@Mahou Shoujo: nice to see some feedback from you.

I myself also have some years of experience in hero desing from Wc3 modding, this might also be the reason why some of my concepts can get really complicated really fast :P (e.g. my ET concept here xD, but i just wanted to bring it to text).

As you mentioned, some guidelines from you would be very helpful, for people to create concepts that could be ported to CIA without much changing.

Also a list of heroes (models) you rather don't want to include would be very helpful. You do not need to include those on mounts/floating. Or just make a list of heroes you would like to see in CIA in near future, maybe with some early concept ideas from your side or unfinished skillsets.

from my experience sharing ideas and inspration always helps mods to get better and bigger really fast

also as I never was a big coder even in Wc3 modding and I'm not sure what is possible in Dota 2's engine, it also would be nice to have a list of things/mechanics that can be done/you are able to do/do not want to implement to CIA. Maybe there are already some things in the above concepts which aren't possible or you don't want them in CIA. Pointing them out directly would be the fastest and easiest way to show this, I guess.

@Mahou Shoujo

Originally posted by Mahou Shoujo:

A disabled person is immediately exploited by other players if he is in a bad position.

Ahem, crystal maiden always does this to me in games xD

Originally posted by Mahou Shoujo:

I can provide a list a heroes if you would like to.

That would help us alot, especially if you dont want us to consider stupid ideas to heroes you don't want in-game.

Here is a rough list, if you feel like a hero is missing, that probably means I already have plans for it

Antimage
Axe
Arc warden
Beastmaster
Dazzle
Disruptor
Dragon Knight
Elder Titan
Void
Huskar
Invoker
Naix
Lone druid
Luna
Lion
Natures prophet
Night stalker
Omni
Pudge
QOP
Rubick
Riki
Shadow Demon
Shadow Shaman
Slark
Troll warlord
Tusk
Ursa
WR

Originally posted by Ragnos:

also as I never was a big coder even in Wc3 modding and I'm not sure what is possible in Dota 2's engine, it also would be nice to have a list of things/mechanics that can be done/you are able to do/do not want to implement to CIA

As far as I could tell, pretty much anything is possible. I'm not going to add multi-unit controlling heroes (refering to direct unit control, not the elder titan idea) :P

amazing feedback discussion here guys. Also props to Mahou for being and interactive (and ITERATIVE) developer

I have an idea myself
Note: Arc Warden recieves stacks of Accumulate for every 5 seconds. Each time he uses an ability, a stack is lost. Only has a maximum of 5 stacks. A visual effect can be used to show if arc warden has maximum stacks

[Q] - Diffusion:

• Fills a small area with high energy. after a brief duration, the ground gets destroyed but any heroes while in the area will be pushed away from the area.
  
• This ability is meant to be a way to destroy escapes, not to kill heroes immediately.
  
• Deals damage if arc warden has 2 or more Accumulate Stacks.
  
• Deals damage and instantly destroys if arc warden has 5 stacks but removes all stacks after.

[W] - Pull:

• Shoots a short-ranged projectile that when it hits heroes, pulls them towards Arc Warden. (When it hits a hero, an electric vortex sucks them towards arc warden.)
  
• Can be a way to set up enemies for a Pull/Diffusion/Continuum Sprint Combo.
  
• Has a longer range if Arc Warden has 3 or more Accumulate Stacks.
  
• Deals damage and has a longer range if Arc Warden has 5 stacks but removes all stacks after

[E] - Continuum Sprint

• Creates an illusion of arc warden which runs to the target area quickly(ignores holes) and allowing arc warden to teleport to the illusion after.
  
• Enemies which the illusion hits recieve a slow debuff.
  
• Illusion is identical from arc warden if he has 2 or more Accumulate Stacks.
  
• Deals damage to enemies near arc warden when he teleports if he has 5 stacks but removes all stacks.

[R] - Tachyon Field(Ultimate)

• Energizes a large area around arc warden for a duration. If arc warden (or an allied hero) moves inside the field, they recieve a movement speed buff and their cooldowns are reduced.
  
• Arc Warden has unlimited stacks of Accumulate if he stays inside the field.

[Q] - Null-Bolt

• the Jester fires off a magical missile in a straight line, dealing damage to the first enemy hit
  
• unlike regular missiles the Null-Bolt does cancel missiles/projectiles it collides with but isn't canceled itself (this aspect might turn out a bit OP). Also every time a Null-Bolt collides with a missile/projectile its travelling speed is increased (should you go with the Null-Bolt being 'immune' to collisions) and the cooldown of Null-Bolt is slightly reduced

[W] - Arcanakinesis

• targets a straight line (quite wide) starting from a point in range in any direction (like CM's blizzard spell in CIA)
  
• pulls/pushes every enemy hit by the shockwave to the targeted direction slowing them briefly
  
• cancels every projectile hit and transforms it into Null-Bolts going to the direction Arcanakinesis is tragetting (they belong to The Jester)

[E] - Magical Staff

• The Jester mounts his staff (animation when Rubick steals Firefly) gaining a movementspeed buff fading over some seconds.
  
• The Jester in total rides his staff for the doubled duration of the movementspeed buff, ignoring if he's on solid ground or in the air (e.g.he can travel over holes in the island or even move off the island entirely for some seconds, but falls down if the he stops riding on his Staff obviously)
  
• The Jester dismounts early if he casts a spell while mounted, also canceling the movementspeed buff
  
• there should be some kind of indicatior showing the mount-time left

[R] - Spell-Steal (Ultimate)

• The Jester reaches out with his arcane powers in a straight line, if he hits an enemy 'Spell-Steal' is replaced by the last ability the target used
  
• the cooldown of 'Spell-Steal' ticks while being replaced with the stolen ability
  
• the stolen ability has a limited amount of uses (e.g. ultimate: one use; regular ability: 3 uses)
  
• maybe make the cooldown of 'Spell-Steal' a bit shorter if it misses

[Q] - Moon Glaive

• The Sentinel throws a medium range, fast moving glaive to the targeted direction dealing damage to the first enemy hit
  
• if the glaive successfully hits an enemy it bounces off into the air and flies to location around the current position of The Sentinel (has a preference to land somewhere in The Sentinel's moving direction)
  
• picking up the glaive resets the cooldown and grants a brief MS buff
  
• bounced off glaives are high in the air, they do not collide with enemies and do not deal damage
  
• it takes ~2 sec. for the glaive to bounce off and land near The Sentinel
  
• alternatively the glaives could land somwhere inbetween the target hit and The Sentinel, maybe a tad closer to The Sentinel

[W] - Leap

• The Sentinel leaps to the trageted postion (straight line with variable length, like Drow's charge)
  
• ignores terrain and enemies
  
• optional: cooldown is slightly reduced if a glaive is picked up after landing (within a small time window)

[E] - Ensnaring Bola

• throws a bola in a straight line that binds an enemy hit to the ground (position where the projectile connected with the target), the target can still move
  
• the traget is bound to the ground for some seconds (e.g. ~ 4 - 5 sec.)
  
• if the traget moves further than X range away from the point it was hit, it is slowed for the rest of the bind duration even if it moves back closer to the point it was hit, afterwards
  
• if the target moves further than Y range away from the point it was hit, it is stunned and the bind is broken (Y > X, breaking the bind also removes the slow, means if you get stunned you aren't still slowed afterwards)

[R] - 'Stand your ground!' (Ultimate)

• creates a circle of shielding orbs around the current position of The Sentinel, initially the orbs are so close to each other that no projectile can pass through the circle without hitting a orb
  
• the orbs slowly circulate around the center of the circle
  
• the orbs have health (~1 - 2) and can be destroyed by enemy abilities
  
• the orbs do not block movement, every hero can move through them, they just cancel projectiles colliding with them
  
• The Sentinel drops X (e.g. 2 ) additional glaives next to her when casting this ability, they disappear when the duration ends
  
• while inside the circle the range of [Q] - Moon Glaive is increased

What do you think about my last two concepts? I tried to make them a bit more grounded in comparison to my ET or Brewmaster concepts ( --> less mechanics like stacking buffs and so on).

The Paradox has a permanent image of himself (slightly transparent, maybe with a blueish color hue) following him and copying every of his animations (and animations only), with a 5 second delay. (Like when Ekko in LoL skills his ultimate). The Image ignores everything and can't be targetted by anything.

[Q] - Time Shatter

• The Paradox swings his mace and damages every enemy in a cone in the targeted direction
  
• the cone range is a bit longer than usual 'meele' abilities
  
• a second image of The Paradox is left behind at the position the ability was cast, not moving away
  
• when the permanent image reaches the one created by [Q] - Time Shatter, they fuse and use [Q] - Time Shatter on the same targeted area, this time every enemy hit is also stunned briefly, afterwards the permanent image keeps following The Paradox again, while the other one disappears

[W] - Temporal Loop

• shoots out a wave of temporal distortion in a straight line
  
• creates an image of every enemy hit (or only the first one), which also are 5 seconds delayed
  
• the enemy images behave the same way as the permanent one (of The Paradox)
  
• after 5 seconds, or when the ability is reused (sub ability replacing the main one for 5 sec. after cast) the enemy is teleported back to his position 5 sec. before and is slowed and silenced briefly
  
• health and cooldowns are unaffected

[E] - Chronosphere

• creates a medium sized Chronosphere in the targeted area
  
• The Paradox (or allies), while inside the Chronosphere has geatly increased movement speed, when leaving the movement speed buff fades over the next few seconds
  
• enemies, while inside the Chronosphere have slightly decreased movement speed, when leaving the movement speed debuff fades over the next few seconds
  
• the duration of the Chronosphere is a lot longer than it's cooldown, but there can only be one at a time, casting a new one while another is still there, destroys the old one
  
• inside a Chronosphere The Paradox, allies and enemies ignore if there is solid ground below it or not. When it ends, every hero inside it falls down should there be no ground below

[R] - Rewind (Ultimate)

• moves The Paradox 5 sec. back in time (where his permanent image is) and resets his health to what is was at this time
  
• moving back in time takes about 0.5 sec. (maybe less, but should not be instant)
  
• deals damage around The Paradox when the ability is cast and when it reaches the image. this means enemies can be hit twice
  
• can also be used while stunned, and removes all movement impairing effects from The Paradox
  
• optional: also resets all cooldowns of The Paradox other than [R] - Rewind

This mode features heroes named after Tarot Cards, so I bring you


Faceless Void
Skill in-game description is under spoilers.

This hero contains power of manipulating time, matter and universe itself, as said in its Tarot name.
Main roles are DD and Disabler.

Q - Singularity. Similar to Dark Seer's vacuum, deals 1 dmg and pulls enemies in a 150 rng. Can destroy tiles. 6 sec cd. ZA WARUDU!

W - Spectral Knives. Target AOE throw of three projectiles, slowing enemies and dealing 0.5 dmg each, in a 30 degree cone. 8 sec cd. KURAE!

E - Antimatter Dash. Target AOE Blink (like Void's itself), slowing THE WORLD, but dealing 1 dmg to the enemies when landed on. 4 sec cd. MUDA DA!

R - TIME STOP. Stops time in a 150 AOE semisphere around him for 3 sec, allowing THE WORLD to strike with his R subability with a 1.35 cd. Ultimate cd - 18 sec. TOKI WA TOMARE!
SUB - Hand of Futile Subability of TIME STOP. Strikes a 15 degree arc, dealing 1 dmg with each strike. 1.35 sec cd, only allowed in TIME STOP mode. MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA



Yes, this is inspired by both Faceless Void hero and "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure"'s THE WORLD Stand. Dunno if balanced, but still, would be a fine thing to do.

Originally posted by Mahou Shoujo:

Here is a rough list, if you feel like a hero is missing, that probably means I already have plans for it

Antimage
Axe
Arc warden
Beastmaster
Dazzle
Disruptor
Dragon Knight
Elder Titan
Void
Huskar
Invoker
Naix
Lone druid
Luna
Lion
Natures prophet
Night stalker
Omni
Pudge
QOP
Rubick
Riki
Shadow Demon
Shadow Shaman
Slark
Troll warlord
Tusk
Ursa
WR

Originally posted by Ragnos:

also as I never was a big coder even in Wc3 modding and I'm not sure what is possible in Dota 2's engine, it also would be nice to have a list of things/mechanics that can be done/you are able to do/do not want to implement to CIA

As far as I could tell, pretty much anything is possible. I'm not going to add multi-unit controlling heroes (refering to direct unit control, not the elder titan idea) :P

If you would kindly tell us which Tarot Cards you've already used in the heroes, or planned to use, it would be alot easier to come up with new ideas like The Tower, The Hanged Man, The Fool and The Magician.

Looked up at existing heroes, saw Magician and Tower. Which leaves us The Fool, The World, The Hanged Man, The Lovers, and the regular from 6 to A cards.

Originally posted by HORA HORA HORA HORA:

regular from 6 to A cards.

Most likely not going to use more tarot besides major arcana, I'm still figuring out where I'm going to get names for other heroes.

well, why don't you just think of your own 'tarot-esque' names? IMO this is better than having diffrently styled names in your game, when you already started with tarot names.

good thing is, that it's pretty easy to make up names that sound as if they were taken from a tarot card. I mean they all are set up the same:

The "insert noun her" ..... done! ;)

This Riki is a really powerful hero if used correctly. But his small health pool makes him fragile. All of riki's skills forces him to go near enemies and risk getting killed

Note: The Shade has 3 hp rather than the normal 5 hp. The reason why it should be will be shown later.

[Q] - Shadow Rush

• Dashes to the target location. Each hero that is hit while dashing will only add to Riki's Hp as extra hp that lasts for a duration.
  
• Deals damage to heroes near riki at the target location.
  
• Does not mean that it would deal damage to heroes hit while rushing
  
• The animation could be riki using blink strike to the target location (Riki instantly jumps to the target area)

[W] - Cloak of Darkness

• Becomes invisible for a short duration with increased movement speed.
  
• Deals damage to enemies near riki after the cloak has expired.
  
• Could add slark's ultimate as an animation before fading and then slark's dark pact when the cloak expires.

[E] - Twilight Blade

• Slashes an area infront of riki. Deals damage to enemies hit and adds extra hp for riki for a duration.
  
• Slows enemies which gets hit for a short duration.

[R] - Ancient Shade

• Riki creates versions of himself around the battlefield. These illusions run around in the battle field and uses the ability riki uses inside the duration. (Meaning if riki casts shadow rush, all the other illusions will also use shadow rush in the direction they are facing)
  
• Although when those illusions use skills, it doesn't deal any damage.

Originally posted by Ragnos:

well, why don't you just think of your own 'tarot-esque' names? IMO this is better than having diffrently styled names in your game, when you already started with tarot names.

good thing is, that it's pretty easy to make up names that sound as if they were taken from a tarot card. I mean they all are set up the same:

The "insert noun her" ..... done! ;)

Oh yeah that's what I'm currently going for and will probably continue.