Developer Q&A #2 Wrap Up and Live Match Shoutcasted by Day9 and Dustin Browder

by Taffer - 7 years ago

Today was the 2nd Live Q&A hosted by Blizzard allowing fans to tweet them questions about Heroes of the Storm. You can watch the whole thing here.



Watch live video from Heroes of the Storm on TwitchTV

This Q&A featured Kevin Johnson (Community Manager), Kaeo Milker (Senior Game Producer), and Dustin Browder (Game Director), followed by a live match shoutcasted by Sean Plott (Day[9]) alongside Mr. Browder. Much like the issues most people shoutcasting the game currently, Day[9] went in blind not knowing most of what is happening and asked questions to Dustin that really helped clarify what is happening. But first the Wrap up!

Right now the teams are currently working on:

Internal Alpha Stage

Art passes Going over everything again with art and colors

User XP / User testing

Hero design

More Heroes like Abathur, commander-types. Heroes that play in fundamentally different ways.

Click the question link to go straight to it in the VOD. This is not a transcript and the answers are summed up in my own words.



First Question

@BlizzHeroes #HeroesQA Are you testing new maps with different PvE objectives than current battlegrounds?? — StarCraft-esp.com (@StarcraftEsp) January 22, 2014

No, they are taking a break from battle grounds. They feel the current ones did well for them at Blizzcon and have tested them more in Alpha. They will be developing more maps going forward but not sure how many the perfect number is. Going to try 4 and they may be what we have seen or something new that replaces the old. They want to focus more on Heroes and the User Experience for now.

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Second Question

@BlizzHeroes #HeroesQA How many Specialist Heroes is it feasible to have on your team? — David Troy (@BrillaanCTR) January 22, 2014

Normally don’t run more than one or two. Really depends on the team comp and how well the skills work with each other. You may be running thin with 3 but they don’t really know as it will come down to time and testing.

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Third Question

#HeroesQA can you explain the talent system in more detail? How many ways can each hero be played? @BlizzHeroes — Callsign Viper (@mikemetcalf) January 22, 2014

They are currently redoing the Talent system yet again. They really like the idea of offering the choice of what to build but not stacking power. They have a lot of stat choices they are offering that are really helpful but are limiting the choices and not creating the flexible system they want. They really want to have it where people can play one way for 5 games, then play another 5 games a different way, while discovering a third way by simply playing. Testers will have a smaller set to work with when Beta goes live but that’s because they are designing the system as a foundation to add more later on for what the game really needs when they get more information/feedback.

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Fourth Question

How do you view the support role in Heroes with shared team experience? Will we be seeing more offensive support play? #HeroesQA — Scott Becker (@heyblupor) January 22, 2014

You can. Tassadar is speced pretty much DPS these days. There are many different ways you can support your team. There will definitely be Heroes that you can play offensive but you should play them as support (if you want to win), but there are also support heroes that are ranged that you could build offensive if you feel you team needs that.

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Fifth Question

@BlizzHeroes Which is/are your favorite Hero/Heroes to play? (meant for the specific Devs on the live Q&A, not teamwide) #HeroesQA — Heart of the Storm (@HotScast) January 22, 2014

Kaeo Milker

Playing across everything, trying to get more exposure to the game. Likes to play a variety of different roles so he can understand all the Heroes.

Gazlowe Loves to set traps and gain map control

Kerrigan

Dustin Browder

Really depends on his mood, recently got into playing Siege Tank. If it is late and he is tired he will play more flexible Heroes such as Raynor

Sonya the Barb

Nova

Sargent Hammer (Siege Tank) Loves to siege mode people.

Raynor

Kevin Johnson

Sargent Hammer (Siege Tank) for the same reasons Dustin mentioned

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Sixth Question

@BlizzHeroes How do stealth mechanics work? Are there both stealth and invisibility effects? (E.g. Zeratul and Nova) #HeroesQA — Jeremie Quek (@Squishei) January 22, 2014

One system of stealth for all Heroes that have the ability, for clarity and ease of understanding of what is going on. You are able to move around freely as stealthed. You have a slight shimmer and can only be hit by AoE or skill shot that will end the stealth. All your abilities will break stealth if you use them while stealthed. When they first put in the system, there was a lot of doubts for seeing the shimmer. Since there is so much going on, they feel like you have to really be looking for it to see it and you will be able to sneak by without people seeing you if they are focused on something else (such as a team fight). There is no cost to using stealth.

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Seventh Question

.@BlizzHeroes How extensive of a spectator mode could we look forward to? #HeroesQA — Justin Kennedy (@jkkennedytv) January 22, 2014

They are starting with the bare essentials. The spectator mode is based on the same technology that Starcraft II uses. There want functionality for people to customize the UI so while there will be a default, there will also be an observer replay editor for people to tinker with.

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Eighth Question

@BlizzHeroes Got any news on the map editor? #HeroesQA — Karl Björklund (@ImKarlalr) January 22, 2014

Definitely something they want to do, they are a little worried about it in a free to play environment since they can’t just ban someone who can simply make a new account and create more vulgar things. They need to work out the rules for the system still.

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Ninth Question

Can we expect special interactions between different Heroes? (Arthas/Illidan, Kerrigan/Raynor and so on) #HeroesQA! — HearthTrolden (@HearthTrolden) January 22, 2014

Yes! At the starting gate, the Heroes have banter that they will talk to each other that’s IP specific. They will have it when you kill certain Heroes, they will have cool one liners that’s specific to the Hero that you killed. Blizzard loves the idea and will be working on constantly building on these as they feel it really brings the Nexus together.

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Tenth Question

#HeroesQA Are you planning to have maps for less/more players then 5v5? — Leeth (@MyselfJonas) January 22, 2014

It has definitely come across. They will be exploring that idea more down the road. Also with the map editor, nearly anything is possible.

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Eleventh Question

@BlizzHeroes @TwitchTV How much effort will you put into skins? Will there be different spell animations for maybe Murkablo? #HeroesQA — Leeth (@Andre55516721) January 22, 2014

Murkablo probably not, but will for sure be doing it for skins for sure. Effects, Voices, and Model can be completely revamped with nearly anything and Blizzard will be exploring that. The possibilities in the Nexus are limitless.

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Eleventh Question

@BlizzHeroes I really enjoy WoW battlegrounds. However, MOBA’s never stuck with me, will Heroes be able to bridge that gap? #HeroesQA — Warlock God ’14 (@Warlock_God) January 22, 2014

“Yes! I hope so.” They have a lot of people around the office that don’t really like or play other MOBAs that have been enjoying Heroes of the Storm, but since they are already invested in Blizzard and the IPs they may be a little biased. They are making a game that will have a very broad appeal and they hope that will bridge that gap and only time will tell.

Shoutcast Match with Day[9] and Dustin Browder

During the live stream they put out a strawpoll that allowed viewers to vote on the map they would like to see live. It’s no accident that Haunted Mines won as it’s one of those really in-depth maps. There are only 2 lanes instead of the normal 3 but there is an entire lower level for Heroes to explore and die. The goal of the map is to gather enough skulls to get the golem advantage who will charge for the enemy base.



You can view the Shoutcast here.

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Website :: Twitter :: Kevin’s twitter :: Author’s Twitter

Special thanks to Crow and Darrow for note taking