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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.
Casting Improvement requests(UX/UI)
kadimir
Member, Alpha Two
When I made my ranger (11)the vines felt a little clunky, but mostly didn't find it that useful with so few skill points while leveling - however leveling cleric(17) both solo and in a group and here a few improvements I'd really like the team to consider when it comes to the User experience casting.
1.) Targeting is clunky, and setting aside a ton of keybinds just to target players in a raid is going to be the worst option. There were times when I was unable to heal myself because I had someone targetted and it didn't successfully clear target - or other times I'm trying to heal someone and instead im just blasting myself with heals because the person wasn't able to be targetted and very little feedback in the raid frames to show that(it's a little more obvious in regular party).
Solution : implementation of mouse over and self cast modifiers. Personally some might hate this but I really liked flexibility of the macro system in wow, although I imagine not many would like it being that 'complicated - but simple self cast/mouse over cast modifiers would go a long way.
2.) It is difficult to actually see things like debuffs.
Solution : maybe a color change of the hp bar? or debuffs over the hp bar??
3.) Placement casting felt worse at first, I was having issues trying to aoe where I would hit the ability and then it would click on the mob rather than placing when I pulled a bunch of mobs. This improved a little when I realized I could hit the same keybinding twice - however there is a more elegant and fluid solution;
Solution: Option for "Quick Casting" and/or "instant Casting" - where you hold the button down, see the placement visual and the ability drops when you release the keybind. Example :
https://youtu.be/AqtfDgMZ1G8?si=SJlqWGYaVBQrKbbL&t=134
I use instant casting on many abilities that have these aoe placements, as mentioned WoW's marco system is another good example of how much smoother things can be when you're able to remove that extra step. As an example; I can hold a modifier to drop death and decay where my mouse is, with no preview - or I can press it with no modifier and drop it on myself.
All in all, These implementations would increase general fluidity and improve feel of combat. Fighting the interface to do what you want is not difficulty. Infact my 2 favorite games to heal were both wildstar and tera*(I did not like the lock on skills in tera, but there were only a few) simply because if you wanted to heal somebody, you aimed at them and let it rip. There is a lot of old school vibes with this game, but fighting the interface doesn't need to be one of them.
1.) Targeting is clunky, and setting aside a ton of keybinds just to target players in a raid is going to be the worst option. There were times when I was unable to heal myself because I had someone targetted and it didn't successfully clear target - or other times I'm trying to heal someone and instead im just blasting myself with heals because the person wasn't able to be targetted and very little feedback in the raid frames to show that(it's a little more obvious in regular party).
Solution : implementation of mouse over and self cast modifiers. Personally some might hate this but I really liked flexibility of the macro system in wow, although I imagine not many would like it being that 'complicated - but simple self cast/mouse over cast modifiers would go a long way.
2.) It is difficult to actually see things like debuffs.
Solution : maybe a color change of the hp bar? or debuffs over the hp bar??
3.) Placement casting felt worse at first, I was having issues trying to aoe where I would hit the ability and then it would click on the mob rather than placing when I pulled a bunch of mobs. This improved a little when I realized I could hit the same keybinding twice - however there is a more elegant and fluid solution;
Solution: Option for "Quick Casting" and/or "instant Casting" - where you hold the button down, see the placement visual and the ability drops when you release the keybind. Example :
https://youtu.be/AqtfDgMZ1G8?si=SJlqWGYaVBQrKbbL&t=134I use instant casting on many abilities that have these aoe placements, as mentioned WoW's marco system is another good example of how much smoother things can be when you're able to remove that extra step. As an example; I can hold a modifier to drop death and decay where my mouse is, with no preview - or I can press it with no modifier and drop it on myself.
All in all, These implementations would increase general fluidity and improve feel of combat. Fighting the interface to do what you want is not difficulty. Infact my 2 favorite games to heal were both wildstar and tera*(I did not like the lock on skills in tera, but there were only a few) simply because if you wanted to heal somebody, you aimed at them and let it rip. There is a lot of old school vibes with this game, but fighting the interface doesn't need to be one of them.
1
Comments
I always healed with mouseover, its easy, its fast and with the right macro set up, i just can heal
myself when i dont have a mouseover target, its perfect.