A question once again

In future, will we be seeing more reskins of minions? Cause like im totally cool with that, it gets a bit dull fighting the same horde of pirates and frost grunts over and over.
Some new minions would be nice too but at this point I am willing to take ANYTHING.
Some new minions would be nice too but at this point I am willing to take ANYTHING.
"Remember! Gnoll dont have a union, when you harm a gnoll, it has no insurance!"
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Robot Entertainment | Lead Balance Designer
Robot Entertainment | Lead Balance Designer
There was also better gear available to deal with them, in particular a piece of gear that gave any character a better version of Cygnus' Chain Lightning.
Flying minions would force melee characters to play the game a certain way. If you took gear to compensate you are already at a loss due to the fact you can't use it as fast as an auto attack. It would also require mana use, and typically melee heroes have less mana than a ranged Mage type hero. This also means the loss of one gear slot compared to a ranged hero.
If there was a platform or low spot on the maps where you could melee attack the fliers, this means you would be restricted to that spot (or close to it), which is another restriction ranged heroes would not have. The same would apply if there was an operable environmental crossbow etc.
If you took a specific trap to compensate, you are then disadvantaged by one less trap slot, loss of cash, trap cap space, and still can't guarantee it would kill all fliers. Again none of these disadvantages apply to a ranged hero.
Some me people complain now that you are forced to play maps a certain way (eg have to kill at spawn to get five stars). Imagine the complaints of you had all of the above restrictions.
I agree, I mean personally I would love flying minions but I don't see how they could fairly implement that. As @ShadeDev mentioned it's on their list for 'sometime in the future' I presume that means, they can see people want that, they want it themselves, but unless they can find a way to fairly implement that it's not going to be a possibility + on top of that as he mentioned the unreal engine isn't fly-creature friendly
I guess when it comes down to it, if it does ever materialize, then the fairest way may be increased damage to melee only characters against ground targets, and obviously increased damage to range characters against flying targets. Sounds like a lot of work.
First thing with flyers we should determinate what flyers would be.
A ) something ordinary for example 50% of wave made by flyers,
B ) something just annoying keeping you awake for example 5% of wave,
C ) something special like bombers, bosses and mercenaries?
B and C is something easy countered by ranged heroes right now, but A create problem with traps
traps vs flyers
We have barricade skippers - hunters and gnolls but they dont count rift point loss. Only Swifty as boss have not as close as possible to flying enemies experience. And he have huge impact on game play. And he is affected by all traps he is going around, imagine flyers going around and not trigering most of them. So they would be mostly on heroes to kill. Also we lack of traps again flyers. Yes we have ballistas but they are already too much powerfull. They would become must pick agains flyers. As you can see there is trap problem also. This would lead to 1) of flyers, I have to pick this 2) I have balistas i dont care 3) (no place for usefull trap) och crap i have to shoot them by myself.
There is lot of problems with maps them selfs since most of them lack of celing. So flyiers would request some traps and map adjustment - quite lot of work.
mele vs flyers
as mentioned by yobbobear, there would be certain disadvatages playing mele hero agains flying enemies. So lets do some brainstorming, how it would be possible to solve it.
(+plus,-cons)
1) trap - stacinary balista/flak cannon: you go there stand on it and attack with gained ranged attack what you see in air.
+easy to use
+easy to develop
-there would have to be some kind of restriction to not use it on ground units
-trap slot
-no money no trap
-you have to do int in specific slot, imagine your only possible slot is overhelmed by wave and you cant use it
2)trait-big jump: you would be able to jump higher - something like blackpaw jumps
+you could use your mele attack
-mess with hero mobility design
-short attacking window
3) redesign steam vent: it would hold heroes in air so they would be able attack flyers
+you could use your mele attack
-no money no trap
-it would take ground space
4)map specific solution - map implemented sort of stuff (stationary canon/barrel catapult)
+no money/slot requirement
-map would not be universal , you would not be able to pick any map and send anything
-huge restriction how to play and how to deal with treat
5a) hero ranged ability buff - most mele hero have some kind of ranged ability. Those abilities would be conditionaly buffed - for example : hoggard - if you hit flying enemy with your axe your cooldown is reseted and half mana returned. or you do exta X% dmg if you hit flying enemy
+no trap/trinket slot
-it would require some skill to use, because if miss with your ability condition would not be triggered
-mele heroes would become ranged
5b) additional hero ranged ability buff - go futher in buffing your ability additionaly to cd reduction and mana refund, - mele heroes ability would put flyers down temporary, something like I damaged you wing passive so anytime you dmg flying enemy he would fall down so you would able to kill him.
+-similar to 5a
+it would feel like mele hero attack
-hard to balance to still be fair challenge
6) Tinker guardian - he would provide you with temporary buff/trap or anything come to your mind that would help you against flyers
+i dont care about guardians much, is if i have to sacriface one, its ok for me
-guardian slot
X) some discarded idea:
double/triple jump, griper,temporary levitation
Those options could be analyzed better and there are others. I personaly prefer 5b but 5a and 6 is ok too. Other option feel like giving something up since I am mele and not ranged. What do you like? How should mele counter flyers?
Or have them fly closer to the ground (about the height of a trolls head). So then most heroes can reach them but not dobbin.
Ground ballista is a thing on OMD2 (I think it's 2 anyway, long time since I played 1 or 2) but the detail in those games are quite different, But the base for it is there, I'm sure some of that stuff could be salvaged.
(It was just an environmental trap from what I remember, the player would interact with the ballista and manually shoot it)
...the more I reminisce about OMD2, the more I realize that Max, Gabriella, and (to an extent) Cygnus have regressed in terms of their capabilities. Are they handicapping themselves just to give these new orcs a chance; fighting with half their magic tied behind their backs, just to make it fair?