Thoughts of a former HODA player

HershBathens

CG devs,
Thank you for both this game and HODA. Both of these games are very playable as a ftp or low spender with lots of content. I played HODA for about a year before quitting because HODA actually took up too much of my time as there was so much that could be done (several months after the introduction of Nexus). Overall, I like both of these games.

But, I notice two major similarities that hurt game play. In both games, high speed characters who did lots of damage detract from game play. This has several negatives affects on players:
1. It is boring. If only a few, fast characters are necessary to win, the rest of the characters are worthless.
2. It creates a very disappointing game play experience. I can handle losing. But, there is no fun in having many my characters killed prior to even getting one turn. I have lost battles because I made poor choices on who to target or when to pop a heal. That hurts, but it is still enjoyable. But just watching my characters get killed and I can do nothing is not fun.


In HODA, my favorite pvp experiences were events when characters were given increased health. This ensured that my team at least got one turn to fight. I would encourage you to reconsider the balance between offense and defense and speed. This is not character specific about someone being too powerful, but rather the overall balance. It seems that someone in the development team really likes fast, powerful characters.

There are many ways to make slight changes that would enhance game play. A combination of increased health, increased armor, increased defense would allow for better game play. More functional tanks would also accomplish this. If every tank had the ability to mitigate damage in some way, game play would be improved. It does not need to be like Poe who has high speed. Other examples could include damage sharing as a passive skill. Or automatic tanking that procs more than royal guard, though that does not help with one shot or assisted shot kills.

But with this one exception, thank you for making a game that I greatly enjoy.

Reddplague

You would have thought with all the rants on the HODA forum this game would have been better than HODA. They did take some of that feedback and use it in this game but, the same OP character complaint still exists. What was the beta test for? Shouldn't that raised some red flags?

HershBathens

I do think the game is better than HODA. I like the combat mechanics and character development better than HODA. And while I like Star Wars, I like the Dragon Age environment for games more as it lends itself to a broader source of characters.

But HODA and SWGH went through identical metas. At first HODA was dominated by strong AOE's and then by fast, damaging characters. I was not here for the beta, but apparently, AOE's dominated in the beta and now speed and damage dominate.

murton09

HershBathens wrote: »

I do think the game is better than HODA. I like the combat mechanics and character development better than HODA. And while I like Star Wars, I like the Dragon Age environment for games more as it lends itself to a broader source of characters.

Ring me when they run out of Star Wars characters to source from. ...............

Reddplague

HershBathens wrote: »

I do think the game is better than HODA. I like the combat mechanics and character development better than HODA. And while I like Star Wars, I like the Dragon Age environment for games more as it lends itself to a broader source of characters.

But HODA and SWGH went through identical metas. At first HODA was dominated by strong AOE's and then by fast, damaging characters. I was not here for the beta, but apparently, AOE's dominated in the beta and now speed and damage dominate.

I really don't think Dragon Age has a broader source of characters than StarWars! How many toys has Hasbro pumped out based on the characters?

HershBathens

Broader source was the wrong terminology. Balanced may have been better. Heroes of dragon age characters are already balanced for combat. Star wars characters are not set up to be balanced. DA characters also have competing types that balance out purposely. The difference is one was created to be a balanced video game, the other was created as a movie where storm troopers can be very accurate, but always miss the main characters.