Here is the second part of my review!
These general thoughts are directed at improving the gameplay and the enjoyment. They may change the balance or not, but are only aimed at making the game even better.
The last part will be about balance for the heroes.
Waves
- Waves 9, 18, and 26: insert something to prevent people from farming these waves for ages, getting tons of experience (especially 18, as there is a huge death bonus and tons of zergs to kill).
- Wave 9: replace the infestation pits by barracks spawning marines, then add marauders, then firebats, then medics. Three reasons: there is already an "infested wave" (wave 29), there is already a zerg "invasion" wave (wave 18), and there is no terran "invasion" wave yet.
- Wave 13: This wave is too easy (compared to previous waves) and boring. I suggest that you add some real stalkers. Also, on the last 2 spawns, there is 0 real zealots which I think is a mistake. Finaly, the sentry should be able to cast force field to try to block the heroes (just like the infestors do with their eggs in wave 29)
- Wave 17: what about some blink stalkers?
- Wave 24: At the moment, this wave is too easy. What about drones instead of zerglings?
- Wave 26: I don't know if this was intended, but you can run behind the canons to reach the prism and attack it safely.
The sentries are completely useless.
The first wave of zealots should pop a bit faster.
I've never seen (but maybe I haven't spend enough time) anything stronger than DT in this wave, maybe you could add harder stuff as the time passes.
Also, what about cloaked DT, uncloaking only when they attack? Or working in a similar way as the specters?
- Wave 27: The marines are at the moment useless as their damage is too low. I suggest to lower their damage to 6, but ignore armor, or increase their damage.
- Wave 31: increase the manapool of the overlords for 2 reasons: the wave is a bit too easy and by the time we can kill them, they don't have anymore mana anyway so there is no point in wasting time trying to kill them fast. By increasing their manapool, players would be rewarded by killing them fast
- Wave 32: Selendis sometimes goes completely crazy, making this wave really unpredictable in terms of difficulty. She will sometimes send a freaking swarm of vessels that will OS you, and sometimes she'll just cast her super blast like a sitting duck. I think she needs a more consistent behavior.
Also, we are not rewarded for killing the vessels as they repop in an inconsistent way, and they aren't hurt by splash damage (splash spells hurt them though). This needs to be fixed to my mind.
Finally, she can be kitted by the WD so she needs a bit more range.
Bosses
- The Dark Templar
He uses Levitation, a HT skill, but never uses the smoke grenade. Even if players will go out of the smoke grenade, he will still gain some bonus for a short time. Removing levitation and giving him smoke grenade would be more consistent.
He also doesn't use throw (or I haven't seen it), and I think he should.
Instead of having 3k HP, he could have some shield (like 2k / 1k).
He could go invis for short periods of time.
- The High Templar
He should use force field and the shield against ranged damage.
He should have some shield : instead of 5k HP, something like 4k / 1k.
He should use Lore of Time and Lore of the Warlock sometimes.
He should lose the bonus he gets from his domination (too powerful against summoners), and have a less potent retaliation armor (too powerful against the DT)
- The Mechanic
This boss is really unpredictable and his difficulty can be super easy or super hard depending on what he does. He needs a more linear AI.
Remove "call clones", it just doesn't feel right when he summons them. Plus they are not really useful (and if you modify them as I suggested for wave 27, the risk is that they become OP here).
On the other hand, he doesn't summon enough mechs and towers. If you remove the clones, he could maybe summon mechs and towers more often. You could also replace "call clones" by "call bikes" (2 vultures, 2 hellion, 1 diamondback).
Sometimes he goes in crazy mode and summons 2 thors at the same time, which he shouldn't do because things then get really naughty.
Predators should have the nova attack (maybe they already have I'm not sure).
Remove the summon tank skill, and make 4 tanks come from each way every X seconds (just like many other bosses), and switch into siege mode as soon as they are in range. This will add a tactical dimension to this boss.
At the moment, his towers are useless because the towers are useless. I suggest a tweak on how they work in my review on heroes balance, so this will be discussed later. If you agree to his tweak, you won't need to change the towers of his boss, because they will do much more damage, but won't be OP as smart player will lure the boss far away from them.
To conclude on this guy, he is at the moment much stronger than the WD wave 30 (and I think he will always be), so maybe you could switch these 2 guys.
- Witch Doctor
He should use the last weapon and the special effect of the last weapon. Also give him the special effect of the 1st weapon (not very useful but still).
I think he doesn't have the aura of the best armor, and he also doesn't have the pestilence spell.
He never (or very rarely?) uses his 3 curses. I know they cannot be used on heroes at the moment, but this will be discussed below.
And again, this guy should be switched with the mechanic.
Detectors
This section is mainly aimed at balancing the DT as he is the only one who can cloak. The reason why this needs balance will be discussed below. Here I will just list waves that I think need detectors: all the bosses (waves 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35), all the spawners (9, 18, 26), diamondback (23), super medics (27), Kerrigans (29), Selendis (32), Novas (33).
The goal is to have enough detectors, especially when it is appropriate, so cloaking isn't overpowered anymore, but not too many detectors so it doesn't get useless.
Time
For some waves, the time allowance needs adjustment. I didn't make a full list, but here are some of my thoughts
- We have too much time in waves 13, 23, 24
- We don't have enough time in waves 15, 20, 25, 35
Hi guys! Here is the first part of my review: a list of the bugs I've noticed. It may not be complete, but I hope it will help. There's 2 more parts coming!
Bugs
In this section, I will mainly discuss about what are bugs in the game according to how it is supposed to work. Fixing these bugs can drasticaly change the balance, but this will be discussed in an other section.
General bugs
- If you chose a weapon, and then an other weapon, you have no weapon selected : you have to click once again on the weapon you want. This can lead to games starting with no weapon selected if you don't pay attention or if you are new
- You can face the same wave twice at the same time (happened to me only once, on wave 11)
- It is possible to start while playing ALL the characters. I think it happens if one person has chosen, an other person leaves, then the game begins with the last person being able to play all the characters and changing their inventory at will
- If you die at the very end of a wave, or between two waves, you stay dead until the end of the next wave. A way to fix it is to add a mechanism that revives people at the begining of the waves
- It is possible, in the lobby, to team a player with a computer, the IA being unable to fire at the player, which leads to an incredibly easy game
- Friendly fire is ON
- When you beat a boss, the message says "you gain a bonus to the stats of ALL your heroes", but we win this bonus only for the character who has beaten the boss
- Detectors often don't detect anything
Bugs affecting specific waves
- Wave 13 : illusions of zealots don't have charge whereas real zealots do
- Wave 27 : the immortals' shield block many spells whereas they are not supposed to (DT's spells, sniping skill of the WD, ...)
The immortals' shield doesn't block the HT's auto attack
The HT's auto attack only hit stone Zealots for 1
- Wave 29 : The tooltip says "Info: X survived the horde", whereas it should say "X medics".
The turrets can survive the wave.
- Wave 32: I've already seen Selendis hurting herself with her super blast
- Wave 33: Novas sometimes lose their cloaking field
- For many waves, the percentage doesn't show up properly
It is higher than the damage really done to the wave (the damage meter is at 20 or 50 and the wave ends) in waves 16, 21, 23
It is lower than the damage really done to the wave (the damage meter is at 0 but ennemies keep coming) in waves 13 and 31
Bugs affecting heroes
- High Templar
It is possible to select Lore of the Warrior and then an other weapon to gain the benefit of both.
Lore of Time's tooltip doesn't say it gives mana / mana regen whereas it does (just as merger / warlock / vortex)
- Marine
Marksman often does not give a damage bonus (at least on the flamethrower)
The flamthrower can't hit vikings while they are in the air
The visual effect of the Nuclear strike does not show up properly (the visual is based on the 10 second cooldown of the real nuclear strike, but in this game the CD is only 5 seconds)
There's a casting time on the heal
Clones are not added to control group 2
- Dark Templar
Shadow wave hits multiple times but the tooltip doesn't say so.
The debuff when hit by the assassin's blade doesn't tell exactly what are the malus.
If you hit a monster with assassin's blade and then this monster is mind controled, the debuff is not canceled.
Cloaked units are often not detected properly by detectors.
Smoke grenade doesn't show properly its area of effect.
Throw's tooltip doesn't mention the casting time.
You can cloack while casting Throw.
- Tyrant
Pods summoned by the ulti can fall off the screen
Nova ulti: often bugs (deals no damage) ; the aoe is smaller than the visual effect ; the tooltip says it hurts allies whereas it does not
The armor that returns damage is supposed to return 10 to melee attackers, regardless if they hurt you or not, but it doesn't return damage to illusion of zealots
When selected with other units (his summons), the Tyrant is not the first of the list (roaches are).
The tooltip of charge says there's an armor bonus. There's not.
Spine crawler cannot be placed easily, its hitbox should be reduced.
- Mechanic
The healing turrent can heal dead people, and will stay focused on the hero it was healing if he dies. This doesn't bring the hero back to life but wastes the turret's time.
Guided missile sometimes doesn't deal any damage.
The defensive drone doesn't lose mana when blocking projectile, but doesn't block as many projectiles as it is supposed to.
Healing station cannot be placed on creep.
The tooltip of the tank says "2 tank", which implies summoning 2 tanks at the same time.
As the HT, if you pick stunning grenades as your weapon and then an other weapon, you still benefit from the slow effect
- Witch Doctor
I am pretty sure the Vodoo amulet doesn't work the way it was intented. The tooltip says your spells deal more damage and last longer, but I'm pretty sure they don't.
There's a casting time on all the curses even if the tool tip doesn't say so.
Cows' tooltip says it hurts allies but it doesn't.
Kaboom cannot be cast on heroes or mechanics, but an explosion close to them will hurt them too, even if they are allies (and the tooltip doesn't say so).
The aura of the last armor heals turrets. This aura also keeps working when the WD is dead (might also be true for the Malazar's aura of the HT).
You can't control the demons from the demonic rift.
Sniping deals more damage than intented (maybe when using Nazrist).
Confused units will sometimes stop moving after they are unconfused.
@Torrasque2007: Go
For your problem with the tyrant, here are 2 things you can do to beat the Soul Drinker
- Stop taking broodlings. It's really good but if you can't beat the soul drinker with these, you have 5 other weapons man
- Kill the adds. Never use your broodlings against the boss. That's how I did with my tyrant.
The third part of my review is nearly done, stay tuned ! ;)
The playthrough
Here is the second part of my review! These general thoughts are directed at improving the gameplay and the enjoyment. They may change the balance or not, but are only aimed at making the game even better. The last part will be about balance for the heroes.
Waves
- Waves 9, 18, and 26: insert something to prevent people from farming these waves for ages, getting tons of experience (especially 18, as there is a huge death bonus and tons of zergs to kill).
- Wave 9: replace the infestation pits by barracks spawning marines, then add marauders, then firebats, then medics. Three reasons: there is already an "infested wave" (wave 29), there is already a zerg "invasion" wave (wave 18), and there is no terran "invasion" wave yet.
- Wave 13: This wave is too easy (compared to previous waves) and boring. I suggest that you add some real stalkers. Also, on the last 2 spawns, there is 0 real zealots which I think is a mistake. Finaly, the sentry should be able to cast force field to try to block the heroes (just like the infestors do with their eggs in wave 29)
- Wave 17: what about some blink stalkers?
- Wave 24: At the moment, this wave is too easy. What about drones instead of zerglings?
- Wave 26: I don't know if this was intended, but you can run behind the canons to reach the prism and attack it safely.
The sentries are completely useless.
The first wave of zealots should pop a bit faster.
I've never seen (but maybe I haven't spend enough time) anything stronger than DT in this wave, maybe you could add harder stuff as the time passes.
Also, what about cloaked DT, uncloaking only when they attack? Or working in a similar way as the specters?
- Wave 27: The marines are at the moment useless as their damage is too low. I suggest to lower their damage to 6, but ignore armor, or increase their damage.
- Wave 31: increase the manapool of the overlords for 2 reasons: the wave is a bit too easy and by the time we can kill them, they don't have anymore mana anyway so there is no point in wasting time trying to kill them fast. By increasing their manapool, players would be rewarded by killing them fast
- Wave 32: Selendis sometimes goes completely crazy, making this wave really unpredictable in terms of difficulty. She will sometimes send a freaking swarm of vessels that will OS you, and sometimes she'll just cast her super blast like a sitting duck. I think she needs a more consistent behavior.
Also, we are not rewarded for killing the vessels as they repop in an inconsistent way, and they aren't hurt by splash damage (splash spells hurt them though). This needs to be fixed to my mind. Finally, she can be kitted by the WD so she needs a bit more range.
Bosses
- The Dark Templar
He uses Levitation, a HT skill, but never uses the smoke grenade. Even if players will go out of the smoke grenade, he will still gain some bonus for a short time. Removing levitation and giving him smoke grenade would be more consistent.
He also doesn't use throw (or I haven't seen it), and I think he should.
Instead of having 3k HP, he could have some shield (like 2k / 1k).
He could go invis for short periods of time.
- The High Templar
He should use force field and the shield against ranged damage.
He should have some shield : instead of 5k HP, something like 4k / 1k.
He should use Lore of Time and Lore of the Warlock sometimes.
He should lose the bonus he gets from his domination (too powerful against summoners), and have a less potent retaliation armor (too powerful against the DT)
- The Mechanic
This boss is really unpredictable and his difficulty can be super easy or super hard depending on what he does. He needs a more linear AI.
Remove "call clones", it just doesn't feel right when he summons them. Plus they are not really useful (and if you modify them as I suggested for wave 27, the risk is that they become OP here).
On the other hand, he doesn't summon enough mechs and towers. If you remove the clones, he could maybe summon mechs and towers more often. You could also replace "call clones" by "call bikes" (2 vultures, 2 hellion, 1 diamondback).
Sometimes he goes in crazy mode and summons 2 thors at the same time, which he shouldn't do because things then get really naughty.
Predators should have the nova attack (maybe they already have I'm not sure).
Remove the summon tank skill, and make 4 tanks come from each way every X seconds (just like many other bosses), and switch into siege mode as soon as they are in range. This will add a tactical dimension to this boss.
At the moment, his towers are useless because the towers are useless. I suggest a tweak on how they work in my review on heroes balance, so this will be discussed later. If you agree to his tweak, you won't need to change the towers of his boss, because they will do much more damage, but won't be OP as smart player will lure the boss far away from them.
To conclude on this guy, he is at the moment much stronger than the WD wave 30 (and I think he will always be), so maybe you could switch these 2 guys.
- Witch Doctor
He should use the last weapon and the special effect of the last weapon. Also give him the special effect of the 1st weapon (not very useful but still).
I think he doesn't have the aura of the best armor, and he also doesn't have the pestilence spell.
He never (or very rarely?) uses his 3 curses. I know they cannot be used on heroes at the moment, but this will be discussed below.
And again, this guy should be switched with the mechanic.
Detectors
This section is mainly aimed at balancing the DT as he is the only one who can cloak. The reason why this needs balance will be discussed below. Here I will just list waves that I think need detectors: all the bosses (waves 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35), all the spawners (9, 18, 26), diamondback (23), super medics (27), Kerrigans (29), Selendis (32), Novas (33).
The goal is to have enough detectors, especially when it is appropriate, so cloaking isn't overpowered anymore, but not too many detectors so it doesn't get useless.
Time
For some waves, the time allowance needs adjustment. I didn't make a full list, but here are some of my thoughts
- We have too much time in waves 13, 23, 24
- We don't have enough time in waves 15, 20, 25, 35
Hi guys! Here is the first part of my review: a list of the bugs I've noticed. It may not be complete, but I hope it will help. There's 2 more parts coming!
Bugs
In this section, I will mainly discuss about what are bugs in the game according to how it is supposed to work. Fixing these bugs can drasticaly change the balance, but this will be discussed in an other section.
General bugs
- If you chose a weapon, and then an other weapon, you have no weapon selected : you have to click once again on the weapon you want. This can lead to games starting with no weapon selected if you don't pay attention or if you are new
- You can face the same wave twice at the same time (happened to me only once, on wave 11)
- It is possible to start while playing ALL the characters. I think it happens if one person has chosen, an other person leaves, then the game begins with the last person being able to play all the characters and changing their inventory at will
- If you die at the very end of a wave, or between two waves, you stay dead until the end of the next wave. A way to fix it is to add a mechanism that revives people at the begining of the waves
- It is possible, in the lobby, to team a player with a computer, the IA being unable to fire at the player, which leads to an incredibly easy game
- Friendly fire is ON
- When you beat a boss, the message says "you gain a bonus to the stats of ALL your heroes", but we win this bonus only for the character who has beaten the boss
- Detectors often don't detect anything
Bugs affecting specific waves
- Wave 13 : illusions of zealots don't have charge whereas real zealots do
- Wave 27 : the immortals' shield block many spells whereas they are not supposed to (DT's spells, sniping skill of the WD, ...)
The immortals' shield doesn't block the HT's auto attack
The HT's auto attack only hit stone Zealots for 1
- Wave 29 : The tooltip says "Info: X survived the horde", whereas it should say "X medics".
The turrets can survive the wave.
- Wave 32: I've already seen Selendis hurting herself with her super blast
- Wave 33: Novas sometimes lose their cloaking field
- For many waves, the percentage doesn't show up properly
It is higher than the damage really done to the wave (the damage meter is at 20 or 50 and the wave ends) in waves 16, 21, 23
It is lower than the damage really done to the wave (the damage meter is at 0 but ennemies keep coming) in waves 13 and 31
Bugs affecting heroes
- High Templar
It is possible to select Lore of the Warrior and then an other weapon to gain the benefit of both.
Lore of Time's tooltip doesn't say it gives mana / mana regen whereas it does (just as merger / warlock / vortex)
- Marine
Marksman often does not give a damage bonus (at least on the flamethrower)
The flamthrower can't hit vikings while they are in the air
The visual effect of the Nuclear strike does not show up properly (the visual is based on the 10 second cooldown of the real nuclear strike, but in this game the CD is only 5 seconds)
There's a casting time on the heal
Clones are not added to control group 2
- Dark Templar
Shadow wave hits multiple times but the tooltip doesn't say so.
The debuff when hit by the assassin's blade doesn't tell exactly what are the malus.
If you hit a monster with assassin's blade and then this monster is mind controled, the debuff is not canceled.
Cloaked units are often not detected properly by detectors.
Smoke grenade doesn't show properly its area of effect.
Throw's tooltip doesn't mention the casting time.
You can cloack while casting Throw.
- Tyrant
Pods summoned by the ulti can fall off the screen
Nova ulti: often bugs (deals no damage) ; the aoe is smaller than the visual effect ; the tooltip says it hurts allies whereas it does not
The armor that returns damage is supposed to return 10 to melee attackers, regardless if they hurt you or not, but it doesn't return damage to illusion of zealots
When selected with other units (his summons), the Tyrant is not the first of the list (roaches are).
The tooltip of charge says there's an armor bonus. There's not.
Spine crawler cannot be placed easily, its hitbox should be reduced.
- Mechanic
The healing turrent can heal dead people, and will stay focused on the hero it was healing if he dies. This doesn't bring the hero back to life but wastes the turret's time.
Guided missile sometimes doesn't deal any damage.
The defensive drone doesn't lose mana when blocking projectile, but doesn't block as many projectiles as it is supposed to.
Healing station cannot be placed on creep.
The tooltip of the tank says "2 tank", which implies summoning 2 tanks at the same time.
As the HT, if you pick stunning grenades as your weapon and then an other weapon, you still benefit from the slow effect
- Witch Doctor
I am pretty sure the Vodoo amulet doesn't work the way it was intented. The tooltip says your spells deal more damage and last longer, but I'm pretty sure they don't.
There's a casting time on all the curses even if the tool tip doesn't say so.
Cows' tooltip says it hurts allies but it doesn't.
Kaboom cannot be cast on heroes or mechanics, but an explosion close to them will hurt them too, even if they are allies (and the tooltip doesn't say so).
The aura of the last armor heals turrets. This aura also keeps working when the WD is dead (might also be true for the Malazar's aura of the HT).
You can't control the demons from the demonic rift.
Sniping deals more damage than intented (maybe when using Nazrist).
Confused units will sometimes stop moving after they are unconfused.
I am currently working on a huge review, stay tuned. There are a lot of balances issues and bugs, so I'm trying to make a list. :)
This game is really great anyway, I hope my thoughts will help !