Official SMITE

The official Tumblr of SMITE

[officialsmite-blog1]

Developer Update: Technical Improvements

                    With Blake Edwards & Chris Larson

Hey guys, MLC St3alth here!

Today we’ll be going over the new addition of fog to the Season 5 Conquest map as well as a few other technical improvements made to SMITE. Everything you see is still a work in progress; the team is working their butts off every day to make their vision for this map a reality. This will be our very last Season 5 sneak peak until we reveal the whole map at HRX. You guys will finally have the chance to play it yourselves on the PTS on January 17. If you’re joining us at HRX, you’ll be able to play it at the show next week! Without further ado, let’s get rolling.

Season 4

Season 5

When SMITE was in beta we experimented with tons of features. One that didn’t make it out of beta, and has remained on the top of the community request list, is Jungle Fog. We’re super excited to re-implement it in Season 5.

Senior Software Engineer, Blake Edwards was kind enough to shed some light on some of the work we did to bring back this long requested feature.

To implement fog in Season 5, we utilized a combination of fog volumes and particle effects. This closely matches the gameplay design of limited vision, and also provides a more realistic, eerie look to the jungle. Looking closely, you will notice that taller objects peek out of the fog and so do other Gods when using height-based abilities. In addition, artists also have been able to carve out areas from the fog, providing more visibility around the camps.

Season 4

Season 5

This is brand new tech we created specifically for the Conquest map! The new fog makes it incredibly clear what you have vision of and what you don’t.

Here’s a quick message from SMITE Executive Producer, Chris Larson:

The team continues to work hard and deliver new advancements to the core technology of SMITE. We hope as you start to play Conquest in Season 5 you will discover and appreciate the small details that were put into the map. Also players that are on older gaming PC's will not be left behind on the fun because performance was at the forefront of our efforts!

I can't wait for Conquest to be played in 2018, and to share in the excitement of what I consider our greatest map produced to date.You don't have to worry that the team may decide to sit back on our achievement and take a break... No, we have already started on the next awesome SMITE map!

And there you have it! I’ve had a great time sitting down with everyone around the SMITE office getting all the details about the Season 5 Conquest map. I hope all of you reading this have enjoyed the time we’ve spent together these past couple weeks. On January 17 we will release our PTS for the new map so you will have a chance to provide us first hand feedback. We will be searching for your feedback and trying our best to improve the game around it.

But let’s not get too excited about next year quite yet because we’ve still got things to worry about in the present: HRX. That’s right! The grand finale of all things Season 4 begins in less than one week. Be sure to catch the best teams in action as they face off to see who is #1. Love you guys. See you at HRX!

- MLC St3alth <3

[officialsmite-blog1]

Developer Update: Jungle Camps & Bosses

                                        With HiRezAjax

(https://imgur.com/a/XZqd1)

Howdy friends, MLC St3alth here!

I was able to pull our Lead Game Designer, Ajax, away from his work this holiday season so he could share some more Season 5 Conquest details. Today, we’re going to be looking at the some of the changes we’ve made to the jungle. The Art team wanted me to remind you all that these images are still a work in progress, so only judge us harshly. :)

All of the Season 5 buff camps have been remodeled as exciting and new creatures, instead of variations of cyclopes. We took lore inspirations from mythical Greek creatures and crafted completely new buff camp areas to better fit the new monsters.

Speaking of new monsters, everybody’s favorite Manticore is back! We found the poor guy asking for change from the Gold Fury. We felt bad so we decided to give him a job at the Red Buff.

We’ve changed the buff drops to be cooler and also reduce confusion about when the buff can be picked up. The drop animation is much more defined, and buffs can now be picked up as soon as they touch the ground. This change makes it easier to know when you can start running away from a camp after successfully picking up a buff.

(https://imgur.com/a/lcbFA)

Gold Fury

Gold Fury will see some slight design changes to stats/rewards in Season 5. Our goal is to make an early Gold Fury feel less snowball-y, while making a late game Gold Fury more impactful. We’ve totally remodeled this boss to be based more off of an actual Greek "Fury," which is a demon from a part of the underworld, instead of a bird lady.

(https://imgur.com/a/JIPCo)

Oracles

The Oracles are back, and still function the same as in Season 4, but now have their own camp area. We found that the Oracles sharing a camp area with Gold Fury felt cluttered and was confusing.

This camp got a complete remodel to match the aesthetic of the rest of the map!

(https://imgur.com/a/UWduH)

Portal Demon -> Pyromancer

Say goodbye to the Portal Demon, and hello to the Pyromancer! This Jungle Boss comes complete with a new model, and a NEW gameplay design.

Instead of being granted a portal when your team kills this jungle boss, your fountain will be granted a blessing that gives your entire team a speed boost whenever they leave the fountain. This gives players more flexibility in how they use the buff, they can go anywhere, not just to the Fire Giant area.

(https://imgur.com/a/dkgBa)

Fire Giant

Fire Giant’s new model is based on Surtr, the Bringer of Ragnarok. He will keep his ranged, melee, and rift attacks from Season 4, but will lose his pools attack. We’ve also given him two brand new attacks to replace it!

Fire Giant will also gain the "evolving camp" status where he becomes more difficult to take down, but offers a larger reward after the game reaches a certain point.

Our goal for these changes is to provide a unified aesthetic to the map that breathes new life into the jungle, while improving the gameplay experience.

That’s it guys! We’re looking forward to hearing what you all think.

- MLC St3alth

[officialsmite-blog1]

Season 4 Ranked Rewards

Season 4 of SMITE is drawing to a conclusion and we are preparing for our Season 5 update. You all have been improving and climbing the Ranked ladder for 3 splits. Now it’s time to reveal the End of Season rewards for Ranked play!

This Season Players will receive rewards based on how many Ranked games they have won. Here’s a sneak peek:

Players that have won 75 Ranked games in Season 4 will receive a Limited Skin for The Morrigan

(https://imgur.com/a/cJodL)

(https://imgur.com/a/hJEtp)

Players that have won 150 Ranked games in Season 4 will receive a Limited Loading Frame

Players will get up to 3 Loading Frames(one for each Ranked mode); each featuring the best rank they ended any split with.

You can read a full explanation of this Season’s Ranked rewards here: https://hirezajax.tumblr.com/post/164297641068/how-will-the-season-4-ranked-loading-frame-rewards

You still have a few weeks to rack up those wins and climb the ladder. Good luck on the Battleground!

[officialsmite-blog1]

Developer Update: New Art & Gameplay Clarity

                                    With Chuk & Christian

Hey friends, MLC St3alth here with another update!

Today I’ll be grabbing two of our art leads and letting you take a closer look into the Season 5 Conquest map art direction.

Everyone has different toasters. Some might have little dials that toast your bread longer. Others might have colorful lights that shine for all to see. No matter your toaster, we want it to be able to run SMITE. Whenever we improve the art in any of our games, performance is always at the forefront of our minds. We want to make sure that everyone who is currently able to play SMITE will continue to be able to after the update.The team is focused on making sure the update will run as close to, if not smoother than, current SMITE on lower end machines while still looking awesome.

Without further ado, here is a message from SMITE Art Director, Chuk and our SMITE Environmental Lead, Christian:

With SMITE, we are always working to update the look of the game, and we alternate through the maps one at a time.

Last season, we updated Clash to its current Egyptian theme, and made some very conscious artistic and stylistic changes to the environment art.

The goals of this were:

Make the art more exaggerated and fun

Allow the background (the map) to be a little more consistent so Gods and abilities stand out from the environment

Decrease the overall contrast/noise to make the map more relaxing on the eyes

Since the redo, we found the new Clash map to be much more enjoyable to play on, and we set out to recreate that magic in the Season 5 Conquest map.

The artistic achievements we've been striving for in the rebuilding of the S5 Conquest map are:

Capture the fun look, consistent tone, and easy-on-the-eyes style that have been established in our new environments.

Have very distinct visual themes, coloration, and context for all of the jungle camps

Have vertical landmarks that make it easier to navigate to the map

Bring back fog to make the Jungle more scary to be in, and to also give some visual basis to support the shorter character clip out distance

We used the concept of the "Risen Underworld" to give us a good context to have the two sides of the map be VERY visually distinct from one another.

(https://imgur.com/5c16rU8)

This not only makes the map more interesting, it makes the two sides of the map much clearer and more distinct from one another. The rift down the center provides a cool way for us to landmark the center of the map. It also provides some context that makes the two bases being right next to each other slightly more believable.

(https://imgur.com/Ctgthjo)

We wanted very distinct areas that support the Major Camps, Gold Fury and Fire Giant.

(https://imgur.com/oeU6WS9)

We’ve learned a lot about what makes Titans feel good over the years, and we redesigned them specifically to apply this knowledge.

The Titans are now lore inspired!

We made them ground based because flying titans make it harder to judge their position and hit area

They now only have overhand attack animations making it much easier to see who the Titan is focusing with its attacks

We made some other cool updates, synergizing the art and gameplay. The Phoenix wells now open and close reinforcing the state the Phoenix is in. We've also greatly improved the readability of weaker "reborn" phoenixes.

Chuk, SMITE Art Director

Christian, SMITE Environment Lead

That’s it for today! What do you guys think? We’re super excited to share this with you and are looking forward to hearing feedback.

- MLC St3alth <3

[officialsmite-blog1]

Developer Update: Map Symmetry & Addressing Snowball

                                 With Ajax & PonPon

Our goals for Season 5 Conquest map are to improve gameplay and pacing through map symmetry and mitigating snowballing.

The Season 5 map will feature perfect vertical symmetry between Order and Chaos. Lanes and Jungle paths will have the exact same shape on top and bottom. This balances the map, and removes timing differences to each side. Overall, this creates a more consistent gameplay experience.

Snowballing is an issue we want to tackle in Season 5. Snowballing becomes a problem when players are completely unable to make a comeback. Currently, If I’m playing Scylla in the mid lane and the enemy Mage and Jungler kill me at level 1 I’m going to have little to no impact on the early game. In Season 5 I have more of a chance to come back from that.

Here are a few changes we are making to improve the pacing of the SMITE conquest experience:

Update: The Season 5 map is 20% wider

Goal: This encourages players to make more strategic decisions about their positioning. When you rotate as a team, it is a big deal; there is more risk and reward to this decision.

Update: Jungle Camps respawn faster, but are worth less XP & gold.

Goal: Junglers have more decisions to make. Skilled junglers can maximize their impact while early mistakes will not end the game.

Update: The values for XP sharing, or splitting, have been decreased

Goal: Currently, if you are not grouping up and sharing XP, you are playing wrong. In Season 5, players can tactically choose when to group up or when to make a solo play.

Update: Jungle and Lane Minions are worth more over time

Goal: We believe that the early game is too important. We wanted to slow that down without slowing down the game overall by ramping up the stakes overtime. This feature allows us to fine tune the pace of Conquest going forward.

When all of these changes come together in Season 5, there will be a much larger focus on the individual impact of each player. The changes to map size, camp pacing, and XP splitting create more scenarios where players need to split up. Grouping up early will no longer be the only option. Players will need to make more decisions about their position on the map. The changes will make the early game less punishing, while also allowing skilled players more opportunities to gain incremental advantage as the game progresses.

And the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the Season 5 map! Take a look and tell us what you think. We are looking forward to having a constructive discussion and hearing your feedback to evolve Season 5 together.

- MLC St3alth <3

[officialsmite-blog1]

Season 5 Conquest: Developer Update

Hey guys, MLC St3alth here!

For the last few months the team here at Hi-Rez has had their heads down focused on HRX, Patch 5.1, and the Season 5 Conquest map. Starting today, I will be stealing the developers from their work to give you a look into our major goals for Season 5.

This map, along with all our changes, will continue to evolve throughout the Season. This is a work in progress. Changes are happening constantly and we’re excited to bring you in on the process. We’ll be updating this blog as we get things to show you so bookmark this page! Here’s what we have lined up:

Later today: Map Symmetry & Addressing Snowball

Thursday December 21st: New Art & Gameplay Clarity

Tuesday December 26th: Jungle Camps & Bosses

Thursday December 28th: Technical Improvements

PTS for Patch 5.1 will start on January 17th, 2018 for an extended PTS. During this time we’ll be monitoring gameplay and listening to your feedback. During the PTS and after the map goes live, we will continue to update the Conquest experience to improve gameplay throughout Season 5.

As a former pro player, I’ve really enjoyed seeing the team work on the newest map. The Design team is gathering lots of feedback and making tweaks for our daily playtests (which I get top damage in) to make Season 5 Conquest awesome. The artists are going 110% with the map, making it look and feel great. I am excited to see what you guys think! All of us here are looking forward to working with everyone as we continue to evolve this map for years to come.

- MLC St3alth