Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Re: Dry firing spells, Static dailies, Instance run capping, and Summon UI
I'm not as familiar with MMOs as some folks here, but there are 3 absolute cardinal .."sins" which concern me in many titles, and I haven't seen these things mentioned at all here (I have tried searching and watching many videos, but may have overlooked, my apologies if so):
<strong>1. Will we be able to "dry fire" (use without target) all spells and abilities?</strong>
I fully understand that some games disallow this, since if you miscast your ability on a small pebble during a critical boss/PvP fight, it will be frustrating. However, the games which handle this well do something like allow you to hit Shift + Skill key to override target requirements.
Furthermore, I find it to be very immersion breaking and lazy UI design to simply have a message "target required" pop up. I know a skill like life-drain or teleport-to-target can be tricky to convey without a target, but having something like the ability to cast life-drain with no target, and instead the grass around you turns brown and you gain 1hp, is vastly more fun, immersive, and better storytelling than having text pop up.
<strong>2. How will daily/weekly quests be implemented, if at all?</strong>
I've seen these mentioned already, adding my voice to concerns for static/repeated tasks. I wanted to bring up that due to the node contribution system, it would be very nice to have open-ended dailies, such as simply contributing a certain amount to the node, without restrictions on how to do so. Or basically any system where you don't have to do the same.exact.quest. over and over.
<strong>3. Are there instance run limitations?</strong>
The bane of Asian online games, I would actually be shocked to find limited run numbers in this game. Can anyone confirm if there will be any such limits on runs for instances/dungeons/raids?
Even if caps are implemented for reasons of economics/scarcity, I feel hard caps are not acceptable, and lazy design. A limit of X# of runs means that players are strongly disincentivized from trying new approaches, helping weaker characters, and playing with other people. If drop scarcity is an issue, it's much better to have a system where you can run as many times as you like, but only receive a limited number of drops (and even that is frustrating).
<strong>Will summons (and even pets) have a UI?</strong>
Another one I took for granted, at least until Guild Wars 2. At launch, GW2 summons had no UI, and barely functioning AI, which was enough to get to max lvl, and then leave their mechanics mostly useless, as they would race around, aggro random enemies, then kick back and watch you die. Please anything but that (not sure if this was fixed in GW2, haven't played in a long time).
Many thanks in advance to all who care to share any knowledge or links about these matters.
<strong>1. Will we be able to "dry fire" (use without target) all spells and abilities?</strong>
I fully understand that some games disallow this, since if you miscast your ability on a small pebble during a critical boss/PvP fight, it will be frustrating. However, the games which handle this well do something like allow you to hit Shift + Skill key to override target requirements.
Furthermore, I find it to be very immersion breaking and lazy UI design to simply have a message "target required" pop up. I know a skill like life-drain or teleport-to-target can be tricky to convey without a target, but having something like the ability to cast life-drain with no target, and instead the grass around you turns brown and you gain 1hp, is vastly more fun, immersive, and better storytelling than having text pop up.
<strong>2. How will daily/weekly quests be implemented, if at all?</strong>
I've seen these mentioned already, adding my voice to concerns for static/repeated tasks. I wanted to bring up that due to the node contribution system, it would be very nice to have open-ended dailies, such as simply contributing a certain amount to the node, without restrictions on how to do so. Or basically any system where you don't have to do the same.exact.quest. over and over.
<strong>3. Are there instance run limitations?</strong>
The bane of Asian online games, I would actually be shocked to find limited run numbers in this game. Can anyone confirm if there will be any such limits on runs for instances/dungeons/raids?
Even if caps are implemented for reasons of economics/scarcity, I feel hard caps are not acceptable, and lazy design. A limit of X# of runs means that players are strongly disincentivized from trying new approaches, helping weaker characters, and playing with other people. If drop scarcity is an issue, it's much better to have a system where you can run as many times as you like, but only receive a limited number of drops (and even that is frustrating).
<strong>Will summons (and even pets) have a UI?</strong>
Another one I took for granted, at least until Guild Wars 2. At launch, GW2 summons had no UI, and barely functioning AI, which was enough to get to max lvl, and then leave their mechanics mostly useless, as they would race around, aggro random enemies, then kick back and watch you die. Please anything but that (not sure if this was fixed in GW2, haven't played in a long time).
Many thanks in advance to all who care to share any knowledge or links about these matters.
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