Combat system test - Amun open

[chilko]

Hello everyone,

as of now we are opening Amun to start testing and gather feedback on the changes introduced in the combat system

there are some known issues that might appear:

- some animation glitches or animations that still need adjustments
- a rare bug in which you appear to be in combat mode and you are not
- warriors being able to throw attacks to corpses

One clarification: warriors will throw an attack animation even if they are not really in range in some cases (its like a failed try...) this is intended.
proper feedback for this must be added.

Also, final adjustments to balance have not been made yet, such as damage, or weapon speeds or arrow costs.

tactics for 1vs1 (melee vs. ranged) will change a lot... you will have to start using some spells that might not be that useful before, please remember that the focus is balancing for RvR situations. instead of complaining about how you could take out a single warrior with 3 button presses or without being touched before and not able to do the same thing now, try to find out new tactics to win.

Please lets not make this a thread about old system vs. new system or a flame war against us changing something... we really need to gather positive feedback on how to make this work as it is WAY better technically to our previous implementations.

best regards,

-Chilko

[Kyrottimus]

Realizing this is still 'work in progress'....

I've tested both archer and warrior and here are my observations:

Pros:

* I like the new archer attack speed, and I feel I can get with the rhythm of normals/spells fairly easily.

* I like how with the archers, if you are "not facing" your enemy, your stance is different than when you are facing (bow held close as opposed to held out while aiming). It makes for faster recognition (via animation) instead of waiting for the "you are not facing your enemy" message.

* I'm glad archers have had their feet planted (shoulder-width apart as should be) when they fire and I like the new archer animations. Also, not being able to shoot sideways while strafe-kiting is a reasonable. Even with the new "stop while attacking" limitation I was able to get within range of a yellow mob and kill it in 6 hits with it only hitting me once, so grinding is still doable.

* I like how warriors can now cast buffs and area spells while on the move, makes for faster gameplay.

* I understand the purpose of the Global Cooldown and I like how it was implemented (with full spell-bar yellow timers)

* I like the new tree models and textures on things and "fixes" to the game-world, it looks a lot nicer

* I like the realm names of characters now reflecting their realm color (light blue, orange, green) instead of the sub-title of clan-name or just realm title being colored.


Cons

* I don't know if this is ONLY for warriors but it's only them which I've noticed it: NO MORE pre-casting:

EXAMPLE: Before this update, due to positioning and not being sure exactly WHEN my spells would trigger, I would click them a second or two ahead of time, and when the game synced up enough for my char to be within range, he automatically launched that spell. Now, if I "pre-cast" it and run up to my target, I'll only do normals. And even then, I have to hammer a spell, (like kick or south cross) REPEATEDLY to get it to trigger...and even then it's too late and not in-sync with when I wanted it to go off.

This is VERY annoying and this alone is extremely detrimental to the flow of melee combat.


* I realize you need to tweak some animations, but honestly... the "Running while normal attacking" barb animation is about the goofiest, lamest animation I've seen. I literally laughed out loud and thought "Man, this guy swings his Great Claymore like he's having a pillow-fight"


* Visual cues for archers to do normals and spells is very foggy, and when to stop and when you can move again between attacks is very hard to "guess".



These are my observations, simply as 1 player with 1 frame of mind. I only reall play warriors and archers and don't know much about mages.

[chilko]

Originally Posted by Kyrottimus

Realizing this is still 'work in progress'....

* I don't know if this is ONLY for warriors but it's only them which I've noticed it: NO MORE pre-casting:

EXAMPLE: Before this update, due to positioning and not being sure exactly WHEN my spells would trigger, I would click them a second or two ahead of time, and when the game synced up enough for my char to be within range, he automatically launched that spell. Now, if I "pre-cast" it and run up to my target, I'll only do normals. And even then, I have to hammer a spell, (like kick or south cross) REPEATEDLY to get it to trigger...and even then it's too late and not in-sync with when I wanted it to go off.

This is VERY annoying and this alone is extremely detrimental to the flow of melee combat.

Hmmmm.... we will look into this... do you feel as if you fail more spells now?

Originally Posted by Kyrottimus

* I realize you need to tweak some animations, but honestly... the "Running while normal attacking" barb animation is about the goofiest, lamest animation I've seen. I literally laughed out loud and thought "Man, this guy swings his Great Claymore like he's having a pillow-fight"

We are not happy with some of the animations either... the pillow fight comparison is very good . We are facing limitation of our animation system but we will try to have better results. Remember this is not final.

Originally Posted by Kyrottimus

* Visual cues for archers to do normals and spells is very foggy, and when to stop and when you can move again between attacks is very hard to "guess".

we will add proper projectiles in the 2.0 update maybe we can do something as a placeholder for better feedback... we know that is difficult to know when you completed the attack playing without sound.

thanks, this is the kind of feedback we need.

[Klutu]

Ive Been having the issue with my spells. (not sure if bug or Intended)

But while buffing it seems my spells are Failing Frenzy/Caution/Tfb and i have had to click on them multiple times after my Global Cooldown was not in affect.


like kyro said i don't like the running attack Aminations they look very uncomfortable and like he said looks like im having a pillowfight.

i also don't like about the global Cooldown is that my Weapons speed does not affect the global Cooldown at all.

To me the faster the Weapon the Shorter the Global Cooldown. but i supose that could be abused.


So far i really like the Update but it needs alot more Testing and Feedback it's nice to see such a change

Cheers

[VandaMan]

Warriors can mount a horse while moving... lol

[ArchmagusArcana]

I love the GCD, even though it does take away the cast delay advantage of faster weapons, but it seems with slow or faster, you can cast and attack once each, with vslow, its cast and then attack, cast, cast attack. Ill test this more.

I hate cancel of spells from moving, really. If you make it so you cannot move, thats fine, its normal, and natural, but moving canceling is really rough on a mage that must either move or die, as we have no armor. Will make fighting warriors very hard, as they can both cast and attack while moving.

Not sure if this is a bug or not, but as a warrior i can run and cast an area without stopping, and it takes effect when its done casting, but if i start to cast it and move, it cancels.

Still testing......

[_Enio_]

That delay seems very situational. Eg it is not there when you kill a monster and then target the next without moving in between.(the char stays in an aiming stance after the first monster death)

The delay isnt so big.. but its longer then the following shots. (isit only some ping thing?)

Generally that change makes archers now "dancable". like Warlocks before the spell change - normals can be ran out/through/out of the 90 degree arc..

Is this intended that you can run/dance out (thought it was just about standing still)?

[Mattdoesrock]

Well my thoughts so far on my Barb, Marks and Lock:

Casting while running... Is this intentional? Or a bug... Either way, it's really really good, I love it. BUT! It should be the same for all classess... Even if movement speed was reduced slightly (hell I don't know, perhaps archers / mages have to concentrate more while casting?) but yeah, moving casting for all.

Also it can be very very hard to use skills when moving around someone. You will keep doing your normal hits, but you don't seem to start your powers easily. This even happens when you're not in combat mode. I had my target stunned, and was hammering Jaw Breaker, but it did not cast, and instead I did a normal attack.

I tried to take a video... But my software decided not to work...

Like Enio has said, there are some balance issues that need to be addressed. -- Nearly all ranged attack spells have been given a 1 second cast time, as crap as that is, you can live with it - But some spells you cannot. Two that come to mind are Retaliation and Dispell and the healing spells... <-- Which aren't even attack spell, but are defensive spells / buff's.

These spells are very situational, and need to be acted on VERY quickly. Both are meant for very quick situations, that take skill and timing to use well. With the 1 second cast time, this is nulified sadly.

A few more things:

- Using potions start your global cooldown... Not really important, but might be a bug.

[Immune]

I've only tested my conj so far, here is what I've seen:

It seems that ALL spells have some sort of cast time now, anything that used to be instant, isn't anymore. Why? If mages rely the most on spells, shouldn't they be able to cast a few on the run, especially heal spells and buffs like arcane devotion. Trying to run and stop constantly as you try to get in your usual buffs is just an unnecessary pain I think.

I noticed that if you move while casting, the spell doesn't go into cooldown and the mana isn't used, which is good. But when the spell is cancelled by a mob/player, it does go into cooldown (which isn't the problem), but the yellow timer doesn't show up if that happens. I had to press arcane devotion for a minute after being cancelled because I couldn't tell when it would be ready again.

Sometimes when casting a spell, there seems to be an unmentioned precast before the actual cast initiates. What is this? A bug or intentional? It doesn't always happen, so I'm assuming it's not supposed to at all.

The new mage casting animation... eh, I don't like it much honestly, it almost seems as if this new animation is a main reason for the "no instant spells", because I couldn't picture myself running and sticking my arm up in the air like I've accomplished something while running. I'm sure that's not the "actual" reason, but still.

One last thing which has nothing to do with combat, you've added premium gem buying. What gets me is that it costs MORE than lucky boxes... and lucky boxes are expensive, as everyone knows. You realize that the best "buy gem" costs nearly $15 worth of xim? Can't say I ever plan on buying these, but hey I guess some people just have that kind of money to throw around.

[von1958]

my knight using slashing has no problem at all but my barb when attacking ripost must be hit up to 5 times to get it to work once or twice it said it was in cd but it was not