r0achunit
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Intro
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To start off with, I'm a long time MMORPG PvP player. I had high hopes for this game when I saw the whole "forced to aim your spells and melee like an FPS" thing. After playing a while, it seems like a big illusion.
In games like Everquest, on the PvP servers, one good melee player could literally kill 10 horrible people at the same time with jousting, even if all their gear was equal. This was due to the fact that as soon as you hit the attack button, you immediately swung at whatever's in front of you. It was a "twitch" gameplay mechanic that was highly accurate and precise. Accurate and precise controls are what defines who is good and who sucks.
I've PvP'd with every class in this game and noticed a lot of things that bother me. The various things cited below bother me because they're a step backwards in precision, even from primitive games like Everquest PvP. Without precision in controls, there's no such thing as skill.
Spell Casting
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When playing a spell caster, the inaccuracy of your standard spell attack is so high, and not FPS like whatsoever, that we might as well be using standard MMORPG mechanics since it doesn't actually reward twitch-FPS skills.
If two casters were fighting with traditional MMORPG, PvP mechanics, in a game like DAoC or Everquest, the battle was mostly centered around reflexes, who could get in range and get their spell off the quickest. Even though you're not physically aiming the spell, it's still a "twitch gameplay" mechanic.
In this game, half the time when you fire off your standard attack spell, the fireball will just fly off in some random direction and not where your cursor is. Spells like the sorcerer magma bomb and ice needle seem to work fine, so it seems like just an issue with continuous fire, standard attacks. Other times, I notice my cursor won't even be on the person I'm shooting at, and my standard attack tracks him down like a heat sinking missile and hits him. Standard range attacks are just horrid and need to be overhauled because there's no skill to it right now.
Melee Mechanics
---------------------------
Next we have melee fighting. I've killed two people at the same time easily while playing a caster in this game just kiting them around. While playing a melee on the other hand, it feels like if you go 1vs2, no matter how horrible the other 2 melee are, you're going to end up dying to some 1 button, 50% of your hp, death skill. It's not a problem of high damage numbers, it's how little skill is required to do huge damage while doing something like a slayer special attack.
When I play a lancer, I feel like my arc of attack on standard attack is small enough that it requires a decent amount of precision and timing to hit people. Same thing with zerker, you swing slow and with a small arc (until I think the last attack in the standard chain gets a wider arc). Then warrior and slayer comes into the picture. The arc of attack on their standard swings is so absurdly large, it requires NO SKILL WHATSOEVER to hit people with them. It also makes blocking a joke because the block arc is ridiculously minuscule in comparison to their constant 360 attacks.
That's just standard attacks we're talking about so far. Once you get into special attacks, it gets even worse. The bottom line is, the enormous angle of attack for warrior and slayer needs to come way down, as well as the wide angles of attack for most classes special attacks if there is to be any skill whatsoever to this game. It doesn't matter if it "sounded" like a good idea in some boardroom to give classes diversity. It removes skill from PvP and turns it into a joke. If these issues aren't addressed, it will cost the game far more money in subscriptions than the small amount of developer power needed to change it.
Collision and hit boxes
----------------------------
Last two things that need to change. The collision boxes either need to prevent people from getting so close to each other, or something needs to be fixed with melee when people are close together because it just doesn't feel right how it is now. Non-wide arc attacks just don't feel reliable at all when two people are at minimum distance. It definitely feels off to how it should be.
Remaining Issues
---------------------------
Last thing is of course "Lock-on" attacks. I'm not Ice Man, and this isn't Top Gun. Having these things in PvP is a complete joke. Get rid of them and introduce actual, aiming mechanics. Nobody likes dumbed down mechanics that completely remove skill from the game.
Ok, I lied, one more issue. Nobody likes instancing whatsoever on PvP servers. You should not be able to change channels on them. A new channel should only open after the first one is entirely full.
---------------------------
To start off with, I'm a long time MMORPG PvP player. I had high hopes for this game when I saw the whole "forced to aim your spells and melee like an FPS" thing. After playing a while, it seems like a big illusion.
In games like Everquest, on the PvP servers, one good melee player could literally kill 10 horrible people at the same time with jousting, even if all their gear was equal. This was due to the fact that as soon as you hit the attack button, you immediately swung at whatever's in front of you. It was a "twitch" gameplay mechanic that was highly accurate and precise. Accurate and precise controls are what defines who is good and who sucks.
I've PvP'd with every class in this game and noticed a lot of things that bother me. The various things cited below bother me because they're a step backwards in precision, even from primitive games like Everquest PvP. Without precision in controls, there's no such thing as skill.
Spell Casting
---------------------------
When playing a spell caster, the inaccuracy of your standard spell attack is so high, and not FPS like whatsoever, that we might as well be using standard MMORPG mechanics since it doesn't actually reward twitch-FPS skills.
If two casters were fighting with traditional MMORPG, PvP mechanics, in a game like DAoC or Everquest, the battle was mostly centered around reflexes, who could get in range and get their spell off the quickest. Even though you're not physically aiming the spell, it's still a "twitch gameplay" mechanic.
In this game, half the time when you fire off your standard attack spell, the fireball will just fly off in some random direction and not where your cursor is. Spells like the sorcerer magma bomb and ice needle seem to work fine, so it seems like just an issue with continuous fire, standard attacks. Other times, I notice my cursor won't even be on the person I'm shooting at, and my standard attack tracks him down like a heat sinking missile and hits him. Standard range attacks are just horrid and need to be overhauled because there's no skill to it right now.
Melee Mechanics
---------------------------
Next we have melee fighting. I've killed two people at the same time easily while playing a caster in this game just kiting them around. While playing a melee on the other hand, it feels like if you go 1vs2, no matter how horrible the other 2 melee are, you're going to end up dying to some 1 button, 50% of your hp, death skill. It's not a problem of high damage numbers, it's how little skill is required to do huge damage while doing something like a slayer special attack.
When I play a lancer, I feel like my arc of attack on standard attack is small enough that it requires a decent amount of precision and timing to hit people. Same thing with zerker, you swing slow and with a small arc (until I think the last attack in the standard chain gets a wider arc). Then warrior and slayer comes into the picture. The arc of attack on their standard swings is so absurdly large, it requires NO SKILL WHATSOEVER to hit people with them. It also makes blocking a joke because the block arc is ridiculously minuscule in comparison to their constant 360 attacks.
That's just standard attacks we're talking about so far. Once you get into special attacks, it gets even worse. The bottom line is, the enormous angle of attack for warrior and slayer needs to come way down, as well as the wide angles of attack for most classes special attacks if there is to be any skill whatsoever to this game. It doesn't matter if it "sounded" like a good idea in some boardroom to give classes diversity. It removes skill from PvP and turns it into a joke. If these issues aren't addressed, it will cost the game far more money in subscriptions than the small amount of developer power needed to change it.
Collision and hit boxes
----------------------------
Last two things that need to change. The collision boxes either need to prevent people from getting so close to each other, or something needs to be fixed with melee when people are close together because it just doesn't feel right how it is now. Non-wide arc attacks just don't feel reliable at all when two people are at minimum distance. It definitely feels off to how it should be.
Remaining Issues
---------------------------
Last thing is of course "Lock-on" attacks. I'm not Ice Man, and this isn't Top Gun. Having these things in PvP is a complete joke. Get rid of them and introduce actual, aiming mechanics. Nobody likes dumbed down mechanics that completely remove skill from the game.
Ok, I lied, one more issue. Nobody likes instancing whatsoever on PvP servers. You should not be able to change channels on them. A new channel should only open after the first one is entirely full.
Edited by: r0achunit
about 1 year ago