I believe the rival hero interactions can be done a bit better. Now the thing is, the idea in itself is brilliant as it adds a good layer of depth into playing the game. Heroes taunting each other by their name and what not. However what is bad is the frequency of this happening.
Example. There are currently 100 heroes in DotA (give or take) if one hero has a rival, the chance of both being in a game on opposite sides is really small. (of the order of 1 in 10 000 - won't do the math right now). Next, in order for the sound to play you need for 1 hero to be the killer of the other. If a hero gets about 10kills per game (which is a lot) we could estimate that the rival lines will play only 2 times per game in average. So you have 2 times per game in 1 in 10000 games! That's not a lot.
Now, in order to improve the this ratio there are three things that can be done:
a) add many rivalries. One hero could have up to 20 rivalries that way increasing the chance of having a pair of rivals in the game.
b) Rival lines can play as Hero interactions not only when Killing the Hero but on multiple occasions that heroes interact.
Examples:
- You are in lane against your rival, you trade hits: a speech line, (like "I'm gonna kill you Kunkka") can pop.
- You are in lane and you deny a creep from your rival. With a certain chance someone can say something. ("You won't get gold while I'm here, Kunkka")
- The rival escapes with low hitpoints after a teamfight ("Oh no, you let Kunkka get away")
- An ally gets a kill on the rival and you get an assist (or not) - "Great Job, you killed my enemy, I am in your debt"
And so on. The idea is that these lines should pop up at a controlled pace, you don't want spamming them so people grow sick but say one line every 5-10 minutes is very good for flavor.
c) add friendship lines as well. If contributing together on an assist, or laning together, or healing someone, etc.
In the same way I have described above, allies can also talk more to each other. Again, it mustn't spam or anything, but a speech here or there can make the speeches seem a lot more flexible.
The great plus is that because you always will have an ally or enemy with which your hero has a special interaction you will hear new sounds nearly every game. This means that the speech can never grow old and boring, as we were used to in Warcraft III with the same lines over and over again. It will help add some variation to stuff we will get used to in the long run.
Example. There are currently 100 heroes in DotA (give or take) if one hero has a rival, the chance of both being in a game on opposite sides is really small. (of the order of 1 in 10 000 - won't do the math right now). Next, in order for the sound to play you need for 1 hero to be the killer of the other. If a hero gets about 10kills per game (which is a lot) we could estimate that the rival lines will play only 2 times per game in average. So you have 2 times per game in 1 in 10000 games! That's not a lot.
Now, in order to improve the this ratio there are three things that can be done:
a) add many rivalries. One hero could have up to 20 rivalries that way increasing the chance of having a pair of rivals in the game.
b) Rival lines can play as Hero interactions not only when Killing the Hero but on multiple occasions that heroes interact.
Examples:
- You are in lane against your rival, you trade hits: a speech line, (like "I'm gonna kill you Kunkka") can pop.
- You are in lane and you deny a creep from your rival. With a certain chance someone can say something. ("You won't get gold while I'm here, Kunkka")
- The rival escapes with low hitpoints after a teamfight ("Oh no, you let Kunkka get away")
- An ally gets a kill on the rival and you get an assist (or not) - "Great Job, you killed my enemy, I am in your debt"
And so on. The idea is that these lines should pop up at a controlled pace, you don't want spamming them so people grow sick but say one line every 5-10 minutes is very good for flavor.
c) add friendship lines as well. If contributing together on an assist, or laning together, or healing someone, etc.
In the same way I have described above, allies can also talk more to each other. Again, it mustn't spam or anything, but a speech here or there can make the speeches seem a lot more flexible.
The great plus is that because you always will have an ally or enemy with which your hero has a special interaction you will hear new sounds nearly every game. This means that the speech can never grow old and boring, as we were used to in Warcraft III with the same lines over and over again. It will help add some variation to stuff we will get used to in the long run.
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