Riot Games Announces League of Legends: Dominion

Slycne

Tank Ninja
Feb 19, 2006
3,422
0
0
Riot Games Announces League of Legends: Dominion

Riot Games new map and game type is "23 minutes of awesome".

At a private venue in San Francisco, League of Legends [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107126-World-of-StarCraft-Modder-Gets-a-Job-Offer]. At its core the new map, Crystal Scar, is a capture, hold and dominate style game, but as Lead Producer Travis George put it, "we wanted to evolve the genre and League of Legends-ify cap and hold."

[video=3816]

This goal to really drive the genre forward has encompassed the whole design process, and is why we haven't heard much on the new content front. Riot wanted to make a big announcement with hands-on playable game rather than parse out a few screenshots and bits of concept art here and there. Every aspect of the experience was refined as the studio looked for what was fun and awesome in each area.

The objectives in Dominion are simple: capture and hold more points than your opponent's team, and for each point you hold over them you'll tick down their starting score of 500 by that amount. Do you spread out and take as many points as possible or do you stick together and secure the ones you have? These are the kinds of questions you'll need to wrestle with as you play. There are five points spread out along a circular path with interconnecting lanes passing through the center.

In addition to the map itself, a number of changes have been implemented to tailor cap and hold to League of Legends [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/93165-League-of-Legends-Will-Be-Free-to-Play]. Champions begin the match at a higher level and with more starting gold than in the classic gametypes. This gets you into the action right away. So instead of laning, farming and harassing at the beginning of the match, you will get into big team fights right in the first 30 seconds of the game and you'll have a variety of skills already at your disposal.

[gallery=407]

Items have been refined with new ones being added and a few problematic ones, particularly some of the powerful defensive ones like Banshee's Veil, restricted. The intent was to make all the champions [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/trailers/3791-League-of-Legends-Wukong-Champion-Spotlight] viable and let the items really balance out play. A new points system serves to emphasize team play instead of simply kills, deaths and assists. As one dev put it, "There are no hopeless moments in dominion, only heroic ones. Dying while holding off three opponents while your team caps two points is heroic, where as in classic League of Legends death is almost always a negative."

The result is a League of Legends [http://na.leagueoflegends.com/] experience that has quick and furious combat right at the get go and sustained throughout the average 20 minutes of play. After my first hands-on I couldn't help but scrawl 23 minutes of awesome in my notepad. Every match I played and observed came down to the wire, with less than 20 points deciding the match. I even got to take part in what was almost a 200 point deficit upset when we swept and captured all five points.

League of Legends: Dominion will be hands-on playable at Gamescom and PAX, and Riot Games promises to release it "when it's ready" but said to expect it soon after PAX.

If you are a fan of League of Legends and want more details about Dominion and Riot Games design process, here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/interviews/9061-Interview-League-of-Legends-Dominion-and-Riot-Games] is my interview with Lead Producer Travis George.

Permalink
 

NathLines

New member
May 23, 2010
689
0
0
Finally! A new game mode for a MOBA style game. About time. Just having one game mode is just such a waste in my opinion. I will be spreading the good word to my friends.
 

dosp5

New member
May 14, 2011
84
0
0
I understand why riot would be releasing this. They have to compete with both HoN and valve's dota 2. And I think this looks pretty cool.
 

Frostbite3789

New member
Jul 12, 2010
1,778
0
0
dosp5 said:
I understand why riot would be releasing this. They have to compete with both HoN and valve's dota 2. And I think this looks pretty cool.
They have to compete with HoN? They've pretty much crushed HoN. It went free to play out of desperation.

OT: Sounds like they got some Battlefield in my LoL. I am ok with this.
 

AngryMongoose

Elite Member
Jan 18, 2010
1,230
0
41
Good to see they've found a way to address balance without simply trying to juggle the characters between this and Summoners Rift. Twisted Treeline was bad enough.

Here's hoping this map will make my Morgana shine. My first impression is that carry tanks and tanky DPS are going to be in their element, but a phat chunk of health, a shield and an AoE nuke/stun should come in handy.
 

GiantRedButton

New member
Mar 30, 2009
599
0
0
Frostbite3789 said:
dosp5 said:
I understand why riot would be releasing this. They have to compete with both HoN and valve's dota 2. And I think this looks pretty cool.
They have to compete with HoN? They've pretty much crushed HoN. It went free to play out of desperation.

OT: Sounds like they got some Battlefield in my LoL. I am ok with this.
S2 games always goes free2play with their games after a while.
Also you'll find HoN doing very well, theres a new free hero every 2 weeks.
Don't really understand the fanboy circlejerk on both ends.
Anyway hope this thread stays relativly clean and new game modes is just what moba games need. you have this huge library of heroes seems like a waste not to do sth with them
 

AngryMongoose

Elite Member
Jan 18, 2010
1,230
0
41
NathLines said:
Finally! A new game mode for a MOBA style game. About time. Just having one game mode is just such a waste in my opinion. I will be spreading the good word to my friends.
Have you had a look at Bloodline Champions? It has Deathmatch, CTF, and Territory control as the main 3 gameplay modes.
 

Jandau

Smug Platypus
Dec 19, 2008
5,034
0
0
So that's why they canned Magma Chamber (the previously announced map)! Can't say I mind; Magma Chamber was looking like a regular 5v5 map, this is something fresh. I'm just wondering what the starting levels/gold are. It surely opens up some new builds and such. I'm guessing regen stats will be less important since there'll be no opening laning phase. Also, Doran's spam (cheap efficient items that don't build into anything) will probably be prevalent, but then again, it already is.

What I want to know is: Will there be lanes? Will there be minions? Will there be jungling? What are the starting level/gold values?
 

Slycne

Tank Ninja
Feb 19, 2006
3,422
0
0
Jandau said:
What I want to know is: Will there be lanes? Will there be minions? Will there be jungling? What are the starting level/gold values?
Will there be lanes? - Not really. The map is a big circle with capture points distributed evenly around it, and the center is a big interconnecting web between them.

Will there be minions? - Yes, minion waves do spawn, and they will help you capture points. Although overall the focus is much less on farming waves or using waves to assault.

Will there be jungling? - No, there are no neutral npcs on the map.

What are the starting level/gold values? - Level 3 and 1375 gp.
 

Extasii

New member
May 22, 2009
356
0
0
Alright, I'm totally pumped, and I only started playing LoL about 3 weeks ago :D

My Nidalee (and soon Akali) are PUMPED!!
 

LightOfDarkness

New member
Mar 18, 2010
782
0
0
Slycne said:
What are the starting level/gold values? - Level 3 and 1375 gp.
Dear god.
Ryze at level 3 with a flat mana yellows and quints+~20% CDR from runes, masteries and passive Q+Tear of the Goddess at the start of the game and enough left over for boots and health potions
 

Speakercone

New member
May 21, 2010
480
0
0
I was hesitant to purchase stuff in LoL due to how quickly I might get bored with only 2 maps and one game type. Might just have to spring for a character pack and a few extras now :)
 

NathLines

New member
May 23, 2010
689
0
0
AngryMongoose said:
NathLines said:
Finally! A new game mode for a MOBA style game. About time. Just having one game mode is just such a waste in my opinion. I will be spreading the good word to my friends.
Have you had a look at Bloodline Champions? It has Deathmatch, CTF, and Territory control as the main 3 gameplay modes.
Oh, yeah. I always forget about that one. I think it's because my mind never recognises it as a MOBA game. I think it's because it looks like a MOBA game without all the bullshit.
 

Alar

The Stormbringer
Dec 1, 2009
1,356
0
0
This should be very interesting... and, as I favor casters, the no Banshee's Veil is partly in my benefit! Of course, it's also partly against me as well, since the enemy team could easily have casters...

This looks... well, interesting. I'm not certain if I'll like it over the current mode, but I will certainly have to give it a shot.
 

Redratson

New member
Jun 23, 2009
376
0
0
Hell YES! That looks awesome, I can not wait to play a match like this! Goin to own peeps up with Swain! : D
 

Shycte

New member
Mar 10, 2009
2,564
0
0
Level three? That's like 2 points in Reckless Swing.

The Wrath of Lokfar approches...
 

Twilight.falls

New member
Jun 7, 2010
676
0
0
Riot seems to be very confident about LoL. Rightfully so, as they're packing 15 million subscribers.

Pretty smart of them to be showing off Dominion at Gamescom, which is also where the Dota 2 tournament will be had.

Speaking of which, kinda weird the Escapist hasn't reported on that. I'd imagine a 1million dollar prize pool for a gaming tournament would be newsworthy.