Global cooldown - Does it turn you off?

arieste

Rift has a global cooldown.  Discussion on another forum has the majority of people that have been looking forward to this game quite unhappy about it.

 

I've played many MMOs, but I don't remember any of them having this, so I don't know what to think.

 

Thoughts?

svann

Without global cooldown you could hit all your abilities as fast as you can hit keys and thats not right.  A balance would be that most abilities share a global cooldown but a few use a seperate GC.  So for instance you can swing and shout in the same "turn" but you cant overhand slash and underhand slash both at the same time.

 

And I dont know what you played but every mmo Ive played has had a 2 second GC.  EQ1, EQ2, lotro, vanguard, wow.  

chaoster89

u cannot make an mmo without gcd it would be the biggest zerg fest ever

Vrika

Global cooldown is good. You can't do 10 things at once IRL, so your character shouldn't be able to use 10 abilities in 1 second in game either.

SnarlingWolf

Originally posted by Vrika

Global cooldown is good. You can't do 10 things at once IRL, so your character shouldn't be able to use 10 abilities in 1 second in game either.

 I've played MMOs without cooldowns, AC is one I still play.

 

The animation is what stops you from doing 10 things at once, so it is more of a how long the character takes to perform the action that is the limiting factor, not an instant use and then a greyed out button for x amount of time. The character animating method feels more real and flows better then having something in your face just saying no you can't click me again. But this is also helped by having spells/missiles that players can move out of the way from, so unlike games like WoW there isn't some giant auto hit magic spell that will do massive damage so it has to be limited. Those big massive spells can be dodged so now it doesn't matter how often they can cast them if it takes time to cast and takes a lot of mana to cast then everything balances out.

Traced

I am sure I'm just trollen, but many many many mmo's use GCD.

 

Not to reword GCD, however I've seen games in general use animation timers as their gcd, I always thought that was a tad smoother, however GCD kinda does the trick. Another way to see it is kinda what the above posters said, how could you underhand slash if your busy doing a uperhand slash?

chaoster89

Ok so if rift renames gcd to animation timer are you guys going to stop being retarded?

arieste

Ok my understanding of what GCD is this:

 

After you're finished casting a spell, you can't cast any other spells for 1 second.  

 

As opposed to something like EQ2 where once you've finished casting 1 spell, you can cast another one immediately after without waiting.  You can't cast multiple spells simultaneously as only one can be casting at any given time.  There is also a minor recovery period (like 0.1 seconds) associated with some of the spells after they are cast - this isn't global though.  

 

Perhaps i had the terminology wrong.

Azzkicka

GCD usually starts when you start casting.  So for instance on a 2 second cast you would always be able to chain cast, but for instant cast spells you would have to wait the GCD before being able to cast it again.

twrule

I don't see how else they could have done it when every class has some kind of spammable instant attack.  There's hardly any animation associated with, say, the sorcerer's fireball spell, so letting them spam it with no gcd would be ridiculous.  Same goes for say, a warrior's ability to dodge.  Melee attacks already won't feel the effect because they have to actually hit the target with their weapon - so they have to wait for the animation anyway.  For ranged classes, it's needed for balance.

I don't see what the problem would be - there's nothing stopping them from keeping certain abilities off the global cooldown if that works better for the situation (like in WoW).

Vrika

Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

The animation is what stops you from doing 10 things at once, so it is more of a how long the character takes to perform the action that is the limiting factor, not an instant use and then a greyed out button for x amount of time.

But if the animation prevents you from doing other actions for x amount of time, then isn't the animation itself global cooldown? Personally I don't really care how it's displayed on-screen, with greyed button or with animation, the effect on gameplay is still the same.

cyrana

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Originally posted by arieste
Ok my understanding of what GCD is this:
 
After you're finished casting a spell, you can't cast any other spells for 1 second.  
 
As opposed to something like EQ2 where once you've finished casting 1 spell, you can cast another one immediately after without waiting.  You can't cast multiple spells simultaneously as only one can be casting at any given time.  There is also a minor recovery period (like 0.1 seconds) associated with some of the spells after they are cast - this isn't global though.  
 
Perhaps i had the terminology wrong.

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I'm curious, too.

I don't mind the system like EQ2 as much. But if we're talking about a flat 'wait 1s between' skills, that would get annoying. I'm going to Gamescom anyway so will play the game and report back on this bit.

Hedeon

Originally posted by cyrana

 

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Originally posted by arieste

Ok my understanding of what GCD is this:

 

After you're finished casting a spell, you can't cast any other spells for 1 second.  

 

As opposed to something like EQ2 where once you've finished casting 1 spell, you can cast another one immediately after without waiting.  You can't cast multiple spells simultaneously as only one can be casting at any given time.  There is also a minor recovery period (like 0.1 seconds) associated with some of the spells after they are cast - this isn't global though.  

 

Perhaps i had the terminology wrong.

---

I'm curious, too.

I don't mind the system like EQ2 as much. But if we're talking about a flat 'wait 1s between' skills, that would get annoying. I'm going to Gamescom anyway so will play the game and report back on this bit.

first off....lucky bastard! :P

and coming from EQ2 I absolutely hate GCD, as its not what Im used to, so feels alot less dynamic, ow and watch the GW2 gameplay trailer they doesnt have global cool down but more like EQ2 have it.

which is there is a cast timer, a reuse timer on each spell, and as person above said you have diffrent recovery timers on each spell which is your cool down, also this means you have to think alot more about how to cast to max your output.

its not a huge huge diffrent but for one who is used to EQ2s system it just feels sterile, and am sure if your used to WOW that iirc have GCD as well you d properbly have a hard time to see the "problem".

Zappy

Meh, you all need to be aware that its possible to do things differently. Impossible with no GCD? Not at all, you just can't design the game the same way. Dark Age of Camelot has no GCD and Its by far the best combat system that I've ever tried (and I've tried most), though for more reasons then just lacking GCD...

How it works:

-Any melee style triggers on next auto attack.

-Most spells have cast time

-Instant spells are relatively few, but if you have 5, you can use them all at the same time. 

 

It brings a new layer of skill and timing to the game, no doubt. The faster you can play, the better you are. In games with GDC, ANYONE can keep up. I mean, clicking 1 button every 1-2 secound. Oh my, hard. DAoC is very very hard to master. Just like any gamer likes it (unless you are wierd like).

Oh, and if you haven't tried it, don't bother to comment with your ignorance.