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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.
Tab Target vs Action: What if a game had both?
ArchivedUser
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I know there are games out there that allow you to choose which you prefer as default... but I am talking about both active at the same time
What if combat design had tab target as its base BUT got an accuracy bonus or a damage bonus if you maneuvered your target to the center of your screen as you attacked. The bonuses could escalate the more "perfect" you got the target toward center, or even have both accuracy AND damage bonuses stack on well-centered attacks
this would allow action defense too as you would try to avoid allowing your opponent those bonuses by moving
seems like this would be a good compromise, yet I don't know how hard this would be to program
What if combat design had tab target as its base BUT got an accuracy bonus or a damage bonus if you maneuvered your target to the center of your screen as you attacked. The bonuses could escalate the more "perfect" you got the target toward center, or even have both accuracy AND damage bonuses stack on well-centered attacks
this would allow action defense too as you would try to avoid allowing your opponent those bonuses by moving
seems like this would be a good compromise, yet I don't know how hard this would be to program
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The positive way: There is a lot more action involved in combat this way, which makes it more challenging, fun and rewarding (In my opinion).
The negative way: Combat becomes a lot harder for some people and for those individuals who don't know how to use it, since it is a very different way of playing, wil get annoyed by it very fast and will give up on the fighting aspect.
Personally I don't really mind what system we get, but those are the things that I've noticed on other MMORPG's who did that.
To me tab-target often has 1 single flaw. The superiority of ranged classes as some if not many if not all skills of ranged dd's as well as healer skills were often implemented as homing missiles. Basically a fire and forget system. Cast a spell - it will hit - no matter what location your target is - once casted - it will hit. Obviously obstacles matter in some games but in some they do not. And that's pretty idiotic in my view.
From what I've seen so far (the "A Mage's life" video") there is already the situation that a mage on range already has the advantage. Sure you can cover it by adding cast times and so forth but that's not really a good solution because it kills the dynamic and often makes playing a mage a real pain in the butt.
My take on that one would be as already said - make positioning, timing and mobility matter.
For example a mage soft targets an enemy (press tab, get enemy info, get a lock on the target). The mage then casts Lightning for example which applies damage to the players position rather than the player itself so the player could avoid the spell by moving. Obviously it has to be tweaked that you can't simply walk 1 step away and not getting hit and maybe it should be only doable by executing a defensive ability which I'm getting to next.
I'd say implement active dodging, blocking or parrying along with a stamina system so you can't dodge yourself out of everything but maybe two or three occasions.
I'd say do something similar to GW2 (but without down states) or so. It's kind of hard to explain when we can't actually say something about how the game feels in general.
Tab target is not the opposite of action combat, is all i'm going to say. One does not exclude the other and there are lots of precedences for that.
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you are probably right
and another thing that i didn't think about is this game is probably farther along in development than most indie crowdfunded MMOs are at this point in production because Intrepid wanted a more-tangible product to kickstart, so it may be too late to even suggest a major change in combat mech at this time
was just reading the TT vs AC posts and thought "Why not both?"
<div class="d4p-bbt-quote-title"><a href="https://www.ashesofcreation.com/forums/topic/tab-target-vs-action-what-if-a-game-had-both/#post-7837" rel="nofollow">Helzbelz wrote:</a></div>
Honestly the discussion has been beaten to death on this form. Its time to just stop talking about it at all and wait until people start playing with it. We already been told the game will not be traditional Tab Target, its tab target but people will be moving not standing still casting like WOW. So until Combat comes out and starts to get worked on in Alpha I feel any talk about Combat just because a bunch of people want Action Combat just causes problems.
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you are probably right
and another thing that i didn’t think about is this game is probably farther along in development than most indie crowdfunded MMOs are at this point in production because Intrepid wanted a more-tangible product to kickstart, so it may be too late to even suggest a major change in combat mech at this time
was just reading the TT vs AC posts and thought “Why not both?”
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I think we are too far along in the development cycle to even bring up changing combat because if combat is changed from tab target at this time to free aiming you are talking about changing what has already been in development for 14 to 18 months at this point. Changing the Combat could alter Ashes coming out in 2018 (18 months from now) to 2019 or 2020 because making a major change to combat comes with a lot of development time vs changing how spells work from standing to cast a fireball to casting the fireball on the move. This will then lead to a lot of content not getting put into the game.
I understand that people want Action Combat. However I think the Developers made their choice and should stick with it and let the game go to beta. There is no way you are going to make everyone happy, so pick a group of players you want and stick with them.