New Targeting / Combat / Movement Systems

First off I am not totally against them, they work and can be GREAT with some tweaks.

1. Selectable modes - a default mode needs to be selectable by the players, going from a scene, opening, a window, moving from shore to island on a boat, - should not change the movement / combat type selected by the player. The Tab key and "z" key are fine just the default needs to be player selectable.

2. Combat targeting - this is OK but especially for ranged player a Primary targets needs to be able to be identifiable and be the locked target. I may not always be the one right in front of you, but if may be off to the side your partner / Pet / or just another target but you want to shoot the Mage first. Again all this needs to be is a target selected by the player and maintained by the red highlight and the health bar persistent for the player. Now if it moves totally out of range sure the game can change but it they all stay in front and in range the player should be able to ID and Select the target of choice. A u=hunter does not shoot the doe near him when a 10 pointer is 6 yards left and further back. A warrior shoots the target assigned to be the most threat - i.e. the gunman behind the guy closer to you with a knife. You take out the gunman first, then direct your attention to the knife wielder. At this time the game defaults to the target it choses. I will get a clean video soon and post it.

3. Healing - falls in line with the targeting - the player needs to be able to ID the target of his heals not just an area on the ground.

4. Looting - is ok but be much nicer if the name of the corpse actually highlighted when you can loot it now it is just put the cursor in the area and click and get lucky??

((( these two fall back to a kind of tab targeting - but all it boils down to is some way to identify a target of choice and have it stay as the primary target by the player )))

((((( These are in line with most of the complaints with the new system )))))

Other than that I am doing OK with the new system.

Just some tweaking and some type of target selection needs to be re-implemented.

 

Need an over the shoulder camera option. I can't quite handle the crosshairs floating over my head. I feel like I'm looking down all the time to do anything. Also needs to be somewhat see through as the solid color is very distracting. Particularly when not actively targeting something.

 

Ok here are Two Videos that clearly show the major problem players are having with this new targeting systems.

This first one is zoned as far back as can be, the way I liked to play. But as you can see staying on a target of choice is difficult. The shot hit the nearest and further ones at will, whichever one the game feels is the correct target. I like zoomed out like this but it is more difficult to stay on target. Need a way to lock on a target, they are all in range almost the whole time just need to stay on the one I want. Or make another option to move the reticle around while standing still? Or ID the target I want to hit and as long as they stay in range they are the target shot at. Also close range targets require a almost "Look Down" View , PHFFTT



Now this second one is zoomed in to the point of a FPS view, my head disappears. It I smuch easier to stay on a specific target but the same thing happes and the target of choice gets mumbled, and the game choses for me? This helps with th elook down view for close range but the maintaining on a specific target is still a Major Issue.




In all you can see what most of the player are asking for is a way to pick a target and keep it the primary target.

This plays a huge role in Healing which the solution making them area affects is a plain out insult, and hopefully a joke.

 

Agreed on the targeting for ranged and healing. Not a fan of AoE healing, and it really only works if the game was built with that specifically in mind. I know Chris is working on some fixes, so reserving judgment for the moment.

 

The main problem is that you just can't craft a targeting system which is good for melee *and* for ranged fighters too: up to now the system have been good for ranged (archers, mages, healers) but was bad, or at least unnatural for melee fighters (warriors).
Trying to solve the problem, the dev team flicked the coin: now the system is (very) good for meleeing... and became a nightmare for ranged casters.

A viable solution I can see is a switch key, to explicitly select between melee and ranged, as a program can't do it 'cause SotA is classless: a program just can't rely to my class, to auto-setup as "ranged", nor I don't wish it does, as I'm even a melee fighter, when things get near: that's the moment when I wish to be able to switch from "ranged" to "melee" fight (with a visual on-screen indicator, of the switch).

Ranged operations should work as previous (there IS a reason if a targeting system is still here after nearly 40 years, don't you think? ), Melee combat seems better doing with the new system to me.

 

I don't know that the old system was really bad for melee fighters. They could easily target who they wanted. Some just felt it was boring and too easy.

Now the new system doesn't work for healers, doesn't work for ranged fighters, doesn't work for emotes, makes the camera crazy and has introduced tons of bugs. It also means when you're swarmed by multiple enemies, you can't focus on killing one first because you keep swapping your focus to whoever is moving in front of your cursor. In that way, it is even worse for melee users now.

I hope the system improves, but we need some sort of compromise with click/tab targeting for healing, emotes, etc.

 

Well... I know you're right, but... how may they have to program a targeting system to auto-recognize your target?

They made the assumption that "your target is the one in front of you", and this is generally (but not always) the case of melee, as a warrior is ever "in contact" with his target... if there are multiple, attacking, it should be not that great problem to hit "the one in front of him", whichever enemy it is.
Needless to say this is NOT the case of a ranged fighter (mage, archer, healer, etc.), which very rarely have the enemy (directly) "in front" and most of the times is targeting beyond a row of enemies which are fighting with tanks and warriors.

The only (known) way to target them, wherever they move, whichever the position is... eye-tracking!
Now... I don't know the prices, but it seems to me that an eye-tracking military helmet costs some big bucks, right? (searching the net a little I can see the eye-tracking F-35 helmet costs €439.000... a little too much to use it for SotA)

This is mainly why we used the much-more-cheap TAB key (and even the right-mouse-click, which is cheap the same) to acquire the first target.
I saw, while in WoW, healers had a plugin panel, to constantly monitor the party's health and to be able to heal-on-need, wherever the "target" is, if in range. Maybe this is "unnatural"... but the party is safe.