a few questions before i buy.

a little more like battle.net people host games if u kill a DG u get alot of gold and if u help kill a DG u get some gold. fyi its DG's not heroes. DG= demigod. Its just assasins and generals but each general has a differnt purpose. Like Rook the big castle guy is focused on seige and Regulus the archer angel is a anti demigod. Assasin means doesnt have creeps generals means has creeps and i more focused on assisting creeps.

1) I don't know exactly but I'm pretty sure there are a decent number of European players.

2) There aren't servers.  One player hosts the game and sets the game options, and other players join that game.  Everyone has a "Ready" box that they have to check, after which the host can launch the game.  It is just like most RTS games (I assume Battle.net works like this too).

3) You earn gold by being nearby when enemy units die (you don't need to be the last to hit them), there are buildings called Gold Mines that grant a steady income of gold, and you can earn gold by killing enemy Demigods (in this case you actually have to damage the enemy Demigod yourself to get some of the gold).

4) The Demigods differ a lot besides just the Assassin/General distinction.  The Rook, for example, is an Assassin Demigod with tons of health and decent damage, but is pretty slow and is mostly a melee Demigod.  Regulus is another Assassin who has less health but has more range than the other Demigods, and can also set traps with mines.  Sedna is a General and thus can summon units, but specializes in healing abilities and silences to support her allies.

Don't worry, we are pretty nice for the most part .  We just get angry if people insist that the game needs to be more like DotA (Demigod is its own game) or says something else stupid

ok, cool

I feel I am at risk of being flamed, but i genuinely just want to know.

it seems like the game has been make excessively noob friendly then (i even say this, as a noob), if you just get xp / gold for being around creeps, with no relation to dmg done... and (being honest) less skills?

will i not be bored of the game after about a year when there seems to be less to learn?

(totally genuine questions, i just want to know the answer - i am sure there is a good one!)

e

oh also, how often are updates going to be planned post release (non-beta)?

- will there be new "DG"s (im getting the hang of it already, see!) ?
- new items?

- are there similar levels of complexity in items to dota? (yes yes, the comparison is there, but what can u do!)

As one who has played dota frequentely and udnerstands its mechanics well I would have to say at first yes you will be disappointed.  WHen you first but this game your reaction will probably be similar to most people who are used to dota.  This of course is only at first, as you play more and more and experience the changes that are being made I know at least I have gained a whole lot more faith in what demigod can become.  I was one of those people who thought demigod really shoudl ahve last hitting because it needed more depth  but when you play competitively against other players there is already a lot of death with just harassing and playing cat and mouse when it comes to capturing flags.  Yes if you play only computers you are likely to be able to stay in the same lane over a long period of time but mostly against people you have to do a lot more.  I think demigod is growing and growing in depth as we speak especially with the beta advice so I wouldn't rule it out yet in case of skill but I would say it isn't near the same as last hitting in a lane and being able to farm that way.

Items dont' build on top of each other like dota really but there are about the same or even more items in demigod so it isn't like they are slacking.  Also i have heard the devs talking about how demigod already has a set budget for updates to be made after release.  So there will for sure be some and I think they said they will be content updates and not just to fix bugs so we should be in good shape there.

so, what you are sort of saying, is that because it makes no difference if you hit the creeps or not, you just kind of ignore them... and it is a case of purely focusing on the dg.. which sounds interesting, but surely that takes out a lot of benefits for the "killer" dg  and gives more to the support dgs..

or am i off key on this?

This game is very much still in a beta.  It isn't like those "betas" where the game is 99% done and the beta is purely for publicity or stress testing.  You have to understand this game is in an unfinished state (because, well it is unfinished.)  If you buy it and go into the beta expecting a polished game you will be quite disapointed.  However, the game itself looks like it will be a quality product when it is released.

As for Demigod vs DotA, if you start picking out things in demigod because they aren't like DotA you are going to miss out and sour the experience.  There is no "last hitting", the team gains gold based on mines controlled.  When you kill a hero the player who lands the killing blow gets money and then a 2-3 players who assisted also get money (but a bit less.)  This game has a more refined design philosphy than DotA.  DotA Allstars took the "throw everything you can at the game to get the custom game noobs to play out game, because it has more heroes" design approach when they stole the RoC DotA.  This game focuses on having a smaller number of well designed/balanced heroes and items.

My suggestion for you, unless you really want to see the beta, wait until closer to release.  You can get a better idea of the game and see it in a more polished state.  Its still being worked on and has a small community at the moment.  Don't forget about it though, it will most likely be a rather good game when it gets released.

ok, cool.

thanks for the info, i'll have a think

i am sure any game with at least a semi level headed beta community will get a decent roll out when people get cracking on it

The game is certainly noob friendly; you don't need to sort through a list of possible recipes or pick from 93 heroes before you start.  However, there is certainly enough depth that better players can have a good match and can take down noobs fairly quickly.

I believe Stardock and GPG have said that there will be a year of free updates after release, including new Demigods.

I haven't played DotA but I'm pretty sure Demigod has more skills per Demigod.  DotA has what, 4 skills per hero?  Most Demigods have 4 activateable skills and several passive ones, and others can switch between modes that each have ~3 skills.

You definitely do NOT ignore creeps.  Demigods have a decent amount of health; if you just sit there hitting them with a normal attack, you won't kill them right away, and they might be able to retreat to their towers in time.  Someone has to kill the creeps, and that is often the Demigods, especially since Demigods often have skills with area damage.  There is honestly a pretty good balance between attacking creeps and attacking Demigods.  Also, if there are a bunch of creeps from each side fighting each other in the middle of the lane, and you are nearby, you will want to kill the enemy creeps so you get the gold sooner and so that your creeps can move forward and start taking down enemy towers.

You are wrong about the "killer" Demigods having fewer benefits.  The Assassins are usually pretty good at destroying both creeps and enemy Demigods, and thus they get plenty of gold and XP.

what gnats is true but to say more Is that sometimes depending on how they upgrade their Dg and what items they get they could be focused on Dg's more than creeps or vice versa. Finally u could pay equal attention to both depending on how u "build" your demigod. Since u can't get all skills ( only 20 including like level 2 and so forth skills) Their about maybe 30 or more skills to each DG. Skills can't always be gotten u need to be at a certain level to up them which it tells u. 1 skill right now needs 2 others maxed out in order to get it but more things like this are prob gonna come. As was said before we are a pretty much noob friendly community but in game better players can quickly oversome their opponets. Demigod is an easy game to understand on what to do but a little harder to play well at.

Also, when Soccer194 says 20 skills, he doesn't mean that there are 20 different skills.  Most of the skills just have different levels that you can get over time, which usually do the same thing as lower levels but higher amounts (more damage, longer stun, etc) and with a higher mana cost.  Some skills also have a fully-upgraded version that gives an extra effect.

Well, I am in the UK. I know of three other people who are in the beta in the UK (people I know from outside the internet).

Also, remember the game is still in beta, and needs a lot of polishing and bug-fixes. I am finding it fun to play in it's current state.

So, do you find that whenever you pop on for a game, there are people on?

Personally, I can't stand playing vs. AI... so i will be dependant on there being other people on!

Where is the fun in ruining however long it takes for the AI to spawn again.. its just not the same killing something, and not knowing that you have ruined that person's x amount of time!.. or is it just me that gets a kick out of that

Or.. will I be able to connect to american servers (and not be insta kicked if my ping ends up being around 100 as a result?)

I'd like to imagine this forum wouldn't flame you just for asking. 

I'm not really sure what to say about the servers.   Right now (as its in beta testing) the population of online play is much lower than say, Battle.net for Warcraft 3.   However once the game comes out I'm sure you'll be able to find plenty of UK servers.  Though I suspect that also means you will find plenty of french servers (sorry french people, but its true) 

ALso, I can't imagine they would flame you for using DOTA terms, because everybody does.  Even the developers, since that is basically the high-concept of the game.

There are no servers to worry about!  The game is international.  Your ping probably won't be an issue as long as we can convince everyone that 200 ping is not bad.  Right now there are issues with the networking code so getting games started is difficult, and the community is a little small since this is a beta where you must preorder to get in, but there will surely be plenty after release.

when i say servers, i meant "server" in game hosted by whoever else, but okay, cool

i guess when new gaming rig arrives, i shall give this game a blast... it seems the new beta 3 for gameplay testing is coming soon,. so why not

I think you will be fine with that. I am from Australia and my ping to the typical American players is 250. When i can get into an actual game and it starts, the lag is not that bad during the rest of the game. This being a Beta, you won't get kicked out of games because of a higher ping, of course if someone has a 400 ping they may ask the person to stop downloading etc, but people understand they have to be patient and considerate being in a Beta and not the final release of the game.

The game is not finished which means its not totally balanced and fixed at the moment but were working on it. Your ideas will contribute to the game wich it 2 thumbs up. Another game stardock made didnt suck until like the month before it came out and than everyone loved it.(sins of a solar empier) so as gnats said dodnt expect a finished product expect something that u can influence and change. Not that m,any people are online because their are some netcode probs and because u have to pay to play.