My views/fixes for AvCom

[taolurker]

One of the new things, changed completely since I'd last played was the entire Avatar Combat System. The melee fighting is still sword-play with one shot muskets, and three different schools of Swashbuckling (Dirty Fighting, Fencing, and Florentine) but the schools didn't change; they just are completely revamped with all new attacks and now, swings that hit in arcs around the character. This was originally a huge issue, because even multiple low level NPCs could be seriously risky in Melee combat.

Upon first logging into the game this was definitely the first thing I needed to do, not only because of wanting to try the NEW, but also because the entire User Interface of hot buttons was populated by X's for skills that no longer exist.

I maybe removed 3 or 4 Xes and then went looking for a skill trainer. When training skills, it automatically populates the empty spaces in the UI, which I found out is the easiest way to get the skills in there.. DOH! Too bad I discovered after the skills 5-9 appeared on a vertical bar after all the Xes (ie PROTIP FOR RETURNING PLAYERS: Delete all the Xes first, and THEN do your skill point distribution). I also think anytime a player resets their skills all the UI hotbutton skills should clear completely (because it's a PITA to delete all the Xes).

I can say the new arc mechanics work, but otherwise meh.. The combat doesn't seem any more fluid, although it is much easier versus multiple enemies, and is still the same single move, single queue with strange costs from pools (Guard and Initiative).

Now the Avatar combat has always really been a weak point of this game, along with it lagging or being an issue in boarding (+PvP). The "new" combat moves also seem exactly the same except for added arcs, and really didn't improve on the feeling that Avatar combat was kind of stuttering. Doing a move standing still your character kind of returns to his stance with a stutter, as does moving your character around with the sword drawn. Hits are not really registered in any way excepting numbers appearing (Misses say Dodge, Parry, or Miss) and I think part of the stuttering is miss/hit animations possibly not playing. Enemies still move around wildly when you adjust your position, and often are outside a player's range, yet can still hit players.

I think part of the reason your character stutters if you dance (move/run) around, is because moving during combat the character auto runs by default. The change with arcs actually made me move around more to position my swings better, and running with swords drawn has an animation that may be is the problem. There even may be a way to exploit this "stutter" moving around by running in circles during boarding combat, causing lag (but admittedly, I didn't test this). I actually think if combat auto forced the character into walk (which actually does a proper hopping when moving, like would happen in a real sword fight) that maybe the stuttering moving would go away.

I tried all three different Avatar combat schools, and different skill branches, and 2 branches are still shared by all the schools.. Where 1 of these shared ones, nearly everyone will take: the gun skills branch with grenade ability. Looking at all the different moves and branches it also occured to me that these 3 schools, have many identical moves and animations, excepting having a different sword. The Florentine style doesn't really use it's daggar excepting in 3 or 4 special moves, the Cutlass in Dirty Fighting would usually be more a chopping swing, and a Fencer would be attempting parries and jabs.

Don't get me wrong, there are some animations for each school that are unique but usually are skills with more point costs. Honestly, gun/grenade moves taking up skill points makes these moves something that each character may only have 2 or 3 of, and for me seems a waste. I think a way to improve on this would be to give gun skills to players automatically, possibly at certain levels without them costing points. This also seemed like an obvious to me because some of the guns skills didn't really make sense and are are just dmg upgrades (where gun dmg scaling with level seems better).

The only thing that I think is a problem though would be the grenade, which IMO should be a buy-able consumable that could even be crafted by players. They would have a level restriction of 30 for the first version, and then be on a different (possibly longer) timer than the guns. One of the new Avatar combat daily missions has a reward that's a Fire explosion consumable, and having this plus maybe other "explosives" would also make the Powder Mill economy structure and Black Powder have a slew more recipes and economic clout.

I also think that currently all the different combat buff "drinks", which are mostly quest rewards, should also be craftable. Giving them as only available from PvE quests right now means a huge table of items in the database that are rarely and possibly aren't used at all. I counted at least 20-30 drinks just in my own inventory, most with only single doses. I would make these craftable, also through an econ structure with not many recipes, the Sugar Refinery.

Adding these changes are things I believe would help Avatar combat, and also the game in general.

[Cap'n Morris]

A good summary here.

Your note of running in circles to casue lag is a tactic used by a number of players and reffered to as 'ping kiteing'. Frustrates the hell out of me.

Players that use this will not call crew reinforcments, as your crew can not lay a hit on them, and its hard to lay a hit on them yourself, so the boarding combat reverts to them running round the ship with a tail of crew pursuing them, dieing one by one, while you try to land a stun or cripple on them.

Calling crew yourself therefor becomes pointless, so it reverts to a dual between the capitans, which really takes away from what I feel a crowded ship deck combat should be really be all about.

[Josh_Brown]

I support (and shall always support!) the manufacture of booze and explosives.
I also support throwing out AvCom 2.0.

[DerHuhnTeufel]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Morris A good summary here. Your note of running in circles to casue lag is a tactic used by a number of players and reffered to as 'ping kiteing'. Frustrates the hell out of me. Players that use this will not call crew reinforcments, as your crew can not lay a hit on them, and its hard to lay a hit on them yourself, so the boarding combat reverts to them running round the ship with a tail of crew pursuing them, dieing one by one, while you try to land a stun or cripple on them. Calling crew yourself therefor becomes pointless, so it reverts to a dual between the capitans, which really takes away from what I feel a crowded ship deck combat should be really be all about.

Only way to counter it is with snares. 4 points in brawling can get you one, or you can spec florentine. Those are about your only options.

[elessaria]

Originally Posted by Josh_Brown I support (and shall always support!) the manufacture of booze and explosives. I also support throwing out AvCom 2.0.

+1 signature...

[iamcris]

Originally Posted by DerHuhnTeufel Only way to counter it is with snares. 4 points in brawling can get you one, or you can spec florentine. Those are about your only options.

Snares? Would you adlib please?

[DerHuhnTeufel]

Originally Posted by iamcris Snares? Would you adlib please?

Stuff that reduces movement speed. Stagger, cripple, stomp. It doesn't stop the problem completely but it really makes it a lot easier to hit them.