Are the maps a little linear or is it just me?

I would of liked to see objects(like dota's forests) that block vision.. where you had more line-of-sight type vision.  We were actually told we'd get FoW blocking stuff but it didn't happen.  That's the only thing  i feel is lacking.

Thats why I dropped this post.  They pretty much just blocked out sections of the map which instead could have just added some graphic tidbits that you can move through for juking and ganking.  The maps feel too controlled. 

There are so many little things that aren't in this engine that are in the WC3 engine that make this almost unenjoyable to play until they get added in.  Like actual use of the minimap to where you can click to see the location and not have to wait 2 years to scroll to your base to use your scroll of teleportation.  Things even as group communication would be awesome, such as pinging or maybe even an ingame ventrilo for your team.

They did a great job with the game but now it just needs to be tuned up to what the competition is.  It took dota 5 years to get to where it is now with characters and such. But DoTA wasn't created by a DEV team, it was coded and created by one person and him listening to the community.

Cheaper production costs. Plain and simple. They would have designed the levels plainly out on 2D top-down first and just built a pseudo-environment around them. That and the fact that you're meant to be fighting in the Pantheon/playground of the God in order to prove your worth to ascend from the rank of Demigod to God.

Sure, it would have been nice to have some lush environments with proper line of sight (Fog of War is sooooo '90s) but it would have increased production times and production costs by quite a lot.

As an artist in the games industry, i've noticed that this game is incredibly light on the art side, yet the art they do have is quite polished.

One thing I loved about DotA, despite there being only ONE map, was the fact that you could hide in the trees and ambush.  You can't really do this in Demigod due to the way maps are set up.  Also, the river area in DotA which could be used as an ambush route added some awesome flanking tactics.  I'd like to see some of this in future Demigod maps.

Agreed... there need to be more clutter on the maps, not just mobs that don't chase you.

Maybe dancing R2D2s?   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weGTZ5VXR4s&feature=related

Like I said.. testers were asking for this before we even got the first beta.  The original lead designer said it'd be in, but I imagine it was just too difficult to make a line-of-sight fog-of-war on the engine so they didn't do it..

It'd be nice if there where some trees you could hide before, or statues/pillers, and fog of war would block you so you can pop out at someone.  But ah well.. Maybe later? :/

You can ambush in some of the maps. Portal to a flag (or just wait) that is off the beaten path where the creeps fight, wait for the enemy DG to go past, then run out.

To the guy who said it takes him a long time to scroll to his base, what I do is zoom out with the mousewheel, move my cursor over the base and then zoom in with the mouse wheel. Takes longer than clicking the minimap would but otherwise it's fine. I can't see any reason not to allow minimap clicking though...

I'm kind of surprised that there is no collision in this game. No line of sight blocking AND no collision makes things very odd. Maybe minotaur attacks should slow someone's movement or something? There is very little risk involved with running through the enemies and attacking the enemy DG right now. That is probably what bothers me the most, I can see actual collision not working out well, but I can run through a squad with someone chasing me and the little guys will do little to nothing for me.

Using the scroll wheel to zoom in and out is paramount to being successful in Demigod. Zooming all the way out takes a fraction of a second and this zoomed out view is your mini-map. Moving your mouse cursor to any location and zooming in moves the entire screen to that location. Your able to zip around the map in fractions of a second once you get used to it. It's quite liberating. The mini-map situated in the corner of your screen is there as a "at-a-glance" function - know which flags your enemy is currently assaulting while giving attention elsewhere.

We also have the option to Ping, which does show up on the provided mini-map in the top left hand corner. Merely move your mouse cursor over a location and press P, and location will be "Pinged" on your mini-map, complete with sound.

VOIP, or Voice Over Internet-Protocol, is a feature that will be added not just to Demigod but Impulse as well in the future.