Several Feedback Points

Yesterday i finally managed to get a couple of hours to play R20. I mostly configured the game interface, gathered some quests and fought some zombies, but after not playing for some releases (only to login and sprint from here to there to get the hats) that has been enough to feel how SotA has improved... First i'd like to say i love the way the game is going, and i'm glad to be a backer.

I'd like to mention some things i like and others i don't... sorry if they're not specific from R20 but as i said, i haven't played for a while and a lot of things are new to me.

• I love how dialogue options had grown. Talking to NPC's feels more like real conversation since they have a lot of topics and unless you're very systematic, you just ask about the topic that draws your attention the most.
• I almost jump out of my chair when i checked and Deck management skills doesn't exist anymore (The ones that were in Focus Skill tree). Even when i knew this was meant to happen, it's delightful to check it as a real thing.
• i must admit i like "free attack mode" as a good concept. It give players a source of reliable damage (probably thanks to the combat math revamp, good to not see hitting for 1 damage!) that allows better focus management and soothes the urge of hitting skills until you run out of focus. Looking forward to try it with some randomized skills.
• Zombies rule! killed a couple, died from the plague, got it again, then infected Edvard... glad to see how some monsters include different PVE mechanics, not a simple "hit him until he's dead".
• I'd like to see more hairstyles, and i'm sure we'll have them for release... but the reason why we have Buns and not Ponytails is something i don't quite get. An option to swap between straight and curly hair may be a cool thing to consider for the future.
• Having 10 skill slots demands more skill binds... I'd like to be able to use the left shift key in the same fashion we use left Control... what's shift used for anyway? to be able to combine them both could be nice as well.
• I kind of expected an improvement on the way combos are handled, but according to the bindings it still works in the same way. I expect to see changes on it in one or two releases, so i'm not specially worried about it.
• I said i like free attack mode, but from my point of view having a standard attack should make skills into something more situational and powerful... i hope this combat mode doesn't stop its development half way, and expect to see (or find, if something has been already implemented for this matter) changes in skills so this system "fits".
• I'm glad deck management skills are gone, but i still see stats being part of the skill tree as a big issue... and i feel the same way towards innate skills. I expect changes in this direction, and since combat is currently in the Devs spotlight i plan to write all my concerns as i gather more combat experience.
• Starting with so much skill points distributed is quite troublesome. I get that to make the initial scene we need to have the same skill set... but do we need to have that lot of points placed? Farming to respec into the character you want to be doesn't sound like something nice, even for pre-alpha.
• I don't quite get why do we have different menus to the different parts of the character development; one for the skill tree, other for decks, other for the skills... why not placing them in the same window with different tabs? Same with social elements; we have friends and guild in one menu, i don't get why blocked players have a different one.
• While using free attack i noticed how often the attack bar started filling, just to suddenly start over again. That happened a few times in a row... i'm pretty sure is my internet connection fault, but to make something as basic as a primary attack so connection dependant is not cool, and it needs to be improved asap.
• I'm still not comfortable with the way quest are noted down into our journal. I'd like to have at least a page for each quest, and to be able to scribble notes down. I started using a notepad file as an additional quest log, because my previous experience tells me that as my character level increases the amount of stuff wrote in the game journal gets cumbersome.

That's all for now!

 

Not sure I understand what you mean on this one, could you please elaborate.

Nicely done post and good feedback, keep it up

 

Current combo implementation needs to many strokes, imo (Needing to push a key to activate combine actions, and then the two keys). Besides, the way it's implemented if you misstype one of the two skill keys the process stays halfway through (don't know if they changed this, but it worked that way in the past release) not allowing you to continue fighting, and thus claiming even more attention upon failure to check what key did you missed. I like the concept of combos but current implementation is poor and easily improvable; since they're focusing on combat and that's a widely known issue, i expect them to do something to enhance the way combos are formed and released.

 

Yes it does feel a bit clumsy, don't know how that could be improved though.
Any ideas?

I read a good tip here on forums to change R key to MB3, didn't think it would make that much of a difference.
It made all the difference in the world for me atleast, probably look away from combat 50% less (one has to account for me getting used to the system aswell)

 

Plenty of suggestions around... i'm inclined to these two

• Sequential combination: if you need to combine Skill A and Skill B to make the resulting combo, instead of the current method if you just use Skill A, and as the GCD ends you use Skill B, the result of that sequence of skills is that instead of Skill B, the combo is released. Pros are that you need the minimum amount of keystrokes to release the combo, and it also make combos part of the combat flow, meaning that after skill A you may expect that people use his combo, allowing you to save your defensive skills to that moment. Cons is that placing a timeframe after Skill A you're making combos depend on your internet connection. Also you can't stack combos as we do now, since combos aren't a skill per se, but just an additional effect added to certain skills.
• Combination by key holding: instead of using a Key that enables "combo mode" you just hold a key that allows you to combine the skills you want; holding that key means you're in combo mode, releasing it means you are fighting. It still requires an additional key to make them, but the process doesn't stuck halfway through, because you "disable" the combo as soon as you release the key. Imagine we're using Shift key for that; i want to combine Skill A and skill B, and they popped in the slots binded by 1 and E, respectively. I hold Shift, then hit 1 and E and as i release shift both skills are combined, and combo appears in E key. If i miss one of the keys (i press shift then 2 by mistake then E) as i release shift i can use my skills, and my loss is not having the combo ready but the two skills without being combined. Pros is that you don't need to check what key you missed in the combo sequence, and you keep the full functionality combos have at the moment. Cons is that you still need another keybind just to use them.

There are other suggestions in the forum; releasing the combo by pressing two buttons at once, auto-combination systems of some sort, or even pre-combining skills, introducing the combo directly into the deck, but those two are my favourites. All this is about combos only; I prefer not to talk about skill stacking because i read somewhere that they're getting rid of skill stack by some sort of auto stacking system, which i'm ok with at first... eagerly waiting to see what they do with it.