5/14 - FREE LAN ft. SMITE @localbattles
Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 2:17 pm
Now Available: FREE Nightly LAN events by Local Battles in Fort Lee, NJ. 8-10pm
Hey Local Gamers. @localbattles we wanted to explore other games as a community. Every weeknight for the remainder of the month we will be featuring 1 FREE game between 8PM-10PM. Limited Tickets are available for reservation first come first served. http://lb514.eventbrite.com/ Any additional time after 10:00 PM will be billed.
Today's featured game (5/14): SMITE
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxS7V2D_NDc
Smite (stylized as SMITE) is a third person multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Hi-Rez Studios for Microsoft Windows. In Smite, players take on the visage of a mythological god and take part in arena combat, using powers and team tactics against other player-controlled gods and non-player controlled minions.
Gameplay
General
Players are formed into two teams, with five players to each team. All players begin at opposing sides of a map in the Spawning Pool. There are three continuous 'lanes' running from one side of the map to the other. Each lane is defended by a 'Phoenix' which is accompanied by a pair of extra defensive towers. Phoenixes and towers deal a large amount of damage to any enemies that come too close. The players are also accompanied by 'minions', these minions spawn at the Phoenixes every thirty seconds and run along their lane until they meet opposition and attack immediately. Minions will not only attack players and other minions but towers, Phoenixes and the Minotaur. Defensive positions will prioritize enemy minions over players, allowing players to attack a turret without receiving damage. Once nearby minions die or an opponent arrives to defend the tower, the tower will re-agro to the enemy player. If a game is going badly for a certain team then they can decide to surrender, though this requires a majority of the team to agree.
Players have to choose a God to play, this is akin to champions in League of Legends or heroes in Heroes of Newerth and DotA. Currently players can choose between 35 Gods from six different pantheons, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Hindu, Roman, Mayan and Norse mythology. Two players on the same team cannot choose the same God, although they are free to choose Gods from the same mythology. The player controls their god in a third person perspective, which is a unique characteristic of this multiplayer online battle arena game, as other games of this genre are typically played from a top-down perspective. Each god has a basic attack and four spells with varying effects, such as area of effect damage, crowd control, buffs and many more. These spells are acquired and upgraded when a player's God levels up by gaining experience from being in range of creeps when they are killed, taking down towers or phoenixes and killing enemy players. The maximum level is 20 and each successive level is harder to reach. Gold, which is used to buy equipment that increase power, defence and passive effects, potions, wards and abilities, is accumulated through standard periodic income, by gaining experience, or by selling owned items.
The large areas between the lanes make up what is called the 'jungle', where computer-controlled monsters periodically spawn at specific locations distributed symmetrically across the map. Killing these monsters grants the player who lands the killing blow one of the following buffs for a limited time, depending on which monster was killed: mana regeneration, damage, movement speed or cooldown reduction. There are two special neutral monsters who spawn less frequently, the Fire Giant and the Gold Fury. When killed, they grant the entire team who killed it a powerful damage buff for a medium length of time or a set amount of Gold, respectively. There also exist monsters which do not offer a buff, only experience and gold.
Game modes
There are six main game types: conquest, practice, joust, arena, domination and assault. Conquest is solely based on the general gameplay and within conquest there are several other modes, the first of which is novice. Novice mode is for new players to get a feeling for the game and to understand the basics of the game. Once the player hits level six they will no longer be able to join novice mode and will have to matchmake using the normal mode. Normal mode is similar to novice but is for more experienced players. Currently, arranged teams are limited to three players total in normal matchmaking. The match manager will try to give the opposing team better solo players if there are teamed players together on a side. Five man teams only is another mode, as the name suggests you can only enter this mode once you have a team of five, this mode is more of a challenge than the others because teams will usually have some sort Voice over IP software such as TeamSpeak. There is also ranked conquest mode.
Another game mode is solo practice mode, in this mode there is only one lane and you go up against an NPC god, here a player can learn a new god and hone their skills. Joust uses the same map and rules as practice, where a pair of players can engage in a one-versus-one duel.
Arena is played 5 versus 5 with minions and side-objectives including buff camps and Gryphon Guardians. But rather than a single end objective, in Arena your team earns points for killing enemy players and minions with the first team to deduct 500 points from their opponents being crowned the winner.
In domination there are three control points called Obelisks of Power, these Obelisks are neutral at first and once captured enemies that go near them will be attacked, however, unlike towers, they will respawn and can be captured again by either team. Each team starts of with 400 tickets and you must reduce the enemy team to zero tickets to win the match. Enemy tickets are reduced when your side controls two of the three points, as well as for each enemy kill.
Assault is a new game mode that is based on the ARAM (All Random All Mid) custom match mode from other MoBA titles. Each player is assigned a random god and they are all taking charge in one lane with the inability to recall back to base, so the only way to buy items from the shop, is to die or buy a portal. The objective is similar to that of Conquest, destroy the enemy team's 2 towers, Phoenix and Minotaur.
Matchmaking
The current matchmaking system uses a modified version of TrueSkill ranking system. Around December, there was a feature added that allowed players to choose between US and EU servers, but was later removed from the game due to issues with the matchmaking system. When a player enables matchmaking, the Arena and Conquest queues now operate on a 5-minute match-making timer. Every five minutes, matches will be made from the group of people in queue at that time. This helps optimize match-making.
Other featured games this month
15th- TERA Online
16th- Terraria
17th- Gunbound
18th- StarWars Old Republic
19th- Portal 2
20th- Neverwinter
21st- Super MNC
22nd- Guildwars2
23rd- Day of Defeat Source
24th- Crossfire
25th- Battlefield 3
26th- Aion
27th- APB Reloaded
28th- Smite
29th- TERA Online
30th- Neverwinter
Hey Local Gamers. @localbattles we wanted to explore other games as a community. Every weeknight for the remainder of the month we will be featuring 1 FREE game between 8PM-10PM. Limited Tickets are available for reservation first come first served. http://lb514.eventbrite.com/ Any additional time after 10:00 PM will be billed.
Today's featured game (5/14): SMITE
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxS7V2D_NDc
Smite (stylized as SMITE) is a third person multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Hi-Rez Studios for Microsoft Windows. In Smite, players take on the visage of a mythological god and take part in arena combat, using powers and team tactics against other player-controlled gods and non-player controlled minions.
Gameplay
General
Players are formed into two teams, with five players to each team. All players begin at opposing sides of a map in the Spawning Pool. There are three continuous 'lanes' running from one side of the map to the other. Each lane is defended by a 'Phoenix' which is accompanied by a pair of extra defensive towers. Phoenixes and towers deal a large amount of damage to any enemies that come too close. The players are also accompanied by 'minions', these minions spawn at the Phoenixes every thirty seconds and run along their lane until they meet opposition and attack immediately. Minions will not only attack players and other minions but towers, Phoenixes and the Minotaur. Defensive positions will prioritize enemy minions over players, allowing players to attack a turret without receiving damage. Once nearby minions die or an opponent arrives to defend the tower, the tower will re-agro to the enemy player. If a game is going badly for a certain team then they can decide to surrender, though this requires a majority of the team to agree.
Players have to choose a God to play, this is akin to champions in League of Legends or heroes in Heroes of Newerth and DotA. Currently players can choose between 35 Gods from six different pantheons, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Hindu, Roman, Mayan and Norse mythology. Two players on the same team cannot choose the same God, although they are free to choose Gods from the same mythology. The player controls their god in a third person perspective, which is a unique characteristic of this multiplayer online battle arena game, as other games of this genre are typically played from a top-down perspective. Each god has a basic attack and four spells with varying effects, such as area of effect damage, crowd control, buffs and many more. These spells are acquired and upgraded when a player's God levels up by gaining experience from being in range of creeps when they are killed, taking down towers or phoenixes and killing enemy players. The maximum level is 20 and each successive level is harder to reach. Gold, which is used to buy equipment that increase power, defence and passive effects, potions, wards and abilities, is accumulated through standard periodic income, by gaining experience, or by selling owned items.
The large areas between the lanes make up what is called the 'jungle', where computer-controlled monsters periodically spawn at specific locations distributed symmetrically across the map. Killing these monsters grants the player who lands the killing blow one of the following buffs for a limited time, depending on which monster was killed: mana regeneration, damage, movement speed or cooldown reduction. There are two special neutral monsters who spawn less frequently, the Fire Giant and the Gold Fury. When killed, they grant the entire team who killed it a powerful damage buff for a medium length of time or a set amount of Gold, respectively. There also exist monsters which do not offer a buff, only experience and gold.
Game modes
There are six main game types: conquest, practice, joust, arena, domination and assault. Conquest is solely based on the general gameplay and within conquest there are several other modes, the first of which is novice. Novice mode is for new players to get a feeling for the game and to understand the basics of the game. Once the player hits level six they will no longer be able to join novice mode and will have to matchmake using the normal mode. Normal mode is similar to novice but is for more experienced players. Currently, arranged teams are limited to three players total in normal matchmaking. The match manager will try to give the opposing team better solo players if there are teamed players together on a side. Five man teams only is another mode, as the name suggests you can only enter this mode once you have a team of five, this mode is more of a challenge than the others because teams will usually have some sort Voice over IP software such as TeamSpeak. There is also ranked conquest mode.
Another game mode is solo practice mode, in this mode there is only one lane and you go up against an NPC god, here a player can learn a new god and hone their skills. Joust uses the same map and rules as practice, where a pair of players can engage in a one-versus-one duel.
Arena is played 5 versus 5 with minions and side-objectives including buff camps and Gryphon Guardians. But rather than a single end objective, in Arena your team earns points for killing enemy players and minions with the first team to deduct 500 points from their opponents being crowned the winner.
In domination there are three control points called Obelisks of Power, these Obelisks are neutral at first and once captured enemies that go near them will be attacked, however, unlike towers, they will respawn and can be captured again by either team. Each team starts of with 400 tickets and you must reduce the enemy team to zero tickets to win the match. Enemy tickets are reduced when your side controls two of the three points, as well as for each enemy kill.
Assault is a new game mode that is based on the ARAM (All Random All Mid) custom match mode from other MoBA titles. Each player is assigned a random god and they are all taking charge in one lane with the inability to recall back to base, so the only way to buy items from the shop, is to die or buy a portal. The objective is similar to that of Conquest, destroy the enemy team's 2 towers, Phoenix and Minotaur.
Matchmaking
The current matchmaking system uses a modified version of TrueSkill ranking system. Around December, there was a feature added that allowed players to choose between US and EU servers, but was later removed from the game due to issues with the matchmaking system. When a player enables matchmaking, the Arena and Conquest queues now operate on a 5-minute match-making timer. Every five minutes, matches will be made from the group of people in queue at that time. This helps optimize match-making.
Other featured games this month
15th- TERA Online
16th- Terraria
17th- Gunbound
18th- StarWars Old Republic
19th- Portal 2
20th- Neverwinter
21st- Super MNC
22nd- Guildwars2
23rd- Day of Defeat Source
24th- Crossfire
25th- Battlefield 3
26th- Aion
27th- APB Reloaded
28th- Smite
29th- TERA Online
30th- Neverwinter