Free mode attacking

I know, since I'm already testing for a while . I was talking about the other melee skills, like double strike for blades or crushing blow, etc. Would be nice to power those up, too by holding the action bar button

 

I tried it a bit, ok well no. I set options to autoattack off & could no longer move with mouse, moving around using only keys doesn't work for me, I guess i could get used to it if I had to. Is there going to be a keybind option instead of leftclick

 

I like the free attack but I think it need to be tweaked before I will be using it.

I would prefer to be able to auto-attack as ususal and be able to free attack in the direction where i point a mouse....sou I would be autoattacking, change the attack flow when needed without loosing a target. Also I would be able to attack one npc while targetting another with spells.

many people maybee did not noticed that you can change your camera mode to follow your mouse movement by default (without pressing the right mouse button) beeing centered on your character.

AT THIS MOMENT I SEE FREE ATTACK AS AND IDEA WE ARE TESTING, not implemented feature. It is very good idea and will be nice addition to combat system once it is properly tweaked.

So far I use the "free camera" look and auto-attack. I have a feeling that when I switch to "lock camera" and free attack I play a different game ... and which I dont like.

Devs, find a well balanced compromise between auto-attack and free-attack to win the internetz :_D

 

Good... Chris I must say I'm pleased by the fact you guys seem to actually put your pants on and not fear replying to even the strongest dissenting voices these days.

I've never liked 3-d games... in wow beta I made it to level 40 something and then quit forever, went back to my isometric and old strategy games.

Its true, and truth is very important here, you guys never said that lag was a constraint... well exept when Mr. Darkstar says that the server bill hurts. But the fact is there is a few "dev defenders" runing amok on your forum and they take a subconscious pleasure in burying very good ideas with that excuse even in threads you participated and noone ever bothered to tell them you can take some criticism. You aren't exactly in a vulnerable inventor-like position so this should be clear.

So for a long while I put my constructivism to find ideas to LOWER server load and lag, not adding features from advanced games with huge studios and budgets.

My opinion I know, sorry if I come across like a whiner that it isn't really my intention. My point is really about priorities rather than criticism here... part of those priorities is telling people truth so good threads, light and ideas don't get buried. It's simple, and you will find it makes for a stronger community that dosen't require "managing" and justifying yourself all the time.

Just tell the truth, you have found a way to make it happen. You shouldn't feel insulted by my vehemence it indeed shows that I care ; I'm paying attention and taking the time to read the information you guys share.

 

Yank auto-attack! YAY....I hope that happens someday.

I'm also very happy to hear that we're attempting to move away from tab targeting. Good luck!

Now let's hope latency doesn't kill both these dreams.

 

Very happy about this addition to combat. Hopefully there will be more changes like this in the future e.g. active blocking / interrupts

 

Sticking with the auto attack for now, till they make free attack better then what it is... I like facing my enemy when I attack, with free attack, you don't and i find it frustrating .....

 

Moving away from tab-targeting is very good news. Can't wait to see how the combat system evolves in this way. I am very happy with the free attack so far.

 

I love the new free-attack mode. To me, this is a massive step in the right direction. Adding a block button would be great. Sometimes, it seemed when I held down the attack to release at full potential, it did the same damage as spamming attacks. Sometimes it would do more. Just keep improving this system; I love it. Also, though I spammed hits one right after another, it didn't seem to decrease my stamina. I only got to try R19 for about an hour or so last night... I will be giving it a lot more time next week. Thanks so much for adding this option.

 

I don't mind if when using free attack we have cross hairs. If anyone played tera then that is how it is. You then know when and where you are hitting the creature or oponent ie a headshot. I am not saying to fully implement tera combat but I truly don't think grabbing good ideas from other games is a bad idea. Tera is actually a now free to play game and a beautiful game if anyone wants to look at it. Just the grindiest game ever. Tthe ability to walk or point at anything is a bit frustrating in that game until you get used to it since your mouse clicks are hits or spells and powerups, then you must hit escape to point at something and use your 'w' key to walk or other assigned key or assigned mousekey to walk perhaps. Im always hitting the floor with my very giant axe instead of walking.

 

Out of curiosity some questions to those, who are also testing the new Free Form Attack: Do you use locked decks or random glyph decks (on fixed slots), while doing Free Mode Attack? Do you use Stacking and Comboing the same time you swing with your mouse against the enemy without getting overwhelmed? Can you follow the buffs and debuffs on yourself and the enemy? And can you manage to do this against moving enemies like the strong air elementals or in PvP?

Again, in principle I like the idea and hope it can get properly introduced. I have my doubts, that this can be combined with the stacking/combo system, which needs a lot of attention itself, but we'll see this in the coming releases, when the free form attack gets fleshed out.
And I hope that some of the updates to the combat system make it better structured, less click heavy and less confusing and distracting... (I still root for auto combos and auto stacking skills)

 

Card combat is even more difficult with free flow combat. It seems to work better with a locked bar. I do love the idea of free flow and its promising.

 

I've played the free attack a little in PVE (with a dagger). It's really tough, I basically whiff at everything.

I do like it more than auto-attack though because now at least there is skill involved. But this is definitely a first pass that needs a lot of work across the board to become "good".

 

I'm sure you're right about a polearm. I tried using 3rd person view and that was even harder, btw. The only reason I was even using a dagger was because that's all I had on me leftover from R18. I was also killing (in part) watchers and I may have been swinging over top of them, it's hard to tell.

My gut tells me we're going to need some visual queues that tell us when we're in range or out of range. Again, latency seems problematic. I'm not a fan of cross hairs, but I do like subtle queues that might pop up on the sides or above and below a target ala "For Honor".



I also love how, at least in melee, there are three basic choices of where you're attacking and this gives your opponent a chance to block the attack (read: be successful using player skill). For Honor is very FPS twitch, and not everything will be right for SotA, but it's built on competitive play that gives both sides a chance. Clearly it's not built on DPS.

 

If that wasn't made by ubifail I would totally get it... looks cool.

 

Yeah, I feel the same way about those guys, I always feel guilty and dirty if I buy anything from them.

 

Some things that should be up for consideration.

• Proximity Attacks: Is this viable with the current lag? Will we be going to locking on and hitting the enemy manually and anybody within a certain range of you will just get a percentage?
• Charge Hits: Your character should show everyone that you're charging a hit.
• Spell Charges: Could spells also benefit from being manually charged?
• Camera: It's extremely floaty right now with manual swings. If you're going to this, are you going to be making a new overtheshoulder camera lock or are we going to be keeping the same camera? Games with manual swinging don't have the camera from a birds eye view.
• Card Deck UI: Will it be more streamlined to handle the manual attacks? Dragging your mouse around while manually left clicking isn't going to solve the whole "staring at your UI when you're fighting"
• Speed: With the manual attacks kicking in, will you be slowing down combat so that the enemies are doing more than auto-attacks and instant cast skills?
• Movement: Will our character movement be different when we're engaged in combat? This sort of ties into the speed of combat.

I'll be adding more ideas to this thread in a bit, but free mode combat shouldn't be floaty, but it overall it is good that you're looking at Tera for something to strive to, however, biggest issue with that game is that every mob was a meat sponge. You'd do 20+ fanciful skills on a wolf and it'd still only be at half health. How will the mobs be handled? Will they still be meat sponges that can attack or will you eventually make them give tells for you to manually avoid (since they're "manually" attacking).

 

Add ability to toggle crosshairs on or off, problem solved. Skyrim had it. I liked to use them as a caster, but as melee it was kind of pointless so it was nice to have the option. Tera is a gorgeous game but oi..grinding, indeed.

I use unlocked deck with fixed slots. Been going back and forth between free and auto attack here and there and like where free-attack is going. When using free-attack I don't find it overwhelming. Free-attack with one hand (mouse)...execute skills and combos with the other (keyboard). If you use the mouse to click your skills and drag and drop the combos then I suppose you are at a disadvantage.

Note: It may not be overwhelming for me considering I'm just level 28 again and don't have a plethora of skills to manage yet. I can see how it can be unruly sometimes with the need to change camera angle and be mobile.