The Combat System....

Well I guess the difference between MMOs and real life is that in RL, most wildlife doesn't attack you first, lol!

 

I just did the capital letter thing to make my point even more interesting... This IS a game forum after all; part of the reason we all spend hour after hour reading these posts (often when we SHOULD be doing something else) is because they are interesting (and not simply because they are so informative, like mine for example)... No hard feelings from my side at least, I can't take it THAT seriously.

 

Quite true. Note that I don't know. I don't know if Ristra knows anything about building and coding video games, I don't know if Rune_74 knows anything about building and coding video games, I don't know if G Din knows anything about building and coding video games. I DO know precisely how much MalakBrightpalm knows about building and coding video games, but that doesn't do much for this particular conversation.

You will notice however, that I tend NOT to jump on people who claim to have firsthand knowledge with "cool story bro" and "whatever" type comments. You never know when you are talking to a thirty year veteran of the industry who knows the SotA devs on a first name basis.

 

I tend to stay out of those chest thumping back and forth. All we have to go by is the mail sent to Chris. In no way is that a message that would carry enough PRO to get someone that has put many man our into their own designs.

 

What the was thread about again? Oh yeah, combat- and how broken it was.

 

I will be happy to admit I'm wrong but 90% of people who state they are experts are usually not, especially when they want to win an argument. If he has a professional gaming development background and can prove it.

Not courage just humor. Geez.

 

I am 100% an expert in what I enjoy in a game, ever herd the saying "The customer is always right"?

 

So....if I enjoy it then I'm right as well, got ya.

 

That phase is an advertising ploy. Nothing more.

That customer could have been an expert in burgers but ended up at the wrong store. The store isn't going to change it's menu just for that customer.

No different than SotA scrapping this combat system and going with some other system. If they have a product they believe in and they know it will work. They are going to see it through.

They are going to listen to our feed back, for sure. But we are not going to change roast beef into cheese burgers.

 

Well how about a filet o' fish then?

 

Hey im an expert customer too and i love the glyph system. When people like something they are far less likely to post about it dozens of times on the forum, especially when they know they are going to get abused by the people that disagree. I agree that the gui could use a tweak to pull attention away from the bottom of the screen, but other than that i love it. I have explained a few times how to make use of it in such a way as to get dealt exactly what you need (as have other people) and many people you meet in game actually list off the glyph system as one of the things they like most about the game.

 

I'm ok with the glyph system but it certainly doesn't make me look forward to combat. I guess part of the reason is that it just feels like random pop ups at the bottom and while at times it can feel rewarding, I think after a bit I don't feel too much strategy is involved. I'm not saying to toss out the whole thing but having some strategy tweaks (not just where I'm looking) would be nice.

One tweak I thought might be interesting with the current system is to have offensive vs defensive attacks split on screen somehow or through just using the left or right mouse button. In other words in a combat turn you can choose a defensive oriented attack out of defense glyphs that are available (and these set are random but always defensive) or an offensive attack from offensive glyphs. The damage or success will be based on what attack the mob was doing.

I'd find it a lot more fun.

 

I'm going to remain neutral in this conversation. but I do have to say I love the comparison lol.

As for the original post, I think the combat could use some work based on what I've watched an heard, but since it's not a subscription based game I think I'm more than likely to take the risk to buy and hope I like it a lot.

 

I don't think the system is that bad, and of course it could use improvement, but the real issue is the feel of combat.

I think they need to work on how combat feels. Sound effects will help. Sorting out the clipping issues will help. Maybe something else I can't think of right now...

 

Chiming in to say that I really love the core system, it just needs work.

The biggest problems people have are mostly due to the devs not having time to have fleshed out features. The prime example of this is boring creature AI. It's pretty much just a DPS race, there's not a whole lot interesting that happens in a fight. That's one problem that the Devs are very aware of and will be actively working to fix.

The second big problem people have is that they find themselves staring at the action bar too often. A legitimate complaint and it will likely be addressed in future releases due to how vocal people have been about it.

The third complaint is balance - this will get better with time. We don't even have all the skills yet. Once they are all done, balance will begin in earnest.

All of these improvements will be made over the next few months. Be patient and wait. The game won't be going live with combat as it is right now, even the devs admit that it is very much incomplete. You are working with the "Make sure you can swing the sword and click the spell" version of combat, completely raw and unpolished. Remember that.

 

I really wish it was only a balancing problem, but it really isn't.

Let me give you a example. They are promoting combat where your skills are appearing randomly on your combat bar. If they have so much faith in their random deck, why would they add skills like Mind Lock and Mind wipe? Do you know what i see when i look at these skills? A fix to take the random out of random combat skills. Adding skills to fix something that isn't working properly doesn't help anyone. I can only hope the people in charge will eventually realize that as well.

Mind Wipe = Discards all of your glyphs and deals you a full hand.
Mind Lock = Extends the life of all glyphs that are currently in your hand.

 

Yeah, mind lock allows easy macroing of your glyph, you need to sort glyphs manually at the start, but then when you stack everything know exactly where every glyph is and by infinite use of mindlock they will always stay there...

I would like mindlock to be one of those spells that slowly drains your focus... or at least prevents its regeneration.

 

I feel the combat just needs to be sorted out a bit more. In sure they are aware of many of the issues. This game is very innovative in many fields, even the combat. Polish, polish, polish...that's what combat needs.

 

Perhaps not.

 

Just updating this post and the others listed below with a quote from DarkStarr. Short version: They acknowledge the current combat is problematic but as of yet haven’t had time to get around to it. But they are aware of this and do consider it to be an issue.