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Kill Notifications
PrinceMaslama
Member
Watching recent combat footage from the Node War showcase I've noticed there does not appear to be any form of notification confirming player kills in real time. The reason I'm bringing this up is due to experiencing first hand in other games how useful kill notifications are for the player's decision making.
For reference this is what a kill notification looks like:
Kill notifications create a positive feedback loop for the player notifying them that whatever they're doing right now is yielding the desired effects i.e killing a bunch of people. Especially in a large scale scenario where sometimes you have momentum on your side and are actively killing enemy players but you fail to recognise and take advantage of that because you're ignorant of the fact. Afterall it is extremely hard to take note of your kills in large scale PvP amidst all the chaos and adrenalin.
Players should have the option to turn on/off kill notifications so there should be no contention as to why it shouldn't exist.
For reference this is what a kill notification looks like:
Kill notifications create a positive feedback loop for the player notifying them that whatever they're doing right now is yielding the desired effects i.e killing a bunch of people. Especially in a large scale scenario where sometimes you have momentum on your side and are actively killing enemy players but you fail to recognise and take advantage of that because you're ignorant of the fact. Afterall it is extremely hard to take note of your kills in large scale PvP amidst all the chaos and adrenalin.
Players should have the option to turn on/off kill notifications so there should be no contention as to why it shouldn't exist.
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Comments
Further, nodes have a leadership hierarchy (even if it's just mayor and everyone else), meaning a node will likely have someone, probably the mayor, leading the node's efforts in the event. It should be their job to read the battle and make calls to push or retreat. If they're not capable of doing that, then they lose. If the node citizens fail to listen to the person directing the battle, they lose.
Mind you, I'm coming at this with the opinion that kill notifications would feel weird in the context of an MMORPG, so I'm biased against them.
Cause personal ones would only really work for dpsers, while the other kind would most definitely be an everpresent thing on your screen.
I'd be ok if this was simply a text line in the combat log. Those who care can pay attention to that (or highlight it in the log, cause I hope we have that feature) and those who don't care will simply not even really notice it.
When your target dies - you see them die. I dunno what kind of gameplay is supposed to be happening on the screen for you to miss your own target dying.
Personal to the player getting the kill. Now that you've mentioned it I do believe there should be a kill feed highlighting all the deaths/kills that are concurrent, whether its in the context of a guild or as a member of a node. If there's a skirmish happening somewhere you're able to see that live via the kill feed [GUILD NAME] [PLAYER NAME] was slain by [ENEMY GUILD] [ENEMY PLAYER NAME] which would prompt the rest of the guild into action or simply act as a source of entertainment watching your guild farm the enemy guild via kill feed while you're busy doing whatever else you're doing.
Gotchu
Same way you will have a feed no how you did in node wars as well in general. It be bad to not know you killed a player and it not being made clearly on your screen, it is 100% positive reinforcement you are doing things right.
Also this is no different than having a in your combat log that you killed a player or npc, its just made more clear rather than having to squint your eyes at a combat log.
Throne and liberty is showing* (aka linage 3)
You can see when your target dies in tons of mmorpgs its just not as user friendly
Options are always good. This way, everyone can get what they prefer.
I would say every PvP kill in a specific range around your character where you or your party/raid contributed in any way. There should also be a setting to filter for friendly/enemy kills.
Contributed would mean, dealt damage to or healed in the last.. 10-30 seconds? Dunno about the timeframe.
If I come in and cast an AoE dealing 5000 damage on everyone in an area, and you come in and cast an AoE dealing 100 damage, but that 100 damage is the killing blow for a number of players, is it really you that should be told that what you're doing is right?
That said, the combat log will no doubt have this information.
I just assumed it was not inplemented on the UI side yet.
They are going to have leaderboards and such, its pretty important to know you killed someone in pvp. Even more so with all the stuff going around. That included in content with objectives as people are going to be doing callouts and such.
It is much cleaner than having another combat log on your screen just to keep track of kills. And for people that don't want it that will be a easy turn off in the UI. End of the day whole point of customizable ui and no ad ons is to let people have the set up they want.
damn I was gonna say this but u beat me to it ;-;
anyways, I don't care too much for the notification, but they can kind of be distracting >< I suppose id like the option to tun them off. as a cleric main, it will help me know if I ks or not tho xD but it can also make the other person rage seeing their target die and not getting the notification. its probs better if they didn't exist. you can just see they are dead right in front of you..or you can see "invalid target" when you try to hit them.
Who said PvP leaderboards are only about kills?
No one - I said that if they were, they would be useless.
You can find all applicable information to back my story up in this thread, just a few posts above.
That said, it is not "pretty important" to know you killed someone in PvP due to leaderboards. That is - or should be - near useless information. You need to know the person died, you don't need to know you killed them, unless the leaderboard is just PvP kills, which is then a useless leaderboard.
It shouldn't bother you personally if someone has kill notifications + kill feed turned on, it is none of your business. Intrepid should without a doubt implement such a feature as its considered personal UI preference that is not enforced on anyone and the more customisability they offer to players the better.
My reason for being against it is that I do not believe a game developer should give players the option to recieve objectively worthless information.
If players see that it is indeed an option, they would assume that it is in some way worthwhile information. Creating a false expectation in players is a bad thing for a game to do.
Thus it isn't "just" a personal preference - it is about setting player expectations.
If they are going to give the option to more easily see if we kill a player (more easy than the combat log), there would need to be a reason to know specifically that we have killed a player, with no other context or information about that kill.
Without that reason in the game, the option shouldn't exist.
Players have the mental capacity of deciding what is and is not important to them hence why UI has been quoted to be completely customisable including ability inputs.
Let players decide that for themselves.
If the game gives players no reason to know they killed another player, if it is never a factor in a decision, then it is not information players should have.
If developers just gave players the option to turn on all information that some random player may think is valid - but that has no in game application - then there would be no end to what they need to add.
You should read what you type before pressing enter.
I've been playing MMORPG's for 20 or so years, and I can't think of a single situation where this is information that would alter my decision making.
This is a very good point.
Absolutely. A great developer doesn't have to tell you something happened or throw out a big glowing flashing sign to point to it.
They do it in subtle, yet effective, ways. If possible.
Give us a reason to pay attention to the game and not to some box of text. What is this, the 1980s?
There's going to be plenty of text to read in the game, don't worry guys.