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[Column] WildStar: Combat Telegraphs & Sci-Fi MMOs
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In our latest WildStar column, we take a look at the recently released combat video and last week's WildStar Uplink question. We offer a few thoughts about both and hope that you'll join in the conversation in the comments.
In a recent video released by Carbine Studios, Jeremy Gaffney showed off the WildStar combat system with specific reference to ‘telegraphing’. Telegraphing, for those who might not know, is a graphic representation of the way a monster or a player will attack and/or how the environment will be altered after an attack. In essence, the monster or player reveals the direction and style of attack through a red overlay shown on the ground. By revealing the path of attack, players have the ability to determine how to move to avoid it or how to counter what’s being thrown at them. Interestingly, the video shows a single player going up against a single monster so the telegraph patterns are pretty simple and easy to see.
Read more of Suzie Ford's WildStar Weekly: Combat Telegraphs & Sci-Fi MMOs.
Comments
You also forgot Star Trek Online as a sci-fi MMO in the list, and Tabula Rasa would still be around... but you know NCSoft, "The MMO Killer". Too bad I will not be playing this or any other NCSoft product as of December 1. To those creating WildStar, good luck with it but do make sure your resume' s are up-to-date; I expect you will be needing them as long as you have NCSoft as a distributor.
[color=blue]"The coward knows only death; the hero knows only life"- Kakita Toshimoko, Legend of the Five Rings CCG/RPG
I signed up for an MMORPG.com account just so I could respond to this. First of all, I'm really excited for this game. There looks to be a lot of cool stuff in it.
As for this article, the action combat feel they're giving this game I think will be awesome - it's been fun in the other games I've seen it done in and I'm excited about the fact that they kept the trinity class sytem. Combat telegraphs have been done already in several games - TERA has them as do GW2 and TSW. It works well in all 3 of those games and certainly doesn't make them too easy.
as does GW2...so I don't see how this is worth mentioning at all haha.,
GW2 has the red circles which tell you when to gtfo the area and have actually been critized lately for making the game too easy.
so umm...telegraphing ...why? it's better NOT to know what sort of an attack is about to hit you and learn through practice.
I review lots of indie games and MMORPGs
The combat in this looks far more interesting than GW2...
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
Telegraphing totally turn me off. Hate hand-holding in games and I know that this is part of how combat system was designed but still don't like it.
I only tolerate it in very minimal amounts not when whole combat is build around it and game have tonnes of it.
Seems this game is not for me. Don't like many other parts of it anyway.
Smile
It's interesting how Carbine's approach to previous comments, regarding how the combat is dumbed down, was to tackle it head on.
It's still a massively dumbed down MMO .. I mean really at around 2:30 the talker speaks of skill required to avoid the red shit. This was in other games, but the skill level was knowing where the red shit was, without seeing it.
It still seems like a really dumbed down MMORPG. I think the housing trailer was better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQm7eOjyQSY
At least the housing trailer gave opportunities for the imagination. The latest trailer squishes this game to the ground.
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
I actually agree with this. Gamers have become to comfortable / expectent of having easier games. They want to feel powerful / skillful, instead of actually becoming better.
GW2 is a good example of this in an MMO. There's a lot of whining about the melee combat and with getting hit by things that don't have a ground circle. However, to more skillful players, the red circles are mostly very easy to deal with. Games like Dark Souls / Shadow of the Colossus don't need UI indicators for combat at all. There are telegraphs, but it's on the mob, not the landscape.
I miss the challenge that presented in a lot of older games. Barely anyone beat the bosses of mega man, or castlevania, or zelda on the first couple tries. Now it's almost demanded that games tell you exactly what will happen in a fight before it actually does. It loses a lot of the satisfaction of overcoming a challenge, and actually learning / becoming a better player through experience and practice.
I think WildStar is shaping up to be a pretty good MMO so far, but I'm also remaining skeptical as to how challenging the combat will really be. Even in games like GW2, TERA, & RaiderZ the telegraphed fights tend to be some of the easiest ones to handle. They've become mostly a noob check, instead of a mechanic that leads to challenging content.
Its looking like it may turn out to be a great deal of fun. But as with all such games, we will have to see how it plays.
By the way, you left out Firefall, in your list of science fiction games.
http://www.firefallthegame.com/
Joined - July 2004
I second this sentiment. Tabula Rasa was a great Sci-Fi MMO that was killed by the same company that's publishing this title. It doesn't matter if Wildstar is the best MMO ever made. Which it doesn't look to be, but that's beside the point. I will not risk getting excited about a game just for NCsoft to kill it without warning or even necessarily a good reason. Actually companies like NC are killing my interest in MMOs period. I'm losing my patience with paying for something that can be taken away and having no recourse.