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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.
"In Combat" delay
Markune
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
Is it just me or does the "In Combat" status seem to drag on for an unnecessary amount of time after you exit combat? I can see a slight delay prior to being able to take additional actions, but it seems to be somewhere around 7 seconds of standing around. Relative to other issues it's a small thing, but it sure would make resource gathering a little more enjoyable.
6
Comments
I think you should change that "in combat modus" in that way, that you are only in combat if atleast 1 mob has you in its aggro table... It is kinda annoying when your out there to gather some herbs, and after every mobb you kill you have to wait like 5 seconds before you can start gathering. Or atleast you should be able to pick your flowers even in the "combat stance/mode" aslong as no mob has you in its aggro table.
cherrio you german ashes shill
WHY does it feel bad?
- I would say mostly because we can't gather while in combat. If we were allowed to gather while in combat (and damage just interrupts you), I think it becomes much less of a problem.
I'm guessing the longer combat status is probably more so there for PvP stuff.
For the last part of this discussion, I wish to talk about leaving/exiting combat. A major complaint of mine during this Alpha One test is how long it takes for your character to final decide 'Ok, the monster is dead... But is it!!!' When obviously it is dead XD! A reason this is such a pain is that the characters regeneration of health and mana does not take affect until you 'leave combat', even though you arent in combat. In many other MMO's, or even RPG's such as Dragon Age for example, sometimes you cannot properly activate objects are enter your regen state until all the bad guys are dead. When they are, it usually takes 1-3 seconds for the character in game to realize that. From what I have counted, it takes approximately 10-15 seconds in AoC Alpha One for a character to leave combat, which ultimately has you waiting a good overall 25-30 seconds to get yourself fully healed and ready for the next few fights before doing so again. I think having a responsive combat awareness system for our characters will be something that will only aid the fluidity of combat. The passive regen is actually quite decent and affective, it is just getting to that stage to get yourself healed before the next enemy suddenly takes your by surprise, or even a player. This also affects gathering professions such as mining, herb gathering, fishing, etc. You cannot activate these profession nodes until you leave combat, even though you clearly arent. Next thing you know, another player comes in and swoops it out from beneath you. Again, I think the solution is quite easy to see, and I have full faith and confidence that the team at Intrepid will look into this to create a fair and reasonable decision for the design moving forward!
Any thoughts considering this discussion will only help the devs as well, so please let them hear your voice! For Verra!
-Eltharius
In addition to this, it's worth mentioning it gives priority to anyone trying to grief someone farming. Rather than having to attack a player that just cleared the mobs off a node, they can just grab the node while the other person is waiting for combat flag to clear and force the person who did the work to flag to protect what they cleared.
I think the time between combat encounters is more of a design decision. The less down time for a single player, the less they are encouraged to group up and make friends. There is probably a sweet spot somewhere, because we also don't want healers/buffers to feel so necessary that people just multibox (*cough* Lineage 2 *cough*)
As for the gathering issue, I think a lot of people are voicing their concerns about having to wait for combat to end, myself included. =]
On another note: there are also other elements involved in this. Managing health/mana is an element of gameplay. By designing the combat in a way that doesn't automatically give players full health at the start of a fight it allows people to make builds or play in ways to improve their sustain.
Is that gameplay style for everyone? probably not, but it is also not automatically bad combat design.
Combat state should be a 'state', not a system that restricts or forces some type of gameplay.
First: "In Combat" duration after exiting combat is significantly longer than it needs to be. Possible exceptions made for PvP?
Second: "In Combat" duration effecting resource gathering should either be reduced significantly to enhance the player experience and reduce "wasted time", or removed completely. If removed completely the question would be whether to allow resource gathering to be interrupted by a combat hit or allow gathering to continue with a type of "Player beware" understanding. If you die while picking flowers.....jokes on you.
I think this sums up the options and positions of most players. The question remains what will become of the mechanic as we move through Alpha and into Beta testing. Do we have any feedback from the Dev team?
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Current Member of the Gray Sentinels.
And speaking of the "timer," combat should end when what you're in combat with dies. I don't know why there is currently a buffer, or if it's intentional or not, but it feels bad. It is disruptive to the flow of gameplay, and does not yield a smooth experience.