OFFTOPIC - League of Legends

[xienwolf]

Ok, so I have been distracted from code writing for a little while (don't worry, I am not getting too rusty, I still give advice to quite a few people), and it is somewhat difficult to get back to it until little Xien can entertain (or at least soothe) himself for a little while. I have started to play League Of Legends in some spare time because it only takes me about 10 minutes for a game (if I play alone) and I can leave it as soon as Xien squawks to inform me he is once again awake (again, if alone) or one handed if he insists on sleeping in my arms (most days he does that...).

Anyway, just spotted that they have a referral reward system which I thought was mildly amusing (there is a HUGE prize if you get 10,000 people to not just join, but play till level 10, which takes a while if you aren't lucky with actual Human vs Human matches). While actually getting the 10,000 is not believable, and even just getting more than 10 is unlikely, the main goal I had in mind was to wind up with some people on there whom I actually know (and thus will forgive me if I leave mid-match to tend my kid ). For all I know some of you already play. If you do, amazingly enough (yes, sarcasm) Xienwolf wasn't already taken so it is my name there as well. If you don't, claim me as your referral and stick around till level 10 (I'd even let you 1v1 with me for easy kills )

It is a multi-player game, action type, but with an overhead view instead of an FPS or over the shoulder one. Limited abilities per champion which you utilize, and an overall fairly nice and simple design, leaving PLENTY of room for player skill to define how things progress.

Anyway, use the link above (repeated here) if you are interested in making an account so it links back to me

 

[Valkrionn]

Holy hell, created by the same guys as DOTA and free? Downloading it now.

 

[xienwolf]

It has a micro-economy (buy things in game), but fortunately one of the ones where anything you can pay cash for you can also (eventually) get for free. I worked it out and the build I am aiming for costs a MERE 300 practice games


But yes, pretty dang fun, so I started looking for this DOTA thingie, finally learned what it was and was disappointed it wasn't something I could get in on myself (I actually found this game through a Tower Defense iPhone app, thought the main game would also be TD... I was quite wrong)

 

[Valkrionn]

It has a micro-economy (buy things in game), but fortunately one of the ones where anything you can pay cash for you can also (eventually) get for free. I worked it out and the build I am aiming for costs a MERE 300 practice games


But yes, pretty dang fun, so I started looking for this DOTA thingie, finally learned what it was and was disappointed it wasn't something I could get in on myself (I actually found this game through a Tower Defense iPhone app, thought the main game would also be TD... I was quite wrong)

You... You didn't know what DOTA was? Sacrilege!

My friends and I played Starcraft back when it first came out (middle school... Long time ago) and then Warcraft. DOTA is what we played (Aeon of Strife in Starcraft). Awesome game.

DOTA techno song by BassHunter - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXKd7uuehlw

 

[xienwolf]

I never moved from StarCraft to Warcraft. Someone tried to get me into WC once by showing me.. I think it was WC3. All I remember was that Dragons were basically blimps, and you could blow up a huge chain of them with their AoE on death hitting each other. That didn't do it for me

EDIT: Watching a few other vids on Tube shows that this is much like DoTA, probably a bit better since this time the engine is built specifically for this type of a game, and it was made later, so better graphics

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

ah, Warcraft 3 was terrible. essentially starcraft with fancy graphics. not worth the money, definitely.

 

[Grey Fox]

Order Now says the game costs 30$.

What do you get with a free account?

If my connection was better I would play games like this a lot.


There is also another DotA clone out there, Heroes of Newerth.

 

[xienwolf]

Paying cash only gets you Riot Points to spend in their store. Free game is the full game really, but until you save up enough Influence Points to permanently unlock a general you are stuck with whatever the free ones are at the time, so far that is about 10 generals and changes roughly each week. The cheapest generals you can get (which includes my favorite so far) are 450 points, which doing games 1on1 against computer means 9 practice sessions.

Not sure precisely what you get with the Order Now option, I just ASSUME it is starting riot points to encourage you to purchase expensive generals immediately which you haven't played yet and don't know if you'll enjoy or not. The most expensive generals only cost about $7, so for $30 you should be able to get quite a bit going for you (though I find it completely useless to do so).

The order now page states:
* 20 additional playable Champions
* 4 powerful Summoner Runes
* $10 of Riot Points for use in the store
* An exclusive Champion skin, exclusive to the Digital Collector's Edition - Annie (hover over to view the full-size image)

I assume that the "20 additional playable champions" just means that you start with the cheapest 20 already unlocked for you, as I haven't seen any generals which I cannot eventually get for free.

4 extra runes is probably the same, but you cannot see what runes someone else is using, so it COULD be things not in the store I suppose. You have 30 total runes, so 4 isn't a big deal, especially as each individual rune is pretty weak.

The exclusive skin might be nice, but only if it turns out you like Annie, and she is a tiny character so you wouldn't see much anyway (unless there is also a new appearance for her pet Bear)

 

[Valkrionn]

Got an account, under the name Valkrionn. Of course.

 

[xienwolf]

You jumped in to playing the PvP instead of just Bots pretty quick

 

[Merddyn]

Query: I'm at step 3 of registration and've yet to see a form for entering who referred me. Where is that or what'd I miss for that?

 

[xienwolf]

If you used the link I gave, the URL itself links us up. Mildly strange system IMO, but decent.

 

[Grey Fox]

Not that strange, used since advertisement came to the internet basically

 

[Valkrionn]

You jumped in to playing the PvP instead of just Bots pretty quick

Playing with one of my buddies. Won about half our games... Favorite heroes so far are Blitzcrank and Corki.

 

[xienwolf]

Corki was kinda cool, and Crank has a sweet combo if you can pull it off. My favorite remains Sivir, with Udyr as a fallback (since he is free right now). I joined a few days too late to try out Anivia for free, but she sounds like a sweet runner up to Sivir once I can save up so many points.

 

[darkedone02]

i don't like DOTA at all, the community is the reason... even if you are new, you do one ed up and they just try to kick you out of the game. All dota-like games have this.... that's why i don't like it.

 

[Valkrionn]

You can't kick players in League of Legends.

Which isn't as good as it sounds; Had one asswipe decide the best way to get points was to go afk the whole game (He specifically said this before going AFK). Doesn't matter that you make more points if your team wins, oh no, he's going to go afk until he can buy himself a better champion. Even though the 'free' champions are actually the purchasable ones on rotation, and have some very good ones.

Can you tell it annoyed me?

 

[Grey Fox]

I have no idea what the Champion I've been using is called. But I've only used one so far.
It's the guy who can go into 4 different stances, Tiger, Turtle, Bear and Phoenix.

He's pretty nice. When I play I mostly specialize on defense and such, and with my gear I generally take life leech, health and armor. As well as speed so I can chase down people and run away.


I got this awesome double kill last game where I had two people on my lane all game (where I was alone). This made me reach higher level than those guys, but they were also cooperating pretty well, and one could hide in the bushes and surprise me, while the other was quick.

Now the Bear stance gives a speed boost for a few seconds when you activate it with the bonus of your attacks able to stun as the passive ability.
One of the 2 spells I took is one where you run fast and through obstacles like the creep too, which also helped.

For the double kill it went down something like this. The two other champions were close to a tower of ours and at about 50% health. One got a bit stuck in the creeps and I stunned him. He died quick, then I chased down the other one by using the spell and activating the bear stance again, stunned him and killed him

 

[xienwolf]

Udyr is pretty awesome I use him when someone beats me to Sivir, or I am tired of playing the role of target practice.

One issue I have is the lack of maturity which is rampany. While you cannot kick for small mistakes, you can cuss up a storm, then eventually aim to sabotage your team, rather than teach an obvious newbie. Also many of the names are horribly offensive.

 

[WarKirby]

Udyr seems too awesome. In every single game, he's the first one grabbed. And people talk about how awesome he is.

If every player goes for the same character repeatedly, you know there's something wrong with the game design. Still, seems a fun game. I'll see how I like it in the long run.