im a high ranked supcom(fa) player,(dawkins, MYMINDISALAZER) 2 names ranked top 20, besides the strategic zoom, this game bears nothing in resemblence to an rts. i dont think hardcore rts players, any with a ladder mindset will find anything of value here, theres just not enough to do, there is one unit to control, which means almost no micro involved.
i suggest a second type of gameplay, one in which either multiple(2-3) demigods can be controlled, or units that you can purchase at the shops that you can control as well.
i understand the desire for a ground breaking genre, and trying to get away from old systems, but no resources, and no unit building or micro, this game is destined to be abandoned by pro gamers.
game developers, games only survive long if they stand up to competitive playing scrutiny(im not sure why, but its a well documented phenomoenon), as of right now(and i know its just beta1, but im talking about the basic design) this game doesnt seem to be dynamic enough to do so. these things are key to your success: fast unit response, fast unit control, devastating spells, and counters, (meaning, as a hero is about to cast a spell, he should have a tell, like his eyes lighting up and him floating or whatnot, after only a small window of time, hell cast the spell, in that small amount of time between the tell and spell, heroes should have responses to such attacks, unit shields, quick dodges, stuns...etc) the key to making a good game is setting up an extremely complex series of rock paper scissors decisions that are quick and micro dependent. one huge problem is no unit control, its a glaring dynamic issue, i know it worked for dota, but that was a free game, that doesnt quite have teh support you would want for a major title release. developers need to take notes from warcraft 3, which was a brilliant blend of rts and rpg. hero and spell choices were highly dependent on micro, and alot of the counters to these also involved unit control, how do you defend against aoe? try not to bunch up, dont let the chieftan shockwave across your whole army... as in do not line up in bad situations.
at the very least you need to make hero spells highly dependent on positioning and timing. what i mean by this, is area of effect spells need to be shaped other than large cirlces, heroes need to move faster than they currently do, and probably attack faster.
dota survived as long as it did, because of constant reworking/retooling, what is the available hero count at now? nowhere near 8, or anything in lower single digits. if youre going to get away with such a few amount of heroes, you need the game to be highly micro dependent. otherwise it just turns into a game of, well they had 2 rooks and a torchbearer, which always beats 1 rook and two torch bearers.
sorry for the rant.
the short version of what i want to say is, if you want a good game, make unit response, attacks, and decisions very fast paced and devasting, also allow some form of unit control, wether its just the ability to control their aggression, the sides they go to, or... anything. good units would listen to a demigod, there has to be more dynamic control in this game.
-dawkins
