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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.
Action Combat Feedback A2 1st weekend
FIZZ
Member, Alpha Two
Listing here some feedback from my experience and ways I believe some the the issues could be resolved or made smoother. I played Fighter up to lvl 15 over the weekend, started the first day rotating from action combat on 2-H sword and Tab target on Longbow for secondary. By end of the first day I decided to entirely use action combat as it is my personal playstyle to find the quirks that could be improved to make it feel smooth and viable.
There were issues where the block button or attack will get stuck and can’t undo it without switching weapons. I.e. repeatedly swing or hold block until weapon swap.
-Action combat is most frustrating when it comes to being forced to switch to a cursor mode(tab target) when accessing UI tabs such as inventory or item rolls. The item rolls might not be something that can be helped as it pops up mid combat when a party member loots and you have to switch to tab mode to use your cursor to select it so it goes away mid combat then switch back(really frustrating) although if you are primarily using action combat you are constantly having to switch to tab just to use your cursor when opening inventory/node/any intractable hub.
Resolution: prompt that while in Action mode, when a specific intractable hub is selected (pressing I for inventory) your cursor will auto enable on the screen to be used for the hud, then when “I” is pressed again to close, it should revert back to action mode on its own. So if I’m out killing mobs and check my inventory I can easily exit my inventory back into action mode if I’m being attacked. Rather than press inventory key ->exit action mode->get attacked->panic->exit inventory-> find hotkey to re-enter action mode->then react.
For item rolls I would just recommend each player to make the hud box smaller and deal with the annoyance as you can’t have the action mode stop and auto switch to tab mode mid combat if a party member loots an item.
-The ability to individually set keybinds for action and tab independent from tab target mode. I.e. Q and E are set to attack and block in tab target. But when you go to action combat Q and E are not bound. If you choose to switch between the two, your Q and E keys are empty bind keys in action combat. If you assign them to skills, you no longer have attack and block assigned to them for tab target.
Resolution: add a hotkey assignment option for “attack during action combat” and “block during action combat” along with the attack and block during tab target. This allows the Q and E to be assigned during action combat without changing attack and block keys for tab target.
Medium/large scale group combat(Action Combat)
-in a group setting where there are mobs and PvP it is extremely difficult to select your desired enemy player to attack when mobs are involved. For example in tab target you can click the player you want to focus to select them amongst a cluttered screen of enemies. In action combat if you want to select a specific enemy at further range for abilities such as melee gap closer, you have to rapidly tab through targets until it selects the desired one. The tab should rotate through enemies over the action reticle area rather than all enemies in general proximity. The specific tabbing target options such as closest and furthest enemy are not useful in action combat to select specific targets in large combat unfortunately.
-it might also be worth adding a bindable hotkey for “prioritize enemy players” so if your in an area where there are plentiful NPCs you could smash said hotkey and then be able to tab through your targets without having to rapid tab through NPC mobs first.
-Action combat does feel like it’s headed in the right direction, it does need animation polish for combat in general and a little work on responsiveness with basic attacks. From a fighter perspective the finisher doesn’t feel very noticeable in combat which can make it difficult to correctly weave skills with the cooldown refresh of brutal cleave and overpower. There is also a slight delay in the registration of the cooldown of those abilities being refreshed on the hotbar. Mostly the cooldown registers on the hit after the finisher, although if I noticed the finisher strike proc and I select the overpower/brutal cleave ability it would register that it is available to use even though the hotkey hasn’t animated its refresh countdown. This made it more of a count my strikes then que ability rather then visually noticing my finisher proc and ability insta refresh. But these are of course polishing type of adjustments, great work so far. Keep it up!
There were issues where the block button or attack will get stuck and can’t undo it without switching weapons. I.e. repeatedly swing or hold block until weapon swap.
-Action combat is most frustrating when it comes to being forced to switch to a cursor mode(tab target) when accessing UI tabs such as inventory or item rolls. The item rolls might not be something that can be helped as it pops up mid combat when a party member loots and you have to switch to tab mode to use your cursor to select it so it goes away mid combat then switch back(really frustrating) although if you are primarily using action combat you are constantly having to switch to tab just to use your cursor when opening inventory/node/any intractable hub.
Resolution: prompt that while in Action mode, when a specific intractable hub is selected (pressing I for inventory) your cursor will auto enable on the screen to be used for the hud, then when “I” is pressed again to close, it should revert back to action mode on its own. So if I’m out killing mobs and check my inventory I can easily exit my inventory back into action mode if I’m being attacked. Rather than press inventory key ->exit action mode->get attacked->panic->exit inventory-> find hotkey to re-enter action mode->then react.
For item rolls I would just recommend each player to make the hud box smaller and deal with the annoyance as you can’t have the action mode stop and auto switch to tab mode mid combat if a party member loots an item.
-The ability to individually set keybinds for action and tab independent from tab target mode. I.e. Q and E are set to attack and block in tab target. But when you go to action combat Q and E are not bound. If you choose to switch between the two, your Q and E keys are empty bind keys in action combat. If you assign them to skills, you no longer have attack and block assigned to them for tab target.
Resolution: add a hotkey assignment option for “attack during action combat” and “block during action combat” along with the attack and block during tab target. This allows the Q and E to be assigned during action combat without changing attack and block keys for tab target.
Medium/large scale group combat(Action Combat)
-in a group setting where there are mobs and PvP it is extremely difficult to select your desired enemy player to attack when mobs are involved. For example in tab target you can click the player you want to focus to select them amongst a cluttered screen of enemies. In action combat if you want to select a specific enemy at further range for abilities such as melee gap closer, you have to rapidly tab through targets until it selects the desired one. The tab should rotate through enemies over the action reticle area rather than all enemies in general proximity. The specific tabbing target options such as closest and furthest enemy are not useful in action combat to select specific targets in large combat unfortunately.
-it might also be worth adding a bindable hotkey for “prioritize enemy players” so if your in an area where there are plentiful NPCs you could smash said hotkey and then be able to tab through your targets without having to rapid tab through NPC mobs first.
-Action combat does feel like it’s headed in the right direction, it does need animation polish for combat in general and a little work on responsiveness with basic attacks. From a fighter perspective the finisher doesn’t feel very noticeable in combat which can make it difficult to correctly weave skills with the cooldown refresh of brutal cleave and overpower. There is also a slight delay in the registration of the cooldown of those abilities being refreshed on the hotbar. Mostly the cooldown registers on the hit after the finisher, although if I noticed the finisher strike proc and I select the overpower/brutal cleave ability it would register that it is available to use even though the hotkey hasn’t animated its refresh countdown. This made it more of a count my strikes then que ability rather then visually noticing my finisher proc and ability insta refresh. But these are of course polishing type of adjustments, great work so far. Keep it up!
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