This is the official blog for the Homestuck fangame, Universes Unite! Universes Unite is to be a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena), similar to League of Legends, DOTA and Smite.
We claim no ownership over any of the characters used. This IS a fangame, after all! We're currently still in development (Not even to Alpha quite yet!), but we would love to answer any questions you may have or get your help. Yes, you, dear reader! We're currently in need of:
One, publicity (What's a fangame if nobody knows about it?) and
Two: additional programmers and modelers!
If you have any skills in the Unity engine with C#, or you are experienced with Blender 3D, it would be a great help to have you around!
The concept of this game sounds pretty ambitious, but also incredibly exciting. I'm getting all bent out of shape thinking about its possibilities! A question I had was: Are you going to be basing any of the character mechanics in U:U off of similar champions/heroes in other games? For instance, I could see Jade using a spatial rend or something to set up a trap with similar effects of Caitlyn's Yordle trap, and then snipe enemies. Or would she be more of a mid laner?
Jade is planned as a sort of mid-lane tank, being able to both lay down a huge burst of magic damage while generating a personal distortion field to deflect attacks! A good chunk of our writing crew has experience with games such as HotS, LoL, and even Smite, and obviously there's tons of inspiration to be found in these varied kits. Of course, without letting on too much about the core abilities of some planned characters, I can say without a doubt that even the four kids are interesting and unique. However, there's one problem: Still no new coders. With no staff, we've just got a thick sheaf of program files. We're still stuck in that department, left with about half of Dave and John while every other team has their full contribution to the alpha ready to go. While I'm sure you guys are pretty tired of hearing the plea, we really do need more coding staff to continue Universes Unite!
Is there going to be the possibility of being any god tier or only those of which you have a character for. Also will you be able to be Calliope, Calliborn or any of the beta trolls.
For the Calliborn/Calliope question; Yes - you will be able to play as them, though they will be the same character. Their ult will the the ability to swap between the two of them.
As for the God Tiers, so far, no. You will not be able to play as a generic "God Tier" Character (Ex: Knight of Hope) but the kids and trolls will have their own "God Tier" Skins, and some of their moves relate to their classpects.
The only reason is because it'd take wayyy to much work to run through all the combinations. (144 characters!) Though, having a SBurb arena game in which this was the case would be kinda cool.
Approximately how many playable characters will v1.0 ship with? I'd love to help out but I'm still a major beginner at Unity andC#
Considering we're going to have do a lot of testing before hand, the exact number isn't final, but there's a good chance it will either be 8 (the bare minimum for a 4v4) or 16. (the beta kids + alpha trolls).
Of course!We're just going through a lot of the coding now, so most of the progress is silent. Combine that with the life bluh's some of us are facing, and, well..but don't worry, its still being worked on :)-F
So will characters be a mix of standard/god tier or what?
Actually, yes.
Their appearances are actually skins, though weather or not the 'defaults' are Got Tiger, it depends on the character. Naturally, none of the skins will be bought with real money, and we're planning to start with releasing several skins for the kids at initial launch with various skin/hair colors since we are aware that many people have different headcannons for their ethnicity, and with the style we're using, white skin on white hair looks rather odd. :)
Unfortunately, work has kind of ground to a halt. We've got 3/4 of the main kids done, but our coders have kind of slowly disappeared. We've also been extremely busy aside, so the search for a replacement has been a bit of a struggle. Thankfully, all of the materials that past coders and modelers have worked on are saved in Dropbox and I believe they're also annotated. If anybody finds someone educated in C#, send 'em this way!-Thirtiethelement
Yes, actually! We're just in a bit of a lull due to lack of the constant startup content we had earlier. What we're working on now is the actual code, more detailed modeling, and other bits and bobs that will actually make the game playable. (And not shabby to look at!) However, that's not to say something for you guys isn't in the works as we speak.
Welcome back, everyone! It's been a hell of a long couple of weeks. Finals and such have gotten most of the team bogged down in personal issues, and as we all know, real life comes ahead of the project. But now that the season for finals is over, we can get back to work on the really cool content we've been anxious to do! As an apology for the long hiatus of content, here we have the very base of the first map, Earth! Earth is going to be a 1v1 stage set on Maple Street, and is slated to be the first map we'll use for testing, balancing, and debugging.
Hey Guys!
Just stopping by with a very minor update. Most of the team have been busy the last few weeks due to the finals that come with the last few days of school, but in the upcoming month we hope to kick progress up a notch!
Here's what the complete Zillyhoo model looks inside the game (Sorry for the small size) with the shaders and correct colors, courtesy of our awesome modelers. Looks cool, doesn't it? Hopefully we will be able to bring in more info and sneaky little previews soon. ;)
And one more thing: good luck to all of you out there who have finals!
V: Hello and welcome to the second Character Development Corner! This time joining us is me, Varkarrus, the head programmer, creative director, project starter, and ego extraordinaire! We promised a Strilonde, and here you have it. Dave Strider, aka the Knight of Time aka Coolkid Tycoon aka Mr. Bursty As All Hell Powerhouse. And joining me, in the italics, is…
Z: Zem. Strilondes seem to have a mysterious hold on me. We’ll have to see if I can escape Roxy’s alluring grasp next time. But we’re not here for her; we’re here to talk about the first MG-based, melee assassin in the game; Dave.
V: Dave is a lot squishier than John. But his base movespeed, base mangrit (at least, in the later game) and base attackspeed all outshine John. It seems to me like Dave really does deserve to be the hero, afterall.
Z: And for good reason. His base vitality and vitality scaling are all slightly higher than his ectobiosister’s, as is his base and scaling armor, and his movespeed is the highest of the three introduced Heroes so far.
V: But overall, the fact that he needs to get really close, combined with his still relative squishiness, means he really has to commit to killing his enemies. Let’s take a look at his abilities, now.
Z: Dave’s passive ability is “Overclock”. Every time Dave strikes a target, he gains a stack which grants him 4 mangrit plus four more for every four levels he’s gained. However, each stack’s duration is independent, meaning that higher attack speed makes the passive that much more efficient. A stack will run out after 3 seconds, plus an additional second for four levels gained. This gives him theoretically infinite potential efficiency with the skill, capped only by attack speed.
V: See what I said about commiting? The more he dangerously attacks a foe, the more damage he deals. Okay, when I put it like that it sounds obvious, but for Dave, that factor is amplified significantly. His next ability is Coolkid Culling. Dave’s bread and butter attack, he teleports a short distance to a target, dealing damage that’s increased by how much the enemy is missing. In short? A perfect fight ender.
Z: The Culling will deal 60-180 base damage, and as a 100% scaling on bonus MG. For every 30% of missing HP, it will deal an additional 10%-18% damage. As well, if the skill is activated again within one second, he will blink back to his starting position, allowing for a safe disengage in a teamfight.
V: Dave really is built for speed. Really it’s hard to avoid him, and his next ability helps capture that. Accelerate is a self-targeted buff that significantly increases Dave or an ally’s movespeed.
Z: Along with the movespeed boost, his Overclock stacks will tick down at half the rate during Accelerate’s duration, making this an excellent skill for chasing down those near-missed kills. Next up is Rewind, in which Dave teleports toward the target location, marking four places in between. Timeclones will briefly appear in these locations with delays between them, and attack the nearest target for 40 + .3-.7 times his MG, and knocking them toward Dave. However, the same target cannot be affected twice.
V: Really, it’s not the best escape tool, you don’t want to send the enemy you’re avoiding headed your way. But between Coolkid Culling’s disengage, and Accelerate’s potential for running away, he really doesn’t need a third. Still though, it’s great for playing mindgames, teleporting past your foe, or teleporting into brush. His final ability, the ultimate, the big one, the mega-super game-changing havoc-wreaking apocalyptic destruction inducer, is Time On My Side. Dave summons a giant turntable in the fray, setting himself up to get kills against multiple foes. The turntable deals damage over time, scaling entirely off of the enemy’s max HP. It also slows enemies down significantly, and, as long as Dave is on the turntable, he gets complete immunity to crowd control. This even includes Gamzee’s ultimate, which you’ll hear about eventually.
Z: HoNk. With Time on My Side, you’ll be dealing between 3 and 8% of the enemy’s max HP per second, providing a great opportunity for you to start picking opponents off in order of squishiness.
V: Dave’s kit seems pretty good for assassinating, and that’s what it was built for, but what kind of assassin stands in plain view of their target before they kill them (besides Ezio)? Dave can lane alright, but it is favorable to have him start off in the jungle, taking care of underlings and popping out of bushes to help you finish off your lane opponents.
Z: We have an item in the grist shop that’s great to build on Dave. The Appearifier Rifle is one of the two final-tier jungle items. It buffs attack speed and mangrit, but it also buffs lifesteal and armor, giving him some much needed survivability. The lifesteal bonus from the Appearifier Rifle is doubled against neutral monsters, and killing large underlings causes them to drop an invisible ward that provides vision. In short? Killing monsters lets you also scope out potential targets lost in your jungle.
V: More detailed information will be released when we’ve completed our 3-lane map, but for now, I can give you these basic strategies. Clear your camps with a combination of Culling and your passive, or Accelerate and your passive. Similar to Warwick, from League of Legends, you have the option to start with a bursty first skill, or a second skill which buffs your damage output. After gaining a few levels, sneak into a bush near your target, and activate Accelerate when approaching. Teleport to the other side of them with Rewind, then smack them with Coolkid Culling. Provided your lane partner is capable of CC, it’s ideal that you remain near your target, AAing him to ensure the kill, but if you doubt for a second that the gank will be successful, it’s better to initiate with Coolkid Culling and use the built-in disengage in an attempt to escape.
Z: Hey, you can’t account for everything in the heat of battle. Well until next time, we’ll keep it
And, we're back! Our lovely graphics gal is back in the states, and our head programming and modeling team is getting back to work after a long week of exams! As a treat for you guys being so patient, here's the LOHAC theme for BlackbloodTyrant. Credit goes to Curt Blakeslee for Beatdown: Round 2, and to Robert Blaker for Upward Movement (Dave Owns).
We're really, really sorry that we've been so slow with updates these past few days. The next first look for you guys is supposed to be the in-game GUI -- However, our amazing graphics girl is currently busy with moving. However, we'll be rolling again in just a few days! We're currently working on Rose's model, the terrain for our first test map, and fixing up the last bits of pathing! See you guys in just a few days!
L: Hey everybody, it’s the Character Development team here. We have no less than 29 characters - not including Beforus trolls - already in development here, and it occured to me that everyone might want to actually hear about who we’ve got, where we’ve got them, and why we’ve got them like that. I’m Leafsword, part of the writing team - sorta the designers of the project, who are basically working out the mechanics of the everything. With me, I have Tato, a good friend of mine and a very talented… dice-roller? Mechanics designer?
T: I prefer the term ‘creative genius’ myself.
L: Creative genius, then. We’re going to, with the help of various other members of the dev team, illuminate every character we have planned - although we’ll start with those in the early releases.
T: The very earliest releases will be the very first characters we finish and play, and will be in the starting lineup for the alpha. And you know what that means, don’t you?
L: …
T: MORE TIME TO NERF THEM INTO THE GROUND.
L: MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
T: No but seriously. They’ll be the proof of concept of our balance model and the game in general. There’s at least one of every basic archetype in there - fighter, tank, mage, assassin, support, jungle.. you get the idea.
L: It’s really good that homestuck has so much variety. There’s plenty of unique characters to play with here.
T: Possibly too many. But let’s start with what we have, eh? Leaf, if you would be so kind as to reveal the very first character under the spotlight?
L: Sure! There were two obvious options here: John, being the first character introduced in the comic, and Dave, being the most popular in the straw poll at time of writing. They both have models, too. In the end, though let’s just start at the beginning and see where we develop from there, so the first character is JOHN EGBERT, people!
T: Okay, so he doesn’t look that impressive JUST yet. But you get the general idea. He will be making his appearance in UU in his Godtier outfit and will be delivering a righteous smashing with the Warhammer of Zillyhoo.
L: He’ll be a tank, through and through, with high defenses and plenty of HP.
T: But don’t think he does no damage. He has a passive that lets him deal more damage, and the crowd control he can put out is nothing to sneeze at. Speaking of which, let’s go through his skills.
L: Right, so the aforementioned passive is Wind Breaker. This marks anyone hit by John’s spells, and gives him extra damage if he autoattacks them. Or… he can not use them and save them for… something else.
T: Because how could we give him this massive hammer and NOT encourage him to deliver a solid thwacking? Not much to say here, really- this means he can close to melee range with his CC’d enemy and deliver some decent damage. Not great, but enough to help the rest of his team.
L: And Wind Breaker works very well with John’s other abilities. Do the Windy Thing is a charged attack, which sends out Tornadoes to send enemies flying.
T: They knock enemies towards John slightly, as well. Important thing to note, here: Do the Windy Thing scales off Prankster’s Gambit (magic attack) rather than Mangrit (Physical Attack).This presents John with a bit of a problem when it comes to building for damage. As yes, John can get some good numbers by building Mangrit AND Prankster’s Gambit, but where do the tanky items fit after that?
L: It’s probably not worth investing too much into Windy Thing though. It’s low damage and low cooldown might make it more useful as a trigger for Wind Breaker than as a seperate ability.
T: His next ability scales off Prankster’s Gambit as well, although not very well. It’s A Breath of Fresh Heir, which forms a protective cyclone around John that damages enemies somewhat. Its main attraction though for the discerning customer interested in living a long time is that it boosts his movement speed and his armour.
L: Live to fight another day. And that’s helped even further by his third ability, Heirfront. This ability is basically a dash, turning into blue winds and effecting everyone he passes through.
T: It also damages and slows enemies, further adding to the ways in which he can mess with enemy mobility. Fairly straightforward this. With two engages and two escapes, John is going to be very difficult to escape or kill. But he still doesn’t do much damage, and his ultimate skill just adds to the dilemma…
L: Ah yes, his ult. Remember the part in the comic where John uses wind to drill a hole in the battlefield? That’s what his ult, the Hurricane Drill is based on.
T: After a short delay, every poor sod in there is getting stunned and beat on for 3 seconds. And those marks John’s building with his passive? All marked enemies within a certain radius of the drill are sucked in - of course, the mark is consumed in the process and so you lose the autoattack damage.
L: So you HAVE to know when that Drill’s up and when it’s not.
T: Because an ult like that, even though the drill’s radius isn’t very big… it’s the kind of ult that swings a teamfight. So you’ve got a character who is a force in a teamfight, can slow and knockup enemies to peel or leave them helpless, and is quite slippery indeed. It’s a shame his damage is so awkward and he’s quite slow. His range can only really be described as abysmal as well. Pretty much all he can do 1 on 1 is stay alive against most foes.
L: You probably won’t see John fighting solo. He really needs allies to back up his low attack and capitalize on his ult. He is good at baiting opponents to where he needs them to be, too, so stay out of any brush he tries to lure you through. John players should feel free to feel a little bit brave and race up the lane - one of his greatest advantages is his ability to abort most bad situations with some good ol’fashioned button mashing.
T: If you haven’t made the enemy assassins and mages facedesk with frustration, you’re not doing it right.
L: We can’t give you equipment recommendations, because, well… equipment isn’t finished yet. You’re going to want HP and defenses, I can assure you of that much, and movement speed would be very desirable too.
T: Who doesn’t like moving faster? Consider some PG or MG or even a little bit of both, too. It’s never fun dealing irrelevant damage - but John’s bases should be good enough to make a noticeable dent at first.
L: And that’s pretty much all we can cover, today at least.
T: We’ll have more when me and the rest of the guys in Writing get the rest of these items sorted (Who knew our characters would need to lug so much crap around?) and as time and kits progress.
L: Next time is going to be a Strilonde, I can tell you that they both oppose John - much, much more squishy, but crazy DPS to compensate.
T: You can probably guess how they’re going to deal that damage, though. But until then, I shall take my leave.
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