Make Combat More Interactive

First topic message reminder :

Augments and Interactive Combat

Credit: 3mptylord and Slayer10090
Partial: Dark Avorian and Blaze FF8

For the most part this idea only effects Ranged and Melee combat, and this will be difficult to amend so long as Magic is predominantly weaponless (or rather, without class-specific weapons). Ideas of mine such as Conjuring and Firearms would provide Magic the equipment it requires to truly utilise this idea; but wands and—to some extent—staffs will also allow it.

This update doesn't require that players interact more than they already do. In a nutshell, the entirety of the current Combat Styles panel can be found in the top and bottom line of the revised panel: the weapon name, combat level, attack styles (accessed via right click) and auto-retaliate. The special attack is the only feature to have changed (see on).

All weapons would be given a single "default" attack, likely one it's current combat styles (it's experience type can be changed via right-click). In addition, all weapons would be given the following;
• Between two and three perks (aka "abilities", "alternate attacks" or simply "attacks").
• A circle augment slot.
• Between zero and two specialized augments slots.

A modification to the interface to accommodate shield slots:

Perks have effects, the simplest of which being an instant attack. Each perk has a cool down which takes effect when the weapon is first equip, as well as between attacks. An attack that is in cool down will be coloured red, which will slowly drain to illustrate the time left (this could also feature a number in seconds over the top)(the transition of the drain could either be a top-to-bottom drain, or a countdown/clockstyle). In case you didn't catch that, newly equip weapons won't have any available perks instantly (unless they have no cool-down) - thus, switching weapons will not bypass cool downs.

Augments too have effects, and come in two varieties: active and passive. Active effects come into effect when the icon is clicked (can be both one-off and duration based); whilst passive effects are always in effect whilst the augment is in use. "Active" effects have cool downs just like perks, and just like perks these cool downs will come into effect when the weapon is first equip (an active cool down will not effect any passive effects).

Regarding my comment at the top, the lack of special attack bar is the only part of this suggestion which impacts the current combat system (as all other features are optional). Special attacks will appear as active effects on augments (unless their effects are changed as part of the update, I reckon Excalibur's Sanctuary should have an area-of-effect passive too); removing the special attack bar. Players who use a single weapon will likely find this update beneficial, as they can use attacks more frequently; whilst players who weapon-hop will find this detrimental, as there is no global control for special attacks (and switching weapons will in fact reset any active cool downs).

Augment information:

Description of the image:

An altercation:

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Boosts and Curses

I'm going for the overkill now...

An alternative with 6 affliction slots:

Affliction slots display those effects provided by consumables/allies or inflicted by enemies, rather than passive effects provided by your own equipment (such as augments and prayers).

Whilst I've jokingly used the little warrior icon to display a message, that icon could bring up a full list of personal effects (such as the Slayer Mask, etc.).

...like this!:

These slots only display duration-based effects (anything which lasts for longer than the instant it was used). This will either be indefinite (so long as whatever's causing it is around) or a timer. In practical terms, the only things that aren't displayed here are boosts like Vengeance and Cure Other/Group, which activate instantly, and Blood spells, which have no lasting effect. Something such as Cure Other could have a resulting effect, "Recently Cured", which grants temporary immunity from poison (which I think potions currently do, but I'm not sure about cure spells).

A player cannot be affected by any more than there are slots available - so a player that is poisoned and diseased cannot be further afflicted. You can ignore/remove boosts by right-clicking on them, however, curses cannot be removed without appropriate action (such as an anti-poison potion). In the event that you have no available slots and someone tries to use something, there are instances where your current effects might be temporarily (or permanently) replaced. For example, temporary boosts will take precedence over passive boosts (as you'll get the passive back when it's done). This isn't normally the case for curses, as getting poisoned might be considered a safe-guard to more powerful area-of-effect curses (which wouldn't be fair).

To make things easier, most effects would be given some sort of priority rating. Also, like-effects (such as poison and specific skill boosts) would replace weaker effects. Effects such as those aforementioned generally won't stack, but this would (again) be case-by-case.

Sorry, GIMP is much harder than Photoshop.

Thumbs up (Y)

Crap, forgot experience type.

Also, I really don't like the top line.

Hmm. Personally, I think you've done a great job with what space you have...

If you don't like the top line... Remove the little guy with the shield? Surely he's just getting in the way?

I suppose his feature is unnecessary, but even without him it looks messy. My perfectionism is going to eat away at me, but ah well.

Haha, it did.

(I didn't mean to switch the side of the Shield and Affects section for each... only the bottom-right was suppose to be reversed. But that won't bug me enough, and it could work either way around. )
(Some of them won't look so good in the event of no special attack. I think the top-right is the best for that.)

Anyway, special attacks can be both augment-like or perk-like, but it must be an active effect. Ditto with perks, all are active effects. Augments can be bother active and passive. A special attack does not have to be stronger than augments. There are still bound augments, which cannot be removed from the weapon - such as the Wolfbane's and Silverlight's effect.

Some weapons that currently have special attacks could be made into a bound augments, should their effect merit it - for example, Excalibur's Santuary could be either a special attack or a bound augment (should my proposed passive effect be liked), or, the weapon could come with an additional augment. And augment would actually make sense for this weapon, as the weapon can be upgraded.

god, that looks so complicated... O_O

EDIT: however, nice work rendering that design

Dragon78114 wrote:god, that looks so complicated... O_O

EDIT: however, nice work rendering that design

Agreed. I may have just thought of something to simplify it.

I'm not actually sure if this made it any easier.

I think that makes it a lot easier actually. You've got related things in the same line. It makes it all look less muddled. Even better than the last

Yay.

So, what do we do with this now auras have come out?

Keep true!

I don't know...

I'm currently on my iPod and can't access much, but wiki says it takes 18 solid months to be able to afford everything. But do I get backpaid? Or do I have to be a member for another 18 months?

No retrospective points, but right now stuff is "on sale". They've given members 500 points to start off with and the stuff you can buy with that (or indeed with a billion points) is frankly unimpressive. I opted for an aura that would reduce my prayer drain (apparently equivalent to a +2 prayer bonus) that should've cost me 5000 points...

Thing is, I think these auras draw too many parallels to the system we were developing for us to try and continue developing it. We may as well use the aura slot now - the auras themselves are put in the slot where they can be activated for a certain time before they enter a cooldown phase - very much like augments. They're not weapon specific nor are they special attack oriented (yet) but I think we can work with them...

That sucks. Loyalty points my ass, where's my points for five years+ of loyalty?! Yeah we could use that slot I guess. But, like you said, they aren't weapon specific.

I hate when I read "doesn't work in pvp"... If it's not suitable for pvp then it's not suitable. PvP is PvE with better AI, and content should work regardless of which. although in this circumstance I'll let it slide as these points don't represent skill and it's not content anyone can have.

I totally agree, I think they could work in PVP but it would cause unfairness because, you're right, it doesn't represent skill

So here's my idea: We scrap (cries a little a lot inside) most of the technical work we've done with auras, take the actual auras themselves and separate them out into two categories: bought with loyalty points, and obtained elsewhere. We now need to consider the usefulness of existing auras relative to their cost in tokens to decide how difficult we make our auras to obtain. Our augments get a name change to auras, and they now work like auras, albeit with possibly shorter activation and cooldown times

We may need to suggest some auras have activation time changed to a special attack by the way...

So what do you think of that?

Possibly. If loyalty auras were made purely cosmetic, then it'd be to mingle with. Like the cannonball one, etc. Problem is, ones like that prayer one you mentioned above would be too on-par with our augments (making it lame in comparison given the difference in difficulty to obtain).

How will our augment feature work, though? We have multiple "auras" per item?

We ll either have to give up on having multiple auras per item, or create "fusion auras", your choice...

Elemental aura is my plan! Get your own mojo idea!

You make no sense Morb... And you're not really helping me and 3mpty decide anything

Or not relate it to auras/have auras a separate feature.

Ultimately 3mpty, you're the leader, I'm the underling, and this is officially your idea. My gut instinct is that augments are too similar to be accepted by Jagex as a separate piece of content and that creating the suggestion and making the system user friendly will be a lot easier using auras now. I do however, accept that certain elements will be lost if we do it that way, such as multiple auras at once

If your gut instinct goes against mine, then you call veto, use your powers or whatever, and we'll do it your way, but you have my opinion if you want it

The loyalty point scheme allows the usage of aura to aid ones ability through the game. Aura was MY idea! Your individual aura is decided based on your personality and would be used in much the same way to boost a skill or work around it. This cheap counterfeit is not aura.

The aura that is displayed is not to be mistaken for genuine life force aura. This cheaper counterfeit is purely designed with humans in mind of trying to find a quick way to get the job done. Now, true aura is far more effective. It isn't simply a boost, it's an entire division of combat, enhancement and abilities. Correctly controlled, one's life force can do extraordinary things. Some can use it to light fires by simply clicking their fingers, heal plants by just breathin on them and much more.

Aura is a staple element of Arzonus, in much the same way magic is to the Lunar tribe. Their usage of it weaves itself into everyday life, some have even their life depending on it. This aura is properly known as the life essence, a source of energy that emanates from within all living creatures.

The aura loyalty points unlock isn't the same. It is more a charm than a living presence.

MorbiusMonster wrote:Aura was MY idea!

That's perhaps an ambitious claim. Auras have always been a longstanding suggestion on the forums... from magic, prayer, player decisions (like a karma system), etc. I think it's very hard to attribute this to single player... especially when some of them provide perks very similar to something I've heard in WoW (their trading cards used to come with special content codes that would have cosmetic changes to the game for an amount of time... like fire in your footsteps, etc). And I don't see why you'd even want to attribute it to yourself when you go on to make the decision it's shoddy.

Also, I think you need to let some things go. Jagex's creation of auras wasn't a dig at Arzonus.

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Slayer, I think we should try to use the aura system. But it really is a shame. Also, I think it'll be nigh impossible to make fair... given that loyalty point rewards set the limiting-bar very low, there's not much room to play with.

Maybe just abandon augments and stick with just the attack feature?