Glyph/Deck Feedback

really? did you ever play pacman? That wasn't a complex game. Some how people loved playing pacman. They did it for hours.

Remember farmville? Strange little game. Yet people played it all the time. I think it was the whole Zanga wants too much of your money that ruined zanga games though.

Either way a game does not need to be complex to be fun and keep players interested. In fact too much complexity will likely cause a lot of people to play less, or even quit.

What they need is a hook. Complexity in itself is not a hook.

 

I played several hours last night and enjoyed myself for the most part but something weird happened... I enjoyed the graphics a lot and hated the combat PvP system which is the opposite of what I wanted. I played UO since the 90s and still enjoy the simple graphics and awesome combat system I explain to people as being a FPS and RPG combines because of the speed and skill needed.

I agree with a lot of the people about the deck system being a struggle and have no idea why we are using a random deck vs actual skills like in all other games so maybe someone can tell me.

I enjoyed the game and will continue to play it but I'm glad I got a low level pledge instead of dropping a few grand after seeing the combat/PvP system. I know you can't please everyone so I'll just ride it out and hope for the best and vote with my wallet in the end.

 

You know I think this system needs a lot of work and certainly has a lot of issues. However given that it is far from finished and lots of skills are not even in not to mention not much balancing has been done, I think it is far too earlier to start claiming the system will not work or is too complicated or whatever. It is a little complicated I agree there but not anything so complicated that you cannot get used to it. Even WoW could get complicated with certain classes for instance if you wanted to max out your dps. You had to use certain skills at certain times and time your cooldowns properly. It might not be that way anymore but I know when I played it was. Not to mention I am sure that once the game releases if a new player looks at the skill tree and says bleh I don't want to deal with trying to figure this all out! They will be able to look up builds online without too much effort.

Personally my problems with the system are that the way heavy armor is handled with the slugs is rather annoying. Actually the slugs in general are annoying. Not to mention the UI needs serious work. For one I need to be able to move the indicators of health and debuffs and the combat bar where I want to. Right now with the way the ui is I am forced to look all over my screen because everything is spread out. I also think that even in a "random" deck it would be nice if there was still a sort of logic to how glyphs were ordered. Like defensive skills to one side and offensive skills to another. Also if the all locked option still has a high focus penalty I think they should remove that. To be honest I suspect that especially as more skills and more combos are released the fact that a random deck will be able to use combos will be enough of an advantage. I think the random deck or mostly random deck should be better then an all locked one after all I think it is harder to master. That doesn't mean though we should make the locked option completely unattractive. It should be a viable though slightly inferior option to those that want to use it.

 

The Random Deck system is ridiculous. This single feature put me off the game.

Combat was my forte and they have destroyed it.

I thrived on combat in UV, UVI and the Baldurs Gate series. Those were my utopia.

 

Simple > Complex > Complicated.

Complex is not a synonym for Complicated.

Complex, I can deal with no problem.

Complicated is what drives most people away because it is too frustrating to incoming people with little to zero knowledge how a thing interacts/functions.

Simple = Wack a button on a hotbar

Complex = Wack a random button on a hotbar to chain different combinations for greater "effectors"

Complicated = Make sure your focus tree is right for your "playstyle", make sure you have "reagents" or whatever supplies for your playstyle, make sure you have a proper "deck" for the situation then Wack a random button on a hotbar to chain different combinations for greater "effectors"

Now, I realize that "pre-made" decks at least help mitigate the preparation of "battle" but this is still a largish time sink into a mechanic that, while is a good part of the game, should not be something that requires me to know A, B and C before just using it and being punished for "not knowing".

I applaud taking risks, iterating an idea, absolutely. I do it every single day. I also have learned when something is just too prohibitive to a growth of use (most of the time). Even when we have deployments that a segment of users absolutely LOVE TO DEATH, it just does not make long term success better, and you have to start to reduce complexity and focus on a more favorable, balanced product.

The failure to realize, while all of most of us are "ok" using this system, most casuals and people not used to these types of games, are not going to be won over with a rigorous depth of a system like this - it is just not bueno.

Sure, there are a great many people who just read that last sentence and said "GOOD! DONT WANT THEM HERE!"

Cutting off your nose to spite your face for new membership with NEW MONEY, is pretty dumb. For everyone.

Cheers.

 

And we would all be dragged into a cataclysm event with the raw elements themselves torn asunder by Death itself!


See what I did there?

 

Love the deck system

 

Well....The farmville game actively persued the lowest common demonator. It worked because it had easy access and anyone could play it.

You are putting this same message all over the boards in different threads, like I said earlier it feels like the sky is falling. In reality things are most likely a lot morfe complex right now because there are no systems in place to "teach" you the rules.

I for one love complexity in my RPG's. I don't want a diablo online game...I don't want to be able to hit one button to attack and then continue walking. I want the systems to interact with each other and compliment each other.

Reading your posts you think even having to make a deck is to complicated. I guess I am on the opposite end of the spectrum with you, since you also think WoW was a good combat system...which was really simple from CRPG combat system perspective.

At the moment I just don't see this over complication.