HiRezAjax

I think itd be less interesting than it sounds. Launching "balanced" new gods is just a hard thing to do for a variety of reasons.

1. our pushing for unique kits
2. player perception not always matching actual data
3. internal testing differing from live testing
4. game design is more of an art than science

A LOT of gods in SMITE history have just kinda been at the very top or very bottom. And the community can probably tell who was in those slots.

The most interesting might be the gods who fall into point 2. For example: Thoth, Susano, King Arthur all were nearly dead last in win% - but players screamed OP

So like doing this for new gods first days but from previous years? Could do it, itll just take a while

I went ahead and updated for Danza and added your 2020 end of year state for this years gods, though!

https://twitter.com/HiRezAjax/status/1346571969098035202

I totally understand why people feel this way, but personally I thought it was pretty fun to watch.

Ive been comparing it to Soccer - there is a lot of tension at all times, and things happening but they dont result in points until rare instances. Its interesting if youve played joust and can empathsize with the players and anticipate the big plays. But if youre just looking for kills its not nearly as fun.

I think its been a cool contrast to show people how different modes of SMITE play, and how tactical the game can be even on a small map.

I also think the S8 changes we have planned will help mitigate the downsides we are currently seeing on this mode, we'll see!

Ill never stop loving joust, its almost as much a part of my brand as the ama hoodie lol

haha im sorry - this thread looked small i thought it was just gonne be me and OP discussing it

I have been a bit sassy lately, its been fun, but ill probably tone it down but im trying to be very active and more myself through worlds

What i care most about is getting yall the right info and dispelling misinformation, which reddit tends to spread.

Why is reddit not interested in this data?! Cant imagine why this is getting downvoted here.

Also - updated numbers on danzaburou from yesterday - he has climbed considerably to #2 and #3 top winning in conq and nonconq - nerfs incoming.

EDIT - obviously not downvoted now lol but was at first - glad its moving in a more positive direction!

So if i showed up to your job and said "good job snufflebox! but your coworker there is a million times better than you..." - Theres no better way i could phrase that? thats not insulting to you in the least bit?

I agree this is not a very intense example of this - it just happens all the time and its not a good way to build constructive feedback pathways.

Also never said that this was bad feedback? I specifically agreed the artwork is fantastic. Im not gonna promise we will make it as a skin and im def not considering remodeling the morrigan, but i like this artwork and the artist and just wanted to share that - while also providing a small tip on how to make our communications more positive for everyone.

I understand. It's not a big deal. Just hoping more people here see it and keep it in mind on future posts. I don't think ive mentioned this little pet peeve before so I thought I would.

I wish people could compliment our artists without including insults to the current game art. There really is no reason to title this post like that. Not trying to call out OP... It just happens a lot and it makes me sad.

That said, I have no idea where this piece came from but it's awesome for sure. Viv is an amazing artist and I enjoy every bit of work she does for our team. I'm glad you all enjoy her work too! 😁

LOT to unpack here and a LOT of opinion/assumption.

lets try to unpack this?

• agree with you on the audience point - there isnt such thing as perfect balance - so what we aim for is optimal balance where "most" of our players who care about balance feel good about our decisions - this has been quite successful for us with increasing positive feedback and player metrics over the years

• Popularity is quantified in many many different ways - and youre right that its not really ever easy to just claim any god is popular across all of them - casual arena and conquest ranked have different most played gods (but some that are popular across all) - The key takeaway about this topic refers back to my "diversity" section - and that is to say - we have different popularity goals for different gods. Sure we would like them to be all highly popular across all modes, but its just not possible. Some god has to be first and some god has to be last any way you...

Every stat I shared in my tweets recently about new gods has mirror matches filtered out.

Its written in the stats image and in my previous tweet

Every stat i show my balance team weekly internally has mirror matches filtered out too.

I only include them when looking at raw popularity.

Maybe consider reading my replies, this might help prevent you from spreading misinformation in the future.

We have no plans to stop making new gods. I believe (and much of the SMITE team does too) that this would be catastrophic to our playerbase.

New gods are the most exciting thing in our release schedule for most players. Meaning this is a huge factor in people finding the game staying in the game, or returning to the game after taking a break.

We reworked Loki - possibly the most hyped and exciting rework in SMITE history and it only just barely felt like it matched a weak new god launch.

Also, Many of these old gods just dont need reworks or updates. Kukulkan is one of the most popular gods in the game and his kit is a closed beta kit. Ra recently had small buffs and has become #1 in the meta. Most old gods who feel lackluster can be solved through our minor rework process or balance processes.

If you are suggesting we completely remake new gods in the name of old gods - aka LoLs "VGUs" where they make essentially a new character with the name/them...

They are rankings out of the 110+ gods

so: Cthulhu was ranked #57 in win% on day 1 then rose to #6

Meaning 56 gods won more than him on the first day, but he was top 6 winnigest after 2 weeks.

All numbers displayed are "rank" in this regard - this makes it easier to see how gods relate to each other.

I mean im not gonna go through every god with you but..

Danza has no leap/dash or stim - this seemed like a pretty big downside for the god, especially given how most high tier hunter picks look.

Odins downside was his transparency. The kit was quite predictable - i suppose the rework lost a bit of that but after some nerfs he has dropped off hard so the kit is certainly balance-able.

This "hard downside" concept tends to be applied in much too extreme of ways when discussed hypothetically. In real gameplay upsides and downsides are more subtle and counters are more soft. Id say this concept is intentional and proven to have its benefits after 8+ years of SMITE.

Yes this is known to happen on other gods - and the fix we are looking at will address all gods who can produce the bug.

i think you are referring to an old bug that can happen to all stance switchers - i feel like its been reported before on merlin or ullr - we have never been able to replicate it

It seems very rare or based on connectivity

any information about how exactly to get into this state would be much appreciated

Theme is very important - and you asked more on that so we will come back to it soon. Tsuku has more components in order to make his passive design feel complete. Has has the light and the dark basic attack, each are ranged, each with different shapes, and a different effect. The dark bonus attack also has a bonus effect, as does the light one youre referring to. You could argue that neither needed this extra bonus attack - being ranged and a different shape is enough - but we felt like the attack should have something additional and unique to diversify them.

ah the old "winrates being skewed" discussion - the answer is no - persephone and yemoja still get thousands of matches - hundreds of thousands in non-ranked. This is a lie reddit tells itself to make them feel better when their opinions have no basis in stats. Persephone and Yemoja have proportionally just as many "mains" as any other god - and their normal vs ranked conquest stats track well to eachother. ...

I do have good replies for all of those but cannot share them now with a baby in my arms lol

Do not imply that the devs of this game "havent played" - its absurd and rude.

Im not denying the fact that the ability is strong. I was describing how its nothing like Loki.

Ive also done a lot of extensive testing on the timing of this ability and how easy/hard it is to evade the taunt - I agree with you that I still think its a little on the strong side.

Thanks!

Yea I agree - you can compare these gods at a surface level pretty easily - they both have similar "trickster" themes so thats an obvious result of our design process.

We pushed ourselves to make Danza unique in many ways, especially from Loki, and I think we succeeded.

The god is a little OP - which im not afraid to admit - which is bringing about more of these intense emotions. We will continue to aim for balanced and when we miss it, make adjustments asap.

This change is purely visual. It makes Serqet LOOK like she is leaping - it does not do repeated leap damage, nor provide her untargetable states.

The nature of this bug is that certain animation states will continue to play even after the god has left the state. The Serqet player will see themselves acting normally, their leap will go on cooldown, but other players will see spammed leaps as they attack.

We are actively looking into this bug and are already testing a fix. I cannot promise a hotfix release yet, but as soon as we feel safe we will launch it.