(poll) Combat Deck System [UNOFFICIAL]

The randomness of the system can be minimized by your decks composition and active discarding. I always have a single target burst when I need it etc.

I am really new to this game (lvl42) but so far I never ran into problems not having what I needed. If you base a deck around one special ability you are right. It all depends on luck of the draw. Considering the fact that there is a multitude of quite similar runes you can really minimize that. Same goes for cardstacking.

 

Well it really depends on what you're speaking of, the more runes you have the more diluted the deck, less runes and you have more slugs. And I tried a full deck and a partial deck, the full deck I rarely had the AOE I needed and then when I was one on one with the boss mob all I had was aoe's. That's all a matter of luck, and luck should not have that much to do with your skill usage.

Now of course if you're talking about taking multiple skills from a wide variety of disciplines so that you always have a damage rune coming up, yeah you can probably do that. BUt some people want to master a few disciplines not be a journeyman at many.

 

Let' s forget fizzle and equipment for a while just to illustrate what I mean. Let's say I want single target burst in my deck.

I will take 5 stone fist and 5 ice fist. This will offer me 10 runes for single target.

Now we also want slows and aoe.

Icefist has a slowing effect and we already have 5 of them. So let's add 5 ice fields and 5 whirling blades.

This leaves us at a total of 20 runes of which 10 are single dps, 10 are aoe dps and 10 are slows.

Considering 10 slots available you rarely run out of useable runes.

Yes I know that the level 50 decks consist of 30 runes but this was just for pointing out what I mean.

 

I get what you are saying, but this is then ends up like any EQ clone now with only 4 skills to press.

so I see every argument saying how different the system is, strong arguments for how unique, challenging and non WoW-like it is.

that is awesome.

where are the rediculous number of posts as to how FUN it is? I hardly see those, or a few of the unique, different threads have them tracked on someplace.

playing games should be fun first, not as an afterthought.

considering this poll, like all the previous ones, regardless of its question bias, and it's tiny sample, given the responses, still tells me this is fine for a new take on combat, but most of us are not having fun with it as the first thing to come to mind.

ska me how overwhelmingly FUN this system is first.

cheers.

 

It will not match the fun I had with age of conans (melee) combat system but it is way better than wow-facerolling. The direction it is pointing is exactly what was promised in my opinion and it might turn out to be very good once tweaked a little bit. This is just my humble opinion but I like it far more than any wow-ish routine/cooldown gameplay.

 

ESO had five slots ont he bar to assign static to, and no random setups, and quite a few skills to choose from. while i greatly enjoyed the use of the fewer options, i feel that the random deck does work better. i wish the location of the hotbar was different, or maybe the ability to trigger floating text alerts when something is ready, and select which skills get the alerts... - and place the aleert on the screen where you want, so you don't have to take your eye off it.

if the alert also had the hotbar key number in it, (stone fix 6 is ready) just hit 6, on your keyboard/mouse and keep hammering away at each other, like a russian slap fight.

that may help with the added issue of being forced to focus on the hotbar more.

 

Has not had, I still play occasionally.

And while I do play, I also play WoW, and EQ and LoTRO still, so I am no stranger to static setups.

I know people like to say faceroll, which is cool I guess, but then you must be talking about PvE, not PvP, since every PvP match can/will be different, and not some formulae to win every time, because you don't win every time. Granted you have a set of opening and finishing moves/skills, but so does Chess, any Martial Art, etc...

So I am still failing to understand the other aspect that having a set of static skills is a bad thing.

That is like saying anyone who uses martial arts, or is a master sword fighter in real life, win every time because they use a static set of skills and just faceroll everyone.

Obviously that is a ridiculous statement. The simple matter is, random is not a substitute for fog of war.

And, again, neither of you (the last two people) said they were having FUN with this system.

@joshthewimp even opened that this will never match the fun he had with AoC. I agree. AoC was hella fun combat.

Cheers

 

heh had for me. i dropped it the moment i found out about brittannia and jumped into the anchor portal to arrive via rift here...oh so happy i did.

i'd have to agree joviex - a hybrid seems to be a great thing for pvp, keep finishing and starting moves static and randomize the internals. i don't do pvp as avidly as many, but i've done a few duels with hardcore pvp'ers..the mechanics are pretty much the same but just more isolated for the two players.. hybrid setup works very well thataways.

joviex - to be clear - i have a TON of fun with the system. i LOVE the randomness and hybrid decks.. i've tried goign static/traditional and it just doesn't work for me here. i've always thought that static is a detrement to this type of game in that respect and am so very glad its just an option here, and not a requirement. besides, i thought i did say that i was enjoying it, somewhere in this thread... too lazy to go back though.

 

Just a note on something that most locked/hybrid deck users miss.
The more glyphs you have of a kind the less it costs in focus.
So if you have only level 1, i think the cost is twice of what it is at level 5.

Most have missed this because it only takes level 1 to place it.

 

yep, took me about 3 days to realize that. once i did, things got much easier.

there is one skill i just absolutely adore, i put all five there, and dropped the rest of my skills even fewer times in the deck.. its all about ratios, as it isn't entirely random.

and don't be stupid like i was - i changed skill trees from shield/blunt to bladed, and kept a couple of my shield skills in the deck. - they are effectively marbles/blanks..

 

I really REALLY don't like the card system, I am very likely going to skip out on PvP and combat until that is removed from the game. If it isn't and they stick with it my guess is my account will end up on some play auction, I just can't get into it.

 

thats the beauty of it. for folks like you who just can't get into it, make it a static deck and play the traditional style. it works jsut as fine.

 

if they keep this rediculous deck system ill probably be forced to spec healer as its one of the few classes where its ok to stand still and watch your hotbar.

ive tried to make it work ive gotten to lvl 40 and it just stinks. ive optimized it so i can usually get what cards i want and they only pop up in slots 1-5 so i can always combo and stack. THAT IS THE PROBLEM THOUGH

combo and stacking involves me running around like an idiot while i stack/combo. I use a razer naga as well and as stated only have randoms popping up from slots 1-5 so as im running around (HOLDING RIGHT CLICK FOR SOME UNGODLY REASON TO LOOK TURN WHY IS THIS NOT JUST MOUSE MOVEMENT IS BEYOND ME) hitting R +1+3, R+3+4, r+4+2 , until i get something useful going on (or drag with my mouse WHICH PREVENTS ME FROM LOOK/TURN which is the most ungodly stupid mechanic ever i feel bad for people without nagas)

whole time im running into trees and rocks because i CANT EVEN WATCH WHERE IM GOING.


ok now thats JUST PVE.


pvp im not even getting into because i can feel the rage building inside me lol.

THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED.

 

Have to say I'm getting more and more frustrated with the glyph system......not so much the concept but the mechanics: -

- Discarding a glyph including slugs......screws up the the use of a gaming mouse as you literally have to go to the glyph and right click. There has to be a better way, maybe secondary macro to discard.
- Stacking and combo......way too clunky, if I use a keyboard I cannot control my character, if I use drop and drag I spend all my time looking at the glyphs rather than the screen

At the moment I'm finding myself in a position where all I do is click available glyphs, stack when I can.....but dont really put any thought into what skill I'm using (other than heal). Very frustrating.

A lot of people said that the card system was to get away from people doing general macros. What it is resulting in are players doing general macros of random moves. I do miss the UO combat when I saw someone casting a 'curse', I knew I wanted to cast 'harm' to interrupt....took far more thought and skill.

At the moment Shroud is just a little better than standard MMOs for combat......

 

The deck system is growing on me. I also want to vomit at the idea of the same ole skill progression system that MMOs use. However, the deck system needs some work...but hey its pre-alpha right?

 

I think the penalties are still too harsh for the fully locked deck vs. random deck with its combos. If you carefully manage your hotbar with Mind Lock, you essentially have a locked deck but can do combos at nearly zero focus cost and have access to more than 9 skills during combat without being forced into deck swap with even more punishing penalties.

 

The penalty of the random deck is the fact that it is random in the first place. There is a real chance that the skill finisher or ocrap heal is not available. It is closer to real combat than the traditional method, even with it plethera of problems.

I also enjoy the ability for the gamer to decide which set of bonuses and penalties they wish to utilize.

 

Not to mention if you get disrupted while using a locked deck you have to wait for your spell timer again before casting. Meaning if you're in the middle of healing yourself and get disrupted you're basically screwed on heals.

 

Actually it's farther away from real combat. In combat if I need to throw a grenade I pull it off my ammo belt, pull the pin count and throw it. I don't have to sit there and wait for the grenade skill rune to come up.
Another example I used before. I know how to weld and how to drive a truck. After finishing a welding job I can go right to my truck and drive away. I don't need to sit there and wait for the right rune to pop.

In real life you learn a skill and use it regularly it is always available to you. You don't have to wait for a particular portion of the skill to come to me, I just think it and do it.

 

In regards to this thread, the OP called it right on the nose. We've degenerated into people arguing with one another, trying to reveal some amazing mystery to each other, as if there was anything one of the locked-bar camp could say that would make a random-decker suddenly realize how much random decks sucked, or anything the random-deck camp could say that would make a bar locker respond "oh, I never thought of that, I now support the new system!"

People like the game interface they like BECAUSE they like it.

Right this second the unofficial poll is getting pretty close to an even split, 50s to 40s, and I don't expect that to really change. About half the people playing R12 like the random decks, about half aren't buying it.

I think the only place that devs and supporters should be focusing their attention is on helping these systems co-exist, not in efforts to convert each other.