Combat system r8 -- A Blast!

I was really worried about this deck system and was actually turned off by the term deck. Im really enjoying it so far, drop calling a deck imop. The amount of customization is excellent and feels totally fun. For a first pass I give it an A...

 

i didnt enjoy it at all, I'd rather pull out my magic cards and build a deck .........

 

As a card game, it's coming along ok. For a combat system in a rpg, it's a complete immersion breaker. I give it a F.

 

I give it an A too ^_^ (for this stage of development).

 

I enjoyed it very much. I cannot imagine the endless possibilities of this deck building system when it is completed. Met a bunch of new pvp friends and even joined a guild. I played with the heavy armor, sword and shield build with a little bit of focus. I was definitely a Mages worst nightmare and visa-versa. Those Fire Mages with their Elementals can be worthy opponents. Got to get up on them and stay on them or try to kill their fire pets as quickly as possible, then they are surly in for some trouble. I played with no healing and still managed to kick ass. What a fun new system!

 

My wife and I enjoyed it a lot, recognizing that it is still a work in progress. She was a bit hesitant at first, saying that she'd be playing in mostly locked slot mode, but then I made her get rid of all slots and go full deck. She loved it - probably because she was kicking my butt all over that basement

There will be some instances of the RNG screwing you over, but I think that with more time spent in game with more schools open, we'll figure out the sweet spot of locked slots to avoid RNG. A pocket heal and root worked well for me in this release. I think that will be the key to success, having the right combo of emergency locked skills to survive the short-term instances where the randomness is hurting you, and a smartly build deck to ensure that long-term, you're efficient and don't need to dip into those locked skills too often.

The complexity of the system, which I find awesome, will be a turn-off to many players. There will need to be one heck of a tutorial system in place when the game goes live.

 

As complex as it is, it is also very simplistic. For demonstration purposes I went with just Fireballs, Lightning, and Swords. It was really easy to learn and then expand on. In one swift motion they have conquered the "be whatever combat class you want to be" while making it interesting. Raw skill points had their day. This appears to be, in my opinion, the beginning of a beautiful balance between classic games and modern games. I LOVE the requirement of sheathing and unsheathing the weapon to enter and exit combat.

I really think it is one of those little gems that could explode into something huge. Easy to learn, hard to master.

 

I have mixed feeling about it. It's not as distracting as I expected (IF you keep you hand size down), but it does require me to stare at the hotbar and back a great deal. Since minimizing UI effects was a goal, this seems like a step in the wrong direction.

That being said, I like how it lets you put a ton of different skills in a small hotbar and it can be a nice tactical challenge.

In the end, though, the distraction, UI intrusion, chance of being screwed by random chance, and the fact that keeping track of what's going on in a 3-D game that already requires my hands and eyes to be everywhere at once, means I'd rather NOT have it. It's not a deal breaker, but I'm not in love with it.

 

I think a good solution to the distracting whack a mole skills we are seeing is a way to split your Dallas keys and your random drawn skills. If we can place the randoms skills some place more convenient on the screen (I would prefer vertical next to or over my character slightly see through). We could map out Dallas keys to where we want and the random keys will be right in our main visual area.

 

I give it an A, at this point of development. Also the PvP was just as fun as UO ever was, but you can do more stuff like sneak around a boat swimming and catch sombody off guard etc.

So Cards get's an A, and PvP get's an A, but we need a criminal system.

 

Ill also add I really liked the uo style skill gain if thier not going to do that I'd prefer something more advanced than the simple mash the fixed bar system that everyone uses. This is a major improvement over those add in all the potential skills and abilities and it could quite possibly be GREAT. Yes it needs polish and there are bugs but its run one.. I have faith!!

 

I think a customizable UI would be a great feature for the near future. I don't see why we wouldn't be able to place them and move them wherever we want on the screen. They could even do a free placement or snap to grid option (so it's easy to keep them lined up, or if you want an arch over your character you can do that)


I didn't get a lot of time with the combat, but I played for a few hours and found it easy and enjoyable. I wanted to play around with different skills/equipment options but simply had no time. These end of the month releases have been difficult for me to get in on, it seems to be the time of the month that things are happening that I need to do.

 

I enjoyed it far more than any other system I've tried. But I hope they turn off nameplates for anyone flagged PvP in a PvP zone. There's little sneak attack with your name being broadcasted.

 

I hope ull be able to make macros

 

I've been a pvper since UO beta, and have been top ranked in a lot of different games.

I think the deck system is a F to pvp centric players, probably good for really bad players who mash the bar thoughtlessly, not even good for casual pvpers.

Why? Well most players memorize binds, and abilities, the only thing they'll check the bar for cool downs if applicable, but after enough practice combo timings and when things are coming off CD become second nature, and you rarely check.

Since there is no predictable way to know which cards go into which slots, it makes managing this very difficult.

You thought process goes, what do I have? OK I have x, y, z spells available.
What slots did they populate in, and which keybinds correspond to these? Ok I want to use x. Ok I need to press 8.

This is 3 questions and three anwsers before using a skill. It's clunky and slow.

I see the only way to salvage this system is to have a way to say fireball cards go into slot 8, heal goes into 9, etc, which then just becomes a more variable form of having an ability cooldown.

 

If you like playing whack-a-mole at the arcade, you'll love the deck system.

 

They should lock the pvp zone if you are engaged in combat. Many times I would have my foes on the run only to have them escape thru the zone portal. That's just plain cowardly. Die with your boots on!

 

I would say you are right if you had no idea how to customize and use your deck. So, I will say you are wrong in my opinion.

 

I did this once or twice by mistake because I was looking at my hotbar looking for a heal, then found myself zoning.... They need a " are you sure"

 

The new deck management concept was interesting.
However, here's my take after a few hours of combat:

1. Memorization of glyph graphics is vital as opposed to skill keyboard key assignment.

2. Full random glyph mode.
Required too much attention to the skill bar, rather than the target or surroundings, during combat.

3. Locked skill bar mode
The penalty to focus from locked skills was disadvantageous.

4. Hybrid mode
This setup was best but still required taking my eyes off the target/surroundings more frequently than I cared for to see what skills popped where.

Overall, I rate it average. A nice attempt at improving combat mechanics but one that, in my opinion, penalizes the twitch player while not really helping the average player.