(edited by kta.6502)
"Downed State" frightening for new players?
Because players are not able to familiarize themselves with the downed state until they are in an emergency situation that can quickly lead to death.
This is not the time to be learning something…
It would be completely different if they could review the skills beforehand, and maybe get a tutorial on the downed state or something. I have played the game for 1 1/2 years and the only reason I know exactly what all of my downed skills do on every class is because I read about them on the wiki. There just isn’t any time to familiarize yourself with them when you’re dying to another player, mob or boss.
In fact, in dungeons, fractals, WvW and PvP, you can even become a liability for your team if you are not able to return from a downed state effectively.
Daisuki [SUKI] LGBT-Friendly Guild Leader | NA – Jade Quarry
I’m usually really sweet… but this an internet forum and you know how it has to be.
/i’m a lesbiab… lesbiam… less bien… GIRLS/
I’m usually really sweet… but this an internet forum and you know how it has to be.
/i’m a lesbiab… lesbiam… less bien… GIRLS/
(edited by Hannelore.8153)
The downed state is never explained to new players. The first time they encounter it, they’re expected to know the skills and the fact that rallying is even possible. I have seen first time players “freak out” and not know what to do, which usually results in just watching their own death or spamming all the buttons. Keep in mind that they’re usually already in a panic for dying in the first place, so they’re not too focused on learning new skills.
They are not removing the downed state, they are simply moving it to level 5 and presenting it as an unlock.
(edited by Healix.5819)
The idea of not having a downed state is terrifying. To just fall and have nothing to do but WP? How is that an improvement?
“If you spent as much time working on [some task] as
you spend complaining about it on the forums, you’d be
done by now.”
you spend complaining about it on the forums, you’d be
done by now.”
When I first played, and my character hit zero hp, I just thought it was over. Then I saw this “wait, I’m not dead?” Thing going on, and I started spamming buttons, and I didn’t know what the abilities did.
I wouldnt say I was scared, I think they used the wrong word there, but more surprised as I had never seen a feature like this before.
What on earth are you talking about? It’s being changed because it’s confusing not frightening, who on earth ever said it was frightening? And If it were, how would five levels make any difference anyway?
On this forum, I keep seeing posts about how the downed state is freaking out new players. How? Why?
For those who don’t know, I’ve played MMORPGs for 17 years. I’ve been playing video games for 29 years. Never have I heard that a downed state or defeat is scary to mainstream teens and adults.
I felt that the downed state made this game unique because it presented the possibility of your character heroically bouncing back from the edge of death (much like the action heroes in American & Japanese stories). It’s even funny that the downed player can still damage an enemy by throwing junk, rocks, and dirt at them!
This game is a T-rated game that teens and adults can play. It’s not an E-rated game for little kids. There is no reason to “sanitize” the game by slowly removing the downed state.
I don’t think they should remove it but there is absolutely possitively no doubt room for improvement. As an Engineer main it’s been loooooooooooooong overdue to overhaul this system. You can be all burst zerker and STILL not be able to do the things your DPS peers can do to survive. There is like a 70% chance of dying if you’re downed as an engineer and instead of fixing it they’ve left it alone for far too long.
If our boobie trap actually did as much damage as the Mesmer burst illusion, or if we had some kind of actual system of healing ourselves like the Ranger does, or even if we had something other than that useless cord to trip somebody or how about turning our junk into grenades so it actually does condition damage to enemies per our trait line choices ANYTHING anything at all would be better than what we are left with.
And no, no amount of “lrn2play” “yousucknoob” “it’s perfectly fine” replies are going to change the fact that it’s been terrible since BWE2.
Balance Team: Please Fix Mine Toolbelt Positioning!
the move-back of when the state unlocks is kinda silly imo, i’ve seen plenty of lvl 1-4’s die. maybe just do like some other games do, have a forced death that allows you to explain the downed state, maybe during the tutorial instance one of the mobs gets to insta-down you or something
Fix what you have before you build something new
Not scared, confused. A new skill bar pops up that I’ve never seen before with skills I didn’t know what they did. Spamming one seems to be attack and it becomes a race to finish off the attacker before my HP is truly gone. While they have descriptions if you hover the mouse over them, in the heat of the moment you don’t have time to check out the skills. On defeat or rally the bar goes away and you can’t check the skills out.
It’s like having the flight attendant go over the safety card after the oxygen masks drop. You are too panic to bother.
We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
Scared?
And outright dying is better?
I don’t even understand the downstate at first, but I figured I might be able to button mash my way to survival. Thinking that your players can’t handle 4 buttons is a terrible joke. You can’t learn if you’re dead after all.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
Because players are not able to familiarize themselves with the downed state until they are in an emergency situation that can quickly lead to death.
This is not the time to be learning something…
It would be completely different if they could review the skills beforehand, and maybe get a tutorial on the downed state or something. I have played the game for 1 1/2 years and the only reason I know exactly what all of my downed skills do on every class is because I read about them on the wiki. There just isn’t any time to familiarize yourself with them when you’re dying to another player, mob or boss.
In fact, in dungeons, fractals, WvW and PvP, you can even become a liability for your team if you are not able to return from a downed state effectively.
Pretty much that, no definite Tutorial, nor does the “Zhaitan Campaing” give you good situations to learn about it…
While many say “Google is your friend”, for GW2, it’s “Wiki is your friend”, not to mention we have “/wiki *” command to use in GW2 chat to search for stuff in wiki, tho this minimizes GW2 and opens your browser program.
I’m a casual PvE adventurer, I enjoy combat, adventure and helping, but not farming.
I rarely do PvP or Hard PvE, unless it’s organized.
I rarely do PvP or Hard PvE, unless it’s organized.
the move-back of when the state unlocks is kinda silly imo, i’ve seen plenty of lvl 1-4’s die. maybe just do like some other games do, have a forced death that allows you to explain the downed state, maybe during the tutorial instance one of the mobs gets to insta-down you or something
I like this suggestion. It would take a good bit more work, but if they had thought about it when they were first making the tutorials, it could have been perfect.
“You’ll PAY to know what you really think.” ~ J. R. “Bob” Dobbs
While most of us take it as a given that every player knows what to do at the down state, it was never explained ingame what to do when downed.
As a player from the first hour I knew about it because I looked at interviews, gained informations about a game befor it would be released. Most of the players who played at release gained their information this way, so it is easy think that everyone knows what to do in the downed state and it was easy to forget that nothing in the game tells you what you have to do when you are downed.
So I’m all for a tutorial telling new players what the downed state is and that the downed state is not the end.
While most of us take it as a given that every player knows what to do at the down state, it was never explained ingame what to do when downed.
Yes, but pushing it back to a later level does nothing to help this. If they want to make it easier to understand then they can add a tutorial element to it. When I was first playing, I got downed doing the tutorial boss. In fact I assumed that was one of the points of the tutorial boss, to introduce you to the downed state. It might be a good idea if they canonized that, gave the boss an unblockable OHKO move that will drop everyone, then he takes a break for about a minute, and a tutorial pop-up explains the downed state to you.
That said, they really could stand to rebalance the downed states. I agree with others that say that some downstates are just completely useless. Every downed state needs to have at least one instantly-available movement ability, something to move out of red rings of death you might find yourself in, and having access to AoE attacks can be a real life-saver too. Also, while Thief is certainly one of the better DSs, that stealth ability is never useful. It only lasts like half a second, with a casting time, so by the time the enemies lose agro, they regain it almost instantly.
“If you spent as much time working on [some task] as
you spend complaining about it on the forums, you’d be
done by now.”
you spend complaining about it on the forums, you’d be
done by now.”
While most of us take it as a given that every player knows what to do at the down state, it was never explained ingame what to do when downed.
You’re on your butt with 4 skills. What do you do?
1) Call your mom
2) Click a button to see what happen
3) Uninstall.exe
I bet a monkey would figure it out on his own.
Some of these responses beggar belief.
Overwhelming? Confusing?
It’s a game, you press some buttons and something happens…or not. Next time you figure it out.
It is not an issue. It is just so nauseatingly reductive.
How would kids today confront a rubix cube?
Wa~ ambulance!
“Skritt, I’m hit!"
While most of us take it as a given that every player knows what to do at the down state, it was never explained ingame what to do when downed.
You’re on your butt with 4 skills. What do you do?
1) Call your mom
2) Click a button to see what happen
3) Uninstall.exeI bet a monkey would figure it out on his own.
Mate, so true. Hahaha~ +10
“Skritt, I’m hit!"
Agreed with everyone else.
It’s not frightening in the same sense as a horror movie or walking down a dark street alone at night. But the fact that you’re dying and then suddenly all your skills change and your health is dropping whether you’re being attacked or not adds another layer of confusion to an already stressful situation.
It’s a bit like if you’re lost in an airport, worried you’ll miss your flight and then a complete stranger comes up to you and starts demanding to know why you chose the bag you’re carrying, where you got it and if you bought it for this trip specifically. It’s something unexpected and strange which you probably could cope with on it’s own, but you’re already stressed and don’t need this extra weirdness on top of everything else. (Maybe not the best example but a true story and the first one that came to mind.)
I’m not sure how moving it back a few levels is supposed to help because you still won’t have a chance to learn what the skills do except by sacrificing yourself to read and experiment with them. But I suppose the idea is that new players will be more familiar with the rest of the game by then so it spreads the confusion out and makes it easier to deal with.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
Downed states have been a regular feature games for a long time by now. It’s not revolutionary.
The real solution was to either have a scripted tutorial sequence teaching you stuff like this, or if that’s too much dev effort, just pop up bubbles telling you what you can do the first few times you get downed.
Changing its appearance to level 5 won’t do anything.
Here is my suggestion… Show the “Downed State” skills in your HERO PANEL SKILLS and TRAITS tab.
For that matter, put those alternate states in there as well… like the Necromancers Death Shroud ability.. I will be honest… I have a level 80 necromancer (not my main) that I just never use the Death Shroud ability, because I have no idea what the attacks do when I’m in that state…. BECAUSE I would have to go read a wiki, or.. go into DS and [gasp] read…
Put them all in the skills and traits tab so people can access, and read up on them IN GAME, whenever they want.
Delaying the “downed state” until level 5 just sounds ridiculous to me… so instead of them getting the understanding that this is how the game works right from the start… you are going to ambush them with it at level 5? How is that helpful? Just teach them from the start how it works… and give us a way to read what those skills are right there in game.
Agreed with everyone else.
It’s not frightening in the same sense as a horror movie or walking down a dark street alone at night. But the fact that you’re dying and then suddenly all your skills change and your health is dropping whether you’re being attacked or not adds another layer of confusion to an already stressful situation.
It’s a bit like if you’re lost in an airport, worried you’ll miss your flight and then a complete stranger comes up to you and starts demanding to know why you chose the bag you’re carrying, where you got it and if you bought it for this trip specifically. It’s something unexpected and strange which you probably could cope with on it’s own, but you’re already stressed and don’t need this extra weirdness on top of everything else. (Maybe not the best example but a true story and the first one that came to mind.)
I’m not sure how moving it back a few levels is supposed to help because you still won’t have a chance to learn what the skills do except by sacrificing yourself to read and experiment with them. But I suppose the idea is that new players will be more familiar with the rest of the game by then so it spreads the confusion out and makes it easier to deal with.
Spreads the confusion? Like being lost in an airport? Hahahaha! Everything that is wrong with the world, right there.
No, it is not like being lost in an airport at all.
You are in a game, there are 4 buttons, you press on…or don’t.
No big deal.
Tbh, downed state is what kept me playing past level 2. I was afk and bored and suddenly 4 buttons appeared.. what now, I thought? I pressed one and threw things. The enemy died I rose from the dead, newly empowered, revitalized and excited by this new mechanic…
Thus renewed, I contributed to charity, invented Facebook and become a hero to millions of starving children.
Thank you, downed state < level 5!
“Skritt, I’m hit!"
(edited by Exxcalibur.6203)
The idea of not having a downed state is terrifying. To just fall and have nothing to do but WP? How is that an improvement?
It’s til LEVEL 5
It’s hardly like they’re going through the whole game before they learn and get access to it.
The more you dumb down the game – make it more accessible, the more money you can potentially earn. There’s no learning curve, you can just pick up the game and play without knowing anything.
ahem…
they should just make a tutorial to show you how downed skills work…(force player downed, then keep player stuck in downed mode until the enemy is killed and the player rallies – and that shows them what rallies are too)
Then make them as visible skills in the skill ui area because it’s pretty silly that these are skills and they’re not listed anywhere besides the wiki.
Agreed with everyone else.
It’s not frightening in the same sense as a horror movie or walking down a dark street alone at night. But the fact that you’re dying and then suddenly all your skills change and your health is dropping whether you’re being attacked or not adds another layer of confusion to an already stressful situation.
It’s a bit like if you’re lost in an airport, worried you’ll miss your flight and then a complete stranger comes up to you and starts demanding to know why you chose the bag you’re carrying, where you got it and if you bought it for this trip specifically. It’s something unexpected and strange which you probably could cope with on it’s own, but you’re already stressed and don’t need this extra weirdness on top of everything else. (Maybe not the best example but a true story and the first one that came to mind.)
I’m not sure how moving it back a few levels is supposed to help because you still won’t have a chance to learn what the skills do except by sacrificing yourself to read and experiment with them. But I suppose the idea is that new players will be more familiar with the rest of the game by then so it spreads the confusion out and makes it easier to deal with.
Spreads the confusion? Like being lost in an airport? Hahahaha! Everything that is wrong with the world, right there.
No, it is not like being lost in an airport at all.
You are in a game, there are 4 buttons, you press on…or don’t.
No big deal.
I’d like to see you with kids growing up and confronting real life.
I’m not sure you understood a single thing I said.
I was attempting to use an analogy to explain what (I think) the blog post meant by new players finding the downed state frightening.
Being lost is not usually a big problem on it’s own. Neither is being late or unexpectedly being asked a lot of questions. But when they’re all happening at the same time it’s more stressful than when they’re happening one at a time.
Same with the downed state. A new player is trying to get to grips with their skills, dodging, positioning, all the stuff they need to do in combat and at a moment when they’re doing particularly badly (and therefore dying) the skills they were learning suddenly disappear and are replaced with new ones they’ve never seen before. They could learn these new skills too, but they don’t have time, they have to use them now or die.
(Maybe the airport analogy was an odd one, but I travel a lot for work and it’s the first thing that came to mind as the same combination of familiar and enjoyable when everything goes right and stressful and confusing when something unexpected and out of your control happens.)
Randomly pushing skills without knowing what they do is unlikely to achieve much because it makes it extremely difficult to associate cause and effect and doing nothing just guarantees you’ll die and achieves nothing at all.
I don’t know how anyone else did it but the only practical solution for me was to go to the wiki to be able to find out what each skill actually does and how they can be used, but having to leave the game to learn how to play it is never a good thing IMO.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
Agreed with everyone else.
It’s not frightening in the same sense as a horror movie or walking down a dark street alone at night. But the fact that you’re dying and then suddenly all your skills change and your health is dropping whether you’re being attacked or not adds another layer of confusion to an already stressful situation.
It’s a bit like if you’re lost in an airport, worried you’ll miss your flight and then a complete stranger comes up to you and starts demanding to know why you chose the bag you’re carrying, where you got it and if you bought it for this trip specifically. It’s something unexpected and strange which you probably could cope with on it’s own, but you’re already stressed and don’t need this extra weirdness on top of everything else. (Maybe not the best example but a true story and the first one that came to mind.)
I’m not sure how moving it back a few levels is supposed to help because you still won’t have a chance to learn what the skills do except by sacrificing yourself to read and experiment with them. But I suppose the idea is that new players will be more familiar with the rest of the game by then so it spreads the confusion out and makes it easier to deal with.
Spreads the confusion? Like being lost in an airport? Hahahaha! Everything that is wrong with the world, right there.
No, it is not like being lost in an airport at all.
You are in a game, there are 4 buttons, you press on…or don’t.
No big deal.
Tbh, downed state is what kept me playing past level 2. I was afk and bored and suddenly 4 buttons appeared.. what now, I thought? I pressed one and threw things. The enemy died I rose from the dead, newly empowered, revitalized and excited by this new mechanic…
Thus renewed, I contributed to charity, invented Facebook and become a hero to millions of starving children.
Thank you, downed state < level 5!
You understand almost nothing about how new players see the game. Furthermore, those skills do radically different things on each class, so “clicking buttons” might not help you or your team in any way, and could make things worse.
While what you say may be sufficient in solo play, as soon as the player gets into a party they will become a liability to the team because they are “pressing one and throwing things” instead of for example using their #2 and #3 skills in a way that allows them to apply CC to their attacker, move away to safety, etc.
The downed state needs to be properly explained to new players, so that they don’t have to learn these things “the hard way” in groups at level 80.
In fact, the lack of explanations about most game mechanics are why so many players receive discrimination in this game due to being “casuals” and “bads”. It has very little to do with their playing ability and alot to do with the fact that they are not exposed to that kind of challenge until the knowledge and experience are already needed.
Really, one of the biggest problems of PvE in a nutshell.
Daisuki [SUKI] LGBT-Friendly Guild Leader | NA – Jade Quarry
I’m usually really sweet… but this an internet forum and you know how it has to be.
/i’m a lesbiab… lesbiam… less bien… GIRLS/
I’m usually really sweet… but this an internet forum and you know how it has to be.
/i’m a lesbiab… lesbiam… less bien… GIRLS/
(edited by Hannelore.8153)
Just a short question to the other veterans out there.
What if they’d completely remove downstate in PvE?
- Would it touch the zerker meta? (In some ways I guess it’d make the gameplay less dumb for instances and bossfights because you’ll really have to dodge the right attacks)
- Would it even kill the zerker meta? (reason: boss survival>group survival)
- Would it encourage the zerker meta? (pushing balance of boss survival and group survival even more into the direction of the group?)
What do you guys think? I did not ask if you like this idea but what you think would happen to the gameplay!
~ Me Games Ma
Edit: Seems like some people got me wrong here, I do not think that they are removing this system but am thinking about what would be if they were to remove it.
Mindblossom – Sylvari – Mesmer – Jumpingpuzzler
Equinox [EqnX]
Riverside[DE]
Equinox [EqnX]
Riverside[DE]
(edited by Me Games Ma.8426)
It’s not being removed, people.
It’s being delayed until levels 5.
“For example, rallying from the downed state can be overwhelming to a brand-new Guild Wars 2 player. We’ve moved the downed state to unlock at level five so players have time to learn the basics of combat before they experience this system.”
Taken directly from this article
I play Fort Aspenwood, I lead the 8 member guild, Sacred Storm [Strm] I am Jason Goes Mental.
I don’t raid, I barely fractal, and I suck beyond words at PvP and WvW.
But I try, and that’s what counts.
I don’t raid, I barely fractal, and I suck beyond words at PvP and WvW.
But I try, and that’s what counts.
Well here is what Colins said about the downed State change.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2etzxq/a_fresh_start_the_new_player_experience_in_guild/
I’ve always said that Downed State is very discouraging for new players.
It makes them feel as if they made a mistake, when most of the time, it’s due to A.I. mechanics that they haven’t learned yet, or just due to terrible A.I. mechanics and visuals (1-shot hits). This is the real reason why i dislike Downed State.
It was good in theory, but it’s usefulness is rare. Most of the time, it just delays the respawning of a group, or the “defeated” player. It also distracts from the encounters, and people are busy reviving instead of focusing on the fight.
Sure, there’s that rare moment where it’s useful and it’s saved a group and yourself, but they are very few.
It could be revamped by making Downed State very rare, but then the A.I. would have to be changed too.
There isn’t an easy solution to it.
It’s hardly like they’re going through the whole game before they learn and get access to it.
As I said, my first few times through the tutorial I would die at the boss at least once each time, not being able to recover from downed state would suck.
“If you spent as much time working on [some task] as
you spend complaining about it on the forums, you’d be
done by now.”
you spend complaining about it on the forums, you’d be
done by now.”
They are not removing the downed state, they are simply moving it to level 5 and presenting it as an unlock.
They’ll still make the same complaints, just a few minutes later when they hit level 5 and get downed the first time.
The first time I got downed I was about level 3 and was facing a few level 5 mobs. I was grateful for a second chance at not dying.
There’s a great big red lettered text across the screen that tells you what to do.
how is down state “very discouraging for new players”? Wouldn’t it be more discuraging to die, have the mob heal up, and you have to pay money to wp back and try again?
When I was a new player, and I saw the Downed state for the first time, I sprang from my chair and ran to the bedroom where my cats were sleeping and I woke them up and said, “Oh my gosh what is happening!”
And they were like, “Dude. Have a Snickers or something.” I think the calico rolled her eyes at me. Rude!
Anyway, I had a Snickers and then I was like, “Oh, I get it – downed state, from which my character can potentially ‘rally’ if he or she can kill a foe, or, if I’m lucky, just straight up heal him or her self out of it.” And because I was playing a thief I was all like, “Lol, wut. I can move like three feet – oh yeah, that helps. Oh, and that three quarters of a second of stealth, bwahaha, what overpowered awesomeness is this! That will save me for sure! Every time!”
The table is a fable.
The more you dumb down the game – make it more accessible, the more money you can potentially earn. There’s no learning curve, you can just pick up the game and play without knowing anything.
At some point it stops being a game, and starts being a CGI cartoon.
Gate of Madness [MAL] EB
Yarr! I be keeping me pirate runes, Matey. Yarr! You’re welcome. Yarr!
Yarr! I be keeping me pirate runes, Matey. Yarr! You’re welcome. Yarr!
Yeah I’m not sure what’s up with being frightened by going into the down state. I knew about the down state before I even bought the game, just takes a bit of research. Even if I didn’t know about it I think it would take 1 time for me to understand how it works.
I always like to picture someone legitimately being frightened from things like the down state, like they move away from their computer and start freaking out and have to take a few minutes to compose themselves. I’m kind of mean like that.
Anyways I have to agree with what others are saying, even if it is moved to level 5 they will just be ‘frightened’ then instead of level 1, I think they just need to explain it in-game or use the intro mission as a controlled environment to place us into the down state during the boss fight and have the DE member make us invulnerable to give new players time to test each ability before reviving them.
Downed states have been a regular feature games for a long time by now. It’s not revolutionary.
The real solution was to either have a scripted tutorial sequence teaching you stuff like this, or if that’s too much dev effort, just pop up bubbles telling you what you can do the first few times you get downed.
Changing its appearance to level 5 won’t do anything.
First time I’ve seen it in an MMO.
We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
What would be useful would be a “Downed State” training NPC, where you initiate combat, and when you are put into downed state mode the NPC stops attacking you.
There, in downed state but not in immediate danger, you could have all the time in the world to mouse over your skills, see what they do, and use them against the training NPC. After you “kill” the NPC (but not really, you just lower his health bar to within a sliver of death) you rally, pop back up, and the NPC says “Congratulations, you are now familiar with the downed state!”
Or something like that.
the move-back of when the state unlocks is kinda silly imo, i’ve seen plenty of lvl 1-4’s die. maybe just do like some other games do, have a forced death that allows you to explain the downed state, maybe during the tutorial instance one of the mobs gets to insta-down you or something
What a great idea! With text that says something like, “This is the downed state. When you are reduced to zero health, you enter this state and have new skills. Take some time to review your profession’s downed skills now. The most important thing to know about downed state is that you can ‘rally’ back to the normal state if mob or player that you’ve damaged is defeated or downed. Thus, it’s possible that the best thing to do is to take down a low-in-health target with your #1 downed skill, or tag as many mobs as possible if in group play. When you’ve had time to review these skills, use your #4 skill to revive yourself. Later, when you are downed in combat, note that the #4 skill will cancel if you take damage while using it.”
Downed states have been a regular feature games for a long time by now. It’s not revolutionary.
The real solution was to either have a scripted tutorial sequence teaching you stuff like this, or if that’s too much dev effort, just pop up bubbles telling you what you can do the first few times you get downed.
Changing its appearance to level 5 won’t do anything.
First time I’ve seen it in an MMO.
People do play non-MMO games.
maybe just do like some other games do, have a forced death that allows you to explain the downed state, maybe during the tutorial instance one of the mobs gets to insta-down you or something
Back in beta, each intro end boss had a special attack that would spawn weak enemies that was followed by an attack that would down your character. This was the first downed, rally and revive experience, but you were left to figure out the mechanic yourself.
Then they nerfed it as well as the damage and health of all mobs in the early levels. Ettins for example could 1 shot an elementalist with their special attack back then.
The downed state is just another little challenge to face in the game – like when you you try a new weapon or face a new boss. For me, it was neat to discover that I actually got a second chance instead of just dying. After a few times with it you should be able to figure out what buttons to push to try to reach the desired result. It’s certainly easy enough to practice the downed state skills… You’ll (nearly) die dozens if not hundreds of times – or you could practice it on the dummies in the pre-pvp area.
Confusing? This is the stupidest thing I have heard all day. I was a new player when the game released, I remember being downed for the first time, not only did it take seconds to work out what was going on it neither worried me nor confused me.
Considering the downed mechanic will be introduced to new players at level five, I do not think it is anything to get up in arms about. Lets face it, if a player is so incompetent that they somehow manage to get downed before level five, then they need all the help they can get.
“I am Evon Gnashblade and this message is acceptable to me.”
Perhaps we can get at tutorial about entering water, as new players might be discouraged to find they are swimming and not walking…or a tutorial about trees to help people avoid walking into them. It might be something like, ‘Trees are hard and will hurt your face. Use the mouse to avoid these stationary objects.’
Or perhaps a tutorial to help players understand that weapons have different skills, as picking up a long bow and finding you cant smash it in someone’s face is discouraging.
Or perhaps a tutorial helping new players deal with ‘night time’ , directing us to a heightened awareness of time in order to avoid confusion and alarm.
This might lead to a gender tutorial informing us about physical gender differences, as it can be alarming to make a female character and find, well, gender differences.
All a bit traumatizing really…need a break.
“Skritt, I’m hit!"
as a newbie, I actually think the downed state mechanic is totally awesome, and pretty easy to understand. However there isn’t a tutorial about it (nor, come to think of it, do about 80% of the game’s features get explained without coming to a third party or pestering people in games)
I don’t see a reason for level restricting such a cool feature, but I do feel that new player tutorials need to be more extensive considering the vast amount of features in the game. If it wasn’t for friendly players taking all my nub questions, I’d be quite lost
Resident smug Englishman on the NA servers, just because.
(edited by rapthorne.7345)
Perhaps we can get at tutorial about entering water, as new players might be discouraged to find they are swimming and not walking…or a tutorial about trees to help people avoid walking into them. It might be something like, ‘Trees are hard and will hurt your face. Use the mouse to avoid these stationary objects.’
Or perhaps a tutorial to help players understand that weapons have different skills, as picking up a long bow and finding you cant smash it in someone’s face is discouraging.
Or perhaps a tutorial helping new players deal with ‘night time’ , directing us to a heightened awareness of time in order to avoid confusion and alarm.
This might lead to a gender tutorial informing us about physical gender differences, as it can be alarming to make a female character and find, well, gender differences.
All a bit traumatizing really…need a break.
As I read your post I have to wonder, have you ever been present at any kind of usability testing for a game? I doubt it. If you had, you would know how easy it is for new players to get confused on even the simplest of games. Maybe instead of ridiculing these people, you should develop a sense of understand. It’s important for game designers to develop their games so that as many people possible can understand them. It’s harder to do than most people realize.
The funny part is I didn’t even see the downed screen until I was at least level 5 anyway. I don’t really see the big problem with this change. I’ll admit I kept hitting all the wrong buttons when I was down though!
The way I look at it, the earlier you expose your players to the mechanics, the sooner they’ll learn them. Delaying it by 5 levels is just going to increase the confusion since it would never have happened prior. It’ll be like “Well, this is new”… and you’re back to square-one, never knowing which buttons to mash.
If they wanted to make it a mechanic to learn, there’s always the possibility of adding it as a part of the intro. A scripted event to knock you on your bottom, so you need to use the regen skill to get back up. Simple.
the move-back of when the state unlocks is kinda silly imo, i’ve seen plenty of lvl 1-4’s die. maybe just do like some other games do, have a forced death that allows you to explain the downed state, maybe during the tutorial instance one of the mobs gets to insta-down you or something
they actually had something like that, but they didnt really explain it much.
I think the level 1 fights used to have a guaranteed down, or at least a highly likely downing. Then the npc would yell something like RALLY!
it was a pretty stupid tutorial. They were really bad at tutorials, They moved it to level 5, but i would say the reall problem is that they never explained it well to anyone. To be honest the first time it happened, i was more confused about what hit me, rather than the downstate itself.
the move-back of when the state unlocks is kinda silly imo, i’ve seen plenty of lvl 1-4’s die. maybe just do like some other games do, have a forced death that allows you to explain the downed state, maybe during the tutorial instance one of the mobs gets to insta-down you or something
they actually had something like that, but they didnt really explain it much.
I think the level 1 fights used to have a guaranteed down, or at least a highly likely downing. Then the npc would yell something like RALLY!
it was a pretty stupid tutorial. They were really bad at tutorials, They moved it to level 5, but i would say the reall problem is that they never explained it well to anyone. To be honest the first time it happened, i was more confused about what hit me, rather than the downstate itself.
People said and repeated this automatic down thing, but I tested it even in the betas. It was never true. It game from an article, I don’t remember which, written by a journalist at the time who said that was the case.
You could go through the complete tutorial at any point in the game without being downed. I know because I did it.