Any plans to improve the combat?

Strider__Roshin

I'm not talking about server lag I'm talking about the actual feel to the combat. Weaving doesn't feel as fast, animation cancelling seems to be gone with certain abilities (such as reverse slice), and having a delay on ultimates just feels awful.

The game isn't as fun to play as it used to be. Any plans to revert a lot of these changes that slowed down the combat?

WraithShadow13

With my nightblade and dual wield, the animations and attacks alone seem to be sluggish and awkward. If anything, increasing the attack speed while lowering damage per hit would go a long way for the "feel" of it. keeping it at the same DPS and gain but just with more visual Umph.

Honestly, there are a LOT of ways that animations alone could be changed to improve the feel of combat. Most of Melee, specifically, just seems to leave you open and ready to me shived in all the soft spots. Staves are just bland and boring. Magicka is okay, as some spells are REALLY cool looking and others are just as meh as melee animations. The Vampire changes are also leaving me disappointed.

In terms of mechanics, I didn't even know weaving was a thing since the game specifically says it's only light or heavy, with no mention of "medium" or weaving, let alone cancelling animations to quicken rotations.

I think the combat is fast paced which is good but VERY bland for how fast that pace is. It looks awkward when you're legs are turning this way and that, going all fast, while your upper body is stiff as a board and slow as molasses. A major animation update and some minor combat fixes might be a good thing to look at, once the main bit of Skyrim lands.

eKsDee

A 1 second GCD is already around as fast you could make combat run, without alienating those with high or unstable ping. Go any quicker, and you risk those players dropping inputs, because the game is running too fast for their connections.

ESO has operated with a 1 second GCD for as long as I can remember, and, for the most part, it was playable and responsive. It's only recently, within the last year or year and a half, that combat responsiveness has gone down the toilet.

Reverting ultimate cast times, reverting the block changes, and investigating the general slugginess of combat is what should be done. Not looking to speed up combat, which will probably worsen the issue.

As for how skills look and feel, I'd support an animation, skill and sound effect overhaul, to give attacks more weight, provided it doesn't screw over anything else.

xylena

Doubtful. Much like faction locks, slow clumsy combat is politically popular amongst the conspiracy theorists and play-my-way potatoes that refuse to learn how the game actually works. And it's not because these things actually help make the game more fair for new/casual/unpracticed players, but because the "elitists" don't like them.

At this point, the best a lot of us can hope for is they open an "ESO Classic" server where you can play version 1.4 or whatever. I would definitely pay $15 a month for that.

MincVinyl

eKsDee wrote: »

As for how skills look and feel, I'd support an animation, skill and sound effect overhaul, to give attacks more weight, provided it doesn't screw over anything else.

Tbh I would say zos should do an overhaul, but probably not what you imagine. I think a major issue with the game now is an over abundant amount of random animations tied to everything. Newer players already have little idea what is going on in the game, there is no need to have everything looking as flashy as an ultimate. This goes for normal abilities and sets for the most part. I ran a lowbie pvp guild for roughly 3 years training players to bring to vet, what i always found was that alot of these players are just flooded by information. One big thing i pushed for was cutting down on the amount of addons present on the screen for this reason.

Ex. Why does valkyn skoria need to have the meteor animation? Another would be to simply go through the necro abilities, half of them are as flashy as the ults present in the base classes.

Possibly zos could add in an option to disable some visual animations, but it would have to list just about everything in the game.

---

On another aspect of animations, there are a ton of abilities that have had their timings changed over the years which cause a clunky-ness feeling. On top of that the server performance is a huge contender. Back in the day I used to sit at around 70ping, but that has almost doubled now. 120-140ms does not sound like alot, but that is an enormous amount of time for a game that basically is a fighting game. That is getting closer and closer to being at the average human reaction time window. Compare ESO to other games out these days and it is sad to see that my ping in those games is around 20-40ms.

Without any indication of them being able to fix server performance, and many failed attempts over the years, I have no doubt in my mind why zos is pushing to reduce the skill gap in the game. (see recent light and heavy attack pts ideas, their opening statement essentially reads...Eso is great and flourished over the years due to its unique and intense skill based combat, but we want to reduce how much skill and reaction time matter in the game for lower apm players.)

JAwtunes

Strider__Roshin wrote: »

and having a delay on ultimates just feels awful.

100% this

Dusk_Coven

Using ALACRITY instead of all sorts of continuing to allow the non-intuitive animation cancelling exploit would be better. It would spread the load on the server, still speed up combat overall, and it won't be counter to common sense for new players.
https://gq-game-mods.blogspot.com/2020/04/elder-scrolls-online-how-to-introduce-fast-paced-combat.html

Alucardo

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

Using ALACRITY instead of all sorts of continuing to allow the non-intuitive animation cancelling exploit would be better. It would spread the load on the server, still speed up combat overall, and it won't be counter to common sense for new players.
https://gq-game-mods.blogspot.com/2020/04/elder-scrolls-online-how-to-introduce-fast-paced-combat.html

So go play SWOTR and stop trying to turn ESO's combat system into something different. I've played ESO as long as I have, despite its many flaws, because of its combat. The animation cancelling felt smooth, and introduced a skill-based mechanic that gave you a little extra if you put the time into practising it. That's how it should be.
Now we've got this inconsistent abomination where some things can be cancelled, and others cannot. Why? Because people who didn't want to learn it, or thought it was mandatory, spat their dummy out and cried about it non-stop.
People like you are the reason our combat system is in the jank state it's in right now. I've mentioned countless times that it is NOT an exploit. Animation cancelling is explained in some of the load screen tips, and staff have mentioned it is NOT an exploit, so please stop calling it that. It's getting old, and you're making things worse, [Snip].

[Edited for bait]

Red_Feather

It's just too old an engine I think.

I really wish Dragon's Dogma Online was released outside of japan before capcom pulled the plug. It is widely touted as the best combat of rpg games. But the industry is blind to what it great.

Juhasow

Dusk_Coven wrote: »

Using ALACRITY instead of all sorts of continuing to allow the non-intuitive animation cancelling exploit would be better. It would spread the load on the server, still speed up combat overall, and it won't be counter to common sense for new players.
https://gq-game-mods.blogspot.com/2020/04/elder-scrolls-online-how-to-introduce-fast-paced-combat.html

"non intuitive animation cancelling exploit" aka how to loose all credibility at the beggining of Your post.

Strider__Roshin

Red_Feather wrote: »

It's just too old an engine I think.

I really wish Dragon's Dogma Online was released outside of japan before capcom pulled the plug. It is widely touted as the best combat of rpg games. But the industry is blind to what it great.

I loved Dragon's Dogma! I wish it came out over here as well.

Red_Feather

Strider__Roshin wrote: »

Red_Feather wrote: »

It's just too old an engine I think.

I really wish Dragon's Dogma Online was released outside of japan before capcom pulled the plug. It is widely touted as the best combat of rpg games. But the industry is blind to what it great.

I loved Dragon's Dogma! I wish it came out over here as well.

It is funny that dragon's dogma is flawed in so many ways but it's combat single handed saves it. This person's review is perfect.

Xargas13

I'm gonna be that guy... Let's remove animations all together, just instant damage, whoever presses 2 faster wins, yaaaay!

Lorkhan

Strider__Roshin wrote: »

I'm not talking about server lag I'm talking about the actual feel to the combat. Weaving doesn't feel as fast, animation cancelling seems to be gone with certain abilities (such as reverse slice), and having a delay on ultimates just feels awful.

The game isn't as fun to play as it used to be. Any plans to revert a lot of these changes that slowed down the combat?

Yes, they have a plan to improve combat : nerf light attk