NOBA
Dota 2 is one of my favorite games but it has a colossal barrier of entry. I wanted to make the simplest version of a MOBA that I could by removing almost all character control mechanics other than movement, and ability activation. I added some deck building mechanics on top for fun.
Position and Attacking
NOBA’s combat is mostly automated, and the player only has control over where their units are, and when they use abilities. Most abilities don’t require any further input other than activation. The goal here was to make positioning the main influence of combat.
All units have an attack range which is shown as a circle around that unit when it’s selected. If an enemy is within the attack range, the unit will automatically start attacking that enemy. However, if multiple enemies are within the attack range, the unit randomly chooses which enemy to attack. This check happens with every attack.
The end result is that you want to position your units in such a way to only have the enemies you want to be fighting within your attack range. Your opponent can disrupt your plans by positioning their units in attack range of yours, spreading out their damage.
Abilities
As the battle rages, players gain Mana Points that they can use to activate their units abilities. The mana pool is shared between all units, so the player has to be careful about when and how they use these abilities. Some units have cheap abilities that only cost 1 mana, while others have more complex and damaging abilities that cost more.
Generally, abilities don’t require further input from the player aside from activation. For example, Chain Lightning (pictured below) will automatically target the closest enemy to the caster, and then jumps to the nearest enemy from there, up to 3 additional times.
Passives
Some units have passive abilities which dramatically changes how they are used in battle. Here are some of my favorites.
Priest: Heal
The Priest is a special unit that will heal nearby allies within their attack range. Their damage is low, so you want to keep them behind your units so they can heal. If an enemy enters the Priests attack range, they will randomly choose between attacking the enemy or healing allies. This is a perfect example of how positioning is paramount in NOBA.
Tank: Iron Hide
The Tank is, as the name would suggest, a tanky unit that gains bonus defense for every enemy unit that is within range to target the Tank. This makes the Tank the perfect unit for no only disrupting enemy attacks, but staying in that position for as long as possible. Its active ability Taunt will force all nearby enemies to attack the Tank for 3 seconds, which perfectly synergizes with its passive.
Berserker: Berserk
As the berserker loses health, its attack speed increases. In a group fight this becomes especially dangerous if the enemies have multiple targets to deal with. The Berserker gains its attack speed buff, and is capable of dealing tons of damage if the opponent doesn’t find a way to focus him down.
Drafting and Deck Building
Unlike traditional MOBAs, NOBA has a deck building aspect to it. Each unit is put into a deck, up to 15. When a unit dies in battle, a new unit is randomly drawn from the deck and placed on the battlefield. There are no limits to how many times a unit can be drawn, but players don’t get a lot of benefit out of duplicates beyond a certain point.
New cards could be obtained from booster packs that would be purchased with in-game currency players earn from winning fights against other players. Cards can also be upgrade with this currency to increase their power. I would later find out about “Clash Royale” which was disheartening because there are a lot of similarities here. It’s also validating in a way.
The deck building mechanic was not fully developed for the prototype. In place of that players draft a deck from 3 random units at a time until they have 15 units.
Win Conditions
Deathmatch
In this prototype the goal of the game is to deplete the opponents Morale by killing their units. Each unit killed depletes Morale by at least 1, but some stronger units could deplete it by 2 or more.
More win conditions were planned, but didn’t make it into the prototype. These would be broken out into separate game modes, or combined together to create matches with multiple win conditions.
Capture the Flag
Fairly obvious to those who know this game type. Players would try to pick up a flag from the center of the map and bring it back to their home base to score a point. Whoever has the most points at the end of the round wins. If a player scores 3-0 against their opponent the round ends immediately.
Control the Point
Players take control over various points around the map by placing their units near the point for a bit, eventually capturing the point for themselves. Points can be contested and captured by enemy units. Whoever has the most points controlled at the end of the round wins. If a player captures all points the round ends immediately.
MOBA
Similar to a normal moba the map is split into 2 lanes with defensive towers guarding the players home base. Players attempt to destroy the home base of their opponent by destroying one or both towers, and then the base itself. The game ends when one of the bases is destroyed.
Absurd Controls
If you have taken the time to try NOBA you may have noticed the control scheme is insane. The game was initially made to see if I could build a system that allows players to control multiple units at once with a gamepad without any sort of mouse like behaviors. I think this succeeded in some ways, but failed in others.
I’m happy with the methods for selecting, deslecting, and moving units. Players can tap A, X, or Y (on an Xbox controller) to select a unit. Tapping the button again will deselect the unit. Players can also hold one of those buttons to select a unit until they release the button. I find myself switching between control methods as the situation calls for it. When I want to manage a unit very closely, tap select is ideal. When I need to quickly reposition everyone, hold select works well. In both cases players are able to select all 3 of their units at once, and move them at the same time.
The biggest failing of this system for me is that, because units have different movement speeds, its very difficult to move a group as a whole. I believe the solution here is to either slow all units down to match the slowest unit selected, or average out their movement speed between all selected units.
Ultimately this game would best played with a touch screen, or mouse.
