Shiny_Underpants
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Okay, so this is both suggestion and feedback. The suggestions are mainly based on feedback.
To give some background, part of my study has encompassed videogames, how they're marketed, how they're advertised, and what makes them appealing (basically, I'm not making everything I say up on the spot).
My main problem with the game at the moment is the combat system; i.e. the actual gameplay. The triple swing gives the game a nonresponsive feel; the foe only recoils when it actually takes damage, so the other two swings give the impression of going through the opponent without hitting them.
The combat is not skill based; it seems like a subset of the sort of gameplay you'd find in LOL or DOTA type games, simpler as it is on a mobile platform. This is always to be avoided; you want your gameplay to be unique, and individualized.
Essentially, it still feels 2 dimensional. It makes sense in games like Dragonfable that your character can be given a random chance to dodge- but in 3 dimensions, your character can actually dodge- you need to hand more control to the player. What are the strafe keys for if there is auto aim? Dodging, I should think. Smartphones and tablets have tilt controls for that, too.
If you're roleplaying this extremely powerful, magic wielding hero, it should feel like you are an extremely powerful, magic wielding hero.
For example:
In Dragonfable, the Hero has the choice of becoming a Riftwalker (perhaps the most active in the animations, which is why it makes a good example).
Alz'ein tells you:
quote:
you don't even have to be quick, because you can be anywhere... in a single slash
If you were to implement the Riftwalker class in a 3d game, there are two ways to go about it.
You could create a character with fancy skill animations and starry trail animations, and simply have attacks with effects.
OR
You could add the functionality that sword trails hang in the air as portals, allowing characters to move between them.
In Dragonfable, they could only do the former, because it is 2d.
Adventurequest 3d has the option of going with the latter. This provides more possible combinations of strategy, even with only 4 skills- probably more even than Dragonfable, with its 14 skills.
It can be a shield of sorts.
Ranged attacks go through it- you can protect your classes with limited mobility.
It increases the spatial complexity of the game, allowing puzzles (*cough stealing from Portal here *cough)
The latter option also matches Alz'ein's description more accurately.
(The coding for such portals could be a nightmare, if they just hang in the air, depending on the character's angle- the coding would need to be as complicated as that for Portal. It's just an example. it would be amazing, though)
There are other abilities that would suit touch screens more, as well.
For example, a ranged spell where you have to swipe along its target region.
Or a temporary flying ability.
Or the ability to possess your enemies...
Tree powers?
The ability to summon an amorphous mass of kittens to push your enemies around, by swiping along the screen where you want the cloud of kittens to go.
Abilities like this would also allow quests to not simply involve attacking monsters, which gets dreary quickly.
The mobility also feels pretty restricted- when people fight with swords, they cut, lunge, twist, kick and so forth. At the moment the characters in AQ3D simply stand and swing at each other, with maybe a kick in there somewhere.
What I personally would like to see would be attacks that move your character.
Eg. your character dives across the side of an opponent, slashing them in the process, ending up on their other side. If they don't have auto aim (i.e. cannot instantaneously pivot to attack you), this allows for greater variation in combos.
Not a fan of the auto aim. I find it incredibly difficult to move my character to where I want them when they are continually pivoting to attack a foe. Often I do this by accident, especially when I've just loaded a new area, and the results are usually catastrophic.
Could there perhaps be options for players who don't want to auto aim? Such as a tracker along the ground, indicating where the character will attack, moveable by dragging if on a touchscreen, or by mouse if otherwise.
There's also no real use of space with auto aim- your character simply approaches and swipes, no matter the position.
An enormous amount of strategy is derived from positioning.
For what it is, the art is great. Everything runs well. However in every location I go to, it still lags, because of my internet connection. Some offline functionality would be nice (although as an MMO, hacking can obviously be an issue here).
Could each spell have a charge up time instead of a cooldown? It wouldn't change anything except the lag involved, really. I just find the way everything cools down two seconds after whatever ability you use, while other abilites that have been used are slowly cooling down, strange and confusing to read.
Simplicity is your friend- most fantasy games have massively complicated systems with no scope for creativity. Levels on every item, so many abilities that you need a nine button mouse just to play them, and no real combination other than elements and effects.
This actually doesn't appeal to a wide audience. In any case, there is no niche for such a game- the market is already taken by LOL, DOTA etc.
To create a game that has wide appeal, it must reward players who have been at it for a while, but it must also be fun for new players.
It needs to get started quickly, and encompass the training for skill combinations and so forth through the gameplay (quests, in this case).
Preferably, the tutorial should be really small.
Think of it this way- every necessary aspect of the game that requires farming, or an excessive amount of time to achieve, halves your audience.
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