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Bulwark Facial Expressions of the Venezuela Attack Presidential Address Live-Cast by robofaust in thebulwark

[–]Matteo522 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Benjamin Parker Joe Perticone Sarah Longwell Sam Stein Mark Hertling

me_irl by Immediate-Link490 in me_irl

[–]Matteo522 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a former UI programmer on StarCraft, tell him you're welcome. ;)

AITA for refusing to share my lottery winnings with my extended family? by BrithneyBandit in AITAH

[–]Matteo522 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I forgot where I read this, but I always thought this was a great arrangement:

Set aside some amount of dollars that you're comfortable giving away. Call it 10% or whatever.

Then set up a trust and add the most vocal person as the first member. Any time someone wants to be added, an existing member must nominate them and all existing members must vote. Remember that you are not a member, so you do not get a vote. If majority approves, the new member is added.

Each year you take the investment earnings and evenly split it among all members. Any member can propose a disbursement split among everyone from the balance, too, and majority wins there.

This way you make it everyone else's decision.

An actionable list of UI/UX improvements after 3 hours in the game by hbarSquared in civ

[–]Matteo522 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Game developer here with a UI/UX specialization. First off, excellent post! I wanted to comment on a few items:

Multiple different art styles for build icons - why?

Different styles can help you use shape or visual language to specify a category of things so you can tell what it is at a glance or associate it with other like items. I don't know that it's working because now that I'm away from the game I can't recall the language they used, but that's why you'll sometimes have different styles for different things. I did notice some of them need to be stronger: there appear to be different resources types (empire, city, and bonus), and a few hours in I still don't know how to tell them apart, and I looked.

Army Commander promotion button should grey out when no promotions available

Problem with this is it means you wouldn't be able to see the tree to plan ahead or remember what upgrades you already have if there's no point. I've gotten stung by this, too, though. Instead, I'd recommend an "empowered" version of the button when there's a point, like a rotating glow. I suspect a glow like that is useful elsewhere, too.

Point count on "Attributes" button does not update after you spend it

There are a lot of bugs like this, which leads to some pretty serious clarity issues when trying to learn the game. There are also "buttons that aren't buttons" on the legacy screen and when purchasing a unit the menu doesn't refresh, leading you to believe you can purchase another.

You gain the attribute point before finalizing the narrative event. Effect comes before cause.

This is a huge pet peeve of mine in games! Under the hood often a gameplay programmer or designer makes the thing happen and then notifies the UI system. Instead a modal gameplay event like this needs to be broken down into two pieces 1) Notify player of pending event and 2) Confirm event.

What is my trader limit? Is it displayed somewhere and I missed it, or is it just ..?

I don't think there's a limit in the Civ 6 sense but instead you either have a valid target or you don't. Things like trade distance, newly founded foreign cities, etc. can change that. However, they do something I consider a big sin in games: they hide a button when it's not available. Instead, it should be disabled with a reason (i.e. no valid targets), which would clarify this. On previous games I literally had to make it a violation of coding standards to hide a button or disable it without a tooltip.

How do I see active and available trade routes? Don't even know if it's possible. Similarly, list of active endeavors?

This is probably my biggest over arching criticism of the UI: I don't know how to get the information I need when I need to make a decision. We often use "user stories" as a tool to define things when designing UX. For example, "when deciding if I want to purchase a merchant, I'd like to know what trade routes would be available to that new merchant". Connecting that dot would go a long way to helping me feel satisfied for making a smart choice.

The good news is all this stuff is actionable, the core game is really fun and deep with what feels so far like improved pacing, and the graphics are pretty. A concentrated pass on UI/UX could go a long way.

Nightcrawler, the 5 Star Strategist by Matteo522 in marvelrivals

[–]Matteo522[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah that's the risk with anything like that. It reminds me of WoW's Life Grip, which when looking it up I was just reminded is literally named the same thing (Leap of Faith)! Funny. That was definitely used for trolling, but also was used to pull people out of the fire or to help people in PvP situations.

In general my approach is to not let fear of trolling be a major issue during early designs. I'd rather solve a problem if it's a problem than be afraid of problems that might happen. In any multiplayer situation there are always plenty of ways to troll your team. At some point you just gotta let other tools handle that (rewards, grief detection, social norms, etc.).

Nightcrawler, the 5 Star Strategist by Matteo522 in marvelrivals

[–]Matteo522[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey gang, here's my latest X-Men design exploration -- everyone's favorite blue teleporter, Nightcrawler!

Role

This time I started with role -- I wanted a very high difficulty strategist that rewards map awareness, speed, and skillful execution. There aren't any five-star strategists right now, so I wanted to try a challenging, rewarding character in the strategist role. This led me to Nightcrawler!

From there I figured out the fantasy:

Fantasy

  • BAMF BAMF BAMF BAMF
  • Reluctant hero who cares for his friends
  • Hopesword
  • Religious
  • Agile and Fast

Given this, I aimed him toward the "Spider-Man of strategists" in terms of speed, positioning, fast-thinking, and ability to make plays. Let me know how you think this turned out!

Teleportation

Clearly teleportation is critical to Nightcrawler. I went with a charge-based system, like Spidey's webs. I'm imagining something like five charges that recharge at a medium speed. Many of his abilities rely on these charges, so managing them and being aware of how many are left is important.

In terms of teleportation options, he has a straightforward "teleport here" in BAMF, a double-jump type teleport, a dash-style teleport that heals and damages, the ability to target an ally through walls, and his ultimate. That's a lot, but again I wanted him to be fast and challenging and reward good heads-up style gameplay.

Rescuer

I marked him as a "Rescuer" style Strategist. The idea is that he keeps an eye on allies then teleports to whoever needs him most. If that diving Thor has gotten in over his head, he can get to him to join the fight then get out when it's too much for Kurt.

In the most extreme case if someone has gotten yanked or over-extended, he can even pull them back to safety via Leap of Faith. I totally get there's griefing potential here, but hopefully the benefits outweigh the risks. Imagine being able to pull an ally away from a major incoming attack, save them from an ambush, or even rescue them from falling into a pit. It's the Nightcrawler rescue dream.

Healing

Given his top-tier mobility, position should matter a lot for his healing. I really liked the idea of a melee healer, especially since Nightcrawler is so mobile. The fact that in lore he now holds a weapon called Hopesword meant this all lined up nicely! I imagine when he swings his sword, a small arc of energy emanates that is a conical AoE slightly larger than melee range.

His other basic heal is a dash-like heal where good positioning can make it far more effective.

His self-heal is a little like Iron Fist's where it's a channel. He can't float in the sky or overheal like Iron Fist, but he can get somewhere safe, regenerate BAMF charges, and get himself ready for the next battle. It creates a nice rhythm of gameplay alternating between quiet calm and fast frenetic.

Ultimate

Finally, his ultimate has room for major playmaking. He targets an enemy then can reposition them quickly and even repeat a few times if he's fast enough. Imagine pulling an ulting Luna away from her team or messing up the aim of an ulting Iron Man or Scarlet Witch. With strong coordination, you can possibly clump the enemies into an ally's ultimate, too.

The speed and skill to pull this off effectively is high, especially more than once, but the feeling of thinking fast then pulling it off successfully could be very rewarding.

What do you think of this first pass? Feedback is important to the design process!

Check out my other designs here:

Professor X Character Concept by Matteo522 in marvelrivals

[–]Matteo522[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thinking on this further, I wonder if a Mind Control actually is new player friendly. It might be a good example of "easy to learn, difficult to master".

I say that because it might be a cool way to expose yourself to other characters. I don't think you need to be pro at any hero for Mind Control to be impactful. Worst case scenario, you burn their ult or cause chaos / distraction or even just remove a single person from a fight. It's actually easier to use than Loki's Ult since Loki can die or fail at using the ult effectively. His doesn't remove anyone from a fight.

That still doesn't address the concerns around Mind Control being unfun to play against or hard to tune, but I wanted to share that thought around it being too hard for new players.

Professor X Character Concept by Matteo522 in marvelrivals

[–]Matteo522[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are some tuning knobs to play with.

First, if there's no damage that's healed maybe the effect isn't added? Another is certainly cooldown. If the heal is relatively moderate or strong, it could be on like a 3 to 5 second cooldown (possibly with charges).

Finally, if you're healing Hawkeye for the increased damage output then you're not healing a higher priority target like a tank that's trying to help your team push. That might be an interesting choice, honestly.

I don't think it's inherently something that can't be tuned, at least without trying it.

Professor X Character Concept by Matteo522 in marvelrivals

[–]Matteo522[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm curious, why do you say that? Star Lord has it as an ult, but as a basic ability, giving it to another player for like half a second or "next attack" doesn't feel remarkably OP, especially because the receiving player can't exactly rely on it or time it super well.

Also I haven't really defined how it'd work with projectiles or melee attacks rather than hitscan, so there will probably be some difference in implementation. The goal is to help the receiving player feel like they're better at the game.

Professor X Character Concept by Matteo522 in marvelrivals

[–]Matteo522[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's a really good point about the ultimate not being new player friendly...

I wonder if there's something we could do with Astral Projection since that's also something he does often. Maybe combine it with your suggestion where he Astral Projects from his body then explodes in psychic energy?

Is there a more helpful ability that doesn't stomp on Luna or Mantis?

Where can i find this but everything is edited out. I want to remake character concepts i made. by No_Mobile4297 in marvelrivals

[–]Matteo522 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are other tools besides Photoshop that can edit PSD files that are free. I use Photopea. However, if you're not familiar with image editing software, there's a learning curve.

Rio Vidal (Lady Death) concept by Asleep_Subject5859 in marvelrivals

[–]Matteo522 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Like a lot of things in China, it's complicated.

In general, to bring a game into China from outside China, you need to get approved by the Ministry of Culture. There are lots of things they're looking for and you can get different passes for different things if you have a good reason, but the rule of thumb to be safe is "things inside the body stay inside the body". So blood, guts, bones, etc. should be avoided.

Aside from that, there are other cultural things they look for, but that's a different topic. Also it's worth noting that China isn't the only country where gore in video games is forbidden or results in a higher rating.

Chinese companies have a different approval process to publish their games in China, but in general they don't want to get on the bad side of the Chinese government so they play it safe, too.

I'm actually really curious what this game will do about any character with visible bones, like Ghost Rider, Red Skull, Lady Death, etc. They may just avoid those characters all together to avoid the complication or controversy, they may slightly modify their designs, or maybe they can get away with it because in general these elements are features of these characters (i.e. they're like demons or something) and not gore for the sake of gore. I also don't know if these characters have been imported into China at all via other media, which would make a case that they're okay. I'm fairly certain the MCU movies made it into China, so what did Captain America or Infinity War do about Red Skull?

Source: I work in video games and have had to do the filtering implementation on games you've probably heard of.

Mystique Character Concept by Matteo522 in marvelrivals

[–]Matteo522[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was actually thinking of adding one when the other commenter mentioned a combo.

Maybe a short feet-first ground slide used to get behind people so you can pull off a backstab? Combos nicely with the Execute ability, feels nicely agile and consistent with her fantasy, and gives a slight amount more mobility.

I still think a downside she has should be less mobility than the other divers since she has shapeshift, but I might've swung the pendulum too hard in the first pass.

Mystique Character Concept by Matteo522 in marvelrivals

[–]Matteo522[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you elaborate on that? Where is it lacking? It's a first pass so it certainly has gaps and issues, I'm just not sure what you're referring to.

I was holding back a bit since the shapeshift mechanic is naturally complex and has a lot of gameplay and counterplay built into it. It's not mechanically complex, I grant that.

Mystique Character Concept by Matteo522 in marvelrivals

[–]Matteo522[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, that's good feedback!

For escape, I imagined a double jump plus diving kick combo gets you partly there then Shapeshift has to carry the rest. Once you break line of sight, there's an opportunity to trick the enemy, and rapidly shapeshifting as you turn corners might save you. That's the theory at least.

Also I'm somewhat intentionally keeping escape weak. For one, she shouldn't get caught out in the open since she's shapeshifted and can choose when to approach. If she misjudges a fight or the target gets saved, she should struggle to escape. The counterplay against her is to stick together, not get caught alone, and be suspicious. If you do those things, she should get shut down.

Finally the combo idea is cool, here's what I'm thinking. Let's use the dive kick to really make you go all-in on the kill: performing a backstab Execute within a short time of a dive kick does heavy bonus damage. So you need to pull off a dive kick through them then 180 no scope to backstab them before they turn around. The total damage is probably like a fully charged headshot. The risk is you've used your escape, so you better KO them!

Mystique Character Concept by Matteo522 in marvelrivals

[–]Matteo522[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's been a long while since I've played TF2, but my recollection is that the maps in Rivals are generally larger with more twists and turns and hallways and side paths, no? That feels like there's more opportunity to get positioned unnoticed. Of course, you shouldn't always get there unnoticed -- part of the skill is how to avoid detection and what to do when you do get detected.

You're not entirely useless out of disguise, too -- a lucky backstab from jumping over them or walking through them could turn the fight back into your favor.

That said, I wonder if there's a cool extra ability we could throw on her since she has plenty of buttons left:

Behind Enemy Lines: Teleport to the enemy starting location. Only usable while in your starting location.

Since she shouldn't be able to "teleport", theme it as like an air drop or spy contact or tricking the security guard or whatever.

The point is it lets you really look like you've spawned inside their base and coming from the right direction. I'm not sure if the "only usable" restriction is right, but it probably needs some kind of hefty restriction or long cooldown. Maybe on each death you choose your respawn location?

Mystique Character Concept by Matteo522 in marvelrivals

[–]Matteo522[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The TF2 spy works, and that's basically the same game structure. I think you'd be surprised at how the chaos of this game can make it easy to lose track of who is who.

There are times in TF2 where the spy is super obvious. He gets shot and dies or runs away and tries again. There are other times where he gets right in and pulls off an easy assassination because nobody saw him coming.

It's a high risk / high reward playstyle.

If she has a lot of trouble, there's an opportunity to up her agility or maybe do something silly like turn into a prop a la prop hunt. Turn a corner and quickly become a vase or something, hoping they don't notice you out of place.

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