Anyway, DOTA has spawned many spin-offs, and has become a staple format of RTS mods. Today I will discuss three major versions of DOTA: the original DOTA Allstars (a map for WCIII), Heroes of Newerth (a standalone spinoff by S2 Games), and League of Legends (a standalone game created by Riot Games, which is a company started by the makers of DOTA Allstars). Another spinoff exists called Demigod, which I have not played (so I will not comment on it).
This post will go into some of my thoughts behind the design of these spinoffs and relate them to the original DOTA Allstars. The reason that I include DOTA is so that we can see the various problems/solutions that exist in each of the incarnations of this classic RTS format.
This is Part 1 of my little analysis of the three games. This section is mostly informative. If you haven't played DOTA, Heroes of Newerth, and/or League of Legends, I suggest you read this first so the rest of the post makes sense.
DOTA
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For those of you who don't know, these are the basic elements of classic DOTA:
(Skip this part if you already know how DOTA works)
- Each team consists of 5 players, each who controls a single, unique, hero unit.
- Each hero has three basic abilities and one "Ultimate" ability.
- Each hero has six item slots which can be filled with a variety of powerful items which can completely change the heroes effectiveness in combat. Some heroes have many different "builds" or combinations of items which make them effective in different situations.
- Each team has a "base" which they must defend. The goal of each team is to destroy the primary building located at the rear of the enemy base. They must destroy most of the enemies buildings to do this.
- Bases are located in the lower left and upper right corners of the map. Between the bases are three "lanes" which are large swaths of open area where most combat occurs.
- Bases periodically spawn weak units or "creeps" which which belong to the computer AI and will progress down the lanes mindlessly combating enemies in their path.
- Each lane has 2 towers per team that are in the field and a single tower which is located at the entrance of the base. Enemies must push past these towers to reach the base from that lane.
- Players must use their heroes to turn the tide of the combat my destroying enemy creeps, heroes, and towers.
- Killing enemies yields money and experience. Experience will eventually level a hero, making it more powerful and allowing it to learn more powerful versions of its abilities. Money (gold) can be used to purchase items for the hero.
- When a hero dies, that player loses a certain amount of money and must wait for respawn. Respawn takes between 10 seconds and 2 minutes depending on the level of the hero
- Each lane has two barracks located in the base of each team. One representing melee, the other representing ranged units. Destroying a barracks will PERMANENTLY buff the creeps in the opposing teams army. Most "pro" players acknowledge that destroying the melee barracks first yields a more significant advantage as there are more melee units spawned in each wave than ranged ones.
- This game is a free download
Heroes of Newerth
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This game has essentially identical mechanics to the original DOTA. In fact, most of the heroes are direct copies of those that existed in DOTA, but with new names, appearances, and flavor.
Most of the differences between DOTA and Heroes of Newerth lie in the differences between the UI and lobbying systems that existed in Warcraft III. "Heroes" has absolutely fantastic art and special effects, which gives it a more polished look and feel than its counterparts.
Here are some of those differences:
- Uses chat "channels" which are essentially lobbies in which players can talk while not in-game. This is similar to WC3.
- Players have a toggle-able overlay which gives them access to player statistics, a friends list, a messaging system and a few other features. This can be toggled even in-game, similar to the way the Steam overlay works.
- Has built-in voice support, allowing players to talk to each other without the need of third-party software like Ventrilo.
- Games are created and joined by users, similar to WC3, where a user must search for a game and join it manually. However, Heroes also features a ladder which is done by a match-making system.
- Players are given a Public Skill Rating or PSR. This rating increases when winning ranked games, and decreases when losing them. The amount of gain or loss is determined by which team has a higher average rating (the underdog stands to win more and lose less). This rating, combined with extremely accurate statistics logged on each player, allows players to discriminate when choosing whether to play with a given team. Both PSR and statistics are publicly available to other players.
- Players who leave a game can reconnect, unlike the original DOTA. If they do not, however, they will be considered a "leaver." Any time that a person leaves a game without returning this event is logged in their personal record. Other players can see how many games a player has left and some game types will actually prohibit players with a high leave % from joining the match.
- Unlike the original WC3 UI, Heroes of Newerth is designed specifically for playing the DOTA style map. Abilities are clearly displayed and use customizable hotkeys to allow the player to easily use them. In addition, the shop system allows players to purchase items and keep them in the base even when they are not nearby.
- Heroes of Newerth released a second map, called the Watch Tower, which is different from the layout of the original DOTA. However, many players in the community avoid this break from tradition.
- When one player lags, the others can keep playing, unlike WC3
- The game is purchased once for a flat $30
League of Legends
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This game has a very cartoony atmosphere. Most of the units have exagerrated proportions and wacky coloration. The mechanics of this game are much different from the other two DOTA games. In addition, players are rewarded at the end of each game with points that will effect their ability to play in future games. Heroes in League of Legends are known as "Champions"
- Players must "unlock" heroes to use them. Each week there is a selection of free heroes that all players are able to use.
- A player's account is considered to be a "Summoner" which is way the player is represented in the fictitious narrative of League of Legends. The "Summoner" actually summons the hero which serves as the player's avatar in the game. The player may increase the level of their summoner, which is different from the level of each hero within the self-contained loop of a single game. In other words, a player can be Summoner Level 30, but will still begin each game with a level 1 hero. However, a player with Summoner Level 30 will have many advantages that a level 1 summoner would not have.
- A summoner has a selection of unique summoner abilities (the full range is unlocked by level 12). Each game, the player may select two of these abilities which can be used to supplement the abilities of the hero they choose. Summoner abilities have a longer cooldown and are usually used for utility within the game space.
- A summoner has a rune book which allows them to gather up to 30 runes (1 slot is unlocked each level with a level cap of 30). These runes grant minor bonuses to the hero and is one of the primary means of "speccing" or customizing a hero. Runes are chosen before each game starts.
- A summoner has a set of Masteries, which work similar to the World of Warcraft talent system, allowing for specialization in offense, defense or utility. The summoner gets 1 mastery point every level with a max level of 30.
- Each game yields the player summoner experience and IP, which is used for purchases in the Store.
- Players are matched solely on a match-making system, although players can Friend other players in order to play arranged matches later.
- The Store can be used to buy new Champions, Skins (new appearances for champions), Runes, and Boosts which increase the experience/IP earned for a period of time (measured in days).
- Boosts and Skins can ONLY be purchased with "Riot Points" which are obtained through micro-transaction. (This is important... I will discuss the business aspect of these games as well). Champions can be purchased with both Riot Points and IP. However, RUNES may never be acquired with Riot Points, so no player may "buy" a combat advantage over another.
- This game is free to download and play. In addition, ALL champions and runes can eventually be unlocked through gameplay. However, players may purchase Riot Points which can be purchased through micro-transaction, which allows them to purchase champions. There are champion Bundles, effectively allowing a player to "buy" the game by unlocking most of the heroes in one pack. A transaction of $30 can buy one of these bundles, and there are two to choose from.
- All heroes have the ability "recall" which is a free teleport back to base. In other versions of DOTA teleporting could only be achieved by items which were expensive or expendable.
- All heroes have two summoner abilities, allowing them to have a total of 7 different abilities.
- Each map has many patches of "Grass." These thick areas of foliage provide a unique advantage over the opponent. Units inside grass are invisible except to other units inside the grass. However, they can see outside easily. This mechanic adds a completely new dynamic to normal RTS gameplay.
- Very few items have activated abilities. This means that most items only give passive enhancements to a players existing abilities.
- League introduced a new stat called "ability power" which is effectively the same as +damage but applied to spells instead of auto-attacks instead. This is important because it changes how casters scale with level (previously they tended to be very underpowered late game because of their reliance on set-damage abilities). However, League allows several casters to "carry" the game by being able to dish out increasingly large amounts of damage.
- Heroes tend to move very slowly compared to their vision radius. This sounds strange but its true. The reality is that in DOTA or Heroes of Newerth it was often easy to run at an opponent and disable them quickly. In League, most heroes can simply back up unless they are caught in an ambush or flanked.
- There are very few stuns in League of legends and many many slows. It is usually impossible to "stunlock" someone, but very easy to keep them from running away.
- There are NO "proc" stun items in league, nor even proc stun abilities. In other words, there are no heroes which can stunlock opponents by themselves for more than a few seconds.
- The damage scaling compared to mitigation and health makes it so that it is highly unlikely that a single hero can kill more than three or four enemies alone. This is different than DOTA or Heroes where many heroes can reach a "critical mass" where they can literally take out a whole team of enemies.
- Instead of barracks, League of Legends features "inhibitors" which prevent the enemy from spawning "Super Minions." Destroying an inhibitor gives a massive advantage to the other teams minions because they will have large tank units to accompany them. However, unlike DOTA and Hereos, inhibitors can respawn.
- Teams who are losing can surrender at 25 minutes of game time. This is based on a voting system and happens quite frequently when one team is out-matched.
- There are only 3 units that can become invisible in League, as opposed to DOTA and Heroes where there are many assassin units. Although invisibility is powerful, there are some games where it never comes into play at all.
