Non offensive spells during combat

@Roycestein Kaelstrom The OP talks about asking for more slots; giving vision/light as an example. A few (including myself) disagree about the OP's main point; that the system is ****. 2 guys argue about whenever or not there's an issue with how the game is simply too dark. You pitch in giving tips about how you handle that problem, and I reply stating how those don't really fix the underlining problem.

Maybe the OP wouldn't be asking for extra slots if the game wasn't so unbearably dark. Which justifies the tangent.

The deck system isn't bad, but how one deals with darkness is.

A "feature"? Says who? You? Tell you what, let's not lie to ourselves into thinking that anything currently in the game is in any way set in stone.

If people are complaining about it (and they do) then whatever they're complaining about deserves to be checked and/or revised; not brushed off and ignored.

Oh so now there's a "proper" way to play the game? Hey everybody! Let's all play with light-generating items and spells because "darkness is a feature"! C'mon man.

The brightness functionality is visual refinement, not compensation. As a graphic artist, my computer screen is properly calibrated, is yours?

Oh, but what do you care? "Not my problem... so the problem doesn't exist"

 

I see. Thanks for the clarification. The stealth question earlier kinda threw me off the path a bit.

The OP has been asking for extra slots on both combat/non-combat in the past for various reasons/scenarios. The darkness is another reason why he believe there should be a need for extra slots.

 

@Roycestein Kaelstrom ,

Yea, but you can easily make use of vision spells in a combat deck, though, or equip a torch, if you don't want it to take up slots... @Moonshadow is right about that IMO. There are a set of trade-offs that you make, but its not a big deal.

The biggest pain with that IMO is just that the deck-switching mechanic is really clumsy. If I want to have two decks, say for swordfighting and for archery, then I have to create a third or fourth deck just for night time that are identical to the first two decks, except for my light source or night vision. I then have to go manually into the Decks window, and change the main and alternate decks, and then change them back again when daytime comes, etc. etc. just really clumsy.

 

Sorry but there are other ways to get visible light and if it so critical to your play style or the area you are in then you should have a deck that allows you to cast light. The game does NOT need ot be changed or adjusted because you refuse to work within its confines. Just because you cannot see YOU have to figure out a way to fix it NOT port.

So in reference to - "it is stupid" and "change it" - Port is not stupid and it does not need to change.

 

Feature? Absolutely, ask yourself why they have a light spell, a night vision spell, equipment with lights and torch in the game if its not supposed to be dark when its nighttime.

This *feature* does not not to be "fixed".

Using a bit of reason here, you could maybe ask the Devs to make it so the light spell lasts longer so we dont have to cast it as much.

 

If it was supposed to be dark, why would they give tools for some character archetypes to counter it? So that people who don't get shafted?

No because you're not fixing the underlining problem that you're shoehorning players to spell-cast. There's no reason NOT to spell-cast. Torches? Why would you? I mentioned stealth play but there's also Archery... you HAVE to use Night Vision.

It's not a feature when everybody are indirectly forced to go that path.

Night time should look like night time; it should not look like this:


If you have to use spells in order to be remotely competitive (heals and douse come to mind), then you got something wrong with a system that encourages choice.

You know what's the consequences of me choosing the play a non-magic stealth character? This is a basic character archetype. A thief. It's not like it's a super snowflake concept. I can't play during night time... I can't dungeon crawl... and I can't steal (pickpocket is PvP) from NPCs in cities (the only place where there might be some light and things to do)... so I log out. GREAT FEATURE!

 

1. Fix the problems with torches.

2. That's why 1st tier spells should be tied to reagents.

 

@Gix,

Btw, darkness is useful for stealth. It means you can sneak easier. If there needs to be thought around non-magical stealthers getting around in darkness so they can sneak during the dark, then that should be a topic of its own. But darkness being a handicap helps stealth mechanics.

 

I'm not sure why you say that. If the problem is that either there's no point to using torches because magic is better or easier, then isn't that the problem that needs to be fixed?

Going on into stealth... that's a discussion with many implications, which I noted, since darkness is important to stealth.

The only thing I skipped over was archery, yes, okay. But is your view that to in order to make firing arrows at range in the dark without magic viable gameplay, we should make it so bright during the night that you'll never want to use a light spell?

 

In UO, it was super pitch black in dungeons. Players need to use torches, sight potion, or light spell to be able to see things.

Well.. that was until the assistance program like Razor and UO steam give the option to get rid of the darkness filter altogether.

That's probably why darkness doesn't really bother me since I'm already used to it.

 

I've removed a couple of offending posts... let's keep the "non offensive" part of this whole discussion accurate please .

 

Agreed, I actually love the fact that when I run around even normally in the dark, I can walk up to mobs easier. If I have my Duke cloak on with light or the light spell on, those buggers see me a long way off and come attack me.

Embrace the dark...

"The night is dark and full of terrors"

 

Yes, you have a thing that you want your deck to do in a TCG, but any good TCG player knows you aren't playing against your own hand, you're playing against the opponents. That's what the essential skill is in a game like Magic. It's realizing that if your opponent has always kept two blue mana untapped he's most likely holding a counterspell, so you'll fall behind a turn if you simply use your big abilities the first time your own hand allows it, you need to wait until the opponents hand allows it.

SOTA doesn't do anything like that. In SOTA you're purely playing against your own hand, which means there is no skill to develop, there is just randomness.

Yup, this is my exact criticism of it. The most powerful way to use the deck system is to make it replicate the performance of a standard hotbar as closely as possible, which means there is no reason to not just have a standard hotbar.

 

I didn't think my 5 word post about not reading was offensive, but whatever.

Yeah it'd be a cool thing to play with a reduced vision during night scene. Like, you can't see enemies until you're at a closer distance or something. You know, to integrate it into the game-play.

But the problem is, you can't see the ground or anything in your immediate area even when the enemy is right on top of you.

Of course not.

I want something along the lines of:



I just don't want this:


Maybe then we'd start seeing more variety of character builds and maybe then we wouldn't have to clutter our action bars with stuff that the game should technically already provide. Conveniences like "being able to see the game".

Beyond that, the glyph system itself is pretty solid.

Except your opponent has to deal with it just like you are; the real difference lies in the fact that you don't know what you're opponent has in store for you.

Skill come from planning, anticipation and your own ability to adapt.

 

Sorry for misunderstanding you -- but even with the pictures you provided, I'd imagine someone would want to use a light source --- so I don't think it addresses the OP's concerns.

If you're really seeing your game pitch black like that black square, its a problem, I agree. But I've played on a variety of setups, some where the graphics appear brighter and some where they appear much darker, especially when there's a lot of glare from the sun. But even in the dark setups, the game appears closer to the first two screens, though brighter. Then, the brightness slider then helps a lot. So, I'm not exactly sure where you're coming from.

 

So should we have no combat bar always shown
and combat bar only showing up during combat?
But then how to control them both?

 

On occasion, I have been in places where it was very dark. I did adjust my brightness / contrast. I do sometimes wear a light enhanced cloak. I fixed it by putting more points in my sun glyph and can see no reason to increase the size of the combat bar. Just get some skills and cast whilst out of combat.

 

If the devs wanted to, they could probably give us some type of key to switch between the combat bar and non-combat bar.

I'm not sure that would be the best solution, though.

 

yeah you have it "Z"

 

Yea, you know that's not what I meant. They want more slots during combat, so the idea is to be able to switch without exiting combat. But like I said, I'm not saying they should do that.