First of all, amazing patch, keep up the good work, i cant wait for the finished game!
On to my point,
I watched a couple of youtubers using auto-cast abilities (for those who dont know, you can assign a nupad key as the secondary key bind and press NumLock + Number), then went ahead myself to use macros to bind 3-4 spells to a single button on my mouse. Now both approaches make the character stutter sometimes and/or not actually using one of the skills if a single variable is changed (ie cast speed).
Although im a supporter of macros being used considered legit by the devs i cant help myself but conclude two things:
Firstly, if many players are using auto-cast methods, probably it should be implemented in the game on some level as a feature. Probably as a skill tree node for some spells and even make some of them inherently toggle-able like auras, but cast on intervals depending on cast speed and mana availability. This will not cancel out the key strokes because one would need a specific build targeted at mana preservation instead of something else if you want to go mostly full auto-caster.
Players who just are not aware of the NumLock + Key combination or dont have access to macro software, are actually in a disadvantage, something that shouldn’t happen if its not officially an in-game mechanic in my opinion.
Please share your thoughts and feedback,
Thanx for reading!
They said that if the skills are frequently autocasted, it means that they’ve failed to make it a decision for players. In other words, that skill will be reworked instead of just allowing autocast.
I’d like to see more set-and-forget skills like Static to replace these autocasted skills or make it more reactionary/interesting to use.
From m point of view it’s pretty simple. No secondary key binds, no option to bind numkeys, punish the use of macros and everyone is on the same floor. On the other side make everything autocastable and be done with it.
The skills ingame have a far to little CD to be not autocast worthy. Even the changes to flameward still make this skill best used on CD what is a joke for a “Oh shit!” button. Same for ring of shields, malstrom or sigils of hope. IF they don’t want to make autocast a thing they need to change some fundamental mechanics drasticly because the enemys are to bursty and you can’t mitigate the damage well enough to not die at a certain point. This makes “oh shit!” buttons and upkeep spells benefit from autocasts far to much because you need the uptime from this skills 24/7.
Auto casting as an ingame feature should become a reality. Why because without it, that is discrimination. Discrimination against disabled people, who have issues with limited movement and intense pain. Your basically saying they aren’t allowed to play and have a little fun!
Auto casting should be on ever skill as a toggle. As in you right click on a skill and a pop up menu appears, which offers the option as an Enable/Disable. This will open up the game to a wider community, not a limited one. I use the numlock trick where skills allow it, and macros when my keyboard isn’t playing up!
Makes me sad that in a world where equality is being fought for tooth and nail. Certain people are being excluded!
Bit of personal stuff, which I don’t mind sharing! I myself can only play for a limited time. Before I have to go take my pain killers and rest my joints, as the pain is to much. But I just love playing these games…I can be someone different, for a while.
Some skills that have some huge burst thing like Flame Ward should have a much longer CD to make the downtime of the skill so much that autocasting is worse than manual. To make up for it, have certain buffs from the skill last longer (like the damage reduction).
Other skills that have a continuous effect but still need to be recast, like Shield Wall, should be a toggle to turn on. Make the skill reserve mana,.
Things like Devouring Orb, when spec’d to orbit the player, should also be a toggle that reserves mana. Reduce the number of orbs and have them circle you until you turn it off.
I don’t feel discriminated and I have fun while beeing disabled. Playing the discrimination card here make me feel more intense pain then playing a game. While autocast might make the game more appeling to players with a very low skillcap or to players with a handicap on any skilllevel it will alienate everyone else. Most people want a gaming experience and no idle clicker gameplay.
Right now the use of makroing software isn’t forbidden so there is no reason to even think about changing stuff and the numlock mechanic is still a thing.
Thats a possibility but toggled skills need to be much much muuuuuch weaker then skills used by hand or we’ll see a lot of rightclick skills in the future.
Its not a card! Its a fact. I except the fact, one day I won’t be able to play these types of games, even if I want to! You make it sound like I am having a cheap shot! ….comments like that make me think, why do I bother to try help others like myself, makes me feel like giving up campaigning for people with disabilities!
They do need to be weaker, but not to the point of not usable. They are already pretty much toggled skills but at full power because of the autocasting. Nobody wants to hold the button down manually or hit the button twice a second.
Seems like you missed the important part. I have disabilitys myself but I don’t want a special treatment or to make other people suffer because of my disabilitys. I life with it and make the best out of it but I’ll NEVER EVER use a diability to make people feel worse. I never heared of a wheelchair user who said everyone is discriminating her because they use stairs.
You have a lot of possibilitys right now and literly autocast without any drawbacks so everything should be good right now. So where is the Problem? Sure I’m still against autocasts but I’m just one person with an unpopular oppinion and most people won’t even care about the possibility of macros or autocasts so you might be on the save side here anyway ;).
Uhm I do and if I can’t take the pressure I play something else. In my teen days I played games that have been far more hurtfull then this. LE is a walk in the park. I like the option to press a button down to reapply stuff just to keep my buttons healthy ^^ but outside of this I don’t see the need for auotcasting. I played spammy builds like malstrom avalanch shaman by hand or reapplied holy sigils without beeing an instant cast and so on. For me that’s part of the game and the mechanic involved and if it wasn’t my cup of tea I leave it alone. But as I said above, my oppinion for a not autocastable game is a unpopular oppinion and I’m pretty sure it’ll stay almost the same as it is because a lot of fundamentals in the game need to change to make this happen. Not only the skills but enemys damage numbers as well because the whole balancing will be whack if you don’t use flameward on CD for a ward sorcerer for example.
First of all, this was not meant to be a discussion about disabled people. If you want my humble opinion, is that they should be considered in all aspects of life, but that is besides the point because you cannot build stuff around the fact that they exist mostly because of the fact that they consist of a minority (not to understate the issue, if you are the person with the disability then for you, you are the majority and the one that counts) but also because the disabilities can take many forms.
Now, on to my original point, all games (especially non-competitive oriented ones) need to strike a balance between fun, ease of gameplay and accessibility. I, too, loathe auto-clickers!
The point is that since a lot of people use macros and numlocks then its evident that the feature is silently asked for and as an extension should be implemented whilst keeping engagement, fair play, class/skill balance and feature accessibility to a high standard.
I would love to hear the dev’s opinion on the matter.
This!
All my skill suggestions are always about making skills more actively used and making them important for particular moments. Having at least one of our five skills as a passive or regular buff - is a loss to a gameplay quality.
Agree.
Though, again, I’m strongly against simple buffing mechanics no matter the cost of those skills or a size of their power loss. It’s just not interesting. My idea is to give those skills some passive role (defense generators, for example) AND active effect, like I’ve already suggested it for some skills long time ago (Summon Bear, Fireshield).
I mean, “Flame Ward” is a ward generator, right? So let it generating it constantly while this skill is on the panel! And just give it some usage effect: 2 seconds 60% damage reduction and retaliation effect, 3 seconds fire aura, sacrificing ward to empower few next spells… anything!
The thing I would like most is a high cost of skills and no cooldwons on them. The passive skills with a burst effect on use aren’t a solution because not every class can use them in the same way. Look at the poor druid who isn’t even able to use the petskills because the entire skillbar changes.
I’m a fan of getting some bang for my buck. Yes make skills accessable or autocastable or whatever but make said skilloptions totaly lackluster compared to skillbuilds that need to think about when they’ll press what button so an “Oh shit” button ist still a “Oh shit” button while the always on autocast passive whatever form is just a sprinkle.
So it’s implementation issue - not the idea, right?
Well, it’s a matter of taste.
I believe that any form of cost may be used and it shouldn’t be chosen ideologically like “all skills are mana expensive” or “all skills are cooldowns”. For some you (as a designer) may use one approach, for others - another or even both, or even other forms of cost like sacrificing HP, debuffing a caster and so on. Also design may sometimes allow a player to change skills cost from one to another. Why not?
One of the devs said that ideally they would like the skills to be so well designed, that they should never be self castered, but always decided at the right time.
I do not know if this ideal will be achieved.
Otherwise, since experienced players know the numlock, it would be good to just include a function in the game.
That is an issue though. Some people want to build the permanent fire aura. I use Fire Shield solely for the Fire AoE DOT. It would be nice to be able to make that build without being forced into Rahyeh’s Light item and Ward because of the forced item.
Just was an example of approach. It also may be permanent as suggesyed ward generation with short but huge damage boost on usage. Again - just an example .
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