Floating Blue Orb in Scouting Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUw7tVWxcYk

Was watching the Assassin trailer again and on that video at around 0:25-0:27 there is a little blue orb that floats past the screen. Could you tell us what that is or is it already somewhere in the bloody searchbar.

:geek:

Interesting find, but it looks like lens flare effect to me...... :? There's a very brief appearance of a second one right after it too....

If you look at the second one that Racin mentioned(at 0:29), it seems to come from the Blackjack. I also note that the projectile bears a resemblance to the Rokkit turret projectile. My guess is that in this build Blackjacks shot rockets in the color of their team rather than the red lasers they shoot now.

Wow good eye. Blackjacks used to shoot slow energy projectiles and we switched it out to lasers right before shipping due to performance issues.

While we're on the topic of things removed, I noticed in some of the trailers that the Moneyballs used to have a sort of flame-shield around them. Did they have any practical purpose, and were they taken out for performance as well?

Okay, cool.

They're all over the place in the PAX trailer too. Looks like Mana orbs from various games. Collect them guys!

Ok I love watching these videos now. Assassin had an aaaaaaaaaaxe!

We swapped the effect. It used to have a huge light that surrounds it when it's up and doesn't when it's down. That light effect would go around the Moneyball. But it made more sense to have this huge beam of light when it's down to act as a beacon of "Go here".

Along with what Scathis mentioned, originally the money ball itself didn't "open up" so we needed a clear effect to show when it was or wasn't vulnerable. In our early white boxing this was a transparent force field like effect around an opaque, non moving object. Eventually this got moved in to the air to prevent players from being able to use it as cover prior to dropping the shield, and later moved down to the ground after the shield was opened mainly to help out the Assassin with being able to melee it.

Also, as we worked on the design of the money ball itself, we created the concept of what looked like an armored ball of neon lights. Originally the "flame-shield" effect would disappear and you would be shooting the still armored ball. We realized it would be more obvious if we had the armor itself disappear when the ball falls, and the transparent shield effect wasn't needed to show if it can take damage or not.

When it came time to redo the money ball effects for quality (I considered the original flame shield a test placeholder) and the reason Scathis stated the flame shield concept was removed and I went for something more like an idealized Vegas spot light beam / scifi fantasy laser / energy beam thingy.

Which still doesn't work. Far too often do I hear this in game "Oh their Moneyball is down? I couldn't tell."

It works better then it did, but still requires you to pay attention to the shield icon on the HUD or messages that slide across the top.

Right! I totally forgot about the HUD info in the bottom left. You can always see that.

Question: When the bar flashes red, and the shield is up, does that mean bots are attacking it or does it mean "someone" is attacking it? I've noticed it flash and the Ball stays up and other times it drops.

It means that anything is attacking it. Like before the update, if you saw your Moneyball up and flashing red on the HUD, if you ran to your base and saw no turrets down, you could tell someone was cheating, like an Assassin and her ninja stars. Or anybody's secondary weapon.

Hey, a fellow Steam Forums survivor!

Yeah, if it's flashing red it means it's under attack. Though if you've missed the "vvvvvvv-crash" and "LOOKS LIKE IT CAUGHT ON FIRE AND HAD TO BE PUT OUT WITH A BRICK", you need your hearing tested.

No you don't.

You just need to extend the volume cap on your TV every few months.

I don't know if this has been brought out somewhere earlier and this isn't anything big but look at Bullseye on 1:25 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfw3aml0 ... grec_index the colours have been changed

The mascot colors were changed to be team neutral around Saint Patrick's Day. The colors stuck.

I prefer the current bullseye colour, seems more "foam suit with man inside" hard to explain :lol:

Other one looked like he was sick I got candy!....ew.