Infested Arena 2
Now On B.net NA and EU!
Welcome Back...
It has been 43 years since your last encounter with the Infested, which took place on a space station in a remote part of the Universe. You thought you were victorious after defeating the Broodmother. Little did you know that the Infested followed you back to your home planet in the Galminus system and have since been mutating, evolving and multiplying directly above you. It is clear to you that the Infested are far more powerful than they were last time. Mutant strains and cross breeding has brought about new and terrifying Infested units. But, you are not easily discouraged...43 years has brought about advancements of your own. Prepare yourself the Invasion is about to begin...
Evolving from Infested Arena to Infested Arena 2
New Arena Invasion Dynamic
Infested Arena had 4 hallways which spawned the same amount of Infested units (a total of 2 different types: ranged and melee) at the same intervals with randomized Special Infested Units (SIU's) spawning at 1 of the 4 hallway locations at set times.
Infested Arena 2 has a randomized Invasion dynamic where at the beginning of each round randomized Drop-pods will fall from the sky in random locations. Once the Drop-pod lands it will begin generating eggs which after a short time will hatch and release the Pods designated spawn unit (i.e. Spewer Pod will spawn several infested spewer units). There is also a % chance based on active players and difficulty selected to generate new Drop-Pods at varying locations and varying times into the Arena. There are 4 basic Infested units (Infested Arena only had 2) each has it's respective Drop-Pod. Furthermore, you will easily be able to identify, with the "Infested Pod" dialog, all the current pods found within the Arena. In addition, Special Infested Cocoons will drop from the sky into the arena and after the duration will hatch a random SIU, all of which can be tracked using the "Infested Pod" dialog.
New Special Infested Units
There are now 10 SIU's including new ones, such as: Behemoth, Vile Imploder, Stalker, Desecrator. Some of the SIU's from Infested Arena were removed because...,well, they just weren't any fun.
Infested Blood Transfusions
Infested Arena 2 Introduces "Infested Blood Transfusions." Each time a Special Infested Unit or Boss is killed there is a chance for them to drop "Infested Blood" when one Specialist picks this up all specialists receive 1 Infested Blood. You can use a new menu to load up a stat tree in which you can further modify your Specialist by injecting yourself with the Infested Blood - Things ranging from increased movement speed, damage, extra shields, armor to having a chance to apply the "plague" or chain explosion reaction each time you attack.
Each available stat change found within the Infested Blood Transfusion Tree is modeled after Infested units you are fighting (Infested Bulwark Plating - Increase Armor +1/2/3/4/5)
Specialist changes
My original plan was to incorporate several new Specialists in Infested Arena 2, but after consideration and plenty of feedback I decided to change the fighting mechanics with each specialist. In Infested Arena everyone had energy and all abilities had close to a 10-15 second cooldown. Many times people would run until there ability was up. This wasn't to much fun. How could I make battle more fun and enjoyable? I decided to go with an action game battle dynamic. Each Specialist now has a total of 6 abilities (up from 4) and cooldowns are down around the 1-3 second mark.
Infested Arena witnessed 5 specialists who almost were identical in operation but with different special effects.
In Infested Arena 2 each Specialist is completely individualized everything about them operates differently from other specialists. Read on for details
A Few Examples of The New Battle System
Seifer's New Battle Mechanics
Built for Tanking.
-Seifer uses fast regenerating Energy to perform his abilities.
-Seifer has a "charging up" mechanic known as Ravager's Roar to boost his attack power and armor. With each roar Seifer receives 1 Ravager's Mark which will keep Seifer's damage and armor up until he uses "Igniting Wave." Once used all Marks will be removed. How do you get the most out of your Igniting Wave? Keep charging up with Ravager's Roar.
Fulgore's New Battle Mechanics
Built for damage from the shadows
-Fulgore uses Fast regenerating energy for a few of his abilities
-The rest of Fulgore's abilities operate off of a combo system known as Marks of Death. Each attack Fulgore executes has a 20% chance of awarding 1 Mark of Death. Other abilities and upgrades can apply additional Marks of Death just by using them. Fulgore can then choose to use his other abilities powered by Marks of Death. Once a Mark of Death ability is used all Marks of death are consumed. Depending on how many Marks of Death Fulgore had when executing the ability will determine the effectiveness of that ability (i.e. Vexing Shadows requires at least 1 Mark of Death. For each Mark of Death consumed when Vexing Shadows is executed Fulgore will teleport and deal extensive damage to 2 enemy units. If Fulgore has 5 Marks of Death then a total of 10 enemies will be warped too and attacked).
Blaze's New Battle Mechanics
Built for Siege and AoE
-Blaze uses Fury to power the majority of his abilities. Blaze's Fury meter starts at 0 and as Blaze attacks his Fury meter will begin to rise reaching a maximum of 100. As Blaze reaches certain thresholds of Fury he will be able to perform various abilities. Blaze also has abilities that require no Fury and will actually add a certain amount of Fury to Blazes Fury meter when used.
-Blaze utilizes "Presences" - Blaze can only have 1 Presence on at any given time and depending on which presence Blaze has on they will positively/negatively effect him (i.e. Fury Presence grants 150% additional Fury increase with regular attacks, Increases damage by 40%, and movement speed by 10%, but at the cost of degenerating Shields, and 50% increased damage from all Infested attacks.)
and much more.
Dead Eye's New Battle Mechanics
-Dead Eye uses Fast regenerating Energy to power his abilities. Dead Eye has the capability of dealing extreme damage to single targets as well as using superior crowd control abilities to protect his teammates. Dead Eye has access to Critical Strike Upgrades which allows every attack and ability a chance at dealing 200%, 205%, 210%, 215%, or 220% damage depending on critical strike upgrade level.
Salv's New Battle Mechanics
Salv can be used to focus directly on damage and AoE or Healing. Salv has access to Quick Access Heal buttons which allows him to cast his healing spells (via buttons on the leaderboard) at great distances. This way Salv can keep track of his teammates health and still remain an effective damage dealer.
Salv uses fast regenerating Energy to power his abilities and has great Crowd Control abilities such as "Mind Sync" which allows Salv to convert up to 10 Infested Units (SIUs included) to his side for a duration. This ability can turn the tide of battle quickly if the right units are "Mind Synced" (i.e. Mind Syncing a Special Infested Behemoth - sends the Behemoth to do massive AoE damage to all nearby Infested Units).
NEW SPECIALIST Psion's New Battle Mechanics
Psion is a new addition to the team and although requires a persistent player level of 7 Psion is a power addition to Infested Arena.
Psion uses fast regenerating Energy to power his abilities. Psion's main purpose is to rain down destructive electrical magic from above. All of Psion's abilities have some form of electrical attribute. Although Psion's Health and Energy starts out low Psion Energy Reserves start out higher than the rest of the Specialists.
Psion is capable of enabling "Flight Form" which increases his Electrical damage and increases his movement speed. Psion can traverse cliffs and has the ability of summoning his favored ally "Arc." Arc's weapon is increased along with Psion's weapon. Whenver you upgrade Psion's weapon the benefits transfer to Arc.
Psion is also capable of restoring teammate shields via the Quick heal keys located next to the leaderboard. Instantly clicking on the appropriate team icon will heal the corresponding teammate.
Persistent Player Level
All of your kills are permanently recorded within Infested Arena 2. Whenever you start a new game of Infested Arena too you will notice that your kills refelct all prior kills you have recieved while playing Infested Arena. As you Level up (via your Persistent Player Level) you will be granted access to exclusive Hero Specialist Units. In addition, you will partake in the Persistent Level Player Stat Menu.
The Persistent Player Level Stat Menu allows you (upon starting Infested Arena) to add upgrades (dependent on your Player Level) to your Specialist. In other words, the longer you play and the higher your Player Level the more initial upgrades you can make to the Specialist you have selected.
Latest Patch Notes
This Map was created for the NA Server. If you are from EU server please include the version you are playing in your comment
Comments
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_ForgeUser4426202 Owner
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Posted Jun 27, 2011I just played Infested Arena a bit ago. I don't understand what the big problem everyone is having with Spewer?? There are some mob that you can tank, and other you have to kite and your team mate take it down. It add dynamic to the game.
I can't imagine how boring the game would be if Seifer just use savaging roar and staying at 1 spot for the whole game
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Posted Jun 27, 2011Basically you're telling us that now the modifications to this have put it in a state, where tanks can no longer truly 'tank'. They're forced to run. They're forced to run and lose aggro. It's a simple concept. In this light, you basically have to follow a dps build if you use seifer, because there's no point in buying armor or armor upgrades anymore. If you do that, you start having seifers put points into attack speed, or ability damage, rather than actually trying to tank. Then the xp gains you put on the drone and ravaging roar are near useless now, because you have to do more running and damage, Heroic Departure and Igniting wave respectively. Relatively, this puts a damper on xp gains overall relative to other classes, because you lose all those +5xp's you'd normally use to pull the damage off of everyone else. With people running more, all the other dps classes, squishy as can be, will likely fall. You're dooming the siefer class all together.
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Posted Jun 27, 2011@YinKuza: Go
These new mechanics will take awhile to get used to. Spewers are dangerous now yes, but once everyone understands how to deal with them they wont be as bad as you think.
Spewers have 3 attack range and move slowly tanks are extremely viable still they do need to kite until dps takes spewers down.
The reason for many of these changes is due to the fact that the game gets repetitive with all the enemies acting the same. These new mechanics add more tactics that require more strategy in order to counter.
Here is a list of things to counter spewers: 1. AOE ability damage 2. Slow effects including: Krug's Thermoblade, dead eyes pulse, blazes falcon charge, salv's medusa's sting, or the desecrator tree for slowing enemies down. 3. Crowd control, such as: Mind Sync, graviton, repulse emitter salv's shadow warp to setup a dummy 4. Invulnerable states such as, flight form, and cloak of darkness
If you team doesn't know how to deal with spewers then teach them.
I just played a game on brutal with 3 players: dead eye seifer and fulgore and we got to round 46. The tank knew how to kite spewers when getting to close with his transfer and dead eye knew how to slow them down. They are easily dispatched if your team is working together.
Keep in mind that there are plenty of survivability mods in the Infested Tree. If you are dead eye and spending all your infested blood on dps well then you are going to have problem later game.
INFESTED FRENZY DOES AFFECT ATTACK SPEED.
Blizzard's end doesn't change the tooltip for attackspeed, but rest assured you are attacking faster. I've done several tests and Frenzy is working precisely the way the tooltip shows.
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Posted Jun 27, 2011Totally agree about the enemy abilities, makes the game very un-fun. Late-game, probably the Infested Marine is the most noticeable as they will out-range most characters, and ANY hit can be deadly at that point.
Need to be WAY lower to start with, possibly increasing (slightly) with round.
It's great that you increased the levels for Infested Blood upgrades but it seems like you might be using that to justify the increase in generic creep strength, which is just not right - before you could easily max the whole blood tree, now you can get a lot of strength in a few things or cap a couple things out but you can't have EVERYTHING AT ONCE until potentially extremely late, which, you're not gonna last that long anyway. Even before the blood increase, you'd reach the point where it was literally impossible to progress normally due to the insane HP and damage of the mobs, the extra HP and DMG was definitely needed for that stage.
Also I'm not entirely convinced Infested Frenzy DOESN'T increase attack speed - it doesn't SAY that it does, but it might. I know that it does decrease skill cooldown and increase regen rates. Definitely worth verifying the attack speed though!
Fix Krug Turrets, too! They seem to be placed as ultralisk-sized units now instead of 1x1 buildings. Not worth the ability to be put on creep. They were already really weak en masse late-game.
Loved the map but the latest ver not that much fun.
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Posted Jun 27, 2011Spewers are way too crazy now. There's NO point in tanking at all, as they just straight up shred through you all through early game. Same with Blitzers, their crazy movement speed makes it too hard to kill all the monsters around you in time.
On difficulties Hard+ these 2 enemies are just ridiculously stupid strong and negate any team comp early game... They do not fit into this map in any way. (Spewer does, just not the armor reduction).
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Posted Jun 27, 2011Alright. For god damned sake. I liked the idea of changing the spewers. But they screw you over quick. In round two, if you're a tank and have maybe 4 armor, they still can knock you down to -8 in a second flat. I just played a few rounds on hard, and in the second round, we used 2 continues because of spewers. I do like the invisi descecrators. But I think that might be annoying in the SIU kill rounds. (Not the survival ones). A lot of the times I'll play through a round of having to kill 6 sius in one round, and only 4 of them will spawn alltogether. That should probably be fixed. I mean. Something like, 50% greater spawn rate on SIU's, at least in those rounds would be pretty sweet.
Other than that, I like the combustion and thorns now being useful. Infested Frenzy is worthless (as you already know), and I find no reason for the increased meditation rate. Sure, late game seifer with 1200+ shields is gonna' take a while to regen, but you should've stocked into shield regen from the beginning. Another thing, I'd personally like to see something in the infested blood tree for shield regen. If only to total like, 5/s more, as hp regen is. I think that would go a long way for the game.
If there was someway, maybe a teir 3 armor or something, for blaze that upped his base armor even more, that'd be cool. I notice that a blaze with full armor and protective presence has a lot more armor than safer maxed out. Just seems kinda' ass backwards to me.
Also, are we gonna' be expecting an Infested Arena 2 2.0 version when perma items? I see the way the patches are coming up that it's getting near the next level. I also beg to ask. Will the items be tiered in a way, for instance like dota, where 'equipment' is made better, by adding to a recipe with other items to create a more powerful item? Or will it be just straight buy this for x money, better shit, more money.
Anyway, that's all I feel about the game right now. Keep up the good work, and I hope this feedback helps you out.
Cheers
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Posted Jun 27, 2011Please fix Infested Frenzy asap. It only adds movement speed, and ruins a big part of the game for people that saves up 5 bloods for it...
And could you possibly look into Dead Eye abit, and maybe add 1-2 extra base range, change his Thermonuclear or something ?
Right now he's pretty underwhelming lategame, as his "short range" which is dangerous for a class like him that dies if he gets hit by a single Vile Imploders poison after round 20+
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Posted Jun 27, 2011yes it will
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Posted Jun 27, 2011Will the player level cap be raised anytime soon ?
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Posted Jun 27, 2011PUT A TIMER ON THE PICK SCREEN, sick of 3 games in a row with AFKs, so I gotta quit.
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Posted Jun 26, 2011Anyways, after playing some more games and trying out both support and DPS, the xp gain seems fine to me now. Also, awesome game I play this tons keep up the good work!
Interesting things I've noticed bug wise:
With Fulgores Lacerations: The last hit knocks enemies back. On certain enemies, such as the one SIU that floats around like an overlord but targets players instead (I forget the name) and any kind of Slipid boss, the knockback ends up sending those two flying literally off the map for a few seconds. This probably isn't intended but is pretty damn hilarious when it happens.
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Posted Jun 26, 2011@iXoZTwisted: Go
I think you get a little less life per upgrade since you're always almost going to have more life armor than shield armor- it might as well be the same metric wise.
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Posted Jun 26, 2011Wow has it been like 4 days? Well since scmapster has been down for so long, i missed the last 6 patches, can u update the latest patch notes? What is carbonsteel for? Is it replacing terrazine or will be also used as currency? If being used in combo with terrazine thats a great idea. Are carbon steel and terrazine still being kept track of? Its a shame if it isnt. I dont think anyone else is abusing the Terrazine glitch since counter was removed. Are we still getting our carbonsteel and terrazine? I love how you made a new map! it blew my mind! awesome! It makes the game literally twice the fun =) Only problem is creepers flying above the lava, they die there and we dont get the drop =\ what a waste. The new blood tree modifications are amazing also. I think some things are just too high and just too low. For health/shields, you get 10 upgrades, up to 900 extra shields and... 750? extra hp. That just seems a bit too much compared to the life armor and regeneration ones. 5 life armor? pfft thats nothing. 5 health a sec? That doesnt help when you die in 2 hits. And is the new modifications wrong? the 10% one? Cooldown doesnt seem to be changed nor does atk speed.
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Posted Jun 26, 2011@zenx1: Go
Well, you could always zoom out; that's what the function's for, though it might cause some lag for some computers.
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Posted Jun 26, 2011Well somehow it felt less polished than infested arena 1. It kinda looks ugly. Too much text, they only get in way and you never have time to read them. Units are also waaaaaaay too large. cant make a shit of the game when you are surounded by 3 abonamintons....
Its a decent map, but could use some improving. Mainly the visuals...its too messy
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Posted Jun 26, 2011I will fix the stop command next patch for all specialists. Thanks for the heads up on the typo ;|
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Posted Jun 26, 2011I think this only happens for krug, when he uses Meditate and upgrades/buys an item, it gets dispelled.
Also, minor spelling error in the game description: ...Mutant strains and cross "breading"...
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Posted Jun 26, 2011DeadEye and Krug's stop command doesn't work. It the same situation as Blaze's problem before, but you fixed it for Blaze.
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Posted Jun 22, 2011Hey there, just got back from a game
Apparently, the Hade boss is pretty OP right now. He spawn for us in round 25, and no DPS can take him down. It doesn't help, seeing he lay egg everywhere in the game that grant him incredible armor and regeneration, and range that those egg grant effect is very long as well. The egg also have very high armor, making it very difficult to take down.
It would be very good if you could tone him down a bit. Maybe make the egg have a limited time, or some other changes
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Posted Jun 22, 2011oh yeah i think i hit the max kills (65365 i think) you can get. Well at least for me it is. It has stopped going up any further. :( Is this intentional? or.....?