Guardians of Middle Earth Announced! A LOTR-themed DOTA game only for consoles.... - Polidicks

[quote]Monolith Productions has one of the most varied histories in video game development. The studio first cut its teeth on first-person shooters, finding a cult hit in the popular No One Lives Forever series. Then, it was a vast experiment with The Matrix Online, before coming back to shooters with the Fear and Condemned series of games. And now, the company's trying to reinvent itself yet again with two licensed downloadable titles for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment: first Gotham City Imposters from earlier this year, and now Guardians of Middle-earth. Guardians of Middle-earth is a weird one. It's a licensed Lord of The Rings title, starring characters from Tolkien's series. It's a MOBA game, similar to League of Legends or DOTA 2, featuring Tolkien's characters fighting it out across a battlefield full of AI-controlled troops. And it's a complicated, deep online multiplayer title, designed for competitive play. "What's so weird about that?" you ask? It's being developed only for consoles. [img]http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2012/06/gomeheader.jpg[/img] Monolith started with the premise that it wanted to "make a new experience for console players," says producer Tim Coolidge, and the team turned early to the MOBA genre. Pioneered by Defense of the Ancients, originally a Warcraft 3 mod based on a Starcraft map, MOBA combines RTS select-and-move mouse controls with action RPG progression on a 5v5 player competitive map. It's a dense game structure, full of complex strategies and quick mouse-and-keyboard controls. In other words, it's exactly the kind of game you wouldn't bring to consoles. "One thing we found out really early on was that single target abilities are really hard to pull off. Obviously on a PC you can click on a specific guy. But on the console we found that anything where you're single targeting was really difficult," says senior producer Ruth Tomandl. "So what we did is pretty much all the abilities are line attacks or cone attacks around you, and if a Guardian is within that cone then that's who your ability will really affect." Believe it or not, the controls work: I was able to pull off abilities and combos with nearly as much complexity as the PC MOBAs. Legolas, for example, has a rooting ability that locks enemy players down, as well as a quick dash ability, and another one that knocks back targets away from him. After a little bit of practice, I was able to use those abilities together, dashing forward past a fleeing enemy, knocking him back into harm's way, and then locking him down in place for the finish. The toughest part is making sure the aiming is lined up (you move with the left stick, and target with the right), but it's amazing that it works on a controller at all. [img]http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2012/06/gomeinline.jpg[/img] There are other changes to the game as well, like the complete lack of an item store. Usually, players progress and customize their characters by buying items with earned gold during a match. "Something like an item store is a lot more ponderous than we wanted to go with," says Tomandl. The game still needs progression, however, so Monolith came up with two solutions. First, each character has what's called a "gem belt," in which you set certain gems that then activate as a match goes on. You can customize your gem belt to boost a character's speed, damage, spell ability, or whatever, and multiple gem loadouts can be saved and chosen before a match (to counter an opposing team's heroes for example). Secondly, the game's towers are upgradeable. As the game goes on, players can unlock upgrades to add a healing area spell to towers, or boost their damage or health. Any player on the team can upgrade the towers by standing near them, and so there are plenty of choices to be made there. That helps the game's progression, too – taking a tower down at endgame can be very different from taking it on early. Guardians has a lot of interesting ideas in it for sure, and it'll be fascinating to see how console players react to the very complicated MOBA gametype, along with the specific tweaks Monolith has made to the genre. "I think the controls ended up being similar to other console games like action RPGs," says Tomandl. "There's a little bit of synergy there, so people used to playing other console games pick it up all right." If Monolith can successfully bring the growing MOBA gametype over to console players when the game arrives this fall, it may be able to redefine itself as a developer yet again. [/quote] [url]http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/10/guardians-of-middle-earth-brings-moba-to-xbla-and-psn/[/url] It's like Halo Wars all over again.....

source?

some nice ideas but console? really?

Nice, the first console MOBA. Hopefully it doesn't suck ass.

[QUOTE=Sergeant Stacker;36281908]Nice, we don't get RTS games on consoles very often. Hopefully this one doesn't suck ass.[/QUOTE] Except, it's not a RTS game. It's a moba.

[QUOTE=fixture;36281899]some nice ideas but console? really?[/QUOTE] LoL and DOTA 2 are both PC only aren't they? It's only fair that consoles get an exclusive DOTA spinoff.

Some games are PC only, some games are console only Not that big of a deal

Actually, a MOBA might just work for a console...

Monolith is the best schizophrenic developer ever. Blood, Shogo, Gruntz, AVP2, NOLF, F.E.A.R. this game might be fun.

Guardians of Middle Earth Announced! :) A LOTR-themed DOTA game :'D only for consoles D:<

Farming in this is going to be about as strenuous as team fights are in DOTA

[QUOTE=aydin690;36281936]Except, it's not a RTS game. It's a moba.[/QUOTE] lol moba IS an rts

We're sitting here in Lothlorien, Playing a little GoME, We push on and annoying, With Uruk-hai we are toying, We're sitting here in Lothlorien, Playing a little GoME, Around Moria we're creeping, In the Dead Marshes they're sleeping... [YOU SHALL NOT PASS!] But in seriousness, a MOBA for consoles doesn't sound like a good idea; combining XBL immaturity and broness with the elitist and nasty personalities of most MOBA players (nurtured in part by the mechanic of feeding), and you have a Chaos God waiting to be born, likely one of war and violence similar to ol' Khorne. Thing is, I wouldn't imagine Lord of the Rings as a MOBA; Warhammer 40K maybe, but never LOTR. If they make it so that feeding isn't an issue, like a player getting killed over and over doesn't result in feeding the other team, then the nasty attitude bred by MOBAs wouldn't be as intense and/or prevalent in this game.

It's an interesting idea. Very interested to see how they work it for the consoles.

What the fuck is a MOBA?

I'm actually kinda OK with this.

I wonder how they'll manage to make an AoS to work in console. I mean, the mouse control is vital for it. (I know you can select your abilities, buy thing, etc. with hotkeys, but for everything else?)

[QUOTE=JerryK;36282148]lol moba IS an rts[/QUOTE] err no. RTS = control large army of units separately or together in a multitude of matchups (2v2, 3v3, 1v1v1 , etc) MOBA = control one avatar in a game of 5v5 (can do 3v3 or 1v1, but that's very rare since the games aren't balanced around those matchups) MOBA's were developed using a map editor from an RTS game, but they're quite different mechanics wise.

[QUOTE=JerryK;36282148]lol moba IS an rts[/QUOTE] No it's not. A moba is team based instanced ARPG RTS = real time strategy - have to balance economy as well as multiple unit control RTT = economy is generally removed and a simplified system is added in (either unit call ins or units are predefined) RPG = long overarching game with character development and low player in game skill required (out of game knowledge needs to be up though) with generaly at least some out of combat skills arpg = longer character growth game with high player action impact and very little plot MOBA = single unit control, team based, short term instance growth.

[QUOTE=thisispain;36281962]Monolith is the best schizophrenic developer ever. Blood, Shogo, Gruntz, AVP2, NOLF, F.E.A.R. this game might be fun.[/QUOTE] Gruntz was the fuckin' bomb when I was a kid. But on topic, not sure of what to think because of controlling issues for single target/aimed skills(if they decide to implement it, judging by the article they will probably stay with cone attacks and AoE around you attacks

How will getting last hits as a ranged hero even work?

I wonder if it will be dumbed down so console players can handle it.

It's likely, since my expectations of most console kids is kinda low. Then again, Lord of the Rings fans are kinda into deep things, I think, so shallowing it would probably alienate them a little.

It's going to be so awkward getting and buying items on the go quickly. It's just so much easier with a keyboard and mouse.

Good thing all MOBA's suck massive balls anyway so we wont miss anything.

Meh. Not a MOBA player

[QUOTE=Fatfatfatty;36286808]Good thing all MOBA's suck massive balls anyway so we wont miss anything.[/QUOTE] they suck or you just suck at them?

I'm betting it'll be dead within a couple months

[QUOTE=madmadmad;36283995]What the fuck is a MOBA?[/QUOTE] A League of Legend term used to describe the WC3 DotA map layout.

[QUOTE=JerryK;36282148]lol moba IS an rts[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=EliteGuy;36287043]A League of Legend term used to describe the WC3 DotA map layout.[/QUOTE] MOBA is a game genre and stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena and is not necessarily a RTS. The games Monday Night Combat and Super Monday Night Combat are MOBA's and they are not RTS.