Rathum and reasons why its hated. Any chance of DE ever fixing it?

[Monolake]

It was a really good idea to make arena vs tough bots, but it got ruined by leveldesign and unfair uncounterable cheap shots AI.

First of all: bad visibility. maps with poor lightsources and lots of black textures + dark enemies. Its black on black background. You cant see bots at all in some areas and visibility is crucial for deathmatch. (note how Index maps and enemies have fine visibility making it much more playable than Rathum) 

Solution is easy: highlight enemies just like in conclave, its already there in the game, just apply it to bots too. Map redesign would be too much to ask.

 

Vodyanoi map is particularly terrible for bots - they get stuck under the bridges all the time (and its super dark there too). Hope you could tweak bot nav space to solve this.

No time is given to players to pick any drops when the score is reached,  Please give like 10 seconds to collect drops, since there is no vacuum, its frustrating to see endo right before you and not being able to pick it.

Please rotate all maps! It wouldve been much more interesting to play more than 1 map at all levels (and there is no point playing easy levels that give no challenge and have crappy rewards)

 

AI: I'll only list worst offenders that absolutely need to be changed for this gamemode to be any enjoyable (I could go into detail about more stuff if DE needs feedback.)

 

Executioner Gorth 

 goes invincible unless you burst him in 2-3 sec and remains unkillable for long time. Not sure if bug (cause his healthbar doesn't go grey) or just bad design, I hope I dont need to explain why unkillable enemies are bad, his invincibility should be removed.

 

Dhurnam & Dok Thul

- they have completely uncounterable and undodgeable switch-teleport that stuns player for ~3 second. You lose any control of the game and get killed - nothing feels more cheap and frustrating than this bs. And of course the long-standing WF issue with AI using abilities even when they got CC'd or knocked down.  Just remove stun from it since it's totally undodgeable (you can even be caught midair bulletjumping)

There are alright designs like Garesh, who is super deadly but dodgeable so its about player skill to not get killed and he is fun to fight.  The above listed offenders are anti-skill cheap enemies that make Rathum bad experience and lost opportunity to create high-level challenging but fun game mode in a dull sea of press4towin casual farmfest.

If DE improved upon these enemies and game mode and gave it better rewards (besides endo drops) it could've been something. Also some of these bots could be used as bosses in other places.

Edited April 17, 2017 by Monolake