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Limit the Buttons in this Game
erasmoth
Member UncommonPosts: 40
This has to be my biggest pet peeve that has developed in recent MMOs such as : SWTOR, Rift, and WoW (modern wow). I mean its BUTTON MANIA. Half your screen is dedicated to buttons that really don't do anything. SWTOR's Sentinel class for example: I only reached 48 but already my sentinel had a 9-11 button priority list w/ an auto attack proc that could proc an ability that if crit procced another ability. Don't even get me started on RIfts button fascination.
I don't care about a few cooldowns here or there or some utility spells; but the leave the combat simple, 4-5 buttons max. Make one class that is just button mania because some people like that, NOT ALL OF THEM.
BEGIN RUN ON SENTENCE
I don't want to be watching for procs that lead to procs while some DoT ticks down and needs to be refreshed, but none of my abilities automatically do that; no I need to hit another pointless button to refresh the stacks inbetween ONLY IF my other DoT ,which is better, is on cooldown. And what the hell lets add combo points in there too.
Make abilities mean something. Reread that. There shouldn't be abilities that have prereqs such as dot's or procs that only do 10% more damage than some standard ability. If you are going to have procs and requirements then make it hit HARD, like how WoW's Warrior Overpower used to hit, or that big Eviscerate crit on a Rogue that melted health.
Why were WoW and EQ and DAoC such popular games that we all still dream about? They were really fundamentally simple. You didn't need 100 different damage buttons to do max damage, you needed: other players, common sense, and timing.
I'm not talking 11121112111211312 simple, but for the love of god people THESE GAMES AREN'T FUN TO PLAY FOR A REASON THAT'S WHY WERE ARE HERE.
Comments
Yes they should limit the buttons in this game
Now let me see 101 keys on the keyboard, plus shift, plus control, plus alt. Got to allow something for movement etc.
So yes let them limit the buttons to 250.
Oh and a fully reskinable, resizable UI based on a user editable XML file please.
OMG no SOE please to not dumb this game down......................
Short: No limit
While i think that some MMO's do use too many buttons i don't want limits. Thoose that use too many usualy have too many usable items fr every kind of situation or just 100 items for teleporting. I would like to see the clutter removed but i realy want a decent amount of skills and some usable items(hard to give a number but more something like 25-30). Games with limits like TSW or GW2 just feel too limiting and get me frustrated.
For combat i hope they narrow it down to 8 buttons max. There could be more buttons for out of combat.
For four reasons.
1. Because it clutters the screen and gets in the way of the world.
2. Too many buttons it combat takes you out of watching the combat and in to watching the hotbar.
3. Makes it to a finger gymnastics.
4. To chose what (few) skills to pick among many adds variation, rather than each class having all of their skills all the time.
EQ / DAoC / WOW didn't have many buttons? What the hell have you been playing?
DAoC originally limited one button bar to 12 keys, later you were allowed to have 2 of those, but not a single class was able to perform without using at least 3 pages of buttons and I played them all. Healers with all the buffs and sheers up to 50 spells, Bard needed 36 minimum, all in active use. Follow up and positionals made it impossible for melee classes to get due with 12 buttons. On top of this you had artifacts and consumables that you used with /use macro + clicks + arrows + catapults rams boats horses.
EQ the same story, though I played a lot less, there definitely was not a lack of items and consumables to be used in active combat, on top of the array of moves. EQ2 has butloads of spells and effects and UI elements allowing 50+ easily on the screen.
WoW is the mother of all gods when it comes to amount of usable items and spells. Shepshifters change half the toolbar with a complete new set of abilities, and dont even get me started on changing specs middle of the fights. Holy crap that game had buttons.
None of these games, especially DAoC and EQ1 were "fundamentally simple". You absolutely could not do even a meager job with less than 10 buttons. Linear development MMORPG's have in fact became increasingly complex the higher you get, its the pure nature of linear growth, you get new things, new spells, new toys, that's the fundamental expectation when you play these games.
Please OP, you do not want to play MMORPG's, so please download League of Legends and Smite, and play games with 5 buttons that are meant to work with 5 buttons and meant to deliver alternative ways of progression and character development.
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Also played : Asherons Call, EverQuest, EQ2, Dungeons & Dragons, Cabal, Dark & Light, GW, GW2, LA2, Ryzom, Shaiya, SWG, Allods, Forsaken World, ArcheAge, Secret World, Darkfall, Rift, ESO, Tera.
I agree, having too many buttons is annoying. I'd rather have less but more unique and meaningful skills/spells. Even though Diablo 3 isn't a real mmo i think the way it handled skills is nice, where you have a good amount to choose from but are limited to how many you can have active. Also each ability felt unique.
I never understood those people who think having a gazillion buttons makes combat challenging or less boring.
I like buttons
Don't do the GW2/NWO thing.
This game needs lots of glorious buttons. Not the new style MMORPG UI pictured above.
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
Having a limit on skills you can have access to at once is not dumbing anything down. It means a player actually needs to theorycraft and think about which exact skills he need for a certain situation. Guild Wars 1, which is the evolution of the limited hot keys, has a far more complicated and in depth skill system than anything World of Warcraft and games copying it has ever produced.
Lets see .......
1 button for attack
1 button for block
1 button for dancing
1 button for cheering
Wasd for movement
Qe for strafe
Thats 10 buttons is that good enough?
EQ didn't have many buttons when the game began, but when AA got introduced, this quickly changed, and now the game has more hotkeys and abilities than any other game I know, including WoW, Rift, etc.
It basically became a mess.
I wouldn't mind a more action oriented style that removes the hotbar.
I like to have many abilities available. I don't like 5-7 active abilities, it's not enough. This new trend with changing weapons in order to change skills is also bogus imo. I like one key to be dedicated to one ability. I get confused by using the same key for many abilities.
That said, it can get too much at times. When you need a special keyboard just to have enough keys for your abilities.... That's over the top.
Something like 20 would be perfect for me. Not five, but not fifty either.
I don't want to see this again from EQ:
These are the shaman abilities (NOT SPELLS, just their extra abilities)
Add in the hundreds of spells, and it's one giant mess.
I would rather have action combat than having to deal with a messy hotbar system again.
If they can make a good hotbar system, great, but don't make it into a mess like you did with EQ!
Just please none of this..
http://i.imgur.com/4HT4nKg.jpg
When I came back to EQ after a break, I spent about 3 hours setting up my UI and macros.
Not only is this over the top annoying, it confuses new players and the complexity makes them not even play the game.
Speaking of....
This is for keybinds, not actual number of hotbars... But like you said, reachable while using WASD...
http://taugrim.com/2011/04/07/guide-to-strafing-movement-and-keybindings/
That, and then you will need your hotbars for buffs that you dont cast that often.
ROFL....post count 1 ....Loading please .....wait!!!
Go get yourself one of them fancy new consoles they only have a few buttons I believe.
Asbo
I could say exactly the oposite about recently developed mmos like NWN GW2 TSW etc, WTF so simple its no mmo anymore !
So in other words STRONG NO to the OP
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Those are some strange bindings. Who doesn't have a back key binded? Not sure how he handles not being able to dodge backwards which a lot of times in GW2 is the only way to dodge when the floor is full of red circles.
I am of the opinion that if you want to maintain buffs, you need to either actively reslot them or have the ones you want take up one of your few ability slots. Otherwise, why have buffs at all? Just make them permanent bonuses.
EQ used to look like this.
It's clean, it was fun, it's simple.
It evolved into this
(he's using a mod on those buffs)
it looks like you're operating an aircraft, and it's not any more fun