Continuing the development of our MOBA with Foresters! Last time, we introduced quite a few changes, and this time, there will be just as many.
New Cards
The Forester’s primary role is to gather resources and use them to purchase cards with various useful effects. Naturally, we want to increase the variety of these effects. The card table should be filled with enticing options so that players see a direct benefit from collecting resources.
Broadly, cards can be divided into three categories:
- Resource cards – help gather more resources.
- Minion cards – summon minions to the lane or enhance existing ones.
- Spell cards – provide situational advantages and allow players to hinder their opponents.
Spell cards, in particular, are among the most desirable – Traps, Gnomes, and Dynamite (resource sabotage) have always been popular choices. That’s why we decided to add even more spell cards. Here are the newest additions:
- Spider Egg – The Forester can place a spider egg somewhere on the map. This egg is invisible to the enemy team, but if an opponent passes nearby, it instantly hatches, releasing a spider that rushes toward them. The opponent has a few seconds to react and dodge – otherwise, the spider will explode upon reaching them, severely slowing and poisoning them.
- Grenade – Thrown to a designated point, dealing damage in a small area upon explosion. It also stuns enemies for one second. The grenade follows an arcing trajectory, making it useful for hitting targets behind obstacles like trees, bushes, or elevated terrain.
- Mud Grenade – Similar to the regular grenade, but instead of an explosion, it creates a muddy swamp upon impact. Any enemy passing through this area is significantly slowed.
- Silence – Creates a burst of energy around the caster, disorienting nearby enemies and preventing them from casting spells for the next five seconds. This works against both Foresters and Champions.
- Interception – Cast on an area, allowing the Forester to seize all enemy objects placed by the opposing Forester – this includes traps, spider eggs, and dwarves. Dwarves are easy to capture, but since traps and spider eggs are invisible, the player has to estimate where the enemy might have placed them. This mechanic adds a lot of strategic depth, as players quickly learn the optimal resource-gathering routes, and invisible traps are often placed at key intersections.
- Harpoon – The Forester throws a harpoon in a straight line. If it hits an enemy Forester, it steals a random resource from their inventory.
In addition to introducing new cards, we’ve also made some adjustments to existing ones.
For example, Gnomes no longer just attack enemies – they can now reveal invisible objects around them. Since we already have two invisible elements in the game (Traps and Spider eggs), and there’s a card that interacts with them, we also needed a tool for detecting hidden threats.
Traps have been improved as well. Instead of simply slowing an enemy who steps on them, they now completely stun the target for a short duration.
We’ve also reworked the Healing Potion card. It is now simply called Potion and allows the player to choose between either a single health vial or two stamina vials. Since Foresters are now actively involved in combat and rely heavily on their own spells, they consume stamina much more frequently. We wanted to provide a way to replenish it without forcing players to take long trips back to base, but at the same time, we didn’t want to clutter the second deck with multiple different vials. The solution was a single, versatile potion.
Stealing has also been slightly adjusted. If a player attempts to steal a resource that has been rigged with explosives, the dynamite will detonate, consume itself, and explode – but the hero will take no damage from it.
Currently, there are seven spell cards in the game: The five introduced earlier (Spider Egg, Grenade, Mud Grenade, Silence, and Hijack), Gnomes, and Dynamite. However, Trap, Stealing, and Harpoon are not classified as spell cards. Instead, they belong to the resource card category (since they help players acquire resources) and are found in the first deck rather than the second.
More spell cards will be added in the future, but for now, we’ve introduced a limit per match – only four random spell cards will be selected at the start of each game and included in the second deck. This means that every match will feel different, as players will have to adapt their hero’s skills to the four available spells, which change every time.
At the start of a match, Foresters can check which four spell cards are available. This information is displayed on the card table – spell cards included in the match appear in the lower-right corner.
Forester Abilities
We've decided to replace the third ability of the Bomber forester since it previously boosted the damage of resource mining traps – a card that may not always be available in the deck. Instead, we've given this hero a new ability called Burning. When activated, a ring of fire appears around the Bomber, dealing damage to all enemies inside and slowing them down, making it harder for them to escape the flames.
This change further reinforces the Bomber’s need to close the distance with enemies. First, he is a melee hero whose basic attack uses a pickaxe. Second, his Explosion ability deals more damage the closer the enemy is. Third, his new Burning ability only affects a relatively small area around him. Finally, his Gravity ability, which pulls enemies toward him, synergizes well with this setup.
We’ve also made small tweaks to other forester abilities. The third ability, Summon Mage, is now passive for both heroes. Previously, players had to actively cast it, consuming stamina each time. However, since this ability didn’t directly impact the events happening around the player, it was often forgotten or felt more like a background task rather than an engaging mechanic. Now, as a passive skill, it works much more smoothly – players simply upgrade it, and from then on, a mage will automatically spawn with every minion wave. Further upgrades make the mage stronger.
Even though Foresters now have a wide variety of abilities (their personal skills plus purchased spell cards), they are still weaker in direct combat compared to Champions. And that’s how it should be – otherwise, Champions would become obsolete. However, we didn’t want Foresters to feel completely useless on the lane either. To address this, we made an adjustment: all damage taken by Foresters from enemy minions is now halved. Additionally, Foresters have multiple area-of-effect abilities, while minions tend to stand close together, making Foresters more viable in lane fights. This means they can help push towers if the enemy Champion is absent – but if a Champion is present, the Forester will still be an easy target.
As I’ve described before, Foresters are vulnerable during the resource collection phase because they are discouraged from engaging in fights. If they do enter combat, they immediately lose the ability to collect resources for the remainder of their turn. This mechanic aligns with the game’s turn-based logic – each turn, one player is in a vulnerable position while the other hunts them down, and on the next turn, the roles reverse.
However, the "No combat during resource collection" restriction was a bit too severe. With Foresters now having more offensive tools than in earlier versions, avoiding fights has become significantly harder. To balance this, we’ve adjusted the rule: Now, Foresters only lose their resource collection phase if they deal damage to an enemy hero (either an enemy Forester or a Champion). They can still attack enemy minions and gnomes, set traps, and use non-damaging spells like the Poison Warlock’s jump, the Bomber’s gravity, or the Mud Grenade without penalty.
This change gives Foresters more room for tactical play while preserving the core risk-reward dynamic of the resource collection phase.
Bushes
In a previous post, I talked about how the openness of our game allows players to learn from each other, making competition more engaging. Even if a team loses to stronger opponents, they can still pick up new strategies and apply them in future matches.
I also mentioned that for Foresters, the entire resource area functions as a single shared point of interaction, which should be open. However, making the forest completely open has a downside – it significantly hinders interactions between Foresters and Champions. There needs to be some level of openness, but not total transparency. The core mechanics – like minion farming for Champions and resource gathering for Foresters – should be fully visible, but there should also be some room for secrecy in terms of strategic plays and ambushes.
Invisible traps and spider eggs were our first step toward introducing more hidden mechanics, and they’ve worked well. So, we decided to expand the use of invisibility even further.
Completely closing off the resource forest isn’t a great idea, but we wanted to experiment with Bushes, similar to how they work in League of Legends. The concept is simple: there are small areas of bushes scattered across the map. Bushes don’t affect movement – players can freely enter and exit them. However, when a player enters a bush, they become invisible to the enemy team – as if they are hiding inside it. If an enemy player enters the same bush, they immediately reveal all hidden opponents inside.
We implemented this mechanic with tall grass zones, where players can set up ambushes while remaining unseen – unless an opponent steps into the same grass.
We’ve also made an additional change – the resource forest is now covered by the Fog of War, just like the area outside the forest. However, visibility inside the forest depends on who enters it:
- If no allies are inside, the forest remains completely dark, and everything happening there is a mystery.
- If a Champion enters, they (and their team) can only see the area immediately around them.
- If a Forester enters, the entire forest becomes visible to the whole team – except for bushes, which always remain hidden unless visited.
This system preserves the element of secrecy while ensuring that Foresters still have good control over the resource zone, without making it too easy for opponents to track their movements.
Previously, the Fog of War completely blacked out covered areas, hiding both the characters and the terrain. This was the simplest way to implement it – I only needed a map of fog-covered regions and, after rendering each frame, I would go over it and black out everything inside the fog. Essentially, the game first rendered everything (including things the team shouldn’t see) and then masked the hidden areas.
However, this approach had a downside: it hid the environment as well, even though the terrain never changes and there’s no real reason to obscure it. A completely blacked-out location made navigation unnecessarily difficult.
In the new implementation, fog-covered areas are no longer entirely blacked out, but rather dimmed, allowing the environment to remain partially visible. However, I had to ensure that enemy players in the fog are completely hidden, along with all special effects and sounds coming from those areas.
Other Improvements
Flexible Card Purchases. Until now, players were limited to buying only one card per row per purchasing phase. After purchasing, the row was marked with a green checkmark, indicating that no more cards could be bought from it. We've now relaxed this rule slightly. Players can remove the green checkmark by spending one diamond, allowing them to buy another card from the same row. Diamonds are rare and valuable, so the restriction still remains meaningful, but this change adds flexibility and makes resource management more strategic.
Enemy Card Tracking. Since the card table is shared between both Foresters, all purchases instantly become visible to both players. Knowing what spells your opponent is acquiring is crucial for predicting their next moves. However, keeping track of purchases while multitasking can be difficult. To help with this, we've added a log of the opponent’s last few purchases, displayed in the bottom-right corner of the screen, alongside their resource count.
Teleport Adjustments. Previously, teleports worked instantly – as soon as a player clicked on a teleportation point, they were immediately transferred. While the character still appeared to stand on the teleport for a moment, from a gameplay perspective, they were completely untargetable. This made it too easy to escape fights, so we decided to make teleportation slightly more challenging. Now, players must stand inside the teleport zone for 2 seconds before they are transported. If they move out of the teleport area before the timer completes, the teleport is canceled, and they remain in place. If they feel unsafe during these 2 seconds, they can freely run away – the teleport doesn’t hold them in place. This tweak adds counterplay, making teleports a strategic decision rather than an instant escape option.
Testing
The changes described above are quite significant. Thanks to new spell cards, battles between Foresters should now feel more dynamic, while the bush mechanic should make Forester-Champion interactions more engaging.
This time, I'm sharing a recording of a 2v2 test match, where each team had one Champion and one Forester. Champion-led ganks didn’t happen too frequently yet – mostly because we were still learning the new mechanics and hadn’t fully figured out the right timing for them. However, when they did happen, they led to some interesting outcomes.
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