Game Mode

[Tyler]

There was a little talk on vent last night about using a different game mode. -SD is pretty good, but it can lead to some imbalanced team setups.

Looking at the different modes in http://www.dota-allstars.com/wiki/index.php/Commands I would like to try any of the following

1) -LM: Each team gets to pick a hero in turn, each player gets 20 seconds to choose. Too slow -> random hero.
2) -XL: Same as 1, except players in blue or pink get to ban 3 heroes each before the picks
3) -RD: Similar to 1, except the choice is restricted to 22 random heroes from either faction.

For 1 and 2 we can add -RV to alternate games to give both teams a chance to play either faction.

Hopefully these modes would allow us to get some balanced teams going eg Tank, pusher, ganker, support and nub. If we can make the better players pick first then all the better, then less chance of picking some newbies anti-hero for some cheap kills.

It would also help us newbies as we can practice playing a smaller number of heroes.

I think -XL is the one try first as it might reduce the whining about op heroes

[delling]

Hehe, I didn't know there was a exclusion mode!

I am a fan of RD - played it quite a lot with friends/at LAN. It's used for tournaments too, so obviously it's considered 'the most fair', or at least the most stable.

-rdxl I guess!

[Cwave]

Just ordered TFT on gcshop.nl...

God help me...

[Comrade Nox]

getting it tommorow aswell, I think

[Tyler]

Gogo Cwave!

You can't have -XLRD dell, the primary modes are exclusive

[delling]

Oh, darn...

Well, still, everyone likes a bit of AP, and with 6 heroes removed, that's pretty cool.

We can come up with some house-rules, like 'pink/blue get free choice, turquoise is always agility, orange is tank...'

Or something.

[Palmar]

lulzy, I really like the ida of -RD, since it picks 22 heroes, and you need to select from those. It makes us play more variety of heroes.

We used to play -AR, but that one was quite stupid cause one team could end up with all tanks while the other one would be all casters. That's why we started SD in the first place.

Another idea is just to play -SDNS (no swap).

[Palmar]

And then there are some cool secondary mods I'd like to try for giggles (one game or so).

-RV   <-- awesome, makes the opposing team pick your heroes!

-SH   <-- everyone gets the hero blue picks, LOL 10XCHARGE OF DARKNESS (or 10 phantom lancers, imagine the chaos).

-SC   <-- adds the occasional supercreep to both faction's waves.

-AA/AS/AI   <-- All agility, all strength, all intellect. Might be fun! forces players to only have one type of hero in play.

-WTF  <-- BECAUSE WE CAN, ALL MANA COST = 0, NO COOLDOWNS

[Gaeios(Graxlos)]

I actually prefer -sd by far.

You dont get to pick your favourite hero but with 3 to choose from odds are you wont get the worst hero ingame and with a bit of communication both teams should be able to be pretty good. and with -sd you can still swap inside the team.

[Palmar]

yah Grax, but in our games it tends to end up with the good players getting a hero they're familiar with, thus raping the opposition.

That's why I'm suggesting -SDNS

[Gaeios(Graxlos)]

that will really always be a problem. I have tried every hero more than once and I have  tried the "old" heroes tons of times.
I think the swapping feature is benefitting the new guys more since I would be happy to swap to get a newb a hero he is familiar with.

[Hugman]

Whoaah, just noticed this thread.

Yeah so i too want different modes used in dota. There are two problems we have with this though.

1. if its any kind of random mode, someone will end up with a "unbalanced" hero, and some one will end up with a hero they consider crap, or are not very good at playing. This normally results in lots of whinage about how OP one hero is, and tends to spoil the game. Personally i think that random type modes are the fairest, and it forces people to learn new heros, and get good, rather than playing the same hero they are expert with. I used to think that Weaver was a shite hero, until i started playing ar/ardm games and was forced to get at least "decent" with all heros.

2. The other extreme we seem to get is when we use some type of draft/pick mode. This normally just results in the same heros pretty much every game, and therefore the same OP ones. This also results in some wicked/OMG!OP! team combinations depending on which side you happen to be on (i seem to remember a davion/abbadon/root game, that i enjoyed  ).

The only thing i can think of which might work is a random mode that lets you select certain heros (i.e. Davion/Brood/Abbadon)that will not be included in the random pick (I think Tyler mentions something about this). Then we can have random hero games, without the so called "game breaker" heros.

Myself i think there are no OP heros. I think that there are situations which make the game somewhat onesided, unless dealt with as a team, such as:

1. Different hero combinations that are hard to counter(clinkz/drow/troll/vipe /venom, any combination of 3 for example).

2. Allowing known late game heros to get high level without hinderance. Razor for example, pretty much can rape anyone if allowed to get high level/items, but this is part of how the hero is built. We KNOW that Razor is powerful late game, so why didn't the team set a early game nuker (tinker/lina etc)to counter him? Its no good whining that he is overpowered when, you allowed him to get that way.

3. Laning against your anti-hero. if you find yourself facing a hero that is basicly built to rape you (antimage-vs centarghostdude, earthshaker vs phantom lancer, etc), ask for a lane change, work out a who on your team is best set to counter him and get him to lane with you.

4. Heroes with an invisibility. Personally i don't seem why this is a problem, but i have noticed that in our games most players still fail to take wards early, which just allows formentioned heros to gank and escape with impunity. One of the heros i hate playing is Riki, as his main advantage is totally nullified by anyone smart enough to get wards early, when he gets lvl 6. The same also applies vs heroes like Brood, Crix, Gondar, and especially rooty (even Weaver if you can target him quickly). Often in the games we play i find that people don't take wards, and then Brood or Crix get taken to red, and then hide in a web/sandstorm, escaping the gank.
The lesson is, if you are laning against these heroes, get wards early, no more "OMG Brood just jumped out and killed us both with his ulti, he is so OP!", as you should have seen that coming, dumbass.

Annnnnnnnnnyway the main thing is that i think we should do different modes, rather than the same one each game.

Shardakan.


P.S. We could always do the Troll vs Undead teams using AP 

[Ino]

-RV   <-- awesome, makes the opposing team pick your heroes!

Hehe that sounds awesome.