Mid-fight weapon switching?

ArchivedUser

Zastro said:

I think everyone should be able to equip a melee weapon (dual wielding and off-hand weapons included) and a ranged weapon and be able to use both during combat. Similar to how WOW did it back in the day. So a Ranger could dual wield and have a bow. A mage could have a staff (assuming its melee) and an arcane tome (like the one at Pax).

Yes! Maybe their good be a feature like Elder Scrolls Online, how you have have two weapons and can switch between them at any time! For my mage I could have a spell book and then switch to staff and sword! *Pew* *Pew* *Slash* *Slash*

ArchivedUser

It really depends on what kind of features will be in the game. What I mean by this is, it depends if weapons will have separate skills or functions, aside from a players standard skill pool. For example, in Archeage, Aion, and other mmos, some weapons will have its own "skill", giving players an additional buffing skill or something of that nature. If you have a warrior that is normally using a greatsword but gets this sword that has an awesome buff to increase crit chance by 100% or something crazy like that, naturally this will lead many warriors to use this sword for about 5 seconds to pop the buff and switch back to the greatsword. What problems arise out of this? Not many weapons would be implemented with this and would, most likely, lead to having one or two classes being able to benefit while the rest are left build around this anomaly. I have never seen this actually work. However, if it is just the standard weapon switch, so a cleric can either use staff for dps/burst healing or shield and mace for pvp healing, I don't think there is anything wrong with it.

ArchivedUser

I think a weapon swap (no gear) like GW2 or ESO has would be good.  As previously stated by someone, if I'm a Ranger and I open with a bow but my foe closes to melee distance, I should be able to drop the bow and draw my sword or knife.  I sure don't want to try and beat him to death with my bow.

ArchivedUser

The title of this thread is misleading. Specifically referring to weapon switching mid-fight, I agree with it. Now completely swapping your Clothes/Armor during a fight makes no sense at all. Unless it's an Armor set summoned by some deity or what not. But if I'm using a two-handed axe and it breaks of course I'm going to pull out my dagger.

ArchivedUser

I agree to being able to use a secondary (already equipped or designated) weapon, but not to gear changing. If I am a Summoner/cleric and my party is taking excessive damage, I should be able to switch to a weapon to increase my healing abilities to help out. If a tank dies in combat, maybe a ranger/tank can switch to a shield to fill in the role (especially if a resurrection spell isn't 100%).

It sounds as though classes will have a decent amount of mobility, so I would imagine being at the preferred range should be easy.  Mixing in all the other CC abilities, I just find it hard to believe that any average player with knowledge of their class will have an issue.

For immersion's sake, I hate when I see someone who uses a bow or magic just standing there spamming ranged abilities when the enemy is face-to-face with them.

ArchivedUser

Gear changing? Nope, never did like the idea in games of switching out your whole armour set at the click of a button once engaged, it's a delicate process (especially when it comes to removing some of the tight clothing that so many games seem to force female avatars into these days)!

Swapping out weapons is fair enough but only if there's a sheath/draw concept with animations so that you're not instantly jumping between stab>roll>shoot>roll>stab>roll>shoot, takes away a lot of the skill and thought in combat when anything is instant. If you decide to back pedal and put away your sword in order to take out a bow you should have to create that reactive gap first, if you misjudge it then shame on you and prepare for a malky.
Same goes for a sword/shield though, where does that shield go when you weapon switch if you already have a bow on your back... smaller shields can hook on your waist maybe or a buckler can be used with a bow, but wielding a large tower shield and broadsword whilst wearing plate armour and switching to a bow just isn't viable, also you shouldn't be in a position to create that defensive gap to allow you to draw additional weapons if you're that heavily burdened.

I wonder if I'm hoping on too much combat realism and dependency on skill rather than spell spam and stats ^^.
Guess I prefer skills in combat over stats, if we could even do away with stat based equipment that'd be even better!

ArchivedUser

I'd say yes, hand held items only with a 'swap' button that has a cool down.

The swap button would change out what's in your hands.

ArchivedUser

I'm fine with the idea of weapon swapping but prefer it be controlled with gear slots instead of allowing swapping with items in bags.

ArchivedUser

Honestly for me part of my choice falls back on realism. It's not realistic for someone to be sitting down, taking off a chest piece or swapping your boots during combat. If you did, this is what would happen....


However, it is perfectly plausible and in actual medieval combat was not uncommon to switch weapons during combat. By that standard I think it's acceptable and should be allowed. A warrior may be using a two hander but if he has to pick up aggro then maybe he wants to drop that weapon and equip a sword and shield to access hate generation abilities. A thief may be using daggers, but what if the heat is pouring on and he needs to get outta melee range? sheath those daggers and pull out your bow!

At least, that's my opinion

ArchivedUser

Yeah, I don't want 90% of my backpack be just a placeholder for spare armor and weapon pieces, 10% for consumables, and no place whatsoever for loot.

ArchivedUser

While the mechanic of gear swapping is neat, being able to do it instantly, and while in combat is just wrong. If you want to change gear, it should be at a huge disadvantage. As far as weapons, i believe we could have a secondary weapon at the ready. I would also like to see disarming and being able to toss a weapon or shield or item to a team mate. 

ArchivedUser

Yes as long as weapons don't have overpowered active skills and there's a CD upon swap. Got bad experiences from other games of people carrying 20 different weapons with 20 different actives and then they just drop buff actives one after another (Specially if those actives are randomized by craft /loot /w.e...) 

ArchivedUser

Gothix said:

Yeah, I don't want 90% of my backpack be just a placeholder for spare armor and weapon pieces, 10% for consumables, and no place whatsoever for loot.

A pre-equipped secondary was what I was personally talking about. I don't really want people carrying around wardrobes and arsenals on their backs.

ArchivedUser

I play alot of GW2 and i really enjoy their weapon change system.
it allows you to plan a more complicated combo\strategy and gives freedom to a larger scale of improvising if something goes wrong.
It does add more difficulty to the game but i think the challenge and skill required makes the game better than if combat was just spamming the same buttons and waiting for skills CD to be over.

In conclution i say yes to only weapon swap mid battle as long as they make it balanced of course.

ArchivedUser

.Exe said:

Yes as long as weapons don't have overpowered active skills and there's a CD upon swap. Got bad experiences from other games of people carrying 20 different weapons with 20 different actives and then they just drop buff actives one after another (Specially if those actives are randomized by craft /loot /w.e...) 

reminds me of good old Lineage 2, where Healer and Buffer carried multiple weapons with activ nukes on it, because their base dmg skills were trash compared to those xD

ArchivedUser

I'd say no.  Maybe any other gear, but when it comes to main weapon/offhand, I'd say no, just to the simple fact that it can make balancing a nightmare.  I'm no stranger to having hundreds of gear macros and switching depending on the spell or the effect you want to have in your attacks (Played FFXI for a LONG time).  The balancing would be a nightmare because you have to be the top of your game to do this efficiently, and to no offense to anybody, there will only be a small percentage of players who can pull this kind of combat off (~7-10%) and that's being generous.  They need to keep it as simple as they can while increasing the complexity in other areas.

If they do implement it, it should give you a medium length GCD on all your abilities (3-5 seconds.)

TLDR;  The people who can pull this off will be leagues ahead of other players and be relatively OP compared to them.

ArchivedUser

Weapons only

ArchivedUser

Shammyman88 said:

I'd say no.  Maybe any other gear, but when it comes to main weapon/offhand, I'd say no, just to the simple fact that it can make balancing a nightmare.  I'm no stranger to having hundreds of gear macros and switching depending on the spell or the effect you want to have in your attacks (Played FFXI for a LONG time).  The balancing would be a nightmare because you have to be the top of your game to do this efficiently, and to no offense to anybody, there will only be a small percentage of players who can pull this kind of combat off (~7-10%) and that's being generous.  They need to keep it as simple as they can while increasing the complexity in other areas.

If they do implement it, it should give you a medium length GCD on all your abilities (3-5 seconds.)

TLDR;  The people who can pull this off will be leagues ahead of other players and be relatively OP compared to them.

>Be naked
>Lure in the noobies
>Equip all +100 Gear
>Insta-gib
Feels good man.

ArchivedUser

I really do feel the only argument here is for swapping a weapon out. As like a previous poster stated it should be a weapon that was already equipped as a secondary weapon, in other words you can't go through a wardrobe of weapons during combat. But hey if I have a one hander and shield, but then want to pull out that two-handed sword on my back, that should be allowed. 

Gear swapping mid fight----Dumb

Multiple weapons swapping----Dumb

Swapping a main and secondary weapon----Realistic and feasible. 

ArchivedUser

As espoused in this thread, I feel that if a weapon swapping mechanic were to be implemented, I would really rather see it be a smaller secondary weapon, like a dagger, dirk, or some sort of holdout weapon.  Fluid switching of weapons in games never really felt that impressive, and seemed more ridiculous than anything.  I can understand the idea, and the fantasy, of weaving different weapons in and out of your combos and such, but it just ends up feeling a little silly to me.

Perhaps if one of your class abilities are tied to utilizing a secondary weapon for a quick attack, like throwing a dagger or jamming a dagger into an arm or a leg and leaving it in as a detriment, but these abilities shouldnt be a bread and butter skill, more of a desperate or opportunistic attack with a long cooldown.  

ArchivedUser

chocmerc said:

As espoused in this thread, I feel that if a weapon swapping mechanic were to be implemented, I would really rather see it be a smaller secondary weapon, like a dagger, dirk, or some sort of holdout weapon.  Fluid switching of weapons in games never really felt that impressive, and seemed more ridiculous than anything.  I can understand the idea, and the fantasy, of weaving different weapons in and out of your combos and such, but it just ends up feeling a little silly to me.

Perhaps if one of your class abilities are tied to utilizing a secondary weapon for a quick attack, like throwing a dagger or jamming a dagger into an arm or a leg and leaving it in as a detriment, but these abilities shouldnt be a bread and butter skill, more of a desperate or opportunistic attack with a long cooldown.  

Because this game isn't like Mount and Blade or Chivalry, swapping between two weapons such as a Spear and a Sword isn't an issue for me. But the developers have stated there will be weight punishments for carrying too much so...? More weapons, more choice, more weight, less movement?

ArchivedUser

I'm not sure about switching armor during combat but weapons?  Yes definitely.  When I played a ranger in other games I liked to pull with my bow and then switch to my melee weapons when the mob got close up.  I also often played as an off-tank on a lot of my fighter-type characters so I would go dps with a 2H or dual wield and then if it was needed (tank lost agro or went down) switch to a 1H and shield to take over tanking.

ArchivedUser

Makes sense, people used to do it in real life. Knights would use a lance, then a sword or a mace or hammer depending on who they were fighting. No problem with switching a weapon as long as their is a cooldown.

ArchivedUser

I'm closer to "Yes", than to "No", but, we don't know what do weapons do in AoC. How do skills depend on weapons...

For example, switching between ranged and melee, that both can be equipped at same time, is one thing. Switching between equipped and "in bag" weapon, is a different thing. Second might add a need for switching skill setup, and that is up for topic "skill switch during combat". Actually, I can't find reasons for "no", making a difficulty is not a valid reason for disabling it.

ArchivedUser

I think that there should be weapon switch mid combat but there is a timer placed before you are allowed to switch back or to a different weapon. I do not think rings armor or anything of the like should be allowed to switch when in combat.

ArchivedUser

I think switching Weapon mid combat is fine, it is realistic if the person is carrying these weapons.

In real combat if someone has a bow on their back a sword and a dagger they should be able to switch between weapons switch a wand. Maybe in order to do it you have to open you inventory to change what you equip real time giving some realism in the stall in real time combat. Maybe give everyone the ability to hot swap 2 weapons to make it fair. With maybe a slight delay in real time with graphics that shows someone sheathing a dagger and pulling out a bow.

This is something that can be done in real life during a battle realistically so why not in a game?

ArchivedUser

I think it should be a highly limited feature in combat. Like "Oh shit I got ganked by a rogue I need my shield" and have a large cd. Weapon choice should be a integral build choice but panic options are always rewarding and lead to really interesting gameplay dynamics.

ArchivedUser

I think if everyone had the ability to hot swap between 2 weapon choices it would be fine and realistic.

Wizardfrog said:

I think it should be a highly limited feature in combat. Like "Oh shit I got ganked by a rogue I need my shield" and have a large cd. Weapon choice should be a integral build choice but panic options are always rewarding and lead to really interesting gameplay dynamics.

It would be comical if someone wanted to grab something out of their bag that wasn't one of these two choices that it showed some graphic of them taking off their bag to grab something out with some sort of appropriate CD. Not saying it should be done but yea that would be funny.

ArchivedUser

I voted no. I don't like the system like in GW2 where you had to switch weapons to maximize DPS and keep up all your dots. That was just silly. But i think you should be able to switch weapons FX when a range character is attacked by melee and vice versa. 

ArchivedUser

Depends on how inventory is handled, if there is a weight limit, I'm all for weapon switching.