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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.
Thoughts on Pre-Alpha Combat, PVP & PVE
ArchivedUser
Guest
Hello, I would just like to share my impressions of the combat system shown at PAX going over major features and some issues with combat style.
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https://youtu.be/An4O1RoWH0o
I hope you guys will enjoy it and thanks for watching!
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https://youtu.be/An4O1RoWH0oI hope you guys will enjoy it and thanks for watching!
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Comments
But I think of it this way, Final Fantasy XIV was utter garbage when it released. I literally uninstalled it in less than 5 minutes. So far this looks better than the original Final Fantasy XIV, and it's not even in alpha. I'm sure they will make combat more fluid and engaging by the time it releases, at least I hope so.
I like the concept of having the narrow focus on the slider to pull of more advanced weapon techniques as a contrast, while also having wide focus on the battlefield when using non-weapon attacks.
But, still challenging to evaluate when we had such a limited range of abilities.
We really had only a very, very small taste of how Ashes combat mechanics.
Due to the limited abilities at PAX, while playing the demos, we had no real distinction between weapon abilities (which will all be accessed via combos using Key 1 in the finished game) and non-weapon attack abilities (which will be accessed by the other keys on the hotbar).
( from like ... 2007 and before )
Can tell that the Sound-Effects are old too. But its just Temporary. No way that's going to remain.
I have all my hopes up for its upcomming stages.
Pre-alpha footage from February:
Especially when a common complaint is that PvP combat is tacked on towards the end of development for MMORPGs.
But, yeah, their wording often is problematic - too much hype.
Take everything they say with a grain of salt...
but there is also a grain of truth in what they say.
-I hope skills will be much more interesting with the second class' modifications, and even just making the base abilities more interesting.
-Keep the basic attack timing mechanic but just turn it into a visual or audio effect que instead of the bar.
-Speed it up a bit but not too much. I would like there to be a decent time to kill but I also don't want it to take a minute to kill someone when they are being focused down.
-Other than that the basic stuff that comes with development like increasing the quality of animations and making it so that a healer primary can't do everything else at the same time.
I want the A.I. to be smarter. I truly resent when i see my NPC opponent just idling still ... not doing any action for like 5 seconds whereas the Players is dishing-out all of the best/ strongest hits on it/ them.
Complete mindless-saps. Ugh.
Even the " Volcanic-Beast " Boss sometimes idles at some points. You'd think that Creatures born & raised in the Savage wilderness would have the basic-instincts to continue to fight until the last breath. Size should not determine how fast nor agile-ness.
In short, i want my NPC opponents to have a fair chance in winning - give them 1 or 2 Movement Speed boost to counteract the " Kiting Tactics " , negligible dmg buffs/ healing/ Tank boost ( whichever variation of the 3 ) ... just give them tactics that can be contested with Players - faster tactics being one of them.
They could very easily have spent the whole 90 days on that alone.
But how would that have given a wide general overview of their game concept with the manpower and time limit allowed ?
My expectations are no different to yours.
I just think you are being exceptionally harsh criticising the AI at PAX.
It was pretty much the most basic of basic functionality.
A place holder...by choice.
Focus generating bar (i.e. QTE); if this can be mod-able then one can see it being changed into a pair of arcs that are placed to either side and within line-of-combat but not hovering directly over the main action.
Not losing any hope at this time as the demo was a good sign that the team is producing. Will be monitoring progress, if not exact results, to determine if my pledge was well placed.
Rather, non-focus abilities will be rotation - partially based on cool-downs and augments.
Both, focus and non-focus abilities should have a range of damage/power output, but the focus abilities are specifically tied to the weapon, whereas non-focus abilities are tied to the class.
The only thing skill chains do is:
1. increase the impact of cc/stuns,
2. decrease the amount of options during combat,
3. reduce the amount of necessary keys.
It doesnt increase combat speed by default. There could be a slow charging attack followed by another slow charging attack within the chain.
So the solution would be to have faster attacks instead of additional skill chains, if your goal is to increase combat speed.
You don't chain the non-weapon abilities, rather, you deliberately use the one that best fits the current moment-to-moment situation.
The lengths of the non-weapon cool-downs will be range from short to long.
Snare, Marked Arrow, Fleeting Shot and Sniper's Eye don't take long to cast.
In Ashes, the weapon chains increase the amount of options during combat, while reducing the amount of necessary keys.
I'm not going to push much on skills and everything else for obvious reasons. I do hope though they move to a visual or audio que instead of a sliding bar because I found myself looking at that a lot.
Combat bar is really a "combat killer".
1) I agree the bar focus system in combat will be distracting and detract from true action gameplay but think is should remain for other, less action orientated parts of the game.
2) I Like the melee cleric style and feel is should be a viable gameplay choice but also think it should be optional. So those who like standing back and healing can do so. Maybe make the melee type a bit more effective?
That said, the baseball bat method of hold/using that staff is both silly and unrealistic. The IS animators need to go study a bit more about how a staff is carried and effectively wielded. Namely you carry a staff one handed by your side and wield it more from the center 2 handed. I can name a number of games that have done a better job and hope they revise this.
3) I also am not a fan of NEEDING one of every archtype to be able to clear a dungeon or similar activity. There should be multiple ways to approach a situation. I really don't want to hear, "Well, we couldn't find a bard so we have to scrap it guys, thanks for waiting and sorry". That's just unacceptable and frankly lazy game design.
There will always be alternatives.