14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard confirms that it used a lot of the feedback from Heroes of the Storm players when building the latest battleground that's now available in the multiplayer game – Sky Temple – in order to move the emphasis from the classic lanes to the temples that can be overtaken to attack the enemy team.
Heroes of the Storm spent 2014 as a closed technical alpha version, and last week Blizzard finally rolled out the closed beta stage of the already popular multiplayer online battle arena experience. Alongside the new mechanics, balance tweaks, and even the new hero, in the form of Thrall, Blizzard also added a new battleground called Sky Temple.
Sky Temple responds to player feedback
Now, the studio shares some interesting details about the impressive Egyptian-themed map and how it had quite a few ideas inspired by the feedback shared by players during the recent closed alpha stage.
According to the studio, the main goal of the new map was to place a bigger emphasis on the map mechanic, which sees teams compete to take over and defend temples while they remotely attack enemy structures. Another focus was to give players choices depending on what they can do during a match.
"We made a majority of these decisions based on the massive amounts of feedback provided by many of the players at BlizzCon, the Tech Alpha, and our own internal playtests. We really like the direction of Sky Temple and believe it hits one of our widespread goals of making every Battleground fun and unique. We hope you’ll agree with us as everyone gets the chance to play it," the studio adds.
The temple activation mechanics are random, more or less
Blizzard's team also confirms that, while the temple activation system is random, the first sequence will always see the top and middle temples go live. Afterwards, however, players will be kept guessing.
"There are a few rules the Temple activations do adhere to; however there are also some random elements to keep the rotation spontaneous and fun. The first activation of the game will always feature the two temples located at the top and middle of the Battleground, as they are static. Everything else is up to the magic of Sky Temple," Blizzard adds.
As such, teams found playing on Sky Temple should focus on the top and middle lanes, at least at the beginning of the match, to ensure maximum efficiency.
