Free mode attacking

Please don't yank auto attack. At least not until we can bind free attack to a key of our choosing. As many have already stated, and I concur, movement with the mouse must be preserved. Free attack currently complicates this in its current form. I am very pleased with the progress and am confident that this will be awesome once it has been fine tuned. Cheers!

 

Thanks Baron Drocis for sharing the video. I loved the look of how the combat connected and flowed. I enjoy playing a warrior type character the most, so thought that looked terrifc. And yes to turning off crosshairs or whatever if we got them that is.

 

I still vote for some attacks being made into your next auto attack.

i.e. Select Thrust, your weapon "tings" and you can attack to throw out a basic thrust with a minimum damage boost or a charged up thrust with better charge scaling than an auto attack for that "powerful attack" it mentions.

Same for some spells when holding a wand or staff as a focus for the magic. Hold down the key to charge a fireball, no extra damage, but a larger range and radius (with it firing when you let go) or simply press the key for the basic fireball.

So many options when you can factor cast times in.

Also made a post on a possible Fizzle/Interrupt system a while ago.

 

I've been attempting using normal attacks while stacking glyphs in deck mode. I assigned the attacks i want to be able to stack tot he first 4 keys, sicne my mouse is busy attacking and aiming i have to use "R" and the first 4 keys are the only ones i can reach without my figners becomign misaligned with the movment keys.

If i am having to stay mobile after a target and do this, I cant. I've been trying and my brain jsut cant make my fingers hit movment keys, R, numbers, and cycle mouse clicks while aiming all at the same time. It would help TREMENDOUSLY if there were some method to stack thigns automatically so i am free to move and cocnentrate on fighting.

Im loving the new normal attacks, and have been using a "berserker" build that makes good use of them, but it's still better jsut to spam skills instead.

After this mdoe of attack was introduced, i've been dying alot from not paying attention to my health bar or standing still too much.

So i was wondering what folks (particularly people who play as a warrior) would think of making your free-attacks your primary damage source, and turning the skills into something you use tactically isntead of soemthing you spam relentlessly? (I.E.: Burst damage, Knock down, bleed, armor debuff, AoE, etc)

 

I like this idea. We could have skills that modify your free mode attacks in different ways. One skill could increase critical hit chance, one skill could increase damage on armored foes, etc. etc. If they added a free mode block with skills that modified blocking - I think we would have a very appealing combat system!

 

YES, YES YES YES

ALL OF MY YES, ALL OF THEM.

That is all.

 

Friday was a good day for News.

 

I absolutely love Free Attack Mode. I finally feel connected to the character I control. I can't wait to see how it evolves and improves from here on out. This was exactly what I needed to trigger the addict in me!

For those that are interested, this is my current setup: I use dual swords, 5 unlocked slots, and 1 locked slot for Mind Lock. One random slot is devoted to just Healing glyphs so I always have a heal up without locking it. 3 slots are just Thrust, Double Attack, and Offhand Attack, while the last 2 slots are for Trip, Rend, and Offhand Attack. I use Offhand Attack after a charged Free Attack as a way to keep stacking damage for cheap while making room in my bar for Combos.

I'm not sure how efficient my setup is, but it sure feels good!

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Yes! I very much want combat to be like this.

It's a long time since I was trying to suggest we get a combat form that is more like Dark Souls, so these are good times.

 

While the free mode attacking is a step in the right direction I think (player agency yay!) it is only a tiny step so far. Here are some of my thoughts:

1) There really isn't any advantage to choosing it over auto attack.
2) There is no visual distinction between a "heavy" attack and a light one. Or one in between.
3) It makes the combo-deck-juggling a little more frustrating.
4) Needs a key or button binding if it doesn't have one already. I'll admit I haven't actually checked that.
5) If it is being considered I'd prefer a DS style target lock over a crosshair especially if I'm having to manipulate my deck and other elements (like the camera) at the same time. But!!
6) ...some visual indication of who the target in range of your sword strike is would be super.
7) Weapon blows still don't feel as though they have any "weight" behind them. I am having a little trouble articulating this but at the moment combat is more like two ghosts swinging at each other. Strikes never feel like they connect. I think players of action RPGs would understand what I mean more. This is more an animation/feedback issue though. This applies to individual glyphs too - they need to be more distinctive both visually and in terms of feedback, and what they do as well. For example I have both thrust and double slash in my deck. The truth is they may as well both be called "more damage" because I don't really care which is which. It's just a sword glyph that does extra damage when I use it. This sort of ties in to my next issue as well.
8) Basic attacks still suck. Infact I think there needs to be a major contraction of the current HP and Damage balance because 50 hits (slight exaggeration there but only SLIGHT) to kill a wolf seems silly. More of a balance issue I know but if I'm opting for no auto-attack I don't wanna have to click fifty times per encounter with a random adjective-noun-wolf. This is a general criticism I have of combat and damage balance by the way - it feels very attritional (because it is) - less like a fight and more like a boxing match or something. And it is a bit boring.

That is all I can think of for now.

 

I agree with all your observations, Ashlynn. I think all those problems are easily fixable and free mode attack looks very, very promising. The only problem that doesn't seem easily resolved is how much more difficult card combat is with free mode attack. For me, card combat already takes all my concentration and distracts me from the rest of the game. With free mode attack, card combat is all but impossible. It's a lot better with a locked deck.

I'd love to see the devs scrap the deck system, fine tune the free mode attack, add a free mode block.. and then re-tool the skills that would modify both free mode attacks and blocks. I think that would be very entertaining and enjoyable combat system! I am no dev or computer programmer, so I'm not sure how difficult it would be to implement these ideas. It seems to me, though, that it really wouldn't take too much dev time or money. Sure, it may set the game back a little bit - but I think it would be worth it for the backers, the future players and the ultimate success of this game we all love and want to see flourish.

 

I think that this is very interesting. We would regulary attack with our free attacks and maybe get free blocking and dodging and the "special attacks" could work more like in a real card game.
Imagine doing away with the hotbar. Instead we see a card deck at one side of the screen, maybe fanned out but the back of the cards shown. This is the deck we manage with our skills. Every time we charge up our "special attack", the deck glows and we are to draw a card. We don't know what card is drawn. This card goes into one of three slots and can either be used instantly by clicking on it or it can be saved. This way we can save up to three cards to choose from for a special attack. It could also be possible to discard a card in order to make room for another one. Or drawn cards could vanish after a period of time.

 

I see great potential!

 

Will the free attacking mode be expanded to something like Chivalry(is it even a feasible question) or will the combat system take a more ESO approach?

I like the cards for magic though kind of really works well for casters. Reminds me of the winds of magic from Warhammer.

Is it too much to have a free combat system like chivalry and the cards for spells? I guess this would make passive skills a lot more important. Is it technically possible?

 

In the Dev hangout Chris said free attacking is being expanded on. Many changes to combat for R20. Im looking forward to checking it out.

 

I agree with all the people prefferring free attack and everything that makes them happy about it ... just dont take autoattack out ... I know I might sound like a spoiled brat, but it would be quite a big dissappointment for me ...

- I really dont want to click mouse every time I want to swing a sword
- I like the "slower" combat pace when I can rotate the camera, check on the surroundings, enjoy the view on the fight from different angles, using glyp now and there
- Really, i take the fight (in pve) as a nice scenery, watching my character fighting and "helping" him out by "advicing" him few glyphs
- I dont want to play the game in terra camera style never ever no never - I disslike always character head centered camera and crossair in the middle so much, that when I bought Elder Scrolls Online for 50E I played like five minutes and never played the game again
- with the complex card like skill bar system and with free attack mode it will be super challenge to make this system good enough not to discourage new players, and even the current one

- so my thoughts - in simple - do whatevery you want with free attack, just leave auto-attack in place

 

Ahhhh pirAte, well he did say he hopes the changes he has planned will make people want to take away auto attack but maybe they will still want it. He just hopes it. Well that is how I took what he said.

 

Why does he "hope it" ? fancifully dodged the essence of my question with some agressivity...

The fancy lag-prevention action-prediction system is not working ? We have new investors and can use a twice bigger server ?

Go ahead, accuse me of being lucid... Good morning.

 

Based on the hangout, melee will change quite a bit. If I heard Chris right, it sounds like there aren't going to be melee combos any more, unless magic is involved. So that sound s like there aren't going to be power combos any more. To get the equivalent functionality it sounds like melee warriors will need the charging system to get the same kind of functionality they had before with power combos. At least I hope that's how it works. Otherwise, I'm not sure how the melee class's power combos will be compensated for in the current system.

Chris did say a key equivalent will be available.

And in the end, auto attack for melee is likely to go away; at least that is their goal. So I'd prepare for it to not be in the game in a release or two.

 

Dont you think its a little late in the piece to be being all cagey. They run with this combat system for a long time now its being revamped.

Why dont you just come out and say what you are planning and explain it all instead of being secretive? Whats the point of it? You got our money, you got people so divided over the current combat system and here you are acting like a side show magician.

It just reeks of either havent got a clear plan OR has the potential to be so hyped up that could lead to another disappointment. Surely its time to just be open.