The Combat System....

I don't know how many times I have to repeat this, but The Dev's, specifically Chris. has stated he INTENTIONALLY made it TEMPORARILY IMBALANCED so people would test the deck system. It will be changed in the Future.

One thing that isn't going to change is the ability to combo with the locked skills. that is intended so you have to hope/wait for the right skills to come up to execute the combo, with the locked skills you just wait for both cool downs to be up and use it. There are also supposed to be skills that require multiple glyphs, so it will be harder to make the most powerful combos. The future goal is on a bad draw you get pwnd by someone with a locked bar, on a normal draw, you guys are equally matched, on an awesome draw, he gets his most powerful combo and pwns you. With the majority of battles being more on the normal draw side.(If you have your deck built properly)

 

They have changed it a bit since they said that.

Skills cooldowns since then have been reduced base don how many points you put into it, the hotbar has been expanded slightly, and some skills have had thier cooldowns adjusted.
The locked hotbar is good at the moment if your planning on accomplishign somethign specific outside of raw damage. (having specific CC's in rotation or buffs, etc)

 

This balance is beign looked at and worked on for R18 i believe.
Get ready to see a couple of complaints. They usually accompany nerfs

 

Oh yeah I was just posting what I had observed - clearly balance is needed and clearly Portalarium has a lot on their plate, never did I think things would stay the way they are right now. This is a process and testing/reporting is just part of the process. I am much more happy with things at this point than I expected to be when I signed up for pre-alpha. Folks, we have a good dev team working with us, we need to appreciate them and not let forum complaints change our long-term outlook - there is no nerf right now, it's all balancing and it is continuous. Keep it constructive!

 

No amount of balancing will make the deck system good imo.

 

I have read through some of the early posts and some of the later posts and while I can agree that the *deck* system is not for everyone, I actually understand it and like it.

I was forced to *think* about what skills I would train in and which ones would allow me to to have more skills in my deck, more skills in my hand and more skills locked on the toolbar. Rather than just a button masher, I am the master of my combat skills.

I like having to think about a strategy that fits my style of play and allows me to survive encounters with multiple enemies based on the skills I have locked and the skills I see popping up.

But that is just me and I have never been one to go along with the majority...lol. I tend to go left if everyone else is going right. I suppose it comes with being a child of the '60's and a hippy wannabe I travel to the beat of a different drum.

So my view is likely in the minority with regard to combat. Combat is not my end all and be all for backing this game. The music system, the ability to decorate how I prefer, the crafting system, role-play - these are the things I care about over combat. In my little corner of the game, combat is just a means to an end. It gets me gold for trash loot and it protects me when I'm out looking for that ore node to mine. Combat is good if I desire to go PvE questing and other than that, combat is not something I need to have bragging rights about.

Things change in games that are still being built. I have no ability to see into the future, no oracle power to predict how combat may or may not be changed going forward. Whatever happens in combat, whether it is altered to remove the deck system or the deck system tweaked to be more generous with locking skills, I'll roll with it.

Peace!

Fionwyn
Pax et Veritas

 

It is not superior for immersion, in fact the lack of immersion is one of the prime complaints about this entire setup. As someone who has played with a locked and hybrid locked/random bar, I can say with total confidence that *I* do not find it remotely immersive. "Clunky" would be my word choice. It feels like my game experience is stumbling over my interface. No, not superior for immersion.

As for being able to watch the fight, yes, it DOES have that advantage. But that would be like saying in a competition between breakfast cereals "This one doesn't make you vomit blood!" Not really a ringing endorsement. More the sort of thing that should be a STANDARD FEATURE. I should be grateful because one version of the UI actually allows me to look at the gameplay? I'll take it, and consider it my due. If this game hits market with anything less than a UI that doesn't force the player out of the game in order to play it, I predict sudden and massive failure. Not as a punishment for disappointing me or those who think like me, but as a simple consequence of bad design.

As for your complaint, maybe you missed the part where this was the opinion-voicing idea-sourcing forum? We have a right to speak up. Not speaking up is the path to some twit claiming that since nobody objected, everyone must like it. I contend that my post tearing the combat system down is a thousand times more valuable than your post defending it, because Portalarium doesn't need people telling them to keep doing what they've already done. They'd do that without any input at all.

As for your challenge, I HAVE gotten into the game, and spoken to people. Some liked the system, some did not. I do not think that has any meaningful value however, for two reasons, which are really the same reason with two faces. First, those who hate the combat system are unlikely to be walking around in the game. They AREN'T PLAYING, which is the ultimate problem. Second, and more purely, what I would get on a random tour-survey is a meaningless sample, it has no controls, poor sampling, no standardization, and would collect an even smaller data set than this one thread already contains, making it laughably non-representational.

Maybe you should stop hating on the haters and just let us speak our minds in a public debate forum that we paid for access to?

 

The way i play the deck system is not unlike how i play a card game. While in the midst of a fight, i glance at my hand i have at that moment, and either choose a skill that fits well in that moment, make a move in preperation for a future attack, orif nothign good is available i try to make the best split second decision i can. It's very fast paced and difficult to master in my opinion, but it seems that mastering your own deck will be a significant advantage over button mashing or "Just stacking everything" that pops up

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I am so with you Right now im waiting anxiously on crafting skills, fishing, the music system, and urging people to donate anythign they can tward the Boats stretch goal. We gotta get more money on that than on Elfs!!!!!!!!!.....and mounts!

And flexible placment. Nvm boats is next to the lowest goal atm

 

And if, in the fullness of time, the locked bar gets improved and rebalanced to the point that the two are equal, we will only have to deal with the lackluster combat and the system's preponderance towards having us stand still while we fight. Which would be progress. I'm all for it.

 

Having played gw2 I'm so glad we stand still and fight, nothing worse than constantly chasing people running round in circles, it completely breaks the feeling of actual combat. Some movement is helpful, but the incessant movement in gw2 is far more grating than the standing still of most hotkey mmos Imo.

 

The whole 'stand still bonus' discussion is a prime example of why you should never discuss ~BALANCE~ before the complete functionality is added. The addition of the cover system should drastically alter the scenario. Having the best possible boost for standing still is meaningless if people can force you to move through simple strategy and tactical environment choice.

 

As well as any future armor and enchantments that arent implimented yet as well. Also it seems like alot of folks seem to be talking about 1 vs 1 PvP, because alot mroe strategy is useable and noticable in group vs group.

 

They are adding things to combat to make it more interesting. Some people really shouldn't play games in an alpha state with missing features.. they don't seem to understand that things will be added as they have time.

 

Really?!

 

I only like the current combat system for its challenge because I like a challenge, especially when it balanced based on my level, etc. However, I cannot love it because I cannot watch the fight going on because I have to spend a minimum of half the time looking at the glyphs. I want to watch the action that the graphics artists and programmers created--the eye candy. At present the only way I can truly appreciate their work is by watching someone's recorded battle on You Tube. Why bother getting multiple monitors or a great graphic card and monitor if you cannot enjoy the scene. I just let my mind wonder into other things when I am fighting. I am literally not thinking of the game when I am fighting. I just match the pictures on the glyph. It is like people who work on an assembly line. They are working with their hands but they are thinking of something not work related at all. I know because I had a job on an assembly line when I was 18 in the summer to earn money for college.

 

Instead of complaining I would like to make a suggestion. How about people who like the random deck can keep it exactly the way they want it and I will concentrate on the fixed deck that I want and never bother lovers of the random deck again. I would love the fixed deck to always start out without any focus loss where I can macro, etc., to my heart's content. However, Richard and Star want it to be challenging and I agree. How about the challenge being that a spell would be added to the Chaos tree whereby you could steal focus from players during battle, thereby preventing them from casting spells and having to switch to long-range and short-range weapons. There would, of course, have to be a counter spell under the Chaos tree as well. I know it makes fighting harder but this seems to be what the creators want. What do you think PVPers? How about we forget about the random deck entirely and let those who love have it? It is one of the reasons I still haven't tried PVP yet.

 

I just wanted to drop by here and say I find the combat system so disturbing that I have zero plans to do any combat. For some reason the devs are consumed by the idea that: if the combat systen is not fun—the game will not survive. I have not had a game's combat system knock my socks off in 20 years and I wasn't expecting it here, I don't know why they are forcing innovation so hard here. Looks like its too late though, the ship has already sunk and people are just floating in the water screaming for help, but nobody is coming.

 

I played this game before the random deck was created. I always enjoyed the combat even though it wasn't balanced. They had a combat system that I loved and knew would be improved because of what they had accomplished before. I just want it back and it would not be hard at all for them to bring it back into the game. I am willing to work with the creators to make it challenging without the initial focus penalty.

 

There are multiple issues with these 'combat is bad'-threads. In order to be beneficial feedback to developers, they would need to be specific, but people mix up various completely unrelated things, from animations, to random deck to AI. So, if that is supposed to be a thread about 'random deck' the real point should be, what do 'I' consider the drawbacks/benefits of the locked/random mode? And how can they be balanced.
Risk versus reward can not be no risk and all reward. If you say that the random deck is less tactical, more distracting from the fight and you're not willing to give it any benefit (like a little less focus cost), then there is no balance and no reward.

 

I will no longer discuss the random deck. Whenever I see a thread discussing it, I will hit the DELETE key. I am happy for the people who like it and would never dream of changing it any longer. It no longer matter to me. Only the locked deck does and its potential which I will discuss with the Devs. and the two creators of this game.