Feedback:User/Fade8388/Player Positioning

Player Positioning
User	Fade8388
Categories	Mechanics

Hello Anet devs,

Now that the game's soon going to be released for GW2, I just have a few suggestion that I would like you guys to consider implementing into the game in the future. I don't ever want to be pushy about these suggestions, because me too - I just want to be able to help make the game better! I love this thing where players are able to feedback to Devs. about the game, so I'm going to try to do my best to give thoughtful suggestions & not just suggestion that would work for only me. Let's begin!

(The title is a bit misleading... but yes, I'll still be talking about some player positioning related stuffs :P)

Crosshair

What I've notice in the last Stress test is that you guys have added manual aim into the game, where a player is able to direct a skill shot upon not selecting a target. This is great!

Maybe when a player is in that state where he/she has not selected a target - a crosshair will pop out :D. What do you guys think? There would be both auto-target for the players and also crosshair when players chooses to manually aim, and this can be switched instantaneously upon selecting a target or deselecting a target.

Dodging

In the past, I've played games like Vindictus and Dark Souls where they have energy bars for dodging and moving. GW2 seemed to have condensed that into just having energy bar for dodging only. I like the way it is done in GW2 more, however - I miss the fact that you can also use that same energy to "sprint" (ref. vindictus combat). At the same time, I understand that GW2 posses many utility skills which increases a player's movement speed.

What I like about sprint is that it gets me out of skill shots the same way as a dodge can, but instead of spending half of my energy every dodge - with sprinting I could spend just enough to get out of w.e. attack that I'm avoiding.

It would be very cool if you guys can introduce sprinting in GW2 IMO. This mechanic could ideally be a buff or be very useful for melee characters, because currently the dodge distance is a two person displacement (one dodge will approximately place you next to a guy next to you originally from the intial spot.... I hope that made snese >_<). A melee character only needs to move anywhere next-to its original displacement to avoid the attack animation, and as long as it happens instantly fast like a dodge. This is the type of sprinting model I have in my head, sort of - the kind that doesn't conflict so much with speed buffs, and helps melee players position more accurately & defensively be more viable against being spammed by auto-attacks.

However, if sprint were to be implemented in the game, I think it would be necessary to increase the agros of mobs, or what I mean is in other words since everyone has better ability to dodge, some of the mob's movement speed may have to be readjusted as a result.

Mob Attack Telegraphs

Previously on the final Stress Test, I've noticed mobs being more active in skill attacks, certain bosses shooting out AoE skills more frequently, and the overall difficult increasing. That was fantastic!

The only thing I would suggest polishing here is that adjust the timings of a mob swing, specifically between the swing up and wing down motions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmNFAhpvqxA

[my observation of mob telegraphing in the video above]

I watched the video several times, especially the beginning part. Notice like... how the first time you watch the video, he didn't seem to notice the mob striking [at about 0:11], because it happened extremely fast. One would probably notice the swing up motion, but the transition from swing up to the swing down motion is a tad too fast IMO.

I'm honestly not trying to nitpick, sorry if this starts to sound like nitpicking T-T I'm just saying that, normally how we predict a movement is from initially "when the momentum picks up". I'm a huge sportsfan and I play a lot of sports myself, including hockey, badminton, and table-tennis. How I observe myself of reacting to a swing in sports is that the pull back motion usually triggers my response to shift my focus on the direction where the strike is coming from, but it's the actual change in momentum from backward to about to hit it forward - at that moment, that's when I could get the most accurate prediction of where the shot is headed and when it is coming.

The thing about some of the mob attacks are that players still have a hard time predicting precisely when the mob will strike. IMO, if the downward swing was made a tad slower and the upward swing [the mob raising is arm] for small mobs or mobs with small arms has a bigger 'giant & obvious swing arc' (not the mob in the video above, but like the typical human size mobs), I think dodging would be used more often in combat, and everyone would start to pick up the importance of timing dodges in a PVE fights (not that players don't use dodge atm, but IMO currently it is quite difficult to see mob telegraphs to time the dodge based on instant rxn... at least compare to my experience of playing Vindictus and Dark Soul, which dodging is not hard but it's not easy either).

In addition to being able to predict mob telegraphs, if players can also do both sprint dodges (mentioned in my previous suggestion) and the current rolling dodges; just imagine, how much more extra positioning techniques one can come up with in like an epic GW2 DE Battle!

I might be honestly getting too ahead of myself here... but I could imagine myself dashing in with the greatsword, do a quick sprint to avoid the mob's melee attack, apply bleed, roll out of melee range & switch to my bow, sprint/roll to dodge an AOE range attack "". Or don't apply bleed, instead apply a stun and then do my spinning sword skill, and switch to bow, roll away, and then fire a burst shot to finish the kill. Haha... yah I've definitely got too ahead of myself here >_>..

• Cough.

Hopefully though, my feedback about GW2 combat have been constructive & friendly. I'm very excited and looking forward to August 25th for the headstart & seeing all your work come together on that day. No matter if you guys implemented any of my suggestion(s), I'm sure the results that I'm going to see will have been made to make this game better, more intriguing, and most importantly - more fun! And thank you all again, Anet Devs, for your superb team of designers, testers, project managers, and all those who took the time nourishing this wonderful game throughout the past several years of being in development - all your dedications and handwork have truly inspired me as as person to continue to work hard in life and believe that anything is achievable with creativity and a good/positively determined attitude.

Wish you guys the best of luck on preparing this game for launch.

Sincerely,

FluffyDoe.7539

Last Updated: 06 August 2012 - 14:41 PM PST