Combat/Skills/Spells video chat!

I am begging to have Auto Attack removed, and I have it turned OFF.
We need to simplify and remove extra options for attack, etc.
If testing a new or modified attack mechanic, take out all the other options.
And change it back later if needed.
This is the way to get accurate feedback. Otherwise, when people bring up points they don't like about the mechanic, others just say "Well you can just use the old way if you don't like it.", instead of debating how to improve the mechanic.

 

The next time I actually level into pvp viable build and not just alpha testing we'll see how wrong I am... I have a feeling you'll never get your perfect cycle of endless counters so I should be able to wait a good three to six months to debate this with you in-game. Let's have at this three weeks after the NEXT wipe... it will give us both some time to work on progression knowing we both have full times jobs. Not the one in a couple weeks but the one after that. You try to dps race kill me while I counter and kill you. You're not allowed to do any countering you just stand still and push max DPS while I get to move (physically counter because they already have positional combat benefits in the game). You're not allowed to use CC abilities (anything that takes away my movement is a counter to my movement so that wouldn't be allowed). We'll see who wins. Cool? I think practical application to test "your facts" vs "my facts" is only fair at this point... but I'm also not going to level up something I'm good at for another few months so find me then

I'm against roshambo combat in sota. I'm against the cycle of counters. I'm not against good combat design with tells and counters just... not everything.

only if he (in the picture) smokes it with me and I get a picture with him blowing a boat through a smoke ring that I made so I can be that guy... because I'd make the picture into a poster and the #PosterWouldBeInMyOffice (hashtags are courtesy of @Lum hashtaggers anonymous only incorporated... ... LMAO inc.

cool idea, I've seen this said a few times, not sure how I feel about the basic skills not needing reagents... I really do commit myself requesting regs to be treated as all-or-nothing on reagent requirement. Personally, I think their current system is better for what you recommend because the higher tier spells hurt a LOT more to cast without reagents than the lower tier spells so... why change it at all? Whatever they do is what we'll all have to accept or move on but that's my feedback.

every rpg game I've played (single and multiplayer) that involves combat rewards people who can kick damage out faster than others... mindless dps race isn't cool but a dps race is basically required. I agree that skillful players will be hard to kill but I disagree that getting ganged up on not changing it. I think three equally skilled players doing a 2v1 the 1 should die every time... it's just statistics and bad design if 1 person can be a god and take on two others who are equally skilled and survive... some rare rare rare RNG cases I understand but being someone who has taken on 5+ in sota and survived I can tell you I'm not a fan. They actually comment about me in the combat scrum calling me the troll builder... because I make survivability decks trying to push the limits to encourage that to change. I have heals and CCs and that's it... 20 CC cards and 5 heal cards was my favorite troll deck pre use-based-system changes.

Also, +1 on using the term Nix... don't know many people who know that term. My grandfather taught it to me and you're the first person I've seen use it that is alive in years. Good memories. Cheers!

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@Chris another thing that I forgot to mention was the diversity of spells isn't a big deal... WoW only had like 5 spells for me to use in 99% of my fights and people complain that this game only has 5 spells to use... I liked UO more for this reason. I hated how every two levels I had to go back to town to train in WoW... Then I get there and it's the same stuff I have only the next level. I liked how there were a lot more options in UO. I like how I have more options here now and I'd like to see that continued through deck swapping. I think swapping decks that do not swap ANY armor or weapons should be instant and allowed in combat to help the people with issues about accessing their other skills. I also think that you should be able to setup deck swapping to multiple decks like the action bar swapping that wow added after they realized people wanted to access things and couldn't...

I think it would go a long way for people like @Daxxe Diggler here who wants a different system put in place to handle what the deck swapping already handles just not well enough.

Finally, about all them spells and abilities...

in UO I had 2-3 spells deep around my window and I put monster health bars next to my combat skills and friendly health bars next to my buffs/heals/bandages skills
in WOW I had the classic ui with the bottom left and right, top left and right, sidebar top and bottom (so all six action bars) used... and I made macros so when I held shift/alt/ctrl different abilities would fire.

This would require work on the LUA system though... any word on that?

Our current age of gamers need some hand holding to get them started (including myself... this isn't a put down it's just something that we're used to now) and I think a really really really important part about this chat will be "How will you use the ingame FTUE to train people on how all these things work without causing them to 'curse and quit the game...' as I've heard mentioned." If you guys already know then let us know some of how you plan on handling that? If not, can we help?

 

Ixnay on Aceray (-:

 

Your logic is so flawed, its funny...

If you have it turned OFF, then what's the problem? Oh, free attack doesn't work, and isn't fun... While PvPing or PvEing? Well dude, state your case, and be accurate about your feedback, don't compare it to other games, tell us what's wrong with it... Forcing everyone to use something that's experimental at best, does not invoke ppl to give accurate feedback... The plan should be to put it on the QA server and let ppl experiment with it, see what their feedback is before you force feed it to everyone...

@Chris I beg you, remove free attack now, put it on the QA server until it's in a final state, then let the ppl have the "option" to auto attack IF they wish too....

 

I wanted to ask something to Chris. But the thread degenerated (as usual) from a list of requests, to a debate among the players.

Now I'm afraid if I ask

Is the adventurer level still used in any formula, such as to-hit chance, to-be-hit chance, base health, base focus, damage received by mobs? If so, it will stay hidden and/or there are plans to remove such tie in next releases?

The usual flaming back and forth would start. I'm very scared to touch any thread where there's a combat-related feedback request, because it turns into free-vs-auto, pvp-vs-pve, mage-vs-melee, cloth-vs-plate in about no time.

 

Is there any plans to have skill synergy?

Example: mastering fire arrow adds a bonus to other fire based spells.

Thank you.

 

Regents, are they ever going to be fixed?
1) too expensive, grab 10 of each you need before leaving town.

2) I go out an gather them myself but they seem to disappear as I fight. Even though I don't have all needed for a particular spell all the garlic and sulfurous ash I gather are gone before I get back to town. Shouldn't regents only be used when all are present?

3) It's completely stupid to have every tier spell use the same regents and just add a new one each tier up. I don't buy regents for tier 3 spells when I need them for tier 5 spells and they just burn away.

4) There is no control when a spell uses regents or doesn't. If it's in my inventory it's going to be used whether I like it or not. More stupidity, if you are going to use regents I should have control over when and where they get used!

 

As an Archer, I would like to know this as well....

 

Question: Is there any love coming for the archers? You said there was, but haven't seen it yet. Like make the arrows weight less if we wear light armor? Reduce the cost of the arrows, and not have it take more then 10 arrows to kill something., can't afford the arrows, the repairs, and for the skills cause arrows cost to much ... Give us the ability to USE a Set Trap skill to snare a target when it steps on it, giving us a chance to dmg it before it gets to us, and put it in the Archer tree .... Arrows weighing less then they are now or weigh almost nothing will allow us to carry more arrows so we can stay out venturing longer and be able to carry back some loot from venturing, as it is now, I can barely carry anything if I want to carry the arrows ... Starting out it's very hard. Thank You P.S. I don't always have the time or patients to craft the arrows, so make them affordable pls

 

I actually asked this question as they released the use based skill system. Chris responded saying that yes, it is used in some cases, all internally, which is why you can still find it in the character details screen. it IS still part of the maths they use.

as would i. in any game i've played to date that was worth its salt, ranged characters could go toe to toe, if they were able to dictate the environmental (and other) variables in the fights. most of the games, sadly, were dps wars so they just upped the bleeds or overall dps to "compensate" with a workaround instead of a fix...which is why almost every game with a ranged weapon - is lackluster. those devs (other games) were either too lazy to figure it out, or were not able to make it actually work, due to deadlines or sheer inability to figure it out.

 

Question: Why are Mages casting spells while holding and also firing a two handed weapon?

Archery requires two hands, Magery requires a hand to work the reagents and or hand movements to work a spell. One should simply not be able to do both at the same time. To cast a spell, one should be required to remove the bow from the hand and put it back into its holder or over the shoulder before continuing on to cast a spell. This would eliminate the complaints of extra DPS in a cat fight. I'm all for an Archer/Mage template, but lets make it a little realistic.

 

LOTR did an awesome job on archery as did EQ2 and DaOC ....

 

+1

For me, character casting spell need to have something like book, staff, wand in hands. Not a two handed weapon or bow.

 

ESO wasn't bad either. but they were more arcane archers.. GW2 was fun, but not manual aiming which is what i prefer.

thats another reason i'm hoping there is at least one tier, if not the whole tree, that doesn't REQUIRE reagents, but is much scaled down in effectiveness.

magic, when boiled down to the basics, is all about focus. those reagents let the user focus on them, something tangible in the hand, and be much more effective with the spells in question. doesn't mean they can not do the spells without the reagents...it may take a little longer, and it may be easier to fizzle, and it may not be as potent as if you used reagents..but it should not be nessicary. and those very well versed with the spell line, should need fewer reagents for that same level of focus they help form - and grand masters should not have to use any reagents....but get MASSIVE bonus' to them if they do .

 

Are we expecting any major changes to combat between now and release? If so, can we have an idea of those changes?
In the event, this is what we have, what are some ways you plan to improve upon it?

Can we expect more skill trees to make players more diverse?

I know this is a game being built by a number of people following the Lord British vision. However, I would like to know, in your ideal situation, what your idea of combat AND end game would look like?

 

Actually traditional casting is about the regents and their application. What you're talking about is artificer magic.

Magic has many different forms from so many fantasy worlds. You ever hear of the "will and the word"?

As to the original question the above poster asked. I've never seen someone doing a melee skill and magic at the same time. Now, like melee when a mage runs out of focus then the melee auto-attack kicks in, that is if you use it. I've run out of focus and just stood there, makes for some boring playing.

 

Can we have a different bar for physical attacks other than Focus? I shouldnt have to raise magic skills if i melee mostly! example i have to cast magic to raise Heightened awareness that is being used by my melee skills.

 

"Ask me about skills, use based math, chaos magic, balance, PVP"

So far off the top of my head:

1 - Will each skill tree be expanded upon, or is that all the skills that are intended for a long time to come?

2 - Do you guys know roughly how many more skill tree's are planned, that arent in yet? Like Subterfuge.

3 - As you level a skill, is there anything behind the scenes that is increased, other than just the tooltip damage, duration or strength of cc? For example will a higher level in a skill help to hit the higher numbers between the minimum and maximum damage on the tooltip or increase crit chance?

4 - If plate is being rebalanced/nerfed for R23, will you guys be going over physical damage combat styles, especially 2H melee, if people now have incentive to wear anything else or stronger penalties for wearing plate? Since physical damage is currently too strong against mostly all but plate. Especially being able to train crit chance, damage and attack speed as passives in weapon skill tree's.

5 - Has Adventurer level actually been removed from the game or is it another number that has been hidden for good reason? It seems our life and focus are still based off our old adventurer level and if it is just hidden.....

6 - Does adventurer level affect anything else, at all, no matter how minute. For example maybe slight modifier to the amount of damage you would do between the maximum and minimum on a skills tooltip, or on the chance to hit and chance to dodge.

7 - Guild Wars - can you summarise what you guys have planned for that so far. People talk of making a separate guild for guild wars for the few that want to specifically pvp, wouldnt that defeat the purpose of going to war with an actual, proper, guild? What is going to be the difference between fighting a group of people in an off-guild that you are at war with, and just having both groups tag pvp and fighting?

8 - Why has no1 yet bought my Hand of Atos that i have been showing off on the public vendor in Owls Head, for 999k

 

@Chris,
I currently count fifteen "blacked out" glyphs in the adventuring skill trees, when will they be finished? Would it be wiser to finish them before continuing to change any more combat related issues? To me it feels like you go backwards a few steps with every addition to the system. Perhaps finishing the system and then tweaking it would be better.

 

Wow will be a long and hard evenig for you ;-)
Ok, got a question. Dunno if it's already asked:
Will we get a rework of skill trees? In parts they make no sense.
Like ignite weapon as preset for ring of fire and by that preset for the fire elemental. But pure casters carry a wand wich can't be ignited since the last patch.
And so forth.
@E n v y got a lot examples like that a few weeks ago.