Deck Hot-Swapping

Discussion in 'Archived Topics' started by twobells, Aug 23, 2014.

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Would You Like To See Deck 'Hot-Swapping' Introduced?

  1. Yay

    12 vote(s)
    63.2%
  2. Nay

    7 vote(s)
    36.8%
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  1. twobells

    twobells Avatar

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    [​IMG]



    I think that we really need the ability to 'hot-swap' decks on the fly during combat, it isn't enough to have a mixed deck.
    Example:

    The Internet Cat is a Ranger/Thief who while sneaking through the depths of the Sewers spies a group of Skellies, he draws his bow and proceeds to take down the enemy; however, the bow is not ideal against the boned, living dead and before he knows it said Undead have rushed him, the problem is that his deck is a mix of ranged and life spells, he realises this far too late; finally as his life's blood rushes from him his last thought is "what I really needed was the ability to hot swap to a melee deck....cough cough......mommy."

    The silence is broken only by the dry wracking laughter of the wicked revenants as they clank back to their unending duty.
     
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  2. Beaumaris

    Beaumaris Avatar

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    Hot swapping two decks in combat is almost akin to just having a deck that is double in size to begin with. Would hot swapping skills at will take away a large part of the strategy associated with the choice required in deck combat?
     
  3. twobells

    twobells Avatar

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    No, not at all, in fact the opposite of taking away strategy, rather the strategy would be far more intuitive and powerful, essentially a tactical set of decks activated at need depending on battle conditions.
    Why?
    Because there just aren't the number of skills in one deck that can facilitate all your possible needs during a battle, a single deck might work for a warrior/mage class or a mage/warrior whereby the warrior can split his deck between mage (including ranged) skills and melee skills; however, a ranger-type character would be screwed as he needs at least three skill types; he needs ranged for distance (remember he has built his character with dex and stamina) some life magic for healing and finally melee for those up close and personal mob attacks that he just cannot avoid.
    No, what you do need are speciality decks that you can hot-swap at need during the battle.
     
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  4. Sweetmcpwnsauce

    Sweetmcpwnsauce Avatar

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    You do know that magery spells will not be the only way to heal I'm sure there will be some bandage method and also potions aren't in game either, lol. <];D

    EDIT - yeah I totally forgot potions were already in game, lol. <];D
     
  5. twobells

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    Bandaging sounds awesome, how will it be implemented, a skill or action?

    [​IMG]
     
  6. jiirc

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    Potions are in the game. There are tow kinds, health nd focus. You start with 10 of each and others can be bought.

    Regarding swapping decks, you can do that during combat. But it does take focus to do it.
     
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  7. Isaiah

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    Every time I tried using a potion in a PvP combat I was interrupted. I quickly learned that potions just took up space in my deck.
     
  8. twobells

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    Really??
    How do you do it?
     
  9. redfish

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    Don't you just go to the Deck window and change decks?

    There's a Focus skill that reduces the focus cost of changing decks.
     
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  10. redfish

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    They could probably do something like this to make it clearer, w/ a popup menu,

    [​IMG]

    Or just assign the F-keys to different decks.

    I don't know. Just thinking off the top of my head.
     
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  11. twobells

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    Hmm, what we really need is a 'deck hot-swap' key that incurs a penalty that can be offset by the above.

    @ you guys
    While I would fight to defend your right to vote as you wish what I don't get is why anyone would vote against having a deck hot-swap, how on earth could it take anything away from game play???
     
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  12. smack

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    Yeah they should give us the ability to bind keys to deck swapping. Either bind directly to a deck, or have next/previous deck keys.
     
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  13. Isaiah

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    I would rather bind the deck to an F key like Redfish said. Since switching a deck has a focus penalty, a single swap key would be bad for our focus. Say we want to go to deck 3 from deck one... to cycle to deck 2 then deck 3, results in two focus losses. What if you accidentally hit it too many times and go back to deck 1 again? Then that's three focus losses with ultimately no result.

    Alternatively if you bind deck three to F3, then it doesn't matter if you hit the key 5 times it only selects deck 3 and results in only one focus loss.
     
  14. smack

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    Yeah, the next/previous deck keys would only cycle them so that you have to still select it to equip. That would mitigate the focus hit since you're not equipping, only quickly cycling through them to choose one to equip. But good point!
     
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  15. Samlee

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    Definitely need a Deck swap hotkey. Dropping or slinging my bow to draw sword and dagger should not even be a discussion. It should just be there to use, as it is easily duplicated in reality.

    Armor should not be a part of it, as it is now. Swapping from longbow + leather armor, to sword and shield + plate armor is the rule now, even if very cumbersome and unwieldy to perform in combat. Weapon swaps should be easy. Armor swaps need to be done when you have lots of time to manage the straps and buckles.

    -Sam
     
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  16. Kether

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    Well, first of all, deck swapping is implemented, it even has some Focus skills related to it, so the poll it's a bit redundant as it already exists and it's always been an intended feature of combat. Sadly, having no easy way to do it, nobody has actually been able to test real combat with it...

    Keep in mind one thing: You still need to spend points to populate all decks, so the decks of a player who has many different types are less powerful than the ones of a player who is more focused on one tree.
    Also, swapping decks diminishes the main concern most people has about the system: the fact that is random and not context-sensitive. It doesn't really has any sense to have to have ranged and close combat cards on the same deck and to hope that you don't get dealt a hand of the wrong ones.

    I'd limit, however, the swapping to a single alternative deck. Instead of being able to switch to any other deck I'd have a main and secondary active decks and allow only swapping between the two (with, of course, being able to have multiple decks and select which ones are active out of combat as we do now). That way you can have a bit of leeway and strategy without being able to just do anything at any moment.
     
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  17. twobells

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    Deck swapping has only been implemented since release 10 so I'd say that the poll was relative. Anyway, I like how the team have designed deck hot-swapping what with the 'alternate' and 'primary' which has allowed the player to introduce entirely new tactics in the mix.

    My greatest concern at the moment is the Ranged skill set, combat just isn't working for that mode atm.
     
  18. Smokinjoe14

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    After getting to test in R10, the hot-swapping is nice, BUT believe it should not swap the armor. It should only swap primary weapon.

    So if your target starts to run you can equip a bow, or a wand.

    That's it.

    Swapping outside of combat, would swap equipment and glyphs.
     
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  19. smack

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    I liked the primary / alternate decks with the ability to hotswap using a hotkey. A few thoughts:

    - the switch was very fast, but your hotbar is wiped which is appropriate. it's like you've cleared your mind of previous strategy and new glyphs are being dealt in as you compose your thoughts
    - gear swapping wasn't working completely correctly. sometimes some gear would not switch over even though it was bound to the alternate deck
    - i actually did not notice any focus penalty when swapping but then again wasn't paying attention to the focus bar

    I think gear should be swapped when switching decks, however there should be some penalty to doing so. Perhaps a greater hit to focus or a timed delay. Perhaps it auto-sheaths your weapon so you're out of combat and then draws your (new) weapon again, along with its associated armor set and that process may take some amount of time. It likely should not be instantaneous as it is now.

    Right now a gear set is tightly coupled with the deck. Another compromise would be to detach the two. So decks do not have associated gear, neither armor or weapon. Switching decks only clears your hotbar and starts dealing again. But, we would need the ability to prepare gear sets prior to battle and switch those as a separate keybind with its own associated penalties as described above. Again, just a different way of introducing penalties or delays rather than a single action hotkey.
     
  20. Net

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    There is focus penalty only when you switch in combat mode.

    The gear swapoping was quite useful, I used this feature to switch between casual clothing for formal occasions and battle gear when I was more after the best stats:)
     
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