Combat Talk - Skill Shots (Community Discussion Thread)

  • First a big round of applause is in order for the man @Zabala , awesome write up with lots of detail and cool pretty gif's to keep this kids amused :)

    Skill shots look amazing, and this can now take the pressure off all of the developers at SI as the community now has insight that things are going all steam ahead.

    @Rosalia

    Rosalia wrote:

    hajee wrote:

    its happening!!! it is really happening!!! @Rosalia


    I hope it is still there tomorrow, and wasnt just a dream!

    I hope the next topic will be about Surtr!
    Display Spoiler


    @Zabala cant fool germans on dates! :D


    i had a Q&A with Surtr the other day regarding map design and layout, and i can wait till he is introduced to the community, he is well spoken and has a good mind set on what type of map layouts he wants to implement to the game. Im sure that some of the deadlands maps will look amazing and spooky, the perfect thing to set the scene for a killing!!

    10/10 Everyone at Sandbox Interactive and thumbs up to Zabala for giving the community that little bit of insight to whats going on behind the scenes.

  • sigh, guess i will have to find a new game... its a shame i really liked the direction and playstyle of albion.

    i will test the alpha but it will just confirm what i will already know... 350 ping and skillshots doesnt work in a TABLET mmo.
    (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻) Riot!1!

    Mar 2nd 2015 - Hi @Pagodin ,

    very good formatting. Makes it easy to quickly get what you are aiming for.
    Consider yourself as part of the pvp testing team (in case you want to)!

    Kr,
    Stefan

  • Pagodin wrote:

    sigh, guess i will have to find a new game... its a shame i really liked the direction and playstyle of albion.

    i will test the alpha but it will just confirm what i will already know... 350 ping and skillshots doesnt work in a TABLET mmo.


    it is not like that from now the game will be skillshot based, it will be addition, maybe few skills like that which is great because it brings more variety and makes gameplay more interesting

    Do you want to buy founder's pack? use my refferal link

  • Clearly they are the aoe skills, you see them hitting multiple targets in the path... so either we spam the shit out of it and hope with our latency enough land correctly, or we are forced to not use these skills and be at a disadvantage ?

    Either way, its bad news for oceanic
    (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻) Riot!1!

    Mar 2nd 2015 - Hi @Pagodin ,

    very good formatting. Makes it easy to quickly get what you are aiming for.
    Consider yourself as part of the pvp testing team (in case you want to)!

    Kr,
    Stefan

  • Thanks for the info on new designs and game mechanics. But there is a thing that bothers me a lot, after last alfa. What is the point in playing any ranged DD when you can bubble+sprint from it while the cast time is on? I joined an alpha before? where there was no cast time on rDD skills and rootstaffs and i loved the PvP. last alpha you changed a lot, i liked new aoe skills, but the cast time ruined all the open world pvp. I know that not all players think the same way, but i am a heavy PvP gamer from Insane, a what brought me to this game, was Full Drop PvP. But there is no fun when you can't catch and kill.

  • Salekhar wrote:

    Thanks for the info on new designs and game mechanics. But there is a thing that bothers me a lot, after last alfa. What is the point in playing any ranged DD when you can bubble+sprint from it while the cast time is on? I joined an alpha before? where there was no cast time on rDD skills and rootstaffs and i loved the PvP. last alpha you changed a lot, i liked new aoe skills, but the cast time ruined all the open world pvp. I know that not all players think the same way, but i am a heavy PvP gamer from Insane, a what brought me to this game, was Full Drop PvP. But there is no fun when you can't catch and kill.


    I think it's safe to say they're rebalancing cast times.

  • Pagodin wrote:

    sigh, guess i will have to find a new game... its a shame i really liked the direction and playstyle of albion.

    i will test the alpha but it will just confirm what i will already know... 350 ping and skillshots doesnt work in a TABLET mmo.


    Hey Pagodin. The direction of the game is not changing to such an extent that skill shots gets added to everything. There will always be alternatives and skill shots won't be the best choice over other things. There will be many weapons without any sort of skill shot and overall a great many options for players not interested in skill shots. And as already mentioned this is not a finished feature that we're sure can be feasible for our game.

    When it comes to ping the vision if I'm not mistaken is to make sure that Albion will work for players around 150-200 ping. I actually would like to bring you some more information regarding these issues of EU & NA and the Oceanic players and ping differences, what we think about it and so on later down the road. Personally, I actually would say that 350 ping is far too much for any competitive MMO but in Albion it could definitely work if you're smart with what role you choose to play :)

    Salekhar wrote:

    Thanks for the info on new designs and game mechanics. But there is a thing that bothers me a lot, after last alfa. What is the point in playing any ranged DD when you can bubble+sprint from it while the cast time is on? I joined an alpha before? where there was no cast time on rDD skills and rootstaffs and i loved the PvP. last alpha you changed a lot, i liked new aoe skills, but the cast time ruined all the open world pvp. I know that not all players think the same way, but i am a heavy PvP gamer from Insane, a what brought me to this game, was Full Drop PvP. But there is no fun when you can't catch and kill.


    I think most if not all major MMO's with nice PvP combat that I have played has had some cast times on their spells. Are you saying that you don't want any cast times at all? That seems like it would make a lot of ranged weapons very, very strong. As it is right now there's skills with longer cast times, faster cast times and instant fire spells and channeled ones that come out very fast. It is up to the player to play it smart and there's plenty of ways (especially now that we've re-worked skills) to catch a player with slows, stuns, roots and so on. This is also a constant work in progress. It should be possible for someone that plays smart to run away from someone else in PvP though. This is how it's always been in every full loot MMO that I've ever played. Ideally it should come down to skill and if you're clever you should be able to flee from an opponent and vice-versa you should be able to hunt someone that is trying to flee down!

    Dobrutro Dunin wrote:

    In my opinion it's bad idea because arcade gameplay only motivate to use bot aiming trackers.


    I get your concern but I think it would be terribly hindering and bad game design overall if you would let the fear of bad people cheating in your game rule and limit you as a developer in what you wanted to try and design :)
    Instead of just avoiding something because it can be abused try and figure out ways to stop and ban the players looking to cheat in your game.

    I'll answer any questions you might have early tomorrow but for now I have to go to bed guys. Cya soon!

  • I think most if not all major MMO's with nice PvP combat that I have played has had some cast times on their spells. Are you saying that you don't want any cast times at all? That seems like it would make a lot of ranged weapons very, very strong. As it is right now there's skills with longer cast times, faster cast times and instant fire spells and channeled ones that come out very fast. It is up to the player to play it smart and there's plenty of ways (especially now that we've re-worked skills) to catch a player with slows, stuns, roots and so on. This is also a constant work in progress. It should be possible for someone that plays smart to run away from someone else in PvP though. This is how it's always been in every full loot MMO that I've ever played. Ideally it should come down to skill and if you're clever you should be able to flee from an opponent and vice-versa you should be able to hunt someone that is trying to flee down!

    That is true, but i need 2 skills to run from every thing you say bubble on heavy helmet and sprint on boots. There is no smart play against it. It is true in most of games there is a cast time on skills, but you do not have to be like all other games. I am not a power player, i do really enjoy challenges in pvp, it is no fun when it is too easy. And still there are other ways to balance this like lower dmg on rDD compared to mDD, or\and high mp cost. All i am saying that the very important thing in pvp is dynamics, you had a lot an alpha before and you laсked it a lot last alpha. I like teh style of this game and really really want it to live!

  • Good post, nice teasers.
    But oh, the skillshots.

    The weather discustion : Weather in AO
    It blocks the vieuw, its just fluf... and other such comments.

    Mayor activity combat is already hard on the eye, with all the nametags.
    I feel sorry for tablet if 30+ players start casting ice-storms.
    and i agree with @Diablera about the visual effects.

    But its a loop of problems.
    You cant make them TO inconspicious or people wont see what to dodge.
    Nor can they trigger epileptic seizures

    However, Albion has a verry attractive art-style.
    I have not yet seen skills with over-the-top visuals
    So my fear might be completely misplaced.
    CASUAL UNITED
    you are no longer fighting alone

    Play as you want, when you want, no obligations, no tax : CASUAL UNITED, what is it?

  • If you are looking for ideas on skill shots.., you honestly need look no further than League of Legends. There are over 100 hundred champs there with abilities, many of which are indeed skill shots. IM not saying to copy those skills, the last thing i need is to play Albion online with nothing but ezreals and and bards, but the pool of ideas is there and available to use to make your own creative variations on them.

  • Luci wrote:

    Limelight wrote:

    Hope skill shots work at 350 ping on EU


    Curious,

    Has any oceanic players tried using a VPN (such as Battleping or WTFast) to reduce ping?

    If so, good or bad results?


    I am thinking of using them. I'll even pay for a service. I just don't like playing with 250 ping+ even if it doesn't fluctuate.
    I've looked around and I find that 50% of the reviews say that it doesn't make much difference and the other 50% say it does. so... I'm thinking those that have around 100-150ms base it won't make much difference? But then people in Aus it should be able to reduce the ms by maybe anywhere around 20-100ms.. hopefully...Connecting directly from Aus to US/EU servers via VPN should be some kind of benefit.

  • Thorgal wrote:


    I feel sorry for tablet if 30+ players start casting ice-storms.
    and i agree with @Diablera about the visual effects.


    https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/comments/362f4s/im_the_new_designer_on_albion_online_ama/
    [–]AO_BercilakCEO / Albion Online 1 point 16 days ago
    We just recently implemented a switch which will allow us to add effects which are only shown on desktop pcs and are turned off for tablets. And right now combat is our main priority, to make it more challenging and more skill based.


    Plus iPads can handle small scale PvP well. Just look at the bountiful MMORPG's RTS's and MOBA's on the iOS store. Most of them work really well in terms of spells, skillshots, abilities and intense visuals (small scale wise).