Hi there, I am just wondering if combat is a priority? I know the game is still being worked on and I respect all the work that is being put into the game but I am wondering what the combat priority is. In a nutshell I still believe that combat needs some attention. Thanks, Blitz
Lots of us do. I'd love to say its a top priority, but there are a lot of tasks as the team is very divided on their focus. I know @Chris is the main go to guy for most combat related stuff, so I'd assume its his #1 priority (or at least super high up there). There are some improvements every so often, and lots of tweaks we don't always notice. I'd suggest do a list of what you'd like to see and the devs may take some of those ideas.
In what regard? We are getting magic tweaked to make it no longer ignore armor, resistances in to help mitigate magic, crit for weapon attacks just got adjusted, new enchantments affecting weapon damage and mitigation just went in. So for the vague side, LOTS just changed this release. For the specifics it depends on what you are referring to.
It's hard to explain because i know it's based on user perspective but it doesn't feel like the immersion is right for combat. It feels forced instead of a natural part of the game if that makes sense. It feels like a means to an end instead of combat itself being satisfying. I know that's vague. Maybe it's the sound of combat (or lack there of) or general combat interaction. It doesn't "feel" epic. I'd just like to see more focus on combat in the coming releases to try and address the immersion.
For an example, here is Chris's post on the changes to crit chance and interruption for last release and this one. https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...d-the-upcoming-interruption-change-r35.68009/
Ahh, yes I think I'm understanding where you are coming from now. There is definitely a lot of polish work that is needed on it (sound, targeting, collision interaction, being less grindy, etc.). I know they are in the process of working on some of this, but they haven't done a big push towards it yet. I believe the intention is to still get all the skills in (some of the trees have blank skills still), work on all the animations (these change every so often due to the art changing and certain polish aspects going in), we have a new SFX artist working on getting all the game sounds to be better (long, long process and lots to do here), and not having the content makes it feel very grindy and less purposeful (that will be changing as they start implementing more of the story hopefully, because grind for the sake of grind is not fun in my opinion). As for top priority, it is kinda of like tickling an octopus. So many armpits, so few fingers to tickle with. They tend to dip into everything at once which makes it seem to take awhile to make any significant progress.
Combat is effectively complete, else why would Chris et al be working on balance and polish? Frankly they can polish a '95 Honda Civic all they want, the Civic fanboys will love it but those of us that prefer more modern amenities in our rides are going to stay disappointed.
Keep posting your constructive comments about combat on the forums, they absolutely do listen. If you get a good thread going with 20 pages of people, you can bet they will address it fast and it will move up the list. I rail on PvP combat a lot, its been real slow at changing. I will continue to rail on it with solutions. I know they are listening.
Yes well said. The devs have made many changes based on player findings. You find it fun, they will take the fun away ...... I am joking. Great game.
I thought this over more and I think that at this point it comes down to sound and maybe an overall polish but it's hard to tell without sound. Ultima online had that epic music that pulled you into the fight. I think some sound revamps of combat would go a long way here.
8 arms, 10 fingers On the topic though: A huge part I'm missing is interesting loot. And some item progression tied to loot would be awesome imho.
LOL! FINE! So many armpits (though to be fair I don't think octopuses are either ticklish nor have proper armpits), so few hands. Better? As for decent loot tables coming in game, oh yes... yes yes and YES. WE NEED LOOT! So tired of this placeholder worthless junk. Don't give us freebie money at the oracle, give us decent loot that can be sold so we can buy the player crafted loot (or give decent money to player crafted stuff so it can show up in loot tables when sold to vendors).
I'm not concerned much about loot at this point but I haven't been playing much of the releases lately. Just enough to share some of my concerns. Please pass combat over with better music!