Wildstar Launch Thread - Server: Stormtalon | Faction: Dominion

You could argue that EQ was incredibly easy, but just required a ton of patience and time. The EQ challenge was a death penalty combined with mobs that hit harder and were difficult to get alone with split pulls.

Once MMOs get away from the leveling paradigm and stop using the quest-driven content delivery system, you can start putting more difficulty back into the game.

Draegan_sl said:

Once MMOs get away from the leveling paradigm and stop using the quest-driven content delivery system, you can start putting more difficulty back into the game.

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So never. Thanks a lot, Obama.

Oh no and we were doing so well about not having the age old "EQ was hard I want it again" conversation in this thread for the longest time, thanks a ton Laura(shocker).

I think CoH did mob packs pretty well; you had minions which you could one-shot, then LT's which took a couple more hits, and bosses which took some work. You could have large packs of minions, or packs with all three types. Was pretty fun. Still not a fan of how overused telegraphs are used in Wildstar.

Just remember you can turn them off if you really want too Enjoy fighting like that.

cinge_sl said:

Just remember you can turn them off if you really want too Enjoy fighting like that.

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I don't really see the value of being that way about it. That's like when people respond to "WoW's too easy and quest driven" with "well just go to a higher level zone and grind mobs".

The game is designed to be played a certain way. It's totally valid to critique that design, and just because they have options in-game (via settings or player action) to break that design is irrelevant.

To each their own, but telegraphs are not going anywhere and they do give the option if a player wants to turn them off and they admitted it would not be easy if you do.

At the very least, it's something different. I think they're kind of cool.

Yeah, telegraphs aren't going anywhere, as they're a core part of the game as designed.

I still think it can lead to good discussion about people liking / disliking them though, as long as it ended with "If you don't like them, turn it off" which completely misses the point and kills the conversation (and is as big of a "non-choice" as the ones I give my 3 year old when she doesn't want to clean her room). That's all I was trying to say.

The telegraph system bothers me as well, and I'd be interested in hearing what people like about it, and why.

There are a few things people can say about the telegraph system that I would consider a legitimate.

1) It makes the game "easy". From the outside looking in, it looks like the game is holding your hand. You can make that argument but I think that depends on the AI and the way the game plays. In League of Legends I can hold down my skill cast and have the same telegraphs. It doesn't make the game any more easier. It just gives me proper information honestly. I think the easy/hard/whatever discussion should only be had if you have played the game through any content that isn't just overland mob grinding.

2) Immersion breaking. I can see that it might look "goofy" to have all these fields all over the place. To me it's just a video game so I don't really care about that. It matters to some people though and that's a legitimate thing.

Yeah, #2 is closest to why I have issues with it. I don't think it's an easy/hard thing either. Just seems like combat will degrade into nothing but staring at the floor, which will wear out its welcome.

Then again, my favorite RPG combat that kept me in the game world the most is the TES model, and many gamers hate on TES for it's combat. So I'm probably in the minority.

I do like to have reasons to actually look at the bad guys though . I still don't think it's a game breaker, and I don't have a better alternative to suggest, I just think that I'll grow tired of it faster than, say, pushing hot buttons and watching cool downs.

My opinion, after playing the game, you don't really "stare" at the ground during combat. It becomes naturally to avoid telegraphs. It's nothing like staring at your hotbar for cooldowns.

Abilities that display telegraphs shouldn't take so long to activate that you can dodge the attack unless you have snap reflexes and an available ability. The telegraphs should supplement particle effects and spell animations and let you be aware of the types of abilities an enemy has so you can position yourself accordingly to minimize the effect on your partyfor the next time. Show that the cleave is only 270 degrees and hits up to 10 yards out as it goes off, but the amount of cast time warnings and windups should be limited and any animations should be occurring in tandem with what is actually affecting your character. Nothing worse than having a 3 second cast bar, 2 second animation, and followthrough with delayed server latency to finally tell you 5+ seconds later you got hit by something.

My only concern with telegraphs is having them enabled during PVP. Till I can experience it for myself though I will withhold rage and/or lust over the issue.

Draegan_sl said:

My opinion, after playing the game, you don't really "stare" at the ground during combat. It becomes naturally to avoid telegraphs. It's nothing like staring at your hotbar for cooldowns.

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If it ends up being non-invasive and I can see telegraphs with peripheral vision easy enough, then I'll be OK with it. But, like others have said; if it comes down to staring at the ground and nothing else (especially for raid bosses) that's a deal-breaker for me.

Barab_sl said:

My only concern with telegraphs is having them enabled during PVP. Till I can experience it for myself though I will withhold rage and/or lust over the issue.

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Last livestream with the Esper showed pvp and there were telegraphs; I le sighed.

Burren_sl said:

Last livestream with the Esper showed pvp and there were telegraphs; I le sighed.

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I was wrong about that, my mistake, I went back and looked and what the devs mentioned is that you will see the telegraph but unless you are familiar with the class / see the animation you still don't know what ability it is. All the classes have a lot of abilities, some have unique telegraphs (from what I've seen in videos etc) but a lot of them look the same, so you don't know if they are casting a snare, a stun, a root, a burst, etc or if it's just an auto attack.

Burren_sl said:

Last livestream with the Esper showed pvp and there were telegraphs; I le sighed.

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I want to know, from both Barab and yourself (and anyone else for that matter)whytelegraphs are such a problem for you in PvP.

Sabbat_sl said:

I want to know, from both Barab and yourself (and anyone else for that matter)whytelegraphs are such a problem for you in PvP.

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This is all opinion but doesnt it feel like it would take some of the personal skill away from player vs player combat if you can sense or see your opponents attack method and range seconds before they land ? We just need to experience it first hand to know if it's an issue or not. Those Stalkers in the Esper vid received a beat down even with the Warrior's telegraphs so /shrug.

Beyond telegraphs in pvp auto targeting heals could be an issue as well.