Preface
So... i´ll try to make it really short.
I just got through the second tank showcase video and decided to give some additional feedback.
I think the fact that the combat showcases have not been a big marketing boost like the other showcases this year, speaks volumes.
I think its a fair assesement that he combat product can not stand on it´s own feet to generate interest from the broader mmo audience, which according to Steven is the treshhold for showcases and the general quality bar.
Intrepid´s philosophy of bringing together the best aspects of many mmos maybe works for system design, whereas the same approach for the combat currently fails. Personally i see too many components thrown into the mix and the way the this mix of mechanics is communicated visually is done in a rather unfavorouble manner.
What do i mean by this?
Let me go into the 2 areas, where i think there is room for improvement.
TLDR:
When intrepid design it´s abilities, they should put a bigger emphasize on these questions:
Can the player easily identify the ability ?
Can the player easily tell how big the ability is?
Can the player anticipate what is going the happen?
Can the player easily identify his action from the static background?
Is it a good idea to mix combat mechanics from areas with entirely different prerequisites and requirements?
Visual clarity:
Especially when it comes to the vfx it feels like the assets are just there to communicate something happened, rather than the exact dimensions of what has happened.
It´s mostly hard to identify...
...how big is the ability?
-What are the physical dimensions of it? Its length, width, height?
-how far is the reach of ability? Can i stand here to not get hit by the ability?
On the bottom there is a good outline that shows you where the ability starts, but on the right left and top the player has to guess and as such cant really use the mechanic properly
Like it or not the OW shielding at least was really well communicated
Another game that communicates dimensions very well is smite
.
.. what are the time sequences of ability?
-When has the ability started? When does it take place? When does it end?
1.You should be able to tell which ability is comming at me, once you saw the beginning animation
2.tell the direction and behaviour once the core middle animaiton is under its way
3.and tell when the ability did end consicely.
...who casted the ability?
For me it feels a bit like we have 4 mages with 4 different roles and slightly different color palette for vfx... sometimes.
The style of vfx hardly differ from archetype to archetype, the vfx style homogenity makes it really hard to identify anything.
If i would have seen the vfx seperately, i would have a really hard time to guess which vfx belongs to which archetype. Especially because the style within the archetype seems to be changing a lot as well.
The augment system will make this even worse... the more important it is to have a good baseline regarding that issue.
....Identify vfx from the visual background/environment art.
For the recent combat iteraton intrepid chose to not conform with the design principle of highlighting the player´s actions in contrast to the static environment.
My gripe is that some vfx seem to have the same color code/pallete and visual language of the environment. This becomes especially evident when you look at the rangers jump, the vines at the bottom become borderline invisible.
Spoiler
The roots of the ability look really good. Almost too good and similar to the environment. A player could not navigate through bigger fights with this approach.
I think this really adds to the issue of not beeing able to identify a lot, as the player actions sort of blend together with the background.
Maybe this aspect got lost due to the engine switch. The vfx shown may have been done with UE4 visual guidelines and we are just witnessing a transition artifact? At least for me A1 was decent in that regard.
Bringing those together
Imo this is where high production value games set themselves apart the most.
When you play a well crafted game ,you can identify from the first frames of the beginning animation, which ability is casted, the reach and area of the ability and what are the implications of that.
In the current iteration its hard to even tell what ability was initiated and after that you can hardly identify when it has ended, since the enemy/mob is perma flash banged and residual sparkles are blown up their ass even seconds after the ability is over.
Identifying the dimensions of the ability is also hard, as both animations and vfx are not even build to communicate them. It seems the direction intrepid is more movie-esque with focus on visuals, rather than a gamified direction with focus on information density and clarity.
Funny random screenshots
Combat Mechanics:
Regarding mechanics there is also lot of areas i could touch, but let me briefly mention 2 of them.
Active blocking:
I do think the current iteration of combat does not have the prerequisites for this kind of blocking system. The intensity of attacks are immense, the tanks need to generate threat and the general high mobility movement dynamic in AoC doesnt fit.
When it comes to attack intensity for instance, the dark souls/valheim blocking (which AoC seems to imitate) operates in the context of 1-2 incoming attacks in a second . Whereas i Ashes has around 10 incoming attacks in a second and we havent seen large scale combat or even party combat yet.
It´s even more baffling to here about perfect blocking, a mechanic that is even more conflicted with the components of AoC´s combat.
Tab and action:
The feel of the current action combat components are probably, as close to feeling like tab as it gets. Its mostly frontal cones of weapon swings...no skillshots, no area templates.
You bonk enemies with the entire make-up of a tab targeting system, but fail to implement the advantages of tab targeting which is the deep rotation gameplay.
It feels it is leaning towards having the worst of both worlds-> no aiming/placing of templates combined with shallow rotations.
I think that also might be why every encounter looks like a 1 dimensional tank and spank.
Do you share some of the concerns? Something to add?
Do you think it would be worth it to go a bit deeper into the topic?
