What do you want to know about Champs?

[KingFu]

Hope you don't mind if I quote your answers to my questions from the Alpha thread, as I found them very informative. Hopefully it will answer someone else's question(s) so you don't have to type it out again. I'd put in Vys' posts as well, but I don't want this post to take up too much of the thread.

I will do my best to answer, great questions

[Favorite class thus far?]
1. Of the 5 classes available (Tank, Fighter, Mage, Assassin, Supporter) I have enjoyed playing the mages. Mostly because, with every MMO, mages have always been my preferred role to play. The one class I didn't think I'd like was the Fighter - and I was very wrong (might be my second favorite class as of now, but too early to judge). Mages and assassins are the damage classes, while fighters are the second most tanky and have medium damage. You will find that every class has something unique to bring to the table - I wholeheartedly say this. I can tell that STG carefully thought about the role of classes in the game and have done an excellent job ensuring that no matter what class you play, there is an important role you need to take on.

[Team synergy and balance?]
2. It is most certainly crucial to have a balance between classes. I have tried on numerous occasions matches with only tanks, with only mages or supporters... you will find that losing is inevitable with this strategy. If I may provide my honest opinion, I believe STG needs to tweak the supporters a bit - they do an incredible job of freeing teammates from crowd control effects, but they lack overall HP recovery (heals). There are only 2 supporters to use at the moment, so perhaps I may be calling this out too early.

Your second point however is important. One of the suggestions, which is definitely a must need, is a way to view the classes that YOUR team has chosen prior to starting the match. So as of now - yes this is a pain. This is currently being worked with and talked about. Miss-matches are extremely vital to the flow of teamwork, so i foresee that STG will do something to accommodate this.

[Simplicity = one-dimensional?]
3) That is definitely a possibility - it really depends on the beholder, however. For me, I love having that perfect balance between strategy and simplicity (something that STG has done beautifully with CoC). Keep in mind this is a mobile game. There is LOTS of strategy to deploy in the simple allotted time of 5 minutes - you would be quite surprised. All STS games in their early stages have evolved tremendously. I anticipate that within months of the game's release, players will be asking for new maps, new types of matches (CTF for instance). The objective of the game right now is thrilling, and that definitely comes with the excitement and anticipation of the game.

I've only had a week to play the game, so there is still a lot more to test, analyze, discover, implement and fix. I created a thread in the general discussion which is open to any questions that you guys may have. Great questions, though. Questions like these will help with more suggestions in our alpha testing.

Edit:
I've also gone ahead and requested a sticky for this thread to hopefully get more people to see it.

[Vystirch]

I'd put in Vys' posts as well, but I don't want this post to take up too much of the thread.

Edit:
I've also gone ahead and requested a sticky for this thread to hopefully get more people to see it.

Done.

Hey Kingfu! I will answer these questions to the best of my ability.

What's your favorite class/characters? What does a good team composition seem to be?
1. Right now my favorite classes are mages and supports. My favorite characters are Violet, Cinder, Modus, (mages) Khalid, and Ulric (supports). I feel every team should be composed of at least one mage, one tank/support, and one assassin/fighter. The team composition problem has been addressed with a solution.

How do classes synergize?
2. Classes have everything they need to synergize well. Balancing and defining the strengths and weaknesses of each class and champion will obviously happen as it is very early alpha.

Do your see the game as being too one-dimensional?
3. Suggestions have been put forward to give the game more dimensions. There is great potential in the current alpha release to evolve so that it will stigmatize competitive play and fan viewing over twitch/E-Sports to an even higher degree!

I had a much lengthier explanation worked out for each of your questions, but for now this is what I felt comfortable sharing. I may ask STS if they would allow me to write a blog once or twice a week having them review every entry before publishing it.

-Vys

Hi again KingFu!
How does player skill factor into CoC?
As with all games and with any MOBA, skill factors in to make apparent discrepancies between players. In most every MOBA out there it is possible to make up for a lack of skill by simple sitting aback and farming more than your opponent. Giving you a an item advantage. You then hope that this statistical advantage will help remove any noobishness that may be apparent in your gameplay.
As you alrdy pointed out CoC has no items/gold which mean there is no farming to gain an advantage. This does mean that the game comes down much more to skillful plays and team communication/composition. While this could be viewed as problematic I do not think it should be viewed this way. The inclusion of a ranked leader board will help match you against players of the same rank. Which will hopefully result in you playing against players your same skill level.
I know that this is not always the case in LoL and DOTA, where you will find players in bronze who are just as skilled as players in gold. Eventually though a player who is consistently more skillful than opponents should climb any ladder that is developed for CoC.

There is a focus for us as t1 alpha players to help make this game more competitive. And the lack of currency and itemization does make CoC more competitive.

Hopefully that helps,
-Vys

Is the learning curve bad?
Edit: Default0519 right above this post mentions that "The lack of creeps... Will reduce the learning curve significantly." I am going to refute him by saying that the mechanics that replace creeps will have a learning curve all to their own. I can see it being more complex than creeps with proper development. So stay tooned untill I can share more.

Thanks for getting it sticky!

-Vys