In regards to the "distracting" nature of the deck system:

Locked Deck Non GUI combat experience.

Can you determine if your fireball hit your target?
Can you remember what mobs you hit with DOTs?
Can you predict which mob will die first?
Do you know how many spider bites can you survive?
Did you noticed you were poisoned?

I can , or almost , I finally died to spiders, but I was very close to win the fight.

No one needs GUIs , experience will make you a master spider killer,the problem is that everybody thinks they need a GUI because they are used to them.....
you have a brain, use it..........you will be surprised how fun, exciting and engaging non GUI combat is.

Do they need a great budget and a large dev team? I don't think so , I bet its the opposite, all they have to do is creating good visual/audio effects reflecting
combat events so players can determine what is going on, turn off GUI interface and they are done.

 

@Borg

I have to commend you for this, and it was indeed very exciting, even just to watch! You did however illustrate my point, as this is with a locked bar. So again its either ditch the deck, or add keystroke-memory functionality; then of course coupled with visual feedback in terms of blood, shake, things like that to cue you in to what is happening in a more meta sense.

I now challenge you to attempt the same using the deck format.... #gauntletthrown

 

In fact I already did, it was not as fun as using Locked Deck ofc.......you can only rely on luck. (This test was in R11)

 

To edit myself, I think the nature of your reply came from this line:

.. in which I forgot to mention "deck/card draw" or whatever you want to call it.

This conversation is based around the assumption (be it right, wrong, smart, or not) that the deck system will stay in-tact.

 

I still think the whole combat system is nothing more than a place holder ( be it right,wrong, smart or not )

 

Agreed!

 

As others have stated, there was some palpable tension (perhaps too strong a word here) between RG/SL and Chris, suggesting that RG may feel his vision is being diluted. His public restatement of that vision while looking at Chris (and suggesting that "discussions have gone well") gives a ray of hope that there is some big thinking going on internally and that the some free reign and experimentation may be reigned in. I have a hard time imagining a card combat system that is "UI-free".

I can only hope.

 

This is great news Chris! I am eagerly awaiting the next release. Cheers sir!

 

Thank you for the answer Chris !!!

Cant wait R18 !!

 

@Chris thanks for chiming in! I very much look forward to seeing what you have come up with. No doubt it will be elegant and effective. I love the deck idea and where we are headed. I still believe the only hurdle was hotbar focus, so if this has been quelled then I believe the attitude of many here may shift. Keep it up!

 

Excellent, look forward to trying it out.

 

Go Dev+ and you can! Plus it helps fund the game. Win for Port and a win for you. Go ahead and do it. You know you want too.

 

Isn't it possible that no UI for this system is impossible, but not another system? Isn't the real problem with achieving this really that you have a system that randomizes what buttons do?

Having no idea what you're doing means you need to have a good training/tutorial in place, doesn't it?

So, is this your official way of saying Garriott doesn't understand he needs the interface? AND that he's not going to get a game that can be played well without one?

EDIT: Also... don't go 100% on large improvement. Improvement, sure. But not large. And not some of us don't think it's dealing with some of the main problems. I'm more hopeful, but lets tamper down that just a bit.

 

Thanks for the clarification, Chris. As Freeman correctly points out, the requirement of a visual interface (the lack of which produced "abysmal" reactions) is tied strongly to the current system. I play Skyrim regularly with no visual interface and certainly no combat interface. This doesn't appear possible with card combat but I'm eager as hell to see what you have in store for R18.

Meanwhile, it was you who stated that if card combat turned out not to be "fun", you would probably consider other options. I understand the strong desire to preserve what exists and I'll wait to see how your improvements help the situation. But can we expect you to be equally open minded in your ongoing assessment and remain true to that earlier comment?

 

As I mentioned in other threads I do believe the random aspect has a great potential, but, having random cards attached to random keys
and having to manually micromanage cards is way too much, at least let me decide what key I have to press to use a skill....
Btw will we have any modification in Locked Deck or improvements are only related to Dynamic Deck?

 

I feel the same, hence the proposition and point of this thread. Either way we will see in about 6 days an idea of where they ate headed with it!

 

The problem with improving locked decks is that the more appealing you make them, the less point there is for having random. Right now locked decks are heavily penalized. The more you lessen the penalties, the less reason there is to use a random deck. If locked decks are appealing, why would anyone use a random deck? And don't tell me that min/maxers will because RNG does not play well with min/max.

I'm serious about being patient and using my imagination, I'll wait to see what they do with card combat. I'll also be honest and admit I'm not optimistic, but to all those who fear that scrapping this necessarily leads to "more of the same" (it doesn't, there are other alternatives I'm sure), I submit that if the dev team ignores its earlier statement that it would "probably try other options" if card combat "turned out not to be fun", and forges ahead with card combat solely because they have invested so much into it and don't want to start over, despite the fact that this is precisely whey we crowd funded them, to give them the freedom to experiment and take their time until they got it right, free from publisher constraints, if that's how they respond, then I submit that such a position is a better example of "more of the same".

 

I'm fine with that.

I'm ok with the notion that LD is the difficult mode of the game. More of a challenge with that. Bring it on!