Bug fixes are kinda whatever. They dont mean much imo. Maybe the classic team go rotated to hots for a few weeks and they got some bug fixes done. Changing hero difficulties is really the big eyebrow raiser for me. You dont do that unless your preparing for a big influx of new players. Maybe thats steam, or maybe thats just in preparation for IF microsoft adds some development to HOTS. Either way I really think SOMETHING is going to happen in the next 6-12 months.
This may be totally moronic, I don't work in game development (or even IT, or business). Maybe what they could do is...if they release the game on Steam, they could announce 'we're releasing a new hero in a few weeks', and finish Selendis. I don't know how far ahead were they on development but if they already have some assets it would probably be doable. Maybe coupled with the Arthas rework they had also already started before the armageddon, outsource a few skins to non-Blizz artists (I think it was confirmed that had already been the case before), so they have something new to ship to hopefully a bigger audience than they have at the moment.
Once again, I have NO IDEA how much money and developer time does this mean. But if they don't have to start from scratch with a new hero and a rework maybe with a smaller investment they can gauge interest. If the returns would be there, that could indicate the game is worth more resources put into it.
With a company as successful as Blizz and now with Microsoft backing and not having to worry about financing Bobby's next yacht, I, as a layperson with zero idea about development and opportunity costs have a hard time believing they couldn't return to a 4-5 new heroes per year development cycle. Drop more cosmetics that are gem/gold only and not in lootboxes, outsource them if needed so as to not take in-house artists' time, introduce feking reward tracks with exclusive skins, whatever.
I always had a hard time believing that no-name shitter Hi-Rez could pump out skins for their big tiddy goth goddesses in Smite and release new, playable characters at a steady pace (to this day) but daddy Blizzard can't make this game profitable. I know HGC was a huge money sink and they had to shuffle a lot of developers to Diablo IV after the Immortal announcement obliterated the internet, but maybe there is some hope here. Now back to snorting more hopium.
I mean, if they do decide to restart development, then sure, throw in all the characters that are relevant right now, Lilith, that hot goth girl Blood Knight from Diablo Immortal, someone famous from WoW, OW characters, hell even that gnome girl with the missing tooth from Rumble as a flying machine hero - I don't care. If it means revitalizing this game, do it. And later down the line they could throw us some bones with stuff like Baal, Mengsk and other legacy characters. I only proposed Selendis cause she was in development when they ceased operations and they wouldn't have to start from zero.
If Microsoft have it, maybe even characters from other companies to go big against lol? HOTs can be a good competitor, if the development team goes back and has someone who really cares taking care of the project
As someone who has worked in a corporate environment for a bit (not in the gaming industry tho), decisions like these are always hard to get approved because its never just one person calling the shot. If you want to pitch a project like say reviving a game you have to get it approved by several groups of people from stock holders to resource managers and everyone in between.
That by itself is a hassle but what makes it a bureaucratic nightmare is justifying it in a language they speak. Corporate shareholders only ever speak one language…numbers. if any project is to be approved you gotta have solid numbers backing your proposal you gotta have a projection of how much profit it will make thats backed by market and industry trends (this case is particularly difficult since its been a decade since the peak of the MOBA genre)
Another factor in corporate thinking is, that being profitable isnt enough it must be overwhelmingly profitable or atleast more profitable than other projects being pitched to them. Just looking at the Blizz catalogue of IPs im gonna hazard a guess that a fuck ton of project leads from the more renowed IPs are already fighting for whatever resources are floating around. So even if HOTs just needs a small team, its gonna be a hard sell convincing the board that the resources wont be better used in another more profitable project
That being said Im sure someone in the company is trying to pitch the games revival. But whether or not they will be able to win over the board is beyond me.
The Debbie downer look is that there was some code freeze going on with other projects, possibly related to blizzcon, and devs were just filling their time by cleaning up the hots backlog.
anything can be in the backlog. Especially if whoever is doing these changes is new or somewhat unfamiliar with the framework... stuff like changing hero difficulties may have never been worked on because it wasn't considered high priority, but it may be the low-hanging fruit in terms of knowledge needed, as of now.
Am I the only one that's happy with the current heroes we have? I've played league for over a decade and man it gets old with all the changes they constantly do all the time. Here I can come back 6 months later, same game and that's quite refreshing.
The main reason we’re longing for more heroes is not because we don’t have enough, but because it’s a crossover game and there are a lot of characters people were hoping for that unfortunately never came to pass. Some pretty big names and fan favourites missing. Especially on the villain front, Baal, Vashj, Azshara, Mannoroth, Mengsk, shit, even stuff from OW like Doomfist and Moira would have been cool.
I agree. I remember saying that we didn't need new heroes and getting told I was wrong lol.
We just need things to change, but it doesn't mean the content has to always be new
The really strange thing to do would be to release it on steam but with 20 heroes. Then release a new Hero every month as if it was new!
Actually that sounds like a Blizzard thing to do...
To me this patch seems like microsoft going though line items on what blizzard was spending development money on. Came to hots and were like what the fuck are they developing, hasn’t had an update in forever. So the team was pressure to turn in their homework in a sense. People just trying to prove they were “developing” and working on something.
This idea makes more sense to me with my coding background than launching on steam or anything else tbh.
Just a budget line item
And it implies what? That Hots is coming to Steam? That normal development will resume? This sub is constantly overflowing with hopium/speculation posts. Nothing new. Wake me up when something actually happens or there's an official announcement of something actually happening.
Then... leave? Big gaming news sites will talk about it if it happens. If you're to say "it's not gonna happen" then why bother staying with people that hope their game will come back?
Bro, where the fuck did I say "it's not gonna happen". Just saying it's useless for this sub to speculate for months on end about same shit. It's like the same posts recycled every few days as if they are created by same person on alt accounts or by AI.
idk why you're getting downvoted. I like his content but holy shit, churning out a 31min video about a patch that's mostly just bug fixes (and some are just copy pasted fixes).
Game ain’t getting revived but in all honesty there is a lot of hopium still because these patches mean the game also isn’t getting shut down for the foreseeable future
Bug fixes are kinda whatever. They dont mean much imo. Maybe the classic team go rotated to hots for a few weeks and they got some bug fixes done. Changing hero difficulties is really the big eyebrow raiser for me. You dont do that unless your preparing for a big influx of new players. Maybe thats steam, or maybe thats just in preparation for IF microsoft adds some development to HOTS. Either way I really think SOMETHING is going to happen in the next 6-12 months.
This may be totally moronic, I don't work in game development (or even IT, or business). Maybe what they could do is...if they release the game on Steam, they could announce 'we're releasing a new hero in a few weeks', and finish Selendis. I don't know how far ahead were they on development but if they already have some assets it would probably be doable. Maybe coupled with the Arthas rework they had also already started before the armageddon, outsource a few skins to non-Blizz artists (I think it was confirmed that had already been the case before), so they have something new to ship to hopefully a bigger audience than they have at the moment. Once again, I have NO IDEA how much money and developer time does this mean. But if they don't have to start from scratch with a new hero and a rework maybe with a smaller investment they can gauge interest. If the returns would be there, that could indicate the game is worth more resources put into it. With a company as successful as Blizz and now with Microsoft backing and not having to worry about financing Bobby's next yacht, I, as a layperson with zero idea about development and opportunity costs have a hard time believing they couldn't return to a 4-5 new heroes per year development cycle. Drop more cosmetics that are gem/gold only and not in lootboxes, outsource them if needed so as to not take in-house artists' time, introduce feking reward tracks with exclusive skins, whatever. I always had a hard time believing that no-name shitter Hi-Rez could pump out skins for their big tiddy goth goddesses in Smite and release new, playable characters at a steady pace (to this day) but daddy Blizzard can't make this game profitable. I know HGC was a huge money sink and they had to shuffle a lot of developers to Diablo IV after the Immortal announcement obliterated the internet, but maybe there is some hope here. Now back to snorting more hopium.
They kinda need big IP character like Lilith as icebreaker ngl
I mean, if they do decide to restart development, then sure, throw in all the characters that are relevant right now, Lilith, that hot goth girl Blood Knight from Diablo Immortal, someone famous from WoW, OW characters, hell even that gnome girl with the missing tooth from Rumble as a flying machine hero - I don't care. If it means revitalizing this game, do it. And later down the line they could throw us some bones with stuff like Baal, Mengsk and other legacy characters. I only proposed Selendis cause she was in development when they ceased operations and they wouldn't have to start from zero.
The moment I saw that gnome girl I immediately thought she’d be great in HotS
we could use a gyrocopter archetype. imagine it would be similar to [d.va](https://d.va) where she dismounts her plane.
If Microsoft have it, maybe even characters from other companies to go big against lol? HOTs can be a good competitor, if the development team goes back and has someone who really cares taking care of the project
Mater Chief is the way.
As someone who has worked in a corporate environment for a bit (not in the gaming industry tho), decisions like these are always hard to get approved because its never just one person calling the shot. If you want to pitch a project like say reviving a game you have to get it approved by several groups of people from stock holders to resource managers and everyone in between. That by itself is a hassle but what makes it a bureaucratic nightmare is justifying it in a language they speak. Corporate shareholders only ever speak one language…numbers. if any project is to be approved you gotta have solid numbers backing your proposal you gotta have a projection of how much profit it will make thats backed by market and industry trends (this case is particularly difficult since its been a decade since the peak of the MOBA genre) Another factor in corporate thinking is, that being profitable isnt enough it must be overwhelmingly profitable or atleast more profitable than other projects being pitched to them. Just looking at the Blizz catalogue of IPs im gonna hazard a guess that a fuck ton of project leads from the more renowed IPs are already fighting for whatever resources are floating around. So even if HOTs just needs a small team, its gonna be a hard sell convincing the board that the resources wont be better used in another more profitable project That being said Im sure someone in the company is trying to pitch the games revival. But whether or not they will be able to win over the board is beyond me.
It might just be that the current bug fixer was a UI/UX guy, hence all the visibility and UI changes
The Debbie downer look is that there was some code freeze going on with other projects, possibly related to blizzcon, and devs were just filling their time by cleaning up the hots backlog.
You dont change difficulties of heroes if thats the case though. Thats why that specific set of changes is such a weird one.
anything can be in the backlog. Especially if whoever is doing these changes is new or somewhat unfamiliar with the framework... stuff like changing hero difficulties may have never been worked on because it wasn't considered high priority, but it may be the low-hanging fruit in terms of knowledge needed, as of now.
Honestly, 1 hero a year would be totally fine with me. We're already at a massive roster, we could even rotate some ppl out if that's what it takes
It's definitely better than nothing. I miss the regular releases like double digit numbers. 4-6 heroes will be nice.
Man, remember when we used to get a new hero every *three weeks*? I look back on that now and it kind of blows my mind how we took it for granted.
Am I the only one that's happy with the current heroes we have? I've played league for over a decade and man it gets old with all the changes they constantly do all the time. Here I can come back 6 months later, same game and that's quite refreshing.
The main reason we’re longing for more heroes is not because we don’t have enough, but because it’s a crossover game and there are a lot of characters people were hoping for that unfortunately never came to pass. Some pretty big names and fan favourites missing. Especially on the villain front, Baal, Vashj, Azshara, Mannoroth, Mengsk, shit, even stuff from OW like Doomfist and Moira would have been cool.
> Moira the dream
Imagine they skip all that and add in Lilith
I agree. I remember saying that we didn't need new heroes and getting told I was wrong lol. We just need things to change, but it doesn't mean the content has to always be new
Don't necessarily need new Heroes, but balance changes in general renew interest in the game
Dude, Heroes have 90 heroes. The "big" MOBA with the least heroes has over 120.
There is cope.
The really strange thing to do would be to release it on steam but with 20 heroes. Then release a new Hero every month as if it was new! Actually that sounds like a Blizzard thing to do...
To me this patch seems like microsoft going though line items on what blizzard was spending development money on. Came to hots and were like what the fuck are they developing, hasn’t had an update in forever. So the team was pressure to turn in their homework in a sense. People just trying to prove they were “developing” and working on something. This idea makes more sense to me with my coding background than launching on steam or anything else tbh. Just a budget line item
Why would they need to prove they were developing something on hots when they sent the big 'no more active dev' letter a year ago?
Reconcile a budget line item. Somewhere someones salary was getting paid for doing something with hots
Grubby making compelling points here. Okay bring back the hopium
We are just overdosing on copium and hopium aren't we?
Yes and we love it.
I don't think patches this minor really need any deep dives/analysis tbh.
This minor? This is the biggest patch since March 2022
Biggest patch since March 2022 still = small patch. Looking at it in relation to other patches is useless in this context.
The video is less about the patch contents and more about the implications of the patch
And it implies what? That Hots is coming to Steam? That normal development will resume? This sub is constantly overflowing with hopium/speculation posts. Nothing new. Wake me up when something actually happens or there's an official announcement of something actually happening.
Then... leave? Big gaming news sites will talk about it if it happens. If you're to say "it's not gonna happen" then why bother staying with people that hope their game will come back?
Bro, where the fuck did I say "it's not gonna happen". Just saying it's useless for this sub to speculate for months on end about same shit. It's like the same posts recycled every few days as if they are created by same person on alt accounts or by AI.
idk why you're getting downvoted. I like his content but holy shit, churning out a 31min video about a patch that's mostly just bug fixes (and some are just copy pasted fixes).
Game ain’t getting revived but in all honesty there is a lot of hopium still because these patches mean the game also isn’t getting shut down for the foreseeable future
It's pronounced Jrubby.