Reflection on a combat complain and Deck Swapping

One of the biggest complaints I'm reading about the deck system is the context-insensitive behaviour, like close combat skills appearing when you're far from the opponent, and its inability to adapt to the situation.

I've just realized, however, that the system has a way to compensate for that: Deck swapping. It however:
-It's completely unusable on the current form. I doesn't have a hotkey, you have to navigate through menus that take half of the screen to do so, which is unfeasible in combat.
-It supposedly (I haven't actually tried because of the stated reasons and I'm betting almost no one has) takes a good chunk of focus, which can be detrimental but it's actually just a matter of proper balancing (swapping from close combat to ranged mindset is not an easy task in real life too, after all).

Honestly, deck swapping should have been readily accesible since R8, as it is an integral part of the combat system. It should have taken priority over adding new glyphs as it is a core mechanic which changes everything.

Perhaps an easy way to change to any deck would be too much, but you (the devs) could at least make it possible to have two "active" decks and have a button to easily swap between them (at a cost, but perhaps not too big as you already have the penalty of having to wait to new glyphs to fill the now empty bar). That could address most of the concerns and would allow for more specialized builds instead of trying to have a "one size fits all" as we all need now.

 

So much this.

I see a problem changing decks with full equipment, i think it is weird and doesnt make sense to change your playstyle and all your equipment so dramatically. I think on two ways to solution this:

1-. Have the ability to swap decks only changing your hand equipment with a hot key (bow, weapons, wands, shields, etc..).

2-. Build your deck with cards of two or more kind of weapons (lets say bow, swords, shields) and then let the system to show you only glyphs associated with your current equipment on hand. We should have a hot key too swap hand equipment. This way you can organize better your decks and associate equipment to them as a whole. This kind of system would prevent weird swaps.

I prefer the 2º option.

 

Some twat in this thread suggests having Deck Hot-Swapping, check it out:

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/deck-hot-swapping.14076/

It's rather odd actually, some people have actually voted against deck hot-swapping which seems ludicrous as deck hot-swapping wouldn't effect them in any way, strange.

 

Agreed. Nobody should be able to change armor in combat. If they do it should take time. A person could switch form a sword to a bow though.

 

Well, hot-swapping is already implemented, that's the point. It's already an intended feature, it even has a Focus skill! But right now it's unusable because you have to do it from the menu. Some of the proposals on that thread are interesting, thanks for pointing it out!

That goes without saying... Swapping decks while in combat should never change armor, only hand equipment.

 

Yep, I support easier hot swapping.. but either armor shouldn't be link-able to decks in the first place, or it shouldn't switch the armor for you if you do switch decks in the middle of combat. The first may work better just because of possible exploits involving getting in and out of combat really quickly... and I don't believe people will routinely carry around multiple suits of armor anyway.

 

Np, wonderful to hear that Hot-Swapping is being implemented!

 

I support more deck mechanics:
- bindable hotkey to decks, so you can swap easier
- equipping multiple decks simultaneously and splitting your hotbar accordingly
- adding an entire deck as a single glyph, so that if the "deck" gets dealt and you use it, your deck is swapped out for that one, with the old one wrapped up as a single glyph that could also be dealt out. avoids focus penalty for swapping decks, but sacrifices when you can swap, unless you lock it noble

Get creative and suggest some ideas to make it fun!

 

I agree with deck swapping as it just makes sense.

I think as this goes along and matures you will find that a lot of these little issues will get resolved. I'm interested to see peoples ideas to be honest.

Still think however, that there should be negatives attached with armor and certain abilities in order to balance out their use.