Part 4: Items

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DarnYak
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Part 4: Items

#1 Post by DarnYak »

The current set of items wasn't added until 1.04 (along with the equipment setup), and tempering was introduced the following version. Thus it's fairly safe to say items were never a core feature of the map, closer to an afterthought. This is probably why EotA's items are fairly banal, but still worth their own discussion.

When I was making EotA, I really hated item whoring - unfairly so. I probably even made remarks that item whoring should exist only to lure stupid selfish players into losing the game. Needless to say, that is a pretty shitty approach to map design. Part of it stems from poor item design in so many maps. For example, most maps have mandatory items, the primary one being Boots of Speed. What fun is there in that? Every player has to get them, so everyone runs equally faster, and it just eats up an item slot and some initial gold. And it was so common in every map, for quite a while people would often ask me where the boots were in EotA. From there it did varied some from map to map, often it was some sort of vampiric item so you could stay in a lane near perptually. And then there were often items that were mandatory because they were so overpowered. Either absurd damage, or a stun proc, or fuck knows what else. And they almost always favored Agi heroes. On a side note, that is one of the reasons stat-based spells were added to EotA - in other maps, casters always got screwed because items only gave more mana, which was rarely an issue.

The main intentional decision with items was to avoid recipies. While obviously very common, I still believe item recipes/crafting is a very poor addition to a player versus player game in real time. The primary reason for this is just the time it takes to figure out what the hell you need to get and where to get it when instead you should be playing the game and fighting the other team. It's worse because the recipes rarely make any sense and can be multiple layers. "To get the Uberblade you need a Bloodaxe, a Fallen Emprerors Cloak, and Swiftstrike. A Bloodaxe requires Squire's Sword and a Ragemask. A Ragemask requires ..." and it just goes on. Meanwhile after 10 minutes of figuring out where to buy the basic shit, some of which is inexicplicably at some "secret" shop in the middle of the map, the enemy heroes are 20 levels ahead and already won. Awesome way to give a huge advantage to experienced players, who by that attribute don't need it. Crafting things from scratch isn't a much better option as that requires the players to go out and find whatever unique resources there are (or, alternatively, have spawns randomly drop crafting items), but that still requires figuring out what items you need, where to get them, just their names aren't quite so esoteric.

This is why I opted for Tempering in EotA. You look at an item stats, and know that's what you're getting. Need it to be stronger? Fine, just invest some gold. No mystery involved, no searching for where to buy shit. It's biggest drawback is because its a unique system, most players don't understand how to get stronger items - but its not that hard to figure out and there's a temper scroll which hopefully will be read at some point. Another bonus to this was manipulating cost efficiency - buying a variety of lower level items (should) give more overall benefit then maxing out one item - assuming, of course, that different types of items are properly priced.

The other big difference in items was adding the equipment system. Part of this is for conceptual reasons (why is my character holding 6 swords?). Another part is to both force more variety in item purchases and have controls over the limits of stacking items. I remember hearing some comments that adding an equipment system is just an escape for being unable to properly balance items - this is arguably somewhat accurate, but I largely just didn't want or like item stacking or the results it produced. Another advantage is it allows me to force players to make a choice about what stats to focus on in a given slot, combined with each slot having different main stats (ie, +damage only from orbs, but also the only item health regen).

I have mixed opinions about my decisions to include Artifacts. Limited quantity so only one side gets them can easily lead to severe imbalances, but only if the items don't have any comparision. They were intended to be better then regular items, but not cost efficient and not extremely better. Unfortunately, they have never quite been properly balanced, with some being just a waste of gold where others are staples for hero builds. I blame this partly on the bonus abilities being a little too unique, but I believe many of them could be properly balanced with appropriate changes - which I will at least take one last shot at for the final version.

The Good: EotA's item system is simple to understand, which was its purpose (and a rarity in EotA!)

The Bad: As I said, I feel items are fairly banal. Many aren't used with any frequency either. Also, from a implimentation standpoint, 6 levels of each item is excessive, doing it again I would switch to just 3 levels, but have the final stats stay the same.

What I would change: It could remain simple, but improved. The best example would be something like Diablo 3 is doing with skill gems (whatever they're called), where you would have the basic item, and then say 3 types of gems which can improve it in different ways. For example, there could be a Boots of Speed, then add a red gem and it gives dodge, a green gem and it gives a clickable sprint, or a blue gem which gives it a clickable effect to remove all root effects. This would be very simple to understand, and give much more variety and flavor to the items.

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Re: Part 4: Items

#2 Post by DarnYak »

Realized I forgot one thing (I thought there was another but I don't remember it at the moment):

EotA is also unique in having a 100% sellback rate for items. This particular feature wasn't something planned out, it was merely a response to complaints from people who didn't understand the equipment system and wasting money trying to buy multiples for the same slot. After it being a proposed solution, we couldn't really think of any significant downsides, plus it allows players to shift tactics mid game, so why not put it in? To date, I'm unaware of any undesirable results of this feature.

DarnYak

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