Client Update 1.7.1 is Live!

[lilbyrdie]

Since it's been pointed out several times that this is the "only" place for feedback on 1.7.1 (despite it being in the announcements and not the feedback forum), here's a link to my post in the feedback forum: http://www.spacetimestudios.com/show...obal-Cool-Down

Several positive comments on that thread. And no, it's not a rant about GCD. I've taken the approach that GCD is here to stay and we should provide feedback on how it's affected game play and how the game can continue to be improved now that we know how GCD feels for ourselves and have, hopefully, had some time to actually use it and see what it does for real, rather than in theory.

On some other aspects of the update:

Pay platinum for revive? Awesome! Thanks.

Farts? Disgusting, immature, rude, unpleasant. Please let me block them so I don't have to see or hear about them. (The "gas" effects are nice; the graphical implementation was done well. There's got to be some other way to add some humor. The "whoa" emote has a humorous look. Maybe other silly stuff like that?)

New map? Can't wait to see how the extra space is filled!

Lack of direct map button on login screen? Disorienting, and it means I will always pop in somewhere before going to my real first destination. But it is more streamlined for first-timers.

Lack of quick-play button? Never used it; don't miss it.

The new shield buff/debuff icon when my mystery armor is on? Confusing. No idea what it's trying to tell me.

Better support for my 1280x800 tablet screen on the Xoom? Nice. Looks better.

An auction house full of folks whining (and farting)? Sad (and disgusting).

The join button goof? Hope Apple approves the fix ASAP, and unfortunate because now more than ever large groups are better.

The earthquakes on some emotes? Neat effect, but annoying in towns where there are constant earthquakes. And it's tiresome on the eyes. Would like to see it optional.

[Kindread]

Men can be men now with farts. What's wrong with that? Prove your manliness and let her rip! Btw, lvl55 pink Raid Roach Replacement Trousers on CS for 1 million if you happen to rip a hole in your pants with a big one.

[Dyclonious]

Why a global cool down?

1) It doesn't balance anything, because it applies to everybody.
2) It makes combos nearly impossible.
3) Plenty of other ways to buff/nerf things.
- (PvE) Increase the hp, dmg, and defense of mobs & also add new def/offensive abilities. Add de-buffs to players when entering a more difficult encounter.
- (PvP) Make it easier to farm high quality gear. Adjust dmg output scaling. Add vulnerability after x amount of time/kills.
4)All spells & abilities are instant cast, add in latency, throw in GCD, and you have a headache.
5) A GCD on buffs? Takes a mage a good 3 or 4 seconds to buff. Which by that time his whole party just died & or he lost the duel.

Conclusion:

A GCD mostly forces users to button mash their touch screens so they can get off an ability as soon as its ready. Before, it was a battle of quickness of mind, combo decisions, split second buffs! Reaction times were everything, and it was exhilarating!
Now, one spends more time on tapping their touch screen than they do on actual game-play. Or to even enjoy the game, the environment, and community...
To be honest, I feel confident that these problems will be addressed. It would be pure negligence otherwise, and I have faith that these Devs aren't like that. They did make a freakin' awesome game, remember...

[Sterist]

morawk did you catch my last post?

[BlazeMystic]

I haven't really had a lot of time to try out the game since 1.7.1 went live and forgive me if this comment has been made before. I tried out a lower level dungeon to see what all the GCD fuss was about and yes I can see that the game is slower. However I noticed that in addition to the GCD, skills still have their own independent cool down time's on top of this as well. So if my mage casts firestorm, GCD kicks in and no skills can be used for that 0.5 secs. But when that is over although the skills become active again, firestorm is still undergoing its own cool down time so it can't yet be used. What would happen if that part of the cool down was removed and just the GCD of 0.5 sec or whatever it is, is kept in place. If any of what I've said makes sense lol.

[vol]

We'll put out an iteration today that gives you more feedback on when you actually have fired off your skills (instead of waiting for the server to verify it). Hopefully it makes a difference in the way it feels.

I don't have a problem knowing when I fire my skills. My issues are the speed with which skills are fired off. It doesn't seem like this iteration is going to help mages, but I guess I should wthhold my judgement.

[Doubletime]

I have now spent several hours playing through all the sewer boards using all three character classes. Overall, I am still not entirely happy with the effect GCD has had on the game play experience. But I have learned to deal with most of the issues related to game tactics. However, there are a couple items that I think are beyond simply adapting to tactics in game play and go more towards features of the game that were implimented prior to the GCD.

First, I want to make one general comment on how GCD has effected my ability to play the game. Prior to the GCD I was able to pick up my phone during any five minutes of free time and run a board in just about any PUG with pretty high success. While I am pretty hardcore about playing, and do so a couple hours a day, the GCD currently has caused the game to lose some of its casual appeal. Party make up is important currently. Not any old game will do, unless you are lucky enough to get into a well balanced group. I miss that part of the game because, even as someone who plays a lot, it is now difficult just to pick up the game in your spare moments and run a board, regardless of party makeup, with a high rate of success and within a realitively short amount of time.

Second, I will mention are elixers. Prior to GCD, there was a lot of comfort in using an elixers, were it for XP, damage, tank pot, etc., because most boards could be finished or mostly completed prior to the expiration of the elixer. It was never really a problem having to use multiple elixers on a level unless there was a death or it truely was an elite level dungeon such as the Shadow Caves. Now, however, because of the additional time being added to game play due to GCD and a reduction in party speed, I am finding it common for elixers to expire with a significant amount of a board remaining. I hope that the time a pot last is re-examined to see if the current slower game may warrant some additional time. I don't mind purchase pots, and honestly those little red damage pots are one of my favorite features in the game. However, I would hope that pots were originally introduced with the expectation that those pots would last for most, if not all, of a board in a proficient party. I don't know that this is currently the case due to slower game play on a whole.

Third, is the difficultly I had as both a mage and bear using my skills effectively, because of the different functions these skills serve and the roll that each skill plays in a group. It is currently difficult to buff, debuff, and attack without a coordinated plan. I think these goes back to the casual nature of the game and the fact that such coordination doesn't normally exist outside of players that play together on a regular basis. As a bear, self buffing prior to engaging the mobs is fine. However, by the time debuffs are executed, the offensive skills are often less effective because they cannot be fired in rapid succession. Similarly, the mage doesn't seem to be able to execute healing, debuffing, or buffing while trying to effectively deal damage to mobs. It is almost as if you have to choose whether to help your party stay alive through health, or to try and help in mob damage. Unless there are multiple mages in a party concentrating on a specific role, it simply isn't possible to do all the things that mages were meant to do as the game is currently set up. My archer seems the least effected by the change. Mostly because, other than rapid fire kill shots using skills, the skill set requires use only in certain situations. Therefore the need to rapid press those skills is just not as prevelant in game play.

I would hope that the solution is a reduction in the cool down period. This would likely deal with many of the game speed issues and skill usage issues without the need for a major rebalance. It would also still effectively eliminate the multitap problems and hopefully be able to address the client issues caused by so many instantaneous skills being used during game play. At this point, I can just say that the game feels very different to me and I have lost some of the enjoyment that I use to have from the ease of play and casual nature of the game. I hope there is a way to balance all of these things so that a happy medium can be found that works from both a client stand point and a player stand point. It is still the best mobile game I have ever played and I can't wait to see what you devs will come up with next.

[Dyclonious]

6) Also, adding a GCD is never as simple as BAM! 0.5 seconds for all abilities!
The reason it works for other MMO's is because their abilities have cast times & a KEYBOARD!

You just can't incorporate a GCD into a touch screen game... a touch screen game with all instant cast abilities... its driving us crazy.

7) If your dead set on the GCD, than please make it 0.2 seconds at maximum. If all your trying to do is prevent an ability spam then that would do the trick.

[Gluttony]

We'll put out an iteration today that gives you more feedback on when you actually have fired off your skills (instead of waiting for the server to verify it). Hopefully it makes a difference in the way it feels.

Has anyone suggested an action cue? Hit shattering scream followed by blast shot to put the action into a cue bank, GCD would still be in effect and the in cue action would fire after the 0.5 second cool down. I've seen other games like this (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic), I know its an old game reference but it's what came to mind.

[Mothwing]

Just take it away lmao

[Dyclonious]

Ok new idea! Keep the GCD, reduce it to 0.2 seconds, & add a ability queue.

Example:

My enchantress casts lightning, the GCD starts but I hit Firestorm before it is ready. Firestorm is put in a queue and initiated imediatly after the GCD clock is up.

Ability Queue, plain and simple... run with it.

[Dyclonious]

lol Gluttony we both just had same idea

[Gluttony]

Ok new idea! Keep the GCD, reduce it to 0.2 seconds, & add a ability queue.

Example:

My enchantress casts lightning, the GCD starts but I hit Firestorm before it is ready. Firestorm is put in a queue and initiated imediatly after the GCD clock is up.

Ability Queue, plain and simple... run with it.

lol Gluttony we both just had same idea

It's a decent idea I think. Devs said it's here to stay so we should all think of a way to modify it and make it something we can all be happy with. A cue would allow people to keep combos in line, allow people not to have to stare at the skills all the time in anticipation of the cool down period to be over. The only issue is that mages won't be able to effectively heal at the appropriate time, there would have to be cancel or only one to two skills in cue at a time.

[drewcapu]

skill queue is fine with me as long as there's an option to disable it.

i tend to try to finish combos. but if i see a combo get finished before my gcd is up, i'm going to want to do a different skill than one which is queued.

[Mothwing]

No, its not a decent idea. I will NEVER get used to it. Stop this talk about reducing the time. JUST TAKE IT AWAY!!!!!

[cynic]

is gcd here to stay?
Is that confirmed?
if so there goes my lovely game.
i state if the gcd stays im done with it, bye spend money bye game. im totaly pissed, i tried and tried playing like this (never finishing any run), i cant play like this and havin fun at the same time. it gives me a splitting headache due to the fact i need to look at the skills all the time.
the game is so slow, there is no more action.
I really loved this game, but with 1 patch all that got lost.

Not playing anymore untill they fix this and if not bye all

[drewcapu]

Try playing zoomed in

[Gluttony]

No, its not a decent idea. I will NEVER get used to it. Stop this talk about reducing the time. JUST TAKE IT AWAY!!!!!

Oh, so we're going to start flaming up in here... cause I can flame with the best of them *flame on* So I have a bad idea because I'm trying to work with what the devs have given me, but I could do so much better if I came up with such winning ideas as "Just take it away" the God Mothwing has spoken, and it shall be done! C'mon the devs want it, they will work on it and have stated that they are not planning on getting rid of it. Not sure who you are, how old you are, but perhaps you have not learned in life yet that yelling and throwing a tantrum won't get you everything you want (no matter how much fun it may be).

[Mothwing]

is gcd here to stay?
Is that confirmed?
if so there goes my lovely game.
i state if the gcd stays im done with it, bye spend money bye game. im totaly pissed, i tried and tried playing like this (never finishing any run), i cant play like this and havin fun at the same time. it gives me a splitting headache due to the fact i need to look at the skills all the time.
the game is so slow, there is no more action.
I really loved this game, but with 1 patch all that got lost.

Not playing anymore untill they fix this and if not bye all

+10 mothballs I SO AGREE! I will quit devs and ive put a lot of money into this game so youve just lost a great customer

[BlazeMystic]

Ok new idea! Keep the GCD, reduce it to 0.2 seconds, & add a ability queue.

Example:

My enchantress casts lightning, the GCD starts but I hit Firestorm before it is ready. Firestorm is put in a queue and initiated imediatly after the GCD clock is up.

Ability Queue, plain and simple... run with it.

Perhaps I'm being dense but I cannot see how a queue like system will make a better playing experience. You still have to wait for skills to cool down and on top of that I think it would be annoying if skills stack up and you just have to wait until each is cast. What happens if you changed your mind after pressing that skill and it goes into a queue and you didn't want that skill to stack after all? You might press a number of attack skills, which go into a queue only a while later you may realise that you in fact needed to heal instead but can't because the other skills would have to come first. Instead, I think either the GCD times could be reduced a bit or each individual skill cool down time that occurs in addition to GCD be reduced as I've mentioned earlier.