Leaver Bonuses and Epic Beasts Unleashed
A new patch called "Game Explosion!"... nah, the root issue with deserters can't be blocked systemically, so the fix is to give bonuses to the team that gets hit with one.
"Early AOS games had systems like that."
Give the remaining teammates extra gold based on the number of deserters, or hand over control of the deserter's character. But controlling the deserter's hero? Pointless.
"It's one hero per player by default—I'm busy enough with mine, when the hell am I supposed to control someone else's?"
...It just tires everyone out. AOS branched off from strategy sims to make the game simpler and more fun—what's the point if you dump extra hero control on players?
The game just gets exhausting.
"Stat buffs are honestly too hard to balance."
Best bet is stuffing gold into the remaining teammates' pockets to accelerate their growth boosters and plant that faint hope of "maybe we can still win 4v5?"
It's still a disadvantage, but pull off the gold boost right, and miracle comebacks from 4v5 happen often enough.
Not a perfect solution, but for the Use Map stage, it's the best countermeasure we can do now.
Once we launch the full version, this won't fly anyway.
Right now, one desertion means no rejoin, so we compensate the rest. But full version allows reconnects for disconnects, y'know.
And dynamically tweaking gold/exp in-game? Too many variables for full release. Fixed stat buffs scaled to deserters? Ridiculous—heroes' peaks and lows skyrocket, balance collapses.
Extra gold is the sweet spot: ramps up growth boosters enough to give 'em a fighting chance.
I tinkered away at the Crystal Orb, wrapping up the deserter penalty compensation patch, and my body felt heavy.
"Eh, won't end there."
Truth is, my to-do pile is a mountain. While Melody carves the game engine skeleton, I've gotta design vicious monetization for full service.
Prep for full service means sketching runes and traits early too.
Use Map's a stripped-down version—no runes or traits implemented yet. But same hero, different rune/trait setups? Totally changes the flavor.
That pirate captain hero from my past life, stacked with crit runes, one-shotting enemy melons with a bullet—pure bliss.
Half gag, sure, but lucky crit chains? Addictive enough to drive players insane.
And that's core to early BM.
"Everyone can grind free runes with effort, level their account for traits."
But grinding takes massive time. F2P max out account, hoard game cash? Barely enough for 2-3 decent rune pages.
Heroes purchasable with game cash too, of course.
But if players don't spend, we starve. Tailor multiple rune pages per hero? Got cash but no time to grind? Convenience boosters for account exp/resources—coming soon to a shop near you.
"Aigoo, whaddya gonna do. Gotta eat."
I sighed lightly and emailed Lumine: whip up dozens of rune/trait icon illustrations ASAP.
Lumine's wail made me smirk.
Having a usable art slave sure lightens the load.
While roughing out rune/trait planning, I spotted juicy bait rolling in the Discord balance channel.
Petty gripes and keyboard wars everywhere, but G3 nailed it spot-on.
"Yeah, it's a bit monotonous now."
Bluntly? Use Map's just a skeleton—lacks tools to break the "turtle meta" of hugging towers on defense.
"...No helping it."
Truth is, past deserter patch time, we need a massive shake-up to flip the meta.
"Time to drop those guys."
I fiddled with the big neutral monster data Melody and I prepped: battlefield dominators granting team-wide massive gold/buffs on kill.
Time to add Dragon and Baron Rohan.
"To shatter the turtle meta, bait players out of their nests by force. Hate losing buffs? Crawl out and teamfight."
**
"Hm, another round of A.S. today?"
Orc Doom Pressure, drenched in sweat from day labor, slumped into his monthly rental and fired up the game.
"...But it's getting boring, grr."
First time booting A.S., Doom Pressure was hooked. Wins, losses, thrills—but the battlefield felt too predictable now.
"Grr, guess I'll carry again today."
No interest in main mode Millly though. Logging into the server familiarly, past the usual startup, he spotted a patch notes prompt: Arena of Special updated from 0.1 to 0.2.
"Patch, huh?"
"What's changed?"
1. Teams with deserters gain gold income boosted 20-100% proportional to deserters.
2. Added powerful epic monsters Dragon and Baron Rohan in central lane, granting team gold bonuses.
Dragon spawns at 2:30, kill grants 190 gold to all teammates (killer +25 extra).
Baron Rohan spawns at 20:00, kill grants 300 gold to all + powerful buff (killer +25 extra).
"Grr, nice."
The nagging frustration from games vanished.
"Cowardly scum, how dare you flee a warrior's battlefield!"
Deserter teams usually snowballed to loss hard. Gold boost means faster items—way better.
"Weaklings should bail anyway."
Enemy deserter? Even better matchup. But a twinge of odd regret as he read on.
"...Buff?"
Doom Pressure blanked for a sec.
...How strong tho?
Game started anyway—he picked his hero as usual.
"A true warrior wields a massive greatsword: the berserker."
Immortal Berserker. His ace: builds "Rage" on attacks/kills, boosting crit chance. Full Rage? 35% crit.
Sharing exp top lane as usual, ally roams away "for ganks." Solo 1v1 duel left.
Minion-trading stare-down, spotting a gap—Doom Pressure dashed his undead berserker in.
BOOM!
Full-Rage "Immortal Berserker" smashed the enemy hero's melon mercilessly with his greatsword.
Crack! Crack! Crasssh!
Pure luck scenario, yet impossible odds shattered—three auto-attack crits in a row early-game. Enemy rage-exploded.
"Grr grr! Behold a warrior's might!"
Doom Pressure cheered, landing the finisher—another crit. Enemy crumpled.
"...Grr, weakling."
Solo kill, instant desert—pathetic. Enemy roamer filled the spot.
But cautious foe, no easy gaps. Doom Pressure recalled sadly; enemy did too.
I got first blood—edge is mine, grr.
Enemy roamer returned post-recall... with near-identical items.
"...Grr?"
What? Then it hit: patch note, "deserter = teammate gold boost."
"Oh ho, now we're talking. Sick of weaklings folding after one solo kill..."
But fierce trade with boosted foe ended in Doom Pressure's calc mistake—reverse solo'd.
"...Grr grr, filthy rat!"
Doom Pressure slammed his desk in fury.
"Grr! Not my skill—our team's gold shortage lost it!"
Now he saw: other lanes lagging slightly from gold gaps.
Dragon!
Dragon to close the gap.
Team grouped, slayed Dragon—gold gap shrank.
After, teams seesawed gold in tight tug-of-war. Game time blew past 30 minutes.
Unlike one-sided stomps, gold boosts made it a nail-biter.
Grr, time for the gamble!
But at Baron Rohan's nest, enemy team already held the chokepoint. 4v5 numerical disadvantage, yet their gold-boosted core items made 'em ferocious.
Grr... this decides it.
5 allies vs 4 enemies. Narrow riverbank, massive Baron between—tense standoff.
Hair-trigger moment. One hero broke first, charging through.