New Combat System

The only problem I have is the concentration on the hot bar, I know the locked system is there but lets try to see if there is a way to overcome this.

Auto Attack Cards and Focus Attack Cards
This is to help minimize the need to glare at the hot bar.
Auto Attack Cards - Unlocked skills that when the card is drawn it will modify your auto attack for a short period. Can be attack and defense skills.
Example: Pole-arm - heavy thrust - For the next few attacks the player will attack with heavy thrusts. Chance of knock down.
Fire - Fire balls - Hurl small balls of fire for the next few attacks. Chance to ignite enemies on fire.
Difference: All other auto attacks have a cool down for a short period of time while it is activated. The cool down expires 3/4 of the time of the active auto attack.
Focus Cost - small, each auto attack will use some focus.
Focus attack Cards - These are the heavy special power attacks. High focus cost but also high damage.
Example: Pole-Arm - Leg sweep - Knocks down all enemies around you.
Fire - Meteor - A large fire ball impacts the ground hitting all enemies. It also creates fire on the ground that does DOT.
Difference: Long cool down for the next focus attack.
Focus Cost - High.
Other cards
Other cards like healing, and debuffing would remain unaffected.


Deck system is still used, less focus needed on the hot bar.

 

I agree with most of you (high road ), but bottom line if we are spending too much time looking at the bottom buttons and not the pretty visuals something needs to get tweeked. Maybe keep the deck for higher damage attacks and have two key slots for instant low damage attacks. For those that want action, instant gratification, and want to watch the game world they could just spam attacks with the instant attacking low damage keys. For those who want more strategy and combos they would use the other strategy keys. Simple but complex when needed.

 

You can already do that with a Hybrid deck ^^

 

Really? Awesome will try it...

 

Your annual income is ALSO just a figure. As such would you say it is ALSO a minor matter if I were to adjust it to, say twelve pesos? Perhaps you are unaware that computers don't have a sense of imagination? They rely on the figures you give them, and believe anything you say. If the figures are altered, it changes gameplay, sometimes drastically.

Those numbers matter, Logain, and we are on these forums to discuss the results. Right now the cost and cooldown penalties that come with a locked deck are bad enough that the style is "unfun", and getting a lot of complaints. As this is a game, I find the lack of "fun" highly disturbing.

Wait, so in response to me recognizing that the character in SotA isn't in possession of the "super powers" that I had acquired in WoW, you point out that maybe they were removed on PURPOSE? Did you think I believed it to be accidental?

I am referring to the difference between the feel of standing in place pushing buttons while running out of juice, or trying to run about while responding to a graphics puzzle on the screen, and running about using carefully coordinated abilities that I arranged at my own discretion.

If it's a game, and it frustrates more than it entertains, that's an acceptable definition of: Failure.

 

I wonder if you misunderstood me on intention, or if I simply didn't express myself properly. Numbers are far easier (and thus faster and more likely) to change than a complete system. the game has not even seen every feature implemented and there is no balance intended yet hence why figures hardly matter at this point in the development.

 

This a bit demeaning. I do understand my deck setup and no matter how you set it up you are fed random glyph's that you placed into it.

And since you seem to be a master, why don't you educate us? How do you structure your deck as to get predictable outcomes? How do you structure your deck so you can plan a strategy instead of winging it with what you're dealt?

Thanks in advance

 

Well that's pretty easy....are you loading more then one glyph for the skills you want to show up more? I know some were loading one glyph per skill and then yes, you are right it is totally random and there is no way you can ensure it comes up more. However say you want thrust and you add more the one Glyph for it, just to use easy numbers knowing this isn't realistic, say you have 3 of those glyphs in your deck and 7 other skills...30% of the skills in that deck are thrust which should increase the chances(yes still random but heavily weighted in your favor) that it will appear.

 

WARNING: TEXT WALL INBOUND

I think it'd be cool if, for the Locked System (forgive me, but is this what's referred to as the "Dallas Deck"?), that we combine the glyph hands of the "Random" deck with the functionality of a locked or traditional hotbar. In the current, "random" decks, we have it to where we add our cards that we trained up to increase the likelihood that it'll appear during combat (ie, 5 Off-Hand Attacks so I have a better chance of drawing them, thus chaining rapid strikes between other abilities). In contrast, we can lock all abilities, where the cost is 50% higher and there are cooldowns, much like traditional hotbars. Finally, we have the hybrid, which allows us to lock some for increased focus that utilizes a cooldown feature, but we can still throw the remaining cards for the ability into the deck to pull randomly, as well.



From what I've seen, the Hybrid deck is extremely useful in that it allows consistency for important abilities (maybe heals, for example, or in my case, one of my Off-Hand Attacks) while still allowing players to stack and set up their combos with the rest of their hand being dealt to them. In my case I have a locked Off-Hand Attack and then four others that rotate; since Off-Hand Attack has 0 Focus cost, the penalty doesn't affect it and every few seconds I get that extra damage, if not waiting for a string of them to pop up. While this system looks like it'll be more fun once new abilities come out, I feel like outside of a handful of abilities the only way I can keep an eye on the fight (or dare I say, the actual game itself) is to chain the same moves over and over. The alternative is to run around with a heal-over-time (Crystal Shield?) and maybe some spammy Death Touches while I wait for my stack to come through before nuking the opposition. This feels somewhat like the old school UO PvP scene's "sync dump", minus the 3-4 other mages on standby waiting for the "drop", which is arguably boring and does not hold a candle to modern PvP mechanics from just about any game.



As a compromise, I'd recommend an addition to (through skills or a separate deck option) or a replacement of the Hybrid deck.

Let's use some examples to illustrate how this would work:

I have 5 Thrust cards. I can either have them rotate through my hand as normal, or lock one Thrust card and "stack" the other four on top of it. In this case, I lock it. The other four cards won't rotate as they currently do in a Hybrid deck; instead, the cooldown to use Thrust is consequently shorter the more cards I've stacked into it, to a minimum cooldown (global, skill independent, whatever - there's room here to flesh it out).

I could do all locked, like a traditional hotbar, and stack my cards to decrease cooldowns on my abilities, or leave some unlocked to rotate some additional abilities I may want to pocket for an upcoming nuke or have on standby in a pinch (like a heal or buff). To benefit from such flexibility, however, I have to spend considerable points in my Focus skills to make this work efficiently: lower locked glyph focus cost penalties; additional locks in a Hybrid format; max hand space for the locked abilities; and so on. Additionally, to make the cooldowns work, I need to make sure I have as many cards for that ability as possible so the cooldown isn't as long; that's a lot of points for extra cards that currently may not be maxed out due to Focus costs or limited tactical availability.

Some other things to consider is that while there is a minimum hand, I'm not sure if there's a maximum (would someone let me know on this?); if there isn't, a maximum deck could be enforced so that you can't just have all abilities stacked with 5 cards for minimal cooldown (without potentially adding a Focus skill to increase deck space). Overall, I feel that this system would provide three major benefits:

1. Allow players to focus more on the game and less on their deck. Currently so much attention is paid to playing whack-a-mole with cards that it doesn't even matter that I'm in New Britannia or anywhere else, being that I only look up to take it in when I'm wandering around between fights. This leads to being able to play more tactically than running around in circles waiting for the nuke stack, increasing potential for dynamic, mobile gameplay and actually enjoying the visuals of the game we're playing.

2. Increase strategic options and gameplay variations in character customization. The current system (maybe even with this addition) heavily emphasizes spammy, tier 1 abilities with stacked innates and one or two heals/buffs for initial survivability prior to the dump. Those who can rapidly chain cards would still have that advantage, and can benefit from more than 10 max abilities in their hand without having to switch decks, though at the cost of having to micromanage their deck, foregoing battlefield awareness. Likewise, the penalties for having exceptional cooldowns on top of Focus cost increases for locked glyphs would be mitigated by investing skill points in this playstyle.

3. Accessibility and familiarity for all gamers of the genre. I'm all for the deck system; it reminds me a lot of the card game En Garde! by Slugfest Games (pick it up if you can, it's super fun). However, putting it in with a traditional MMO layout (wandering an open world with real-time, semi-twitch combat in which the environment can be used to your advantage), the reasons why we haven't seen this before rear their ugly heads. While I think this system can work, it simply does not currently. It isn't fun after the initial novelty wears off. It isn't intuitive. It hamstrings all the wonderful potential skill combinations by encouraging simplicity in the face of deep, complex options. I want the system to work, I really do, but either the game, as a whole, needs to be reformed from the ground-up to accommodate it, or the hotbars/combat system needs to be adjusted in more traditional tones. Otherwise the two facets - old and new - do nothing to support one another and simply detract from the overall experience.



Thumbs up for making it all the way.

 

You are aware that this is exactly how it works right now, are you? Investment in a single glyph, reduces focus cost and cooldown when that Glyph is locked.

 

Is it whenever it's locked, be it Hybrid or full locked decks? 'Cause I haven't noticed much of a difference in my Off-Hand cooldowns with 5 of them until I locked one and had 4 rotating in my hand where I could keep chaining them. I switched to a hybrid deck 'cause cooldowns were atrocious; I just felt like I was auto-attacking things to death it was so slow.

 

If you reduce discard speed and increase draw speed then keep minimum card count in max hand size deck ... keep stacks of the ones you don't want then you can forces 2-3 for spamming. (not a master just trying to help).

 

Well with a slow discard speed and a fast deal speed the glyphs you use are replaced quickly. But the ones that aren't appropriate sit there longer and you either have to spam them or wait for them to go away. Less cards in your hand amplifies that effect.

 

You can right-click them and discard them early, you don't have to wait for them to decay.

 

yes that's the entire point, if they are stacked and sitting there you don't get new ones, you keep getting dealt the ones you want over and over.

 

if they'd just pop in an option to have small transparent glyphs in a halo around the avatar during combat it would go a long way from having to stare down all the time.

i'll also say there really isnt a good post that nails how to set up decks. and before you say 'they are all over the place' i'll say, yeah, and the ideas are all over the place too. every friggin help has a bunch of chuckleheads refuting it with offhand this and random that. it's a restupulous system and having a post from the dev saying 'it's a little confusing' doesnt help - like, make a less confusing one then?

The Hendoman

 

yeah, and you know how many times I died staring at that. Also, they don't stay there forever. Sometimes 2 is all you got mean while your doing what? Taking a beating waiting for what you need. No planning, no strategy. Tactics are spam-a-thon. Not much reason to spend any skill points past 20, you already have all the glyphs you need.

 

Oh i didn't realise you were not listening, thanks for saving me some time.

 

First off,

Hello! This is my first post and just backed the game last week. Have only been on a few times, just trying to figure everything out.

I haven't tried the auto deck yet so i cant comment on that, That being said I do not think you should be punished for using the locked bar.

Oh and so far GREAT job with the game, seems to be coming along very nicely!

Thanks!

 

Welcome captbloody. If you need any help let us know. When I'm in game I am majoria. I would be happy to help.