Now, first of all, I'm going to focus on the negative, as for me one of the big let-downs in this game is the same let-down that has afflicted almost every fantasy MMO I have tried in the last five to six years, apart from World of Warcaft. That let down is the feel of the game and the gameplay - that elusive quality that you feel as you take control of your character.
the responsiveness of the UI
the speed at which actions are executed on-screen when you press a key
the fluidity of your movements
the degree in which you feel totally in control of your character
I guess its the very first thing I look for in any new game and, so far, nothing comes close to WoW in this regard. When you execute an ability in WoW, you know it. When you get hit by something, you know it. Like Age of Conan, Aion and Warhammer, Rift just doesn't get this critical aspect of the game quite right. Things just feel a little clunky and ever so slightly less responsive than a character in WoW does. This could well be a symptom of my less than stellar PC that I am using, but I don't think so. Even at the very lowest graphics settings, the gameplay just doesn't feel smooth or perfectly responsive.
Considering all of the games mentioned are more modern than WOW by a significant margin, that is a damning indictment of the developers of these new games. Ultimately it is my view that this is the primary reason these new games get steamrolled by WoW, and continually fall by the wayside as WoW dwarfs their subscription numbers.
That's quite rude. You must be great fun at parties.
Now, first of all, I'm going to focus on the negative, as for me one of the big let-downs in this game is the same let-down that has afflicted almost every fantasy MMO I have tried in the last five to six years, apart from World of Warcaft. That let down is the feel of the game and the gameplay - that elusive quality that you feel as you take control of your character.
the responsiveness of the UI
the speed at which actions are executed on-screen when you press a key
the fluidity of your movements
the degree in which you feel totally in control of your character
I guess its the very first thing I look for in any new game and, so far, nothing comes close to WoW in this regard. When you execute an ability in WoW, you know it. When you get hit by something, you know it. Like Age of Conan, Aion and Warhammer, Rift just doesn't get this critical aspect of the game quite right. Things just feel a little clunky and ever so slightly less responsive than a character in WoW does. This could well be a symptom of my less than stellar PC that I am using, but I don't think so. Even at the very lowest graphics settings, the gameplay just doesn't feel smooth or perfectly responsive.
Considering all of the games mentioned are more modern than WOW by a significant margin, that is a damning indictment of the developers of these new games. Ultimately it is my view that this is the primary reason these new games get steamrolled by WoW, and continually fall by the wayside as WoW dwarfs their subscription numbers.
That's quite rude. You must be great fun at parties.
I probably would of not even read your post if he didn't do that. I agree with your points though. Nothing really comes close to WoW's controls. I think this is due to the way they built their animations, letting you cancel out of ANY animation at any time. All of Blizzards games in general have stellar feeling controls.
The only other game that I've liked the feeling of recently is Neverwinter. Though, not all the animations can be cancelled as smoothly in Neverwinter. Guild Wars 2 also felt quite nice, but doesn't have the same impact and meatyness of Neverwinter.
Originally posted by djazzy Indeed WoW is almost as responsive as an FPS game which is high praise for an mmo. That is the one edge that it has on almost every other mmo. Some games such as GW2 come close but not quite there yet. I hate WoW's combat but I have to give its due in regards to control responsiveness.
The same here. I'm tempted to fire up WOW again and do a side by side comparison.
So how the heck are they doing it?!?
is it because of the lower graphics?
has nothing to do with graphics. because lowering the graphics in gw2 does not improve the games responsiveness.
It all comes down to application design, blizzard & Anet are both experienced devs that have built their messaging architecture in such a way that it is both responsive and scales directly with hardware. They also have good designers that understands how to use sound and graphics etc to make spells etc feel solid. Other games simply have inferior devs/designers.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
I probably would of not even read your post if he didn't do that. I agree with your points though. Nothing really comes close to WoW's controls. I think this is due to the way they built their animations, letting you cancel out of ANY animation at any time. All of Blizzards games in general have stellar feeling controls.
The only other game that I've liked the feeling of recently is Neverwinter. Though, not all the animations can be cancelled as smoothly in Neverwinter. Guild Wars 2 also felt quite nice, but doesn't have the same impact and meatyness of Neverwinter.
That doesn't take away from the fact that its an extremely unpleasant, condescending and patronising thing to do.
A 43 year old man really should know better.
And you shouldn't defend it, as that doesn't reflect well on you either.
As to the points raised, I played Neverwinter and didn't make it past 30 mins of play. I didn't even get far enough in to test combat out properly. I got into the big city, and the amount of players onscreen turned my fps to slideshow mode so I just stopped playing. I probably need new hardware but I will deal with that after I start my new job next month.
I think you might have a point with regard to the ability to cancel out of animations at any time. This was an issue (might still be) that was very apparent in SWTOR where you ended up locked in animation cycles with the result being a huge disconnect between the player and their avatar. You wanted to react but couldnt... because of the animation... arggh the pain! This was complained about hugely in the first few weeks but they never managed to fix it. I didn't pay for another month, and I suspect the same is true of lots of others. Most MMO players don't even care what the cause of the disconnect is, the game just doesn't "feel" right, and they stop playing. Every MMO developer should be highly aware of this phenomenon because the reality is, most people have played or do play WOW, so to screw this aspect of gameplay up is problematic given their heavyweight competition.
Originally posted by Bladestrom It all comes down to application design, blizzard & Anet are both experienced devs that have built their messaging architecture in such a way that it is both responsive and scales directly with hardware. They also have good designers that understands how to use sound and graphics etc to make spells etc feel solid. Other games simply have inferior devs/designers.
I don't know if you are correct but this flaw seems to exist in every other MMO (in my limited experience) but I've always suspected it might just be as simple as this.
It does make one positively salivate at the thought of what we might encounter with Titan from this perspective. Here's hoping, as I've almost got to the point where I don't expect to find a new MMO that satisfies any time soon.
This exact problem is what led me to dropping Aion, WAR, Conan, Rift, SWTOR and Darkfall within the first month - and is the reason I keep going back to WOW periodically despite the fact I'm bored with every other aspect of the game.
Originally posted by Slappy1 I have yet to find an mmo that's as responsive as WoW,Tera and Neverwinter are the closest for me.
Neverwinter? I find the response times horribly slow. You try to stun an enemy when the red circle appears and nothing happens; you just stand there and get hit.
Comments
That's quite rude. You must be great fun at parties.
I probably would of not even read your post if he didn't do that. I agree with your points though. Nothing really comes close to WoW's controls. I think this is due to the way they built their animations, letting you cancel out of ANY animation at any time. All of Blizzards games in general have stellar feeling controls.
The only other game that I've liked the feeling of recently is Neverwinter. Though, not all the animations can be cancelled as smoothly in Neverwinter. Guild Wars 2 also felt quite nice, but doesn't have the same impact and meatyness of Neverwinter.
has nothing to do with graphics. because lowering the graphics in gw2 does not improve the games responsiveness.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
That doesn't take away from the fact that its an extremely unpleasant, condescending and patronising thing to do.
A 43 year old man really should know better.
And you shouldn't defend it, as that doesn't reflect well on you either.
As to the points raised, I played Neverwinter and didn't make it past 30 mins of play. I didn't even get far enough in to test combat out properly. I got into the big city, and the amount of players onscreen turned my fps to slideshow mode so I just stopped playing. I probably need new hardware but I will deal with that after I start my new job next month.
I think you might have a point with regard to the ability to cancel out of animations at any time. This was an issue (might still be) that was very apparent in SWTOR where you ended up locked in animation cycles with the result being a huge disconnect between the player and their avatar. You wanted to react but couldnt... because of the animation... arggh the pain! This was complained about hugely in the first few weeks but they never managed to fix it. I didn't pay for another month, and I suspect the same is true of lots of others. Most MMO players don't even care what the cause of the disconnect is, the game just doesn't "feel" right, and they stop playing. Every MMO developer should be highly aware of this phenomenon because the reality is, most people have played or do play WOW, so to screw this aspect of gameplay up is problematic given their heavyweight competition.
I don't know if you are correct but this flaw seems to exist in every other MMO (in my limited experience) but I've always suspected it might just be as simple as this.
It does make one positively salivate at the thought of what we might encounter with Titan from this perspective. Here's hoping, as I've almost got to the point where I don't expect to find a new MMO that satisfies any time soon.
This exact problem is what led me to dropping Aion, WAR, Conan, Rift, SWTOR and Darkfall within the first month - and is the reason I keep going back to WOW periodically despite the fact I'm bored with every other aspect of the game.
Neverwinter? I find the response times horribly slow. You try to stun an enemy when the red circle appears and nothing happens; you just stand there and get hit.