a majority of the gold that way, but everyone can get gold and get items, which allows for more fun, right? It's only at the higher levels (read less casual in this case), when things like stacking, pulling, dual roaming etc. come into play that playing a support becomes more than just a chore so that someone else can have more fun. By eliminating the traditional support role, they will make the game more fun for the casual player. Sure it's not good for competitive play, but that's not what they're going for so that's ok.
I'm just curious. Why couldn't they implement something like this as part of HON? A game that looked like HON, no cheesy LoL characters a more simply map and the same concept? Why create another MOBA that aims to steal LoL players when LoL players play fucking LoL. Honestly what do they think they're going to get out of this? If you have LoL or even if you don't why play this? I'm not leaving a slightly harder LoL game to play this because I already have time/money invested in LoL. OR I'm not going to try strife because every friend I have plays LoL/Dota2/Hon. Instead of making a casual mode a read casual mode to HON and improving their serious HON heroes, they decided to make a mock LoL. Then again this is the company that made the best moba and is 3rd (maybe) in popularity.
I got a key from PAX. I'll give insight when I'm able. Having played dota, tides of blood, smite and LoL in alpha to beta to release, I should be able to give informative insight.
Edit: Wow. After reading more and more about this game and how they plan to reward cooperative players, I am actually getting excited about this game. Great review here by polygon - http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/8/4592582/strife-s2-games-moba
Can't wait for the closed beta so I can give this a try with my wife whom generally dislikes MOBAs but is interested in this.
Edit 2: Keep a close eye on my stream, I'll be streaming Strife once Beta goes live which I've heard is soon(tm).
Noticing the lack of information on the Strife website, I've created a website that I will continuously update with everything I learn about this game. It is most definitely a work in progress.
Hey everybody , I apologize for not updating this thread for a while , as some of you know I work for the UN and I was doing some work for the syrian emergency for a while , and now I am doing some work in Kenya and I'll be back in my home country in a few days , I couldnt open any kind of stream related websites without having major lags and crashes, but I did some updates now.
Anyone who wants to add something to the OP , feel free to send me PM
On September 21 2013 04:31 Psyonic_Reaver wrote: Noticing the lack of information on the Strife website, I've created a website that I will continuously update with everything I learn about this game. It is most definitely a work in progress.
Thanks for this, you're doing an amazing job so far ^_^
Sorry for the late notice but Strifebase and Strifeboss just invited me onto a podcast to talk about Strife and Strifeapedia.
Starts tomorrow at 11:30am PST (UTC -8) if anyone wants to listen to a bunch of guys whom haven't played the game yet and will speculate wildly about everything.
Considering it was on the floor I only got in two and a half games with 2 being against bots. First comment about bots is that unfair bots in strife are roughly equal to normal bots in Dota 2. There isn't a higher difficulty, so anybody used to the genre will win against the bots their first or second game. Guess they work for learning the basics and trying skills out.
The game against people one on our side left near the start and I didn't even realize this until a while later. Just looked at the heroes at the top and saw we had only 4. (Meaning we couldn't use it, not sure if we got bonus gold or something to compensate.)
I liked free courier and copying most of DotA items (moving a few into boot upgrades instead). DotA's strong suit has always been in the items and the map. Having extra slots by moving regen items and boots out of the 6 slots makes for stronger item sets for carries. Regening towers in base was nice as well, especially since there was no barracks. Not sure taking down the last base towers did anything except weaken the last building and stopping them from killing your creep waves. I also liked their version of out of game upgrade picks in a pet you bring with you.
I don't like more stuff than I did like though, no denying, No selecting other stuff, so no checking exact creep hp when jungling to judge if you win or lose, no tower hp check etc. Free notice when killing the harder NPCs. Only 15 levels. Being able to buy upgrade books instead of being maxed once slots are filled, this with not being able to check enemy HP makes it very hard to judge kill potential. I didn't like that you can effect the current game by more than hero pick (pets). I also don't like that you can't kill the pet or courier. They are on the map in the middle of a fight but are immortal. I most of all did not like that they seem to be going the LoL route of unlocking stuff you need to compete by playing. I want to be able to jump in and win if I am better, not grind 200 games first. (I am not sure about this, but was 3-4 different collectibles used to unlock pet and pet skills.)
All in all it is very good for a pre beta, I would play it over LoL but not over Dota 2.
Edit, Several people that walked by while I was playing confused it with LoL since the graphics are so similar.
I'm proud to announce the launch of www.strifeapedia.com/crafting which is a JavaScript App that allows you to play around with the Core Items and their components. This way you don't have to spend in game resources to find out what does what. It is still a HUGE work in progress but please enjoy!
Unfortunately S2 really JUST had to wait until the end of fall to release it. I'm going back to College and I won't have time to play...
I'd be willing to sell two keys for $10 each to anyone interested. (I had to buy mine from someone that went to PAX. Just trying to regain my losses.) PM me.
Does anybody know if the map(s) in this game is "properly" symmetrical? To clarify what I mean, I don't consider Dota 2's map symmetrical since the Radiant and Dire sides are physically constructed differently and I don't consider LoL's as symmetrical in that one side of river has a dragon and the other Baron.
Seems I got some keys when they just added matchmaking. I don't want to play the game, so I don't care who gets them. Just post you took them so other people don't have to try and fail.
On February 20 2014 15:56 Yurie wrote: XSGAG-3NG2N-2U43D-2X2UL-APB22 476TP-MNBON-69YPB-4GBJ6-9HAOY
Seems I got some keys when they just added matchmaking. I don't want to play the game, so I don't care who gets them. Just post you took them so other people don't have to try and fail.
On February 20 2014 16:44 Omnishroud wrote: Why is this game getting so much attention? D: there are plenty of bad copies of AoS / Dota / LoL out there what makes this one any different?
well its made by s2, and HON was a was a solid game so maybe it'll be cool
On February 20 2014 16:44 Omnishroud wrote: Why is this game getting so much attention? D: there are plenty of bad copies of AoS / Dota / LoL out there what makes this one any different?
well its made by s2, and HON was a was a solid game so maybe it'll be cool
But you can look at any video of it and see that this is not the case. It is the opposite of cool. Then again, people are playing flappy bird, so there is no hope for humanity in any case.
I played a game last night and while the tutorial was painful to get through my first impressions were quite good, and I'm not a fan of League or any of the games that typically copy the LoL formula.
Skills and items seem a bit more influenced by Dota/HoN than LoL, there's a lot of active items like a sheep, blink boots, etc. The guy I played had a global TP, I don't think there's anything like that in LoL but it's been a long time since I last played it.
Laning didn't seem to be as much about constant ability spam, but you can regen out of combat so there's definitely some spam. I'm guessing there will be a lot of focus on trying to keep people out of xp range and/or out of regen since it takes a few seconds to activate
It feels like a fairly well-balanced blend of mechanics from the popular games out there. The UI is kind of hard to get a grip on, I haven't explored the crafting stuff but it looks interesting.
I was very pessimistic about Strife when I originally heard about it but it's actually pretty cool so far. It's 'casual' but it seems to have avoided most of what makes those games flat out boring for me.
On February 20 2014 16:44 Omnishroud wrote: Why is this game getting so much attention? D: there are plenty of bad copies of AoS / Dota / LoL out there what makes this one any different?
well its made by s2, and HON was a was a solid game so maybe it'll be cool
But you can look at any video of it and see that this is not the case. It is the opposite of cool. Then again, people are playing flappy bird, so there is no hope for humanity in any case.
And allegedly paying thousands for devices loaded with that stupid fucking game. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
I got like four beta keys... I'm going to try it, even though I am very skeptical.
HoN is an amazing game, it really is. When it comes to the game itself, it's everything I want in a MOBA: fast-paced, gank-heavy, non-childish graphics, etc. However, S2 is a pretty terrible company when it comes to decision making. They could have easily made HoN much more popular, if they had had a clue of what they wanted to do with it.
Not to mention the fact that S2 pretty much fostered hostility and toxic behaviour, what with their vanity items that pretty much insult the players for you (announcers, mostly). HoN is known for its awful atmosphere, and while the players obviously have a big responsibility in that, S2 never tried to solve the issue at any point. Which makes it very ironic and borderline disgusting that they are now coming with this "anti-toxicity" game, when they spent 3 years promoting toxicity and making money off it in HoN.
Basically, I might have some hope for the game, even though it seems way too casual, but I don't have much faith in S2 as a company, so I guess I'll see if I like it or not.
edit: well, I just tried a bit of it and I find that the tutorial tries too hard. I know they said that they wanted to make a lore-heavy MOBA, but so far I'm not liking that part at all. The voice acting isn't great on some characters, and the names... The names are SO lame. "We must gather an Army of Light, to stop the Wave of Darkness". Whoa, really?
Guys, I've been playing this some, and my honest opinion is that this "casual" veil is really really an evil evil disguise. This game is really hardcore.
1) Stats and Items are really well hidden. | Difficult to know who is strong and who is weak. Someone can come out and kill you easily, or you might be trying to gank someone who is ungankable. Game requires more awareness and knowledge of gameflow than others.
2) Itemization is confusing. | I might be noob, but I haven't figured out items yet. Which might take up more attention.
3) Couriers for all. | This makes the game very fast paced. Going back to base is a lot worse as you miss out on gold.
4) Cute heroes. | Skillshots are hard to dodge. They are actually quite quick.
I think the circlejerk is that Strife is a casual game. But all the features making it "easier" is really just a way of changing the ruleset. It's still a PvP game, and there's still loads of room to differentiate yourself from the average.
The game feels fine when playing it. I just didn't like the pets and not starting on the same footing as the other people in the game. I want to play game 1 and if I am 2% better that should translate into a .4% higher win rate than somebody that has played 100 games. When I tried it it would result in -2% win rate due to not having the correct pet at max level.
Eh I played and its ok i guess, but it has absolutely nothing that would make me play it over LoL or DOTA. It basically feels identical to LoL, except I would have to say the heroes are even a bit more boring and generic even than that. Also it lags really oddly and jittery. Its fine but I'd never play it over LoL.
They also hide a ton of stats like CS and K/D and items that you really need to know to play these kind of games, you can't "simplify them out", so its just clunky to find them.
So I got a key for this, played three games last night. Overall I thought it was better than league of legends but I highly doubt I'll play it long term over dota. By far my two biggest concerns are the lack of denying and the lack of wards. In place of wards there are xelnaga watchtowers that linger for about a minute after you run away from them. This makes it extremely difficult to have map awareness in the late game. Spilt pushing seems to be very powerful because of the lack of vision. I think their method of introducing active spells is better than in league. You choose from a variety of pets which have different active and passive bonuses.
By far the most intriguing aspect of this game is crafting. You use items gathered from playing games to modify and create new in game items. It fundamentally personalizes the game. Optimizing creating for competitive play will probably be similar to building a deck in magic or hearthstone. There will be t1 builds but probably a variety, depending on the hero. I'm very interested in resources for crafting knowledge, if anybody could point me in the right direction that'd be awesome.
I played about three games, and I definitely did have fun. It feels very similar to LoL, which isn't very surprising. The game does feel smooth and fast though, I'm glad they kept the fast turn rates from HoN. The graphics are actually pretty cool, somewhat halfway between LoL and DotA 2. Overall, it definitely seems like a fun little MOBA game, though the tutorial is still awful and in dire need of changes.
I agree with the above poster, vision is a problem. The tower concept is nice, as it rids support of the chore of constantly buying wards, but I'm not sure it's an entirely viable solution. In lower levels, vision is going to be a rare thing. I can see the mechanic becoming interesting at higher levels, where vision towers basically become hot spots for battle, with the players fighting to keep vision.
I'm afraid this game won't be very successful though. No doubt it's going to make some money for S2, and it is likely going to supplant HoN if they advertise it right. But there's no chance of it beating or even coming close to LoL, DotA 2 and Heroes of the Storm. I'm not even sure it will compete with Smite. Valve/Riot/Blizzard are simply way too huge for S2 to take on, and they didn't come up with enough innovations and game breaking concepts to make the game matter more than the company. All the tweaks and "new" concepts aren't all that new, and don't exactly redefine the genre. If S2 had come up with this game 3 years ago, or maybe added some of these concepts to HoN back then, they probably would have had a chance. Now, too many big players are in the pool, and S2 lacks the manpower and the resources to compete with either of them.
The pets and crafting are so gamebreakingly powerful when leveled; I never thought I'd see something even more brutal than masteries and runes at creating an experienced player advantage, but it feels like S2 managed it.
Also, the shop interface is godawful and I'm not sure you can even sell items.
Oh well, at least maybe I can use this as a gateway MOBA for other people I want to get playing the genre.
There's a little trash can on the shop screen when you drag an item to sell. Things like that and finding my xp bar took like 10 hours of play, it's kind of silly how bad the UI is in some aspects. For those wondering when you hold tab, your xp is displayed in a circle around your level on the hp bar above your character's head.
And yeah, the pet and crafting system is basically p2w. It's a shame because the game is quite fun, I enjoy the map size and the general pace.
It's pretty easy to get beta keys atm, there seem to be a ton of giveaways. I got mine from curse and they seem to be always tweeting places to get keys.
I'm actually kind of surprised that, as far as I could tell from search, Strife has more discussion on TL at than Dawngate. I just got into both betas yesterday and I'm not sure which I like better. Between that and reading about Heroes of the Storm my mind is spinning with all the new dota-likes.
I've been curious to see how this game played, but i don't have a key. I've tried using some of the one that got posted here but they were already used. If someone has one I would really appreciate it if you would PM it to me!
Right now Gamespot is running giveaway. I just got my code from them. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the link here... Just go on their site and search Strife and you should be able to find it.
On February 20 2014 23:52 Spaylz wrote: I got like four beta keys... I'm going to try it, even though I am very skeptical.
HoN is an amazing game, it really is. When it comes to the game itself, it's everything I want in a MOBA: fast-paced, gank-heavy, non-childish graphics, etc. However, S2 is a pretty terrible company when it comes to decision making. They could have easily made HoN much more popular, if they had had a clue of what they wanted to do with it.
Not to mention the fact that S2 pretty much fostered hostility and toxic behaviour, what with their vanity items that pretty much insult the players for you (announcers, mostly). HoN is known for its awful atmosphere, and while the players obviously have a big responsibility in that, S2 never tried to solve the issue at any point. Which makes it very ironic and borderline disgusting that they are now coming with this "anti-toxicity" game, when they spent 3 years promoting toxicity and making money off it in HoN.
I would jizz everywhere if dota had hon's announcers. that shit made the game what it was.
Reason HoN lost popularity was because they went from a free open beta to a paid game, then transferred to f2p.
Cracked(free) dota1 was playable through garena/iccup, and league was available. People aren't going to pay for something when free alternatives are available.
This will hold true for pretty much every other game entering the market now, if there is a f2p alternative, sales/playerbase will suffer.
On March 25 2014 01:41 Pr0wler wrote: Right now Gamespot is running giveaway. I just got my code from them. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the link here... Just go on their site and search Strife and you should be able to find it.
On March 25 2014 07:56 saddaromma wrote: I wonder what TL thinks about strife. Strangely enough I like it. Something is catchy about this game, eventhough it has god awful UI.
Got key after Dreamhack, played a few days.
Imo, game is very casual like seriously. I know that some dota guys call League casual game because it's easier, i'm one of them even if i'm playing both games on high level but Strife is really easy.
Even though, it's good looking in general, having own courier is good always and having every timings on tables is no joke. Came back to play bunch of games week ago, found out that monkey hits hard now and also found out that there are tons of Russians already, damn it. =/ *i'm Russian myself, but i dislike those guys, you know about who i'm speaking :D*
I actually really enjoy Strife. My biggest problem at the moment has been the player base being entirely too new to mobas and games not being more challenging after you win. I suppose I'm spoiled with decent MM systems in Dota and LoL, but in this game you can win 10 in a row and still face the same scrub you've beaten 15 times before hand.
Obviously its closed beta and the amount of people playing isn't large; I get that. Unfortunately, its hard to mass games when the champions have very little depth. Although not necessarily a bad thing, it makes challenging yourself vs. bad opponents nearly impossible.
Hopefully the next content patch will include an actual MM system or simply more champions to try so I can stay entertained. Overall, however, I really enjoy the game and I hope it has a competitive community. I'd say its a must try for moba-lovers who aren't elitist and can keep an open mind to what this game's overall goal is.
On March 25 2014 08:40 shadowboxer wrote: I actually really enjoy Strife. My biggest problem at the moment has been the player base being entirely too new to mobas and games not being more challenging after you win. I suppose I'm spoiled with decent MM systems in Dota and LoL, but in this game you can win 10 in a row and still face the same scrub you've beaten 15 times before hand.
Obviously its closed beta and the amount of people playing isn't large; I get that. Unfortunately, its hard to mass games when the champions have very little depth. Although not necessarily a bad thing, it makes challenging yourself vs. bad opponents nearly impossible.
Hopefully the next content patch will include an actual MM system or simply more champions to try so I can stay entertained. Overall, however, I really enjoy the game and I hope it has a competitive community. I'd say its a must try for moba-lovers who aren't elitist and can keep an open mind to what this game's overall goal is.
I guess they didn't implement MM into the game yet. You shouldn't worry too much about it, S2 has plenty of experience with MM after Savage and HoN.
Although I wish they would release another Savage instead of this. Savage could cater to a broader audience (FPS, RTS, MMO and MOBA backgrounds each could find something for themselves there) and not enter the niche that is already pretty populated which will mean higher competition for playerbase.
My only complaint so far is the lack of self-cast. I am willing to forgive the MM system because it is still a closed beta. And let's face it, sometimes it is satisfactory to be a bully.
I am unclear on the rules of promoting, so I am avoiding making a new thread. Instead, anyone that is interested in Strife, my team and I are hosting a 2v2 Best of 5 Showmatch tonight starting @ 8:00 PM EST. That would be ~3 hours from this post.
KING OF THE WORLD hosted by Team eShrekt Stream:http://www.twitch.tv/kittenlazer Today, July 22th, starting @ 8:00 PM EST lasting one-two hours.
If you'd like to learn more about it before the event starts, feel free to read the reddit announcement! In the future, I'll hope to get our event into a steady schedule and get it into TL's scheduled events for "Other Games" so it is easy to follow us from your prefered forum.
So who has tried this game and is it worth playing? What does it have over LoL or Dota 2?
E: Watched some "wtf is ?" on strife and I'm impressed.
The first aspect of the game that i really like is the way gold is distributed. when you kill a creep, half the coin you get, the other half your team gets (or if someone else is in the lane, they get it). :o
I tried it for like 20 games in early beta. Looked fun to me. Then I saw that there is really no room for MOBAS in the market because these games are just too similar to each other. Then went back to LOL.
Strife is going to flop, I'm almost sure of it. Which is a shame. HoN was/is actually a fine game. S2's decision-making on the other hand...
The MOBA market is overcrowded, and Strife is not the "second generation MOBA" it claims to be. It really isn't that far from LoL and your other average Dawngate.
It is fun, don't get me wrong, but it just doesn't have anything to stand out against the dozens of other similar games out there. I also hear the pay-to-win factor has increased with pets and all? I'm not sure. I haven't played in a while. I did enjoy it for a few games, but it didn't really manage to hold my interest.
I may sound a tad bitter, I know. I personally feel that as far as games are concerned, S2 are great. HoN really was amazing, purely on a gaming stand point. I find myself wishing they had decided to make a RTS instead of yet another MOBA.
Nonetheless, while I trust in S2's capacity to make a darn fun game, I absolutely mislike their general stance. They just make horrible decisions, there is no way around it. HoN's story was a total mess, hopefully they've learned from it, and Strife actually does well.
On September 01 2014 07:11 fmod wrote: I really don't like the term "MOBA". They should just call these games dota-clones cus thats really what they are. Other than that don't care for it.
so you basically have nothing to say about Strife in particular.
On September 01 2014 07:11 fmod wrote: I really don't like the term "MOBA". They should just call these games dota-clones cus thats really what they are. Other than that don't care for it.
you do realize dota copied Aeon of Strife which was broodwar UMS
On September 01 2014 07:11 fmod wrote: I really don't like the term "MOBA". They should just call these games dota-clones cus thats really what they are. Other than that don't care for it.
You don't call every platformer a Mario clone, or every RTS game a Warcraft clone*. I'm not a huge fan of the MOBA acronym or the scene that promoted it, but in the end, it's just a label and it's necessary to have one. Developers obviously can't promote their games as DotA clones, at the very least.
*I know these weren't the first games of their genre, but let's not get technical and sidetrack this thread any more than it already has been.
The game launched into Open beta you can sign up for Strife here - https://strife.com/
Game has changed quite much since closed beta, there is new single-player Campaign (which gets more parts as time goes by) also new heroes and features also being implemented such as Leaver System.
Played several demos of it at PAX with multiple champs, basically they are trying to out-casual league.
Last hits = every player gets gold, so there is no fighting over cs.
There is a built-in courier that every player gets. You can shop from lane, and have the courier bring you your items.
There is regen of hp/mana if you stay out of combat (there is no point in ever going back to base...just sit in a bush and get ur hp/mana back).
There are pets...which basically give you a single summoner spell.
The combat is a lot slower than even League.
There is a single player campaign, but its more like... a chapter type thing. 1 champion gets a story that lasts several levels. They want to release more champ stories as the game goes.
IMO this thing is going to fail, because it is trying to be even more newb/casual friendly than League...but it just turns into this really slow paced, boring LoL, with clunky combat.
Was really underwhelmed and saddened by it. HoN was fun and different, this game is literally just a money grab, attempt to do to LoL what LoL did to Dota, which was make it more accessible.
Is there some kind of written rule that every MOBA game has to work like they've loaded WC3 map editor and started tinkering with Dota?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but almost all these MOBA contenders have:
- focus on 5on5 gameplay - lanes with creeps and towers - a vast pool of relatively similar champions/heroes/whatever - neutral creep camps - round duration of 25-60 minutes or so - very RTS-like control methods
I'd love to try a game that provided something like tight 3v3 10 minute round games without farming or managed to innovate the character controls to something more delicate or so. I don't know where the borders of MOBA genre go, but right now it feels like nobody is even trying to push them anywhere.
On October 08 2014 00:11 Bacillus wrote: Is there some kind of written rule that every MOBA game has to work like they've loaded WC3 map editor and started tinkering with Dota?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but almost all these MOBA contenders have:
- focus on 5on5 gameplay - lanes with creeps and towers - a vast pool of relatively similar champions/heroes/whatever - neutral creep camps - round duration of 25-60 minutes or so - very RTS-like control methods
I'd love to try a game that provided something like tight 3v3 10 minute round games without farming or managed to innovate the character controls to something more delicate or so. I don't know where the borders of MOBA genre go, but right now it feels like nobody is even trying to push them anywhere.
On October 08 2014 00:11 Bacillus wrote: Is there some kind of written rule that every MOBA game has to work like they've loaded WC3 map editor and started tinkering with Dota?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but almost all these MOBA contenders have:
- focus on 5on5 gameplay - lanes with creeps and towers - a vast pool of relatively similar champions/heroes/whatever - neutral creep camps - round duration of 25-60 minutes or so - very RTS-like control methods
I'd love to try a game that provided something like tight 3v3 10 minute round games without farming or managed to innovate the character controls to something more delicate or so. I don't know where the borders of MOBA genre go, but right now it feels like nobody is even trying to push them anywhere.
Blood Champions?
Hmm, I have to say I had forgotten the whole game since I didn't really have time & energy to look into it when it was fresh and brand new. I'm not sure if the arena is exactly what I meant by innovating MOBAs, but at least it's different than Dota, HoN, LoL, Strife and Heroes of the Storm for example.
Eh. The MOBA genre is being done to death, much like MMORPGs for the past few years.
If you ask me, S2 would have made a better decision by creating a brand new RTS rather than a MOBA. They have a better shot at competing with SC2 than they do with LoL, Dota 2 and even HotS or Smite.
I think investing into MOBAs is a very bad corporate decision. It's one of those markets that is very difficult to get into, given LOL and DoTA2's big share.
On October 08 2014 01:32 Kipsate wrote: RTS doesn't bring any money for such a small studio.
I think we've seen sillier things happen when the snowball starts rolling on the internet age. Whether s2 has the talent to produce a brilliant RTS right from the scratch is another thingy of course, so far they've mostly been tinkering with very proven concepts.
http://eshrekt.com/patch048.html <-- The game has a competitive scene already, here is one of their thoughts on the patch if anyone is interested.
Im a big fan of the game as it takes a lot of great qualities from other MOBAs but focuses on reducing toxicity through game design, instead of just banning everyone.
Strife came out with a new patch thursday, but it the only big thing was a new hero! You can read some community thoughts to know how Strife's new hero is effecting the game!
Being the only one posting here makes me feel like a spammer. =( Well, Strife isn't dead and won't die because it's funded by a pretty rich dude who also spams the game for his own enjoyment. It a nut shell, its a MOBA based around combatting the toxic elements in MOBAs.
In all honesty, I don't expect Strife to do any better than HoN. Its playerbase and overall success will likely pale in comparison to that of HoN, in fact. It was and still is a successful game. I flat out don't understand S2's decision to make yet another MOBA, when they have so many competitors. Not even competitors at this point, but well-established games which already have millions of players to their name, or big time companies who are coming up with their own thing. LoL, Dota 2, Smite and even Heroes of the Storm. No way S2 can compete.
Which is a shame. When it comes to the games they make, S2 really rocks. They do know how to make excellent games. They just seriously suck at making decisions to market and promote said games.
I think they would have had a better shot of taking on SC2. Many people are yearning for a solid hero-based RTS a la WC3, and S2 could have made a high quality product no doubt. Shame though.
Team eShrekt is excited to announce we will start to run weekly competitive events. Although we have done a few in the past, it's something relatively new for the majority of our crew. We are passionate about reviving the competitive spirit within the community. So to kick things off, this Saturday 1/17, we are on a quest to find the current best bottom laners in Europe and North America!
European 1v1 Tournament starts 5 PM GMT. North American 1v1 Tournament starts 5 PM CST.
Can not participate? Don't worry! We are going to stream and cast as much as we can on Twitch. Follow Strife on Twitch and enjoy watching the multiple streams that will be covering the tournament this Saturday! You can learn more about the event on our website, http://eshrekt.com/highlander-1v1.html.
Hey guys! Strife is the Second Generation MOBA aimed at combating toxicity. SNAX and Team eShrekt are teaming up to bring you "Gods of Strife: Weekly Cup". The first week starts soon, come check it out and see what its all about!
On February 09 2015 04:08 Spaylz wrote: Serious question: are you a S2 employee?
I am not. I just spend my free time playing the game and genuinely enjoy playing the game. Im also new to web design and use it as an excuse to practice. For example, there was a huge new patch with three heroes, so Im creating reviews on each hero. So far I've done one on their ADC: Flak.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/afl34Z8.jpg)
looks ok I'll give it a go,
