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Tab Targeting Or Action Targeting - An Age Old Question
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Tab Targeting Or Action Targeting - An Age Old Question
In the MMORPG world, there are many factors that go into making a great MMO experience. Combat specifically is one of them, with many MMOs of yesteryear opting for tab-targeting. However, in recent years many MMOs have come onto the market with a more active combat style. Do MMOs need to go back to the age-old tab-targeting, or should we embrace the new future of active targeting in our games moving forward?
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I would far rather have a deep, thoughtful skill system with tab targeting than a shallow one that emphasizes reflexes with action targeting.
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I really wish Turbine would have honored their promise of releasing the open source server for the community to pick up where they left off. Same for Asheron's Call 2, I know it wasn't well received, but when AC2 first came out, it was very interesting to take part in the rebuilding of Dereth and as something other than a human. I'll never forget my first venture as a spear chucking Tumerok on the PvP server. I don't think I made it out of the tutorial dungeon because I kept dying/killing other people while trying to navigate through.
The type of controls pretty much defines a big part the game style and I prefer to have the tactical aspect of tab targetting.
I'll put up with it if I have to but prefer action games.
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As someone who plays all classes but leans heavily toward spell casters, when I think of tab target I also think of cast times, cool downs, self-rooted casting, etc. I also think of those wonderful LOTRO fellowship maneuvers that forced a tactical pause. To me those games are closer to what it would be like to bring tabletop D&D into an MMO setting. They're tactical, more relaxed but also less immersive with more meta-gaming that can pull you out of the immersion.
When I think of action targeting or hybrids, I think of no cool downs, moving while casting and more immersive fluidity although the downside of that, at least for me, is that they feel more frantic and I find myself wanting to take frequent breaks from the non-stop "go! go! go!"
Personally I have played and enjoyed both styles when done well.
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Best Tab Target: Echo Of Soul / Aion
Best Action Combat: Blade And Soul / Black Desert
For me on Tab Target i like the simple WoW tab target.
I agree with your action combat choices.
And I also love hybrids like AoC and GW1/GW2.
Crowfall is getting it right for me. Approaching Beta testing we have adjusted and are still testing hit box sizes, dodge move distances and cooldowns, ttk, and AoE anti-ball up zerg mechanics. It is a little slower paced than Asian BG mechanics for a Western MMO feel.
I think it's tougher in the United States to implement targeting systems that work better with low overall user ping times. Places like South Korea have a nice advantage with that. Do you all think that higher ping times limit the viability of action targeting systems or is it mostly the software?
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Yup!
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Action combat games challenge your reaction times and nerve memory in combat.
Which one you prefer tends to come down to how you like to be challenged. I prefer to be mentally engaged, thus I prefer tab-target games. I don't find there to be much challenge in developing nerve memory, I know that if I just put in the hours, I'll get there eventually (even if it takes slightly longer to get there now compared with when I was younger).
Of course, it all comes down to the specific implementation.
I love DEPTH. Depth is a measure of how hard it is to decide what to do next. You can only have depth if you also have enough complexity, but complexity doesn't always result in depth.
Something like vanilla LotRO had a crazy amount of depth in it's combat system, especially within the support classes. Tons of skills (complex) but most skills were situationally useful and not just part of long rotations. That meant deciding what skill to use next could be tough and very impactful (depth).
Conversely, something like vanilla SWTOR was shallow as fuck. It also had tons of skills (complex) but most of them either formed the rotation or were useless bloat. Deciding what to do next was trivially easy, for most classes just a case of executing the rotation or using 1 of a few situational abilities.
Another point worth mentioning is that depth only comes out during challenging content. If you play games to relax, rather than to have fun, then you won't be doing challenging content and so you won't experience depth at all. In which case, it just comes down to how quickly you want to press buttons and your preference for a busy screen.