Update Log for Domination (7)
Patch Highlights: https://youtu.be/k1EUld9rukc
Major updates:
- Added Petra to the Map Pool
- Two new Mutators. Major "The Floor is Lava" and Minor "No Hero HUD".
Developer Comment:
"The Floor is Lava" is a Major Mutator where all players play as Lúcio. But the tricky part is that players have to wall-ride ALL THE TIME. Touching the ground starts burning damage-over-time effect. Luckily, staying on ground while touching the Capture Point stops the damage over-time effect. I hope that it will bring Domination to a new level of replayability. "No Hero HUD" is a wacky Mutator where players can't see their Crosshair, Health Bar or Cooldown icons.
- Added a new Respawning system. Now the place where players respawn is dependent on the ownership of points.
Developer Comment:
This is an interesting one. On the first interation, all players were respawning at one spot with 1/3 chance. Later on, I changed this, so each time when someone respawned, there was a check whether an enemy is close to the respawn spot. If so, different point was chosen. Now, besides above system, I added a new condition that determines the respawn spot. The picture below explains it quite well, but the general idea is that players respawn at spots that are adjacent to Points captured by their team. The best example that illustrates why this is a fair change is when a losing team successfully defended their only one Point. And then it is guaranteed that attackers respawn at the most distant spot. Moreover, when a defender dies, they won't respawn between two Points that are captured by the enemy. Here's the picture:
https://i.imgur.com/UtGAXcy.jpeg
- Leaving the point or Contesting it doesn't reset the capturing progress. Instead, the progress slowly decreases.
Developer Comment:
I realised it is quite unfair that the enemy can reset the whole capturing progress by simply touching the point for a mere second. Also I saw a lot of situations where players were "ADAD" strafing on the point and accidentally got off it for a split of a second, but instantaneously resetting the progress anyway. It was quite irritating to be honest, especially after I extended capturing time from 0,5s to 0,75s. Therefore I'm adding a system where capturing progress slowly decays when the player leaves the point or the enemy contests it. It takes twice as long as capturing, so when the player captures a point for 0,5s and then leaves the point, it takes 1s to gradually reduce the progress to zero.
- Added new "Customization" category in Workshop-related Custom Game options
Developer Comment:
Although giving players an ability to customize how Domination works isn't my ultimate goal, I'm adding a few options to do that. The Host can disable Healing Orbs/Jump Pads/Teleporters/Power-Up, ajdust reshreshing time for Healing Orbs and ajdust duration and refreshing time for Power-Up. But as for Power-Up, it has only one slider, so longer duration of Power-Up also means longer reshreshing time. And the oppposite, short duration means short refreshing time. Lastly, added an option to change colors of Healing Orbs, Jump Pads, Teleporters and Power-Up. In Custom Game options the Host can choose between Dafault, Set 1 and Set 2. This is very minor addition, but it might look a little refreshing. But after all, my desire is to make the main way to play Domination as best as possible, so players don't have to rely on many toggles and sliders in Custom Games options to raise the replayability.
- Now you can help with the development of Domination! Added a tool that creates a text file with valuable information and you can send it to me.
Developer Comment:
During Domination development I always wanted to make it as balanced as possible. Also every feature like Healing Orbs has tu fulfill its role. Therefore I've created a system that keeps track of everything. How often specific Point is captured, how many times every Healing Orb is taken. Then I look at stats, and when I see that almost no one uses specific Teleporter, I know this is a sign that its enterace and/or exit can be placed at more valuable spot. But I can look at those stats only when I playtest Domination with my viewers. In 1.5.0 version I'm adding a tool that saves on Host's PC all the necessary information, like map, mutators, which team won, Healing Orbs usage, etc. And then, everyone around the world can send me this text file. I can look at stats and decide whether something is worth changing. For more information, please check the new 'Feedback' section in the mode description.
Minor updates:
- Power-Up in Rocket Arena now grants more health, instead of damage reduction. Also changed the damage calculation.
- Added Tutorial HUD Texts visible only during Waiting For Players phase.
- Added Progress Bar for Power-Up duration.
- Power-Up now gives Nano Boost visual and sound effect, instead of Burning.
- Enabled Power-Up in Instagib Mutator. But it gives speed boost effect only.
- Each Respawn spot has its own Facing Direction.
- Adjusted initial Respawn spots for every map.
- Necropolis receives a little rework. A few Healing Orbs are moved to different positions. Same as Teleporters
- Teleporters in Kanezaka are moved to different positions.
- Players are now unable to take another Power-Up when they are already affected by it. Theoretically it never was possible, but added this bug-proof mechanic for possible changes in the future or to prevent bugs when someone manually changes the numbers.
- Players are now able to pick up Healing Orbs and Power-Up during Waiting For Players phase.
Patch Highlights: https://youtu.be/7N-nzxl3pTg
Major updates:
- NEW FEATURE: Mutators
Developer Comment:
To bring to Domination more replayability I introduce new feature called Mutators. They are optional modificators that heavily alter the gameplay or add just a little spice. You can access Mutators in Workshop Settings and activate Major and/or Minor Mutator. For a good start I added 4 Mutators, but of course there are many ways to expand this system in the future.
- Increased capturing time from 0,5s to 0,75s. Added capturing Progress Bar and 'Contesting' HUD indicator.
Developer Comment:
I noticed that even with short capturing time, there's this quite intense moment, kind of anticipation mixed with anxiety. I wanted to expand this feeling, but not too much. 1 second was way too long. Also added HUD elements that show the status of capturing, such as Progress Bar. And with 0,5s capturing time, Progress Bar would just flashed on the screen.
- Player can't capture or contest the point during abilities that cause the Hero to be invulnerable or invisible, such as Ice Block or Wraith Form.
Minor updates:
- Updated visual effects.
Developer Comment:
One of my main goals during Domination development was to make my mode as believable as possible. I put quite a lot of effort to polish visual and audio effects. This patch expands that idea. Added Ring effect after the point capture. Healing Orbs now float up and down, which looks very fluid. Also utilized new Extensions feature, and using Healing Orbs plays actual healing effect in the 1st person view. The effect of Teleporters is completely different. Power-Up looks like it gathers the energy. And sounds effects now fade away as the distance grows, instead of just instant silence.
- Added Objective Descriptions during 'Waiting for Players' and Intro
- Fixed an issue when someone joined the game during the Intro and wasn't affected by it.
- Spectators now don't see and hear all effects at once.
- No temportal Intro Effects during 'Waiting for Players'.
- Mei's Ice Block no longer breaks Line of Sight with Points, pick-ups etc.
Patch Highlights: https://youtu.be/3Ps_s3xjy_s
Major updates:
- Added Kanezaka to the map pool
- Now it is possible to name Custom Games 'Domination'
Developer Comment:
Domination is a game mode present in many other games for the past decades. So I knew I have to name my Workshop mode that way. But unfortunately, 'domination' word was prohibited by the profanity filter. Probably because of its sexual tone. It led to necessity of using some kind of workarounds, like 'domina tion'. So it potentially hindered the growth in popularity of my game-mode. Thankfuly, after contacting with Blizzard's representative, this one word was released from the blocklist
Minor updates:
- All visual effects were slightly moved, so their Vectors are rounded to multiple of 0.125
- Cleaned and sorted the code for better readability
- Script now uses Color values
Developer Comment:
Previously, everything that changed its color after point capture, had to have 3 versions of itself. One for each color. So not color was changed but just one effect became invisible, other one became visible. Thanks to Color variables, I was able to cut a lot of code and create less effects.
Patch Highlights: https://youtu.be/LO3l67eYFII
Major updates:
- Added Necropolis to the map pool
- Charging Ultimate Abilities works in a new way. Instead of charging them by damaging enemies, ultimate meter fills up automatically over time. While the player is alive, they gain 1% per 0,6s, which is 60s recharge time.
Developer Comment:
Domination is mostly about capturing the Points - this is not a Deathmatch game mode. Very often, it's more important to just stay at the Point and defend it. But it doesn't feel rewarding, because such player isn't charging their Ultimate Ability. And then, obviously, people tend to deathmatching. Gameplay is more dynamic, but the team might losing Points more often. To fight that, Ultimate Ability charge over time by itself if the player is alive, almost like a regular cooldown. This should lead to the situation where defending the Point is more rewarding. There's going to be a huge risk of dying by doing just deathmatch. One death is basically equal to losing around 11% of Ultimate Charge. Players who patiently defend the point should have an advantage over the attackers and teams that are aware of that, ultimately should have more chance on winning.
Minor updates:
- Respawning has a new mechanic. People are less likely to spawn next to the enemy.
Developer Comment:
Previously, during the game, both teams respawn completely randomly at one of the 3 potential respawning spots. Of course, those spots differ between teams. This led to the situation where the player respawns right next to the enemy. In this patch, every time when the player respawns, a check takes place. The spot with the greatest number of enemies around it is taken away from the respawning spots pool. Most of the time, only one spot has any enemies close to it, but there may happen a situation when the player respawns next to the one enemy, because other spot had two enemies in the range at the moment of respawning.
- Fixed a bug, where players can hear scoring sound even though the match has ended.
Patch Highlights: https://youtu.be/0Bxh2XmEqtA
Major updates:
- Added Château Guillard (Halloween) to the map pool
- Added a Custom Games toggle to easly disable the Intro
Minor updates:
- Very slightly moved two Healing Orbs on regular Château Guillard, so that they won't collide with environment elements on Château Guillard (Halloween)
- Disabled Hero HUD during the Intro
- Improved functionality of the Intro
First release.
Video overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik27R5nips0
