Random idea for a concept of MOBA design

[tribble]

So, looking at Dota, HoN and LoL, I noticed that probably the biggest difference in gameplay is the way magic damage is handled. Dota and Hon have a "magic armor" system that isn't really actually all that useful for countering mages. This is (supposedly) balanced by mages not scaling with items. League of Legends has magic damage as basically an equal to physical damage, with an alternate armor system that is pretty much identical to regular armor, except it's on different items.

I just had a random idea and was wondering what other MOBA-likers would think of it: What if, instead of a magic resist stat of any kind, Magic was affected by armor like physical damage, just not as much? Like, just as an initial guess, maybe it ignores about half the target's armor?

[Bayar]

Well, because if you are wearing full Spectra Armor, you wouldn't take reduced damage from a flamethrower, right ?

[Spartacus]

And yet a sword user carrying around a bow makes him pierce the enemy's armour.

I think that the idea could work, but it would just be another numbers game when balancing and whatnot.

[Volatar]

As Yoda would say, "Different numbers, do not a new MOBA make."

[Rhydeble]

Well, most AoS's already have such a stat, which comes directly from their roots in RTS's. Its called extra hitpoints, and it reduces the lethality of both magical and physical attacks, further modified by respective damage-reduction factors.

And please stop using that ridiculous term.

[Spartacus]

Would you prefer the term DotA clone? At least DotA is closer to most modern MOBAs than AoS. I mean, if we have to carry around the name of a game instead of a genre, why not use the one that is most genre-defining and popular?

[Suedars]

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena is the worst genre name ever though. It isn't descriptive at all. Is a Quake deathmatch a MOBA? It's multiplayer, online, and a battle set in an arena. What about a WoW arena? A Brawl game played over the Wii's online play?

[Dienekes]

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena is the worst genre name ever though. It isn't descriptive at all. Is a Quake deathmatch a MOBA? It's multiplayer, online, and a battle set in an arena. What about a WoW arena? A Brawl game played over the Wii's online play?

And an action game is a game with action. And a fighting game is a game about fighting. And a RPG is a game where you play a character.

They are all confusingly vague. I don't see what the problem is with 1 more.

Anyway, why not make armor deal in percentages and magic deal in flat damage reduction or something like that. It probably wouldn't work but it's another thought.

[tribble]

Well, yeah, Armor already works in percentages. The description says "500 armor" but that really translates to, say, 30% additional damage reduction.

The problem with flat armor for magic and percentage for armor is it means that mages can't scale for balance's sake, which makes me a sad wizard. If mages scaled and magic armor didn't, magic armor would become worthless. 50 damage minus 10, that's respectable I guess. 300 damage minus ten is considerably less so.

[Psyborg]

Okay, how about:
Physical damage sources are flat amounts.
Armor reduces physical damage by a percentage.
Magical damage sources are an amount equal to X% of the target's HP.
Magic resist reduces magic damage taken by a flat amount.

I haven't thought through all the consequences of this yet, so please, tell me why this would be hilariously unbalanceable (even if the idea of HP stacking becoming a two-edged sword is rather entertaining).

[Rhydeble]

well, I think that that'd evolve into rocket tag quickly. With mages being very good at taking out tanky heroes and the physical guys being utterly devastating as soon as they started hitting mages.

Then there is the part where you need a mage's skillset to deal near to at least 70%, because otherwise it'd be just useless to use mages. the percentage of hitpoints means people are trying lower hitpoints against mages, because buying magic armor while also buying tanky items is just useless.

The thing in DotA and HoN is that you need to decide between armor against DPS heroes, and hp against dps and mages,(although most of the time not as effective as armor, although you need a mix). In LoL the third factor of MR is added in, giving someone three choices (physical, magical, or both.),
I think the proposed system would make it very hard to counter both kind of opponents a little.