Feedback:User/Kuby8388/Area of Effect Mechanics

Area of Effect Mechanics
User	Kuby8388
Categories	Mechanics

Username Correction: Kuby8388

[LAST UPDATED: 7:12AM PST - 12 JULY, 2012]

Overview: The Thought

I've been thinking about the upcoming range & melee combat balance lately, and through tons of blogs and forums surfing - I've realized that my dissatisfaction with the current mechanics of GW2 combat has to do with how the "AoE Mchanics" work.

First of all (before I get to the main issue), I've come to realize that the FPS mechanics aren't the problem, because I understand that you guys (Anet) have tried to explain that the more advance fps combat mechanics are a) Not very friendly to the MMO players b) it's kind of 'lame' if you can dodge people skill-shot 24-7 and "drag" a fight for a super long period of time just because different parties can easily avoid the majority of imcoming attacks. Personally, I can agree with that explanation as I myself have dislikes for these specific mechanics about FPS games.

With that being said, I'm still more lenient to the RTS mechanics because IMO the game is more fun when it's about understanding the skills, positioning, and team-comp than in an FPS game where it often seems like players simply ride solo & go about their own business (it favors individual skills the most). In the past few days, after watching several videos of GW2 gameplay & dota 2 gameplay (and realizing how much i miss GW2 graphics.... [GW2 Art Designer for 2012!!]), I've come to realize one important thing: that is, GW2 skills (especially the AoE skills) lack proper positional balancing with respect to a 3D virtual space (EDIT: In simple words (God, I don't know what I was on when I tried to write this), the fact that it feels like it does like there's a little dot inside a person which is like the hit-'box', and its as if the damage shows up after half way through your swing instead of on instant contact, because until the actually animation effect touches the hit-box, your skill does not apply .... seems like partial lag problem, but also a partial a 'sync' problem IMO).

Skill damage sync. with Skill size sync. with Skill positioning

In Dota 2, the skill mechanics are extremely versatile to the point that every single skill can effect the positioning of another hero, and as well vice versa. For example, there's a burst hero in Dota 2 named 'Lina' and she has a skill where she blows fire, but the damage scales based on where u are in the fire (if you get slightly touch it does slightly less than getting hit face on). A lot of AoE skill in Dota 2 has this, and I personally think that this is simply a clever idea that I challenge GW2 combat designers to think more alike (The beautiful graphics are there, but it often doesn't sync with the combat mechanics animations which makes it look more like spams. The real reason I now think people think the game looks 'spammy'.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFMNDAiFC7g -> I understand that this is simply skill demo.... but we have to agree that, this looks boring to an average gamer out there, especially the none MMO ones. I wouldn't dare to show this GW2 video to any of my friends... cuz I know they'd just not try the game based on seeing the mechanics in this video. Not going to sugar-coat anything: reality is that, it looks boring. Looks boring.. :( (Not trying to be harsh, but I learned my lesson show my friend a random noob playing GW2, and instead of blaming the noob he said "no, this looks kinda boring man... he's just standing there clicking his skill buttons.")

But also with the mechanics itself, a stun should not just be a 'plain effect' stun, rather it could be a stun which effects an area that's 2 feet in front of you and scales its damage based on the number of players hit. I think it is needless to say that there is a huge difference between a 3D MMO and a 2D RTS - nevertheless, by syncing everything together nicely (it's a challenge indeed), players would begin to tell apart skill effects from one and another (I would say that 50% of skill efffects like guardian chain stun in GW2 [I'm a guardian fan xDDDD] is barely visible in a huge fight).

Range vs. Melee - The Whole "Unbalanced issue"

(This is a bit off topic but trust me on this - it has to do with the topic as well)

GW2 is all about the offense tactics with very little skill-variations on the defensive skill mechanics (there should be a chart saying how much of this weapon is offense, how much of it is defense, and how much of it is support. Like the pie thing you guys did in WvWvW score).

While Dota2 is about smart offensive and prepared defense =) [sorry, I'm still a GW2 fan!!! but it's just that Dota2 skill system works just so well that I think it's like being firefox ripping a page off mircrosoft's internet explorer xD]

In Dota 2, smart offense is done by playing to the benefit of your skills ie. if you got a long CD on skills, spamming it on tanks is a dumb thing to do. It's not rocket science to know that, since it leaves you valnueralbe and if you ain't got defensive skills the guy will end up damaging you for more than your previous attempt (it's simple skill management - where the consequences are so obvious that players quickly learn how to play the game smart) Any basketball fans? - In basketball, the offense is something that is about 'making plays', while the defense is about "hardwork" - In GW2 though, it's kind of 'wacked' ?:O. The offense is about hardwork (studying traits/skill combos), and defense is about being on offense so you dont have to defend. I know I've used the analogy kind of badly, but think about just what I'm trying to describe 'poorly' here.

Defense doesn't just mean that you can take damage. It also doesn't simply just mean to be able to dodge (nevertheless it's a good way to skillfully defend). My point here is that there are more clever ways to "architecturally structure together" the defensive mechanics in a game than saying "mobs don't agro enough on range characters or melee can't take in enough damage.... which are both true, but not the solutions to solve the 'unbalance between range combat vs. melee combat'. Telegraph is also just a side fix.

The actually fixes which I believe to be the most important are:

1) Lack of clarity and accurate distinction with skill size.

By knowing the range & AoE prediction of all my skills & having skill responses as close to 100% as possible allows players to plant their strategies better against melee range, mid range, and far range players (ie. basically player of all distance - which is IMO the foundational structure of having positional plays in a game).

2) Skill varieties that are properly categorized & "clearly demonstrate it's strength and weakness". Categorize the stats, I think so far the architecture of GW2 skill system needs a lot more improving, but the foundation was built well so IMO it's nothing detrimental, but could be if this is simply left alone the way it is now as I think most players are well aware of. What I mean is that, some skills like the great sword dash on archer - I fail to understand the stats on that skill.

"Block and counter an attack with a kick that pushes foes back - Damage: 535 "

Ok. 1) So is that any damage, magic damage, or what. 2) Is that only against melee weapon incoming attacks or does it not work against range incoming attacks as well? - I 'assume' (never should I need to assume how a skill work in a game, no :\) that its only against on-coming melee attack, but why not range? it's not that OP, and it could make fight way more interesting if it blocks everything with that long CD. Cmon, take a risk if you have to.

Now this is a dota 2 description of skill: drew ranger is an archer hero.

http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Drow_Ranger

When I compare two, I don't need to ask people stupid questions about the skills in Dota while I have to in GW2. The point is that the extra descriptions are just maybe 10 more words, but it clarify the skills effects tremendously. And it's not a one build thing, because:

a) Frost arrow lets you slow. Good for kiting. Also good for getting away, or catching people.

b) Silence. DPS like Drew Ranger is often squishy, so getting that skill against a burster is extremely useful.

c) Damage skill percentage. This champ is going pure damage with no stuns and such.

d) Bonus agility. Ultimate is stats increase, therefore this champ is clearly building a 'glass-canon' build.

Now going back to GW2.... doesn't make sense to me off the bat like it does with Dota 2, no. It's not I'm an RTS player... I meaning slow for kiting (maybe a bit hard to understand), but silence for people with spells and big ultimate. Cmon, don't have to be an RTS player to know clearly how to play this guy to my advantage...

3)Area of Effect.

More spells that are manual the better. And cleaner. Don't take me wrong, the skill animations are nicely done already, but the way damages are shown and the contact collisions are shown... IMO simply too messy at times during combat.

Hey, it's a hot day, so forgive me if I sounded very grumpy in this post. I just signed 2 of my other friends up off curse Beta Key giveaway, so I really really hope you guys make this next BWE a lot better than last one. I've given them all the 'trust me, it's going to be great' - now please, I need you guys to deliver. Best of luck to us all ><!!!!

Sincerely,

Kuby.

9 July 2012