Combat Changes (No Mech Alterations)

[Etherdrifter 2,517]

I'm not one for stats so I'll try to avoid giving them.  Suffice to say a lot of people who do not stick around on wurm do so because the combat is so bizarre.  The irony is that it works like the standard combat in an mmorpg, adds in the depth players who play mmorpgs always ask for and generally is not too unbalanced in PvE (no idea on PvP).

The first phase is linking animation to action.  Troll swings a club at you?  You'd best be taking some damage rather than watching it pass through your head.  Aiming high?  Lets have your attack animations reflect that.  Again, no changes to the combat mechanics, just aesthetic alterations.  I realise this is the biggest change as it will require more server resources.  Then again if smartly done it might not require as many as some people think.

 

The next phase is polishing the interface.  Some kind of notification other than text (sound, picture) when you alter an action in combat (flashing icon to indicate you are intending to switch stance/target).  A sound when you have selected a target for combat and/or changed your target would not go amiss.

A more complex idea is the notion of a progressive interface.  People hate greyed out buttons, they confuse the player who thinks "why are they greyed out, am I doing something wrong?".  This alteration is aimed at redesigning the targetting interface to only show buttons when/if they can be used.  Missing spots evoke a better reaction than greyed out icons.  Either that or indicate why an icon is greyed out so players know how to make them active!  Also adding taunt to the UI would be nice

Custom targetting models for different mobs.  Why am I aiming at a human shaped model when I am fighting a wolf?  A simple ui alteration based on the mob/creature you are fighting would help reduce confusion and make combat far easier to understand.

Armour is very hard to understand for a new player as it works very differently in wurm.  I would suggest adding some kind of graphic to indicate if a body part is armoured or not (as well as letting players see where they are armoured/not on their paperdoll).  This would go a long way to helping players fight more tricky beasties.

[Bart 954]

+1

 

A little bit of polish can go a long way

[Madt 1,178]

100% agreed.

[Elen 1,013]

Pretty sure everyone will agree here.

[Thrrim 217]

+1  That part about seeing which armor piece is not on is a life saver.

[samollly 18]

+1 While Wurm does need work in certain areas I think this has to be one of the top 5 areas in need of improvement.

[rosedragon 2,282]

+1

[AlphaWolfen 160]

+1 the combat needs some fixin and polishing i must say, love the way it is though but can be more nice.

[Brunwulf 470]

Took us long enough to get the animations we do have.

Now you want what sounds like a ton more work...

Honestly, I'd rather Dev time be spent improving other areas of the game first.

That's not so say I wouldn't like your ideas implemented because I would.