Watering down the visceral combat?
Dear Funcom:
It's not the combos that make your melee combat so fun. It's easy to think that, but it's not.
It's the fact that I can swing a weapon and everything that it hits, it hits. It's running up to mobs and just going at it. That's visceral joy.
Don't nerf that. You'll be watering down the best part of your game.
Funcom's stealth changes have been decreasing the damage dealt on multiple mobs. I don't know all of the details, but it's a noticeable difference as I play. In the next patch, they're taking this even further:
"For each attack in the combo chain that you do without a valid target, your end damage (on the combo finisher) is reduced 15% per miss."
So now we'll have to pay more attention to our targets.
Weeks ago I could handle 5 mobs my level with ease and even push it to 7 mobs (although my death rate would go up considerably). I'm playing a Polearm "Frenzy" Guardian, a class and spec that's specifically aimed toward holding and dealing with crowds of mobs.
Lately however, I cannot handle the same mobs in groups of 3 and even 2 can cut it awfully close. I could previously clear a Villa without any deaths as long as I paid attention, but now I'm dying repeatedly. I realize this is in part to leveling up higher, but even scaling back like that feels odd, shouldn't I be more powerful at Endgame?
I understand getting nerfed, I could accept that, but that's not what this is about.
The number one joy of this game has been the combat. I love not having to target, I love running in and grabbing mobs like some kind of berzerker warrior. I love that my polearm hits what it swings through, that it's NOT target-based combat. Or at least that it's less-emphasized on the target, there should only be a marginal difference. I should sweep my weapon through mobs again with the thrill of watching them all take noticeable damage.
Funcom, please, don't reduce the best parts of this game to appease players who are demanding what they're accustomed to in other games. I understand you want to balance, but don't water down your game in the process.
Let the balance-obsessed players decide to play the classed they perceive to be overpowered, they'll do that anyway. Don't nerf away the biggest thing this game has going for it. This is 100% about the fun factor.
Jul 16, 2008 11:54am
I just do not understand the need to make these adjustments when so many other issues exists.
Client stability, broken crafting and sieging...and what do they do?
I know this is to make the game take longer to finish, so they make combat more difficult, up mob HP's, and destroy balance in the process.
Really, Funcom has proven to be the issue with AoC. They had an awesome game and drove it into the ground.
I truly had high hopes, yet each patch continues down the trail of "Vanguardiness"...(my new word)
BTW, Vanguard seems to be going the other direction and making their game better. It is not perfect but it is progressing, unlike AoC.
Jul 16, 2008 12:11pm
To be fair, client stability has much improved, there are still minor memory leaks but the really big one is now gone.
But overall I agree, the last two patches Funcom has tried to exercise some nerfing muscles and it's too soon. It sounds overdramatic, but I'd actually be happier if they rolled back, brought back the bugs at launch, because the core game was more enjoyable then.
I don't know about Vanguard, because it's future doesn't look bright to me. Their initial launch wasn't big enough. It seems like they tried to do a last-ditch effort to win people back, but I don't think they grabbed very many. Still, I'll probably try it at some point just for curiosity's sake.
Jul 16, 2008 10:51pm
LOL - Rog met up with me when i got off work, we stoped by best buy to pick up a AoC time card, and walked out with a copy of Vanguard as well =P
Jul 16, 2008 11:14pm
I guess some point is now, I was feeling curious today. =)
Jul 17, 2008 9:52am
Interesting.
Let me know how the Vanguard saga rolls. People have differing views.
I wanted to try again as it seems to have something there, but my new ATI 4870 made it choke on itself.
But, when it came up, I had all options CRANKED to max and had 60FPS...beautiful..
then it got funky, and crashed..
Ah well...Trial Island will be good, and model revamps on the way...hooray
Jul 17, 2008 2:35pm
It goes along with my thoughts lately to try pretty much everything in the MMORPG space, at least everything that's current. I don't know yet if I'll like it, love it, or even if I'll play it enough to give any sort of review.
For Age of Conan, I made a conscious decision to write more about it than I usually do, specifically because I thought I would like it. I wasn't really interested in doing reviews anymore, that's a career I've already left, it was more supposed to be about my progress in the game. It happens though, old habits plus the state of the game.
Funny how things work out, AoC wasn't along as much as it should be and now Funcom is going backwards in PvE while they fix their PvP. That's how it goes I guess, so I'm gonna bounce all over the genre for a bit until I get comfortable on one MMORPG. That may take awhile because on the surface of it none of these games are appealing to me as much as I'd like.