What if the combat were just ~faster~ in TSW?

TheLizardbones

One of the recurring nitpicks about The Secret World is the combat.  Well, what if the combat didn't take as long?  Instead of four minutes in combat getting to your objective, you only spend two minutes in combat.  It doesn't have to be easier, if your build or the skills you use aren't optimal, the mobs will still kill you, but the win state just doesn't take as long to get there.

 

Would you find the game more playable and enjoyable if it didn't take as long to kill stuff, or to find out that you shouldn't have tried to kill that stuff?

 

If you feel like it, how much shorter (or longer) would you like the combat to be?

 

DEAD.line

I don't think it's just how about the lenght of the combat but the general feel and mechanics of it. The animations, the sound design and just feels somewhat clunky (Even looking at the videos). I still think it's abit better than standart combat, but would prefer if it was more like GW2 or maybe WS (haven't played, but looks good).

I still like the game, but would a revamped combat make me love it 10x more? Yes. Would it make me a more permanent player? No, but i'd really want to have it.

TheLizardbones

Originally posted by DEAD.line

I don't think it's just how about the lenght of the combat but the general feel and mechanics of it. The animations, the sound design and just feels somewhat clunky (Even looking at the videos). I still think it's abit better than standart combat, but would prefer if it was more like GW2 or maybe WS (haven't played, but looks good).

I still like the game, but would a revamped combat make me love it 10x more? Yes. Would it make me a more permanent player? No, but i'd really want to have it.

 

Well yeah.  I'd prefer a combat revamp too.  I think even people who are OK with the combat wouldn't mind a combat revamp.  I'm wondering if shortening the combat would take some of the focus off of it, letting the rest of the game shine through, so to speak.

 

evilastro

Originally posted by DEAD.line

I don't think it's just how about the lenght of the combat but the general feel and mechanics of it. The animations, the sound design and just feels somewhat clunky (Even looking at the videos). I still think it's abit better than standart combat, but would prefer if it was more like GW2 or maybe WS (haven't played, but looks good).

I still like the game, but would a revamped combat make me love it 10x more? Yes. Would it make me a more permanent player? No, but i'd really want to have it.

Agreed.

Its the core combat design, not the speed.  Although some encounters could do with a speed up.  Rift did a fantastic combat update (going from completely dull and uninspired to fairly fun and playable), if Funcom could pull off something like that I would be quite impressed.

DEAD.line

Originally posted by lizardbones

Originally posted by DEAD.line

I don't think it's just how about the lenght of the combat but the general feel and mechanics of it. The animations, the sound design and just feels somewhat clunky (Even looking at the videos). I still think it's abit better than standart combat, but would prefer if it was more like GW2 or maybe WS (haven't played, but looks good).

I still like the game, but would a revamped combat make me love it 10x more? Yes. Would it make me a more permanent player? No, but i'd really want to have it.

 

Well yeah.  I'd prefer a combat revamp too.  I think even people who are OK with the combat wouldn't mind a combat revamp.  I'm wondering if shortening the combat would take some of the focus off of it, letting the rest of the game shine through, so to speak.

 

I don't think it would make much difference. Reducing combat time, agroo radius, etc so players can spend more time enjoying the story and questing is nice, but in the end, combat is the major activity. I assume this is what you tried to ask.

Since one still has to engage in confrontation, it needs to be fun. Like i said, i don't "hate" TSW's combat, but would indeed prefer a revamp instead of just "speeding it up".

 

Robsolf

If they shortened combat time, chance of aggro(either through thinner mob pop or reduced radius, or a better idea), and decreased mob pursuit time(I've had mobs literally chase me across the entire map), then I would enjoy the game more.  I might even play more than once every update.

 

KingAlkaiser

Originally posted by Robsolf

If they shortened combat time, chance of aggro(either through thinner mob pop or reduced radius, or a better idea), and decreased mob pursuit time(I've had mobs literally chase me across the entire map), then I would enjoy the game more.  I might even play more than once every update.

 

 

 

I for one do not want them to shorten persuit time or shorten combat time, this will make the game too easy and kill inmersion, according to the lore of the game, the world is is chaos/etc it should feel dangerous to roam around alone.  The best thing about the game is how little hand holding they have and how it feels to walk around the game. 

 

This is a good thing you should become aware of your environment and enemy thread should be apparent ( enemy stop chasing after a while anyways).

 

combat does not need to be speed up in any way also, I prefer slower paced/ more tactical approach to games such as FF11 to name a few.  Some of the core does need a bit of tune up but its ot as bad as people put it.

when o started TSW i found combat a bit weird at first but after giving it a try i enjoyed it and "got it".

 

this mmorpg has a niche player attraction, if it starts become yet another easy mode boring mmorpg it will kill the game for those that allready enjoy it.

hallucigenocide

the combat is allright aside from some fugly animations.. i would'nt mind seeing the ability wheel reworked though so you could actually play what you want and not be limited to a small set of builds.

Dreamo84

It would help, but over all the combat just feels like your standard tab target combat except you have to manually spam your auto attack (builders). It's just too... frustrating? The game just screams action combat, that should have been their focus.

NomadMorlock

I love the setting, love the quests, hate the combat. 

 

The speed is only part of it.  It's the lack of good animations, it's clunky, the spamming of the same attacks (builders), etc.  I would play again with a combat revamp.

 

Agent_Joseph

arcade/shooter players continue to ruining  RPG's

CasualMaker

Every time I hear about a game that I like getting a Combat Upgrade, I get shivers down my spine...

That just went oh so well on my first MMO in 2005. It ruined another great skill-based game, which was also not locked into levels and set-in-stone classes.

asmkm22

It's more than just the duration of combat.  It's the sheer repetitiveness of it as well.  Use a builder 5 times, then use two finishers (one for each weapon).  Do that 3 or 4 times just to kill the standard guy.  It's just not fun.

Ender4

It might have made me play a little longer but the speed of combat isn't the real problem. It is repetitive and very clunky feeling.

TheLizardbones

Originally posted by Ender4

It might have made me play a little longer but the speed of combat isn't the real problem. It is repetitive and very clunky feeling.

 

It's definitely "clunky".  I haven't played a game where the combat didn't eventually get repetitive though.  Unless the developer changes something and rebalances the game's combat, eventually players work out an optimum set of responses for a given scenario.

 

Pig-Eye

TSW is a clunky game.

 

Fast or slow would make no difference

SomeOldBloke

They really need to move to more of an action combat style to improve it but having said that they need to radically alter the combat mechanics and have 3 different styles. ARs, Pistols and Shotguns should use FPS/TPS style mechanics with leftclick as fire and right click as zoom - hotbars to be used for your gadgets. Melee combat left click hit and right click block with hotbar for combo's. Leaving magic as left click primary and right click secondary - hotbar could be for short durations buffs and debufs.

I'm sure everyone will disagree on the above paragraph but I think most will agree that speeding up the combat is not enough.

TheLizardbones

Originally posted by mbd1968

They really need to move to more of an action combat style to improve it but having said that they need to radically alter the combat mechanics and have 3 different styles. ARs, Pistols and Shotguns should use FPS/TPS style mechanics with leftclick as fire and right click as zoom - hotbars to be used for your gadgets. Melee combat left click hit and right click block with hotbar for combo's. Leaving magic as left click primary and right click secondary - hotbar could be for short durations buffs and debufs.

I'm sure everyone will disagree on the above paragraph but I think most will agree that speeding up the combat is not enough.

 

They have a pretty limited developer staff, and they don't want to alienate their current players without a guarantee that they would gather in more players than they lost by changing things up drastically.  I'm not even sure they'd want to change things at all.  This thread is just based off my personal experience with the game.

 

SomeOldBloke

Originally posted by lizardbones

Originally posted by mbd1968

They really need to move to more of an action combat style to improve it but having said that they need to radically alter the combat mechanics and have 3 different styles. ARs, Pistols and Shotguns should use FPS/TPS style mechanics with leftclick as fire and right click as zoom - hotbars to be used for your gadgets. Melee combat left click hit and right click block with hotbar for combo's. Leaving magic as left click primary and right click secondary - hotbar could be for short durations buffs and debufs.

I'm sure everyone will disagree on the above paragraph but I think most will agree that speeding up the combat is not enough.

 

They have a pretty limited developer staff, and they don't want to alienate their current players without a guarantee that they would gather in more players than they lost by changing things up drastically.  I'm not even sure they'd want to change things at all.  This thread is just based off my personal experience with the game.

 

Yeah I know... cost is always an issue and it would cost far to much to overhaul it. We are stuck with what we have now.

Eir_S

You might be onto something.  I mean, I remember telling my friend when I played the free trial that there are cooldowns on sidearms, and he laughed.  I didn't think it was funny because I was the one that had to play it.

Divona

The combat in TSW is okay, but the animation and sound effect let it down. I actually want the pace to be slower, and does not required hitting skills too much for every action. I rather want to click on enemy and watch the fight, and occasionally use skill to prevent big attack to land on me. Not spam the skills. Traditional CRPG style.

goboygo

Faster wasn't the problem for me, I don't mind slower paced combat one bit.  TSW's progression was give mobs in the next zone a crap ton more hit points, but don't give the player anything new to deal with it, just do the same thing you were doing in the previous zone 10 time more and the mob will die.  There just wasn't enough active skills available to keep it interest for the amount of damage you had to deal to drop mobs later in the game.  It just got super repetitive.

 

The early zones were amazingly fun and far more balanced.

Torcip

I think the problem here is that they tried to do a combination of slower classic MMO combat and the newer action oriented combat.  This is where it doesnt work, they need to do one or the other. Doing both just makes it not good at either.

AIMonster

Speed isn't the issue.  It's the lack of variety in skills and forcing you into a set rotation to be optimal.  Even with the limited amount of active skills on your bar, you'll often use only 3-4 skills a fight.  It's a fundamental problem that exists with other classless games too.  Another problem is the fact it has "builders" and "finishers" (for lack of a better word, I don't remember what they call it) and skills are locked to certain weapon types of which you can only have 2 equipped.   Those two things also kill variety and any chance of balance.

reeereee

Plausible, if FFXIV had faster combat I would still be playing it.

Octagon7711

Speed is the issue for me.  I play it from time to time but quickly get bored because it takes so long to kill stuff and go through the stories.  I love the mini adventures.