perSonas :: new unique AoS

I'd like to present "perSonas", a new AoS game that I've been working on for about a year now. I think that it's a different from many of the other games in the sense that it's more "arcade-like", with faster and more intense play style.

::: Unique Features and Concept :::

One of the main features of the map include the ability to choose two distinct heroes and switch between them on-the-fly in battle. While one is never in control of two heroes at the same time, one can switch in between heroes using the "Q" hotkey with a cooldown of 4 seconds. Switching becomes a key component of the game, and can be used for a huge amount of different purposes, ranging from the broad idea of hero synergy and strategies to the more immediate need of, say, dodging a missile. I am also in the process of creating very strategy-specific heroes that are designed to support a main hero, such as creep boosts, defending towers, getting experience, etc.

Now, down to the numbers: Heroes share items, Hit Point and Mana Percentages, and the out of combat hero gains 65% of the experience that your active hero receives. In combat, Heroes have, by default, little to no hit point and mana regeneration. However, if one is not damaged for 8 seconds, one automatically regenerates at 1 percent of your max hit points per second, and after another 8, 2%/sec. Mana regeneration varies depending on the type of hero, but they all regen remarkably quickly out of combat. This is to emphasize the "action" idea of the map; clashes occur draining everything, then the winning party slinks back to regain his lost stats. In order to compensate for the fast regen, spells cost large amounts of mana, sometimes taking up to half of your full bar. This creates the effect of having spells act more like special moves in a fighting game rather than spammable spells in a normal AoS.

::: Revolutionary Item System :::

The item system is also different from most AoSs; while still central to the game, items take on a far more natural, instinctive feel than the recipe system. Every item can upgrade to a more powerful version of itself, and some items merge with others to save inventory space. Take, for example, the moon and sun pendants, the basic hp and mana regen items, offering 2 HP and a 20% mana regen, respectively. These items can be upgraded independently, increasing their regen and offering an activatable heal, or they can be merged at any level to give both HP and Mana regeneration. This "natural" feel applies to pretty much every item in the game; the main stat boosters; the sword for agility, the axe for strength, and the staff for intelligence, can be mixed with orbs to add the orb effect to the weapon: a level 3 sword, giving 20 agility, mixed with the ice orb, gives the Nova Sword, giving 20 agility and an activatable Ice Nova spell, slowing the target and dealing damage. The Nova Sword can itself the leveled a couple levels for a more agility and a more powerful Nova.

::: Gameplay Elements :::

A game of perSonas is meant to be a fast-paced game lasting around 40 minutes. To this end, pushing in in of itself is quite easy: a hero, left alone in a lane, can cause significant amounts of irreparable damage unless the other team counters quickly. However, being alone in a lane can be quite dangerous: the map is small compared to other AoS games, and there are many spots to launch an ambush from. Furthermore, the game currently has another way of winning: if one team can average 10 hero kills per person on their team, then that team achieves victory. This mode can be altered to be an average of 5 kills or 15 kills average, or it can be completely turned off. Nevertheless, this mode keeps heroes on their toes, and assures that careless deaths will not go unpunished. Hero kills and deaths themselves, however, do not pose a significant threat in in of themselves. Killing a hero does not award extraordinary amounts of XP nor gold, and the dying hero respawns fairly quickly, again to keep the arcade feel going and to assure that a couple mess-ups early game will not cause a vicious cycle for the opposing team, a problem with many AoS-genre games.

::: Flaws and Shortcomings :::

Please remember that the game is a work in progress; there are still some generic "filler" heroes, some imbalanced items, and some bland features that I am trying to fix. While I am trying to create more original heroes, however, please remember that I am trying to sell the whole map, not just make everything revolve around the heroes. In fact, generic heroes, like the "Warden Assasin" or the "Tauren Tank" help newbies find their groove much more easily in the map, because there is at least some familiar ground for them to launch from. I am also trying to add new features to compliment the map, such as gold mines that heroes can capture and a different neutral stuff to make the rest of the map more than just filler in between the lanes.



That essentially sums up the game. For those of you interested in trying it, the latest version is vA6u. You can download it here: Download perSonas vA6u

When you play, I suggest getting strength items early or Ring of the Sun, until you get better or more familiar with the game.


Enjoy some screenies from a public beta test:

Ah, PerSonas, one of my favorite games I have to say, although its near impossible to get a game started. The item upgrade system is really nice and the hero switching is a lot of fun too.

Would you mind uploading the map here as well?

I have attached the latest version directly to the end of the first post now. Hope you enjoy! I was hoping for some feedback.

I've played it probably about 10 times before, to be honest... I didn't really find it that much fun. One of the main factors was the fact that spells costed SO much. Some regular spells costed like 200+ MP and I remember some of the ultimates being extremely high as well. The part that makes a hero fun is its abilities and what it can be used for! Limiting the casting capabilities like this really makes it a lot less exciting =\.

- Thx, and I'll give you some feedback when I get back home today (maybe I'll even find someone over at #Wc3C to play with!? )

yeah, that was an issue earlier on. the reason the system is set up this way is because if you do have the freedom to cast a lot of spells, it makes combinations of spell casters rather imbalanced. in order to counter that, we've made it such that spells cost a lot but the regen is higher.

on a side note however, if you haven't tried the latest version, i'd appreciate it if you did. the latest version ensures that you have decent mana as well as good regeneration. also, the mana items have been buffed and hero regen and intelligence in general is higher. the "low-mana gloves of gold own" era was during A1-A5. A6u is the latest version, and while it's imbalanced (strength is too strong) it's still much much better than the other versions.

That is a really poor way to fix balance issues. Hero and spell combinations are just about the best thing about this whole map idea, not to mention that AoS maps in general are boring if you don't get to cast spells often, because auto-attacking is hardly any fun. If you can't pull off several consecutive spells then what's the point of having that many spells at your disposal? Why couldn't caster spells be balanced with warrior's abilities?

I think the idea is promising but the execution could be better. Out of two heroes that I picked in my test, I saw very little skills that would work with the switch mechanic. I chose the huntress and the sentinel. The huntress had an owl scout which seemed useless, I mean, nobody picks that skill in melee already and there, the owl is invulnerable. Then there was the glaive which was a nice "arcade" ability since it could be dodged but switching a hero doesn't dodge it, you just have to walk out of the way. Then there was a passive movement speed and attack speed bonus, and an attribute bonus skill; such passives really suck, passive abilities suck in general but there are exceptions, you can make passive skills that trigger an effect, it can then be an interesting challenge using that effect to it's full potential, but these skills are not like that. The ultimate prevents you from switching your hero unless you want to loose it, so this is the only skill that has any kind of interaction with the switch skill.

The sentinel was just a stock hero, it was basicaly the warden with an altered ultimate, and yet it worked better in combination with the switch skill than the huntress, thanks to her blink. That ability alone made her great for comboing, you could do all sorts of suicide strategies with your alternate hero, relying on blink to save you, or you could use it offensively, getting your alternate hero to a position where he can surprise the enemy, for example this would rock with a hero that had a wall spell, you could just blink behind the enemy, switch, and cut off their retreat.

So, I was expecting channeling spells, spells with slow projectiles, stun or silence spells to prevent heroes from switching when you hit them with the aforementioned slow projectiles, mobility skills like blink in combination with position-dependant skills, support skills... I saw very little of that, the hero I tried (I won't count the warden because she was a stock hero) could easily have been from DotA or any other AoS.

So, the idea is good, but it you didn't develop it further. Instead, you added the mandatory item complications (sure, you don't have recipies, but that only counts as a plus if you don't have something like upgrades to replace them) which I didn't even look at in my test, because they aren't the fascinating part of this map at all. Sure, stat boosting items present an interesting dilemma, pick different heroes to be more versatile or pick similar heroes so they both benefit from the items, but thats as far as items should go in a map like this.

Also, my framerate was a bit low, I don't know if this comes from your terrain or your triggers but it got to the point where it was noticeable for me, that's why I checked it in the first place, it went as low as 20fps during battles, I tired a game of ToB for comparison and it didn't go below 30fps there with much more units walking around.

The switch ability also has a small bug, if I blinked with warden and then immediately switched to my other hero, it would by default try to run to the spot from where I blinked.

actually i kind of wish you did look at the item system -- it's probably the coolest part of the map =P next to switching, of course

i agree the heroes you chose are rather bland. your combo also isn't very strong and synergetic.. however there is one missile nuke that can be dodged, and that would be the shadow strike that comes with the sentinel (aka stock warden). the warden, as you mentioned, is great in perSonas because of her great blink, her slowing capabilities, and fan of knives (a burst damage aoe nuke). that's why she's in the game.

huntress on the other hand is more of a pushing/special-ops farming hero that's really good at neutral creeping, hitting heroes from afar with moon glaive, or pushing towers with her ultimate. you pick her to support your team in pushing, or there are strategies to farm her up and then use your other hero to destroy with. i agree that the owl ability is "useless." i'll use that term loosely but keep in mind that it has been effectively used to scout invisible wind walking heroes as well as gank people neutraling creeps -- just because you wouldnt think of using it for that purpose doesn't mean others won't either.

as for the basic abilities and passives (which you seem to have a natural disgust for) i absolutely agree things could be more "interesting." but i can't stress enough that the game is still a work in progress.. the heroes are not the shining example in the game, it's really a rough beta to get an idea of what the game could be like, and where/how to take it farther and improve it. let me reiterate myself -- what you played is an early version and you can expect a lot of things to be changed.

the heroes are shallow, although some have more depth than others, and certainly not every hero combo is as powerful as other hero combos. however, each hero does have a role. it's just that most of the "roles" are overlapping -- each hero is some blend of a farmer/pusher/hero killer, making the game have a very shallow feel.

that being said, the ''fun'' in the game is experienced by playing against others. try the game out for real with a different combo (huntress is really not for "new" players -- despite her "simple" skills, it takes a skilled player to know how to play her effectively) and see how you like it.

i appreciate the feedback and the criticism -- i just want to make the map that much better, and i knew this would be the place to come to make that happen.

wrong anitarf

potm's owl is picked in melee games very often to counter blademaster/hunts if you don't have access to hawk

The map has serious issues then. Gameplay should be the coolest part.


Why add bland heroes?


Abilities to counter specific enemy abilities tend to be either uber or useless. Balancing them is pretty much impossible.


I would very much recommend not releasing so early versions where the core part of the game is so unfinished. Heroes are the basis of AoSes.


Each hero being a blend cannot be blamed for a shallow feel. ToB heroes often had two or three roles - it wasn't bland.


Isn't skilled defined as how good you are at something? Ergo your statement you need to be skilled is saying nothing.

I feel a bit of thought and a bit of a imagination should be all you need to know how to use abilities. If you need to have played before and know the map, then it has problems.

Thanks for your input Capt. Griffen. I have to say that you bring up some strong points, although it does seem that you are basing a lot of what you said based solely on the posts above. I would appreciate some constructive critism and feedback after you have played the map.

I have come to this website because it's most definitely my favorite WC3 website, and I respect the members here and expect them to be mature and courteous and respectful. I have posted my project here because I want these same people to analyze the map and give me positive feedback on how to improve the game to change it for the better.

That's phenomenal news.
Half of recieving good criticism is being able to accept it and not just *wave* it off because you don't like what it says.

Let me CnP my thoughts.

Hehe, I have accepted a lot of what you have said. How do you know I've "waved it off"? Besides, there's an alternative point you don't realize: maybe your particular suggestions aren't as useful because they don't really apply to the map. (They don't apply because you're basing your opinions off of an inaccurate experience playing the map).

Honestly speaking, I'd like to recieve feedback from people who have played the map and know what they're talking about. It's honestly not like I have not taken anyone's advice since the map has come to fruition -- just because I don't take someone's comments seriously doesn't mean I won't take someone elses seriously either. Everyone has their right to judgement and opinion, and everyone has the right to accept or neglect those opinions and judgements.

Don't post and then neglect opinions. If you ask someone for help or thoughts, don't then neglect that. By all means refute it or disagree with it, but neglect isn't the word you're looking for I feel. Otherwise you'll discourage people from helping you in the future.