Combat changing update needed?
 

Title says all. i was thinking we need a change in the way we fight, becuase its just clicking. Sure, its fun, but there's no skill to it. I do have an idea, but first i wanted to see if everyone thinks we even need an update to combat.

No no, I like it the way it is..plus theres really no other way on the computer...when you play xbox, or ps2...you are still simply clicking...Go buy a Wii then u wont have to click xD

But I like combat the way it is... I mean it is unique and I love all the different kinds of weapons. I think what we need is a change in the way enemies fight, they should make combo moves and should use El Patron's weapons.

I don't think it should be changed either, it's not a focal point of the game and it really doesn't matter to me. Simplicity helps this game a lot, so let's keep it that way.

Well, they way i was thinking isn't that complicated. Its really simple.

For example, i was thinking for guns POTCO should remove the aimer, so its more skill in that factor. Take aim would be like in other games where you should stare down the barrel and get a clearer shot. And it would be more inaccurate as guns were in those days. Guns are way to over powered anyways.

I promise you, doing an update like this would definitely make me stop playing it. No other MMO I know has as fluid of combat at POTCO. Honestly if you add having to press buttons or click buttons to attack it would probably add on a stamina bar. It would probably try to limit how much damage you could do within a certain amount of time.

Simply put this would not at all make the game better, but instead push it into a direction similar to FFXIV. FFXIV is currently completely remaking is Battle System because the game was weak from the time it started with its combat. When just doing basic attacks you could hardly do four attacks in a row without growing tired.

We don't need an update like this when the combat is simply the only reason most people I play the game with enjoy it. Stripping the combat out of POTCO would make it feel like any old MMO such as WoW or Rift. They are good in questing sort of ways, but have no true fiber after questing for many players.

Leaving it the way it is would be great.

But honestly, I would love to see what your idea for the game was earlier. I truly want to see a weapon revolution where players can start to find Shot guns, Dual Cutlasses, Dual Daggers and repeater rifles.

Maybe a staff that can control Nature such as a Geomancer.

Still, we do need an update that takes more skill that clicking. I mean, i see what your saying, but a weapon revolution isn't really that needed, seeing as we have way to much overkill already.

Wait, what was this idea of mine earlier? i mean, i have lots of ideas lol.

Taking away aiming would really annoy some people, mostly younger aged ones, and as I stated earlier, complicating combat isn't necessary for this game and shouldn't be added. It makes the game go smoother and makes it easier for people to play. After all, it's just about fun..

If they fixed enemy lag they could make them move at normal speeds, equip ranged weapons for if we're running, etc. Think of it this way, enemies, will always hit you even if their avatar is 15 feet away. Even PvP enemies are really lagged up. If you could add enemies that were programmed to run around enemies it could add more flavor. Maybe some enemies that used Weapons such as blunderbusses and rifles. You could easily see where I am going. Yes it could make things more difficult, but if you shove all of this on a new island it could give players new challenges. Honestly, yes they need an update to make things more difficult in combat, but that doesn't come with stripping down the combo system. It comes by making new types of enemies that use a variety of weapons.

I would also enjoy a tone down for certain weapons and some durations to be noodled. By noodled I mean knocked down from 30 seconds to 10. certain abilities in the game last too long. Some players abilities don't work right anymore, and there should be some abilities to break out of others. For example using Ghost form and rolling attack should be able to break grave shackles. The fact that flaming cannonballs no longer burn ships is crud as well... Not to mention, as much as it pains me to say, Cutlass attack levels should be lowered, and damage done by combo moves should be reduced. I know there are many changes needed, but they won't just pop up out of nowhere by changing combat to turn based.

I completely agree that combat is way to easy and after a while, boring.
But this game is aimed at younger children, not teens or adults. So you don't see any hard storyline, quests or even bosses, which can be solo'd being the same level as the boss.

The things that I think they could add (without making combat complicated, but adding more challange) is :

• Faster enemy attacks.
• More HP for enemies
• Reducing gun damage, which is killing everything in 1 hit, pistol or blunderbuss.
  

Also, these changes would only apply to high level enemies. At lower levels, weapons don't kill enemies in 1 hit. But as you get past lv 40, enemies start to get a lot weaker.
Also, not much young children would be able to get past lv 40, so it wouldn't make the game impossible to play for younger players.

The more I think about it, the more I want to start playing POTCO... The combat is perfect the way it is, in fact one of the reasons I love this game is because of the combat. Also changing the system would upset ALOT of people, and what might sound like a good idea for a high lvl player could be a deathspell for lower lvl players, take Take Aim for example, not everybody has rank five Sharp Shooter, most lower lvl pirates take alot of damage just letting it charge, imagine taking a wild guess aiming you're gun, only to have it miss, now imagine having that happen MOST of the time...

Also nerfing pirates is the WORST possible way to fix the " the game is to easy" problem. They should just make an island full of lvl 50-70 enemies!

Have to agree with this mate about gun damage as well. I do believe oh so very much that the power of these guns makes them too powerful. There will always going be some weapon that is too powerful when compared to others. Which means POTCO has failed to balance the game since the addition of the Fine Cutlass. Honestly the weapons felt too powerful to be added at the time without enemies being update. I though back then that they would have enemies who switched to pistols when at a range. I am still waiting now, and I know it is truly going to bring the game back onto its feet.

Honestly I also believe Broadswords are a bit too strong when compared to other weapons. To attack in all directions and take out enemies at an increased range when compared to cutlasses. This makes them already a vantage weapons, but adding more damage to them definitely gives a bonus. Not to mention the abilities of many Broadswords make their 4th combo move even stronger. Meaning any enemy even close to the user is hurt with extremely low chances of survival. I do wish greatly for these weapons to be balanced, and you guys feel free to express yours feelings about guns and swords. Tell me what you think.

Change COMBAT!! Oh noes-LOL that's me!
Seriously, though, I enjoy what we have. The one thing that I noticed lately, is that many enemies move after the first hit. Maybe it was like this for awhile, but I seem to be the last to notice things. (I blame it on the rum)

I think what should happen is that you only take damage if the guys sword passes though you, and the combo would be much harder to do. Another thing is that you should be able to "buy" new combo moves at each trainer depending on your level. More customization, more things to spend money on, and improved combat. yet its skill kept simple. Whats to lose?
Does anybody else think people jump way to high?

Yeah, you guys are right about the whole balance thing. Guns are wwaayy to over power and take no skill at all, (same with staff and doll) so i that's why i suggested changing it. As for the whole take aim thing, i guess your right and we should keep the bar. But not the aimer. And a decrease in damage would be nice too.

As for staff and dolls, well they are voodoo so there supposed to be hard. So i was thinking for dolls, what you'd have is a bar next to you with a series of bars and dots, and you'd have to run your mouse along those bars and dots and once you finish that the move is made. I guess to balance this out, dolls would have to do more damage. And it would be different for each move. for staffs, you'd do the same thing but at the end you click and drag a bar up or something to the top, then the move is made. Again, its different for each different move.

I know, kinda a shaky idea, i guess. Tell me what you guys think of it.

I see what you're saying Seaking, but in my opinion Swords are overpowered, a single Blade Storm can take 3/4ths of a Thralls health, and combos do insane damage... In fact I think every weapon is overpowered for it's own reason. What they should do is instead of nerfing pirates, which would make a copious amount of people unhappy, they should simply and something for us to use those skill points on. I mean what is the point of using an overpowered skill point in something you could kill with a Rusty Cutlass? I think we should keep our skill points, I just want something worthy to spend then on...

Its as I've said before, when they added level 15 weapons like the Stiletto and fine cutlass weapons went way over the heads of our enemies. It wasn't much of a challenge when using the level 10 cutlass as a level 40, but thanks to the addition of these weapons things became way out of whack. They don't need to entirely adjust the power of the weapons, but it is the power of the combos. The amount of power you get from Rank 5 moves should be the power of these moves at Rank 8. They should be weapon bonuses. I believe this to be so because when certain weapons with +3 to a combo can at times add 200 points of damage or more. Simply put, if they are going to do that, keep it reasonable. I once had a person using a broadsword and only hitting me with a single combo move, but still beating me thanks to a combo bonus.

That is a good idea, but do you think combos should be harder to execute?

lol, take a famed blunderbuss or a repeater with critical hit.
They will do damage thats twice the life of the thrall, and makes even swords look weak :laughks2:

In my opinion, these 2 weapon types need to get balanced the most:

• Guns (not including blunderbuss, which has already been nerfed and is a lot more playable now)
• Throwing Knives

Pistols hit 6k and repeaters hit 4k (8k when critical hit activates) with max take aim and steel/silver shot, which is WAY more then the average lv 50 enemy HP. (not going to take about bosses, since their level is mostly 35, so I guess they should be easy)

Throwing Knives, on the other hand, has the complete opposite problem. They barely do any damage at all (unless they fixed that)

Well, throw knives make up for that with the fast rate of fire, like saber.

Daggers and Knives would be fine if they knocked other weapons down a good bit in power. Look at the Staffs Desolation power ( I know, it isn't entirely the strongest staff skill thanks to it being so slow). They used to be relatively usable to defeat enemies in battle. Not you can use a broadsword to kill twice as many enemies in no time without sacrificing HP. The swords have been pushed out of whack.

And guns and dolls and our cannons and our ships are WWAAAYYY over powered. Even our ships's speed is way outta whack.

The only thing about doll that is out of whack is the life drain effects in PvP. Doesn't do much damage, but it heals you about 60%. Otherwise dolls are just crud. Honestly I would have removed running while casting on the doll if I were a dev, but that is just my opinion.

I just think that you'd maybe have to click a series of arrow keys for voodoo dolls and staffs, but for staffs it would be much harder. Its much simpler than my last idea.

The combat itself doesn't need to be changed, but I'd like to see some additions to it.

We need things like "Lock Attacks", which would occur when you and your enemy strike each other at the same time. For swords, this would cause you to have to click the mouse fast, to do extra damage to your enemy. I won't go into detail, but Lock Attacks could be a great addition the combat, while not changing how it actually works. Still clicking, and combos, only if you happen to attack an enemy at a certain point, or time, you're "locked" to each other.

Anyways, I love the combat in the game, but certain, small additions could make it even better.

I'd like to see more interactions between weapons, to be honest. Like holding a voodoo doll and a sword at the same time. Imagine the possibilities of holding two different weapons. Two swords, or a sword and a pistol. Or a pistol and a voodoo doll.

But only time will tell if the combat gets more interractive. It's fine the way it is now, although additions would make it amazing.

Double wielding?? I think our overkill has gone way to far already mate!

But really, how does being able to deflect attacks by clicking on their sword sound? And making combat much more interactive, like Macironhawk said.

It would actually be very simple, if you think about it.

Example:
While holding the sword and the doll, all of the attacks are giving at the bottom of the screen. Depending on which hand wields which weapon, the attacks for the sword and doll could be on the left or the right.

You can select the doll attack you want, and while clicking to attack with the sword, you can use the Ctrl button to attack with the doll. Now, what if you want to combine attacks? Simple! There's a buttom inbetween the sword and doll attacks called, yes, combine. You select the doll attack, and if you want to sweep, you first hit combine, then, sweep! If you selected swarm, you can have a swarm of bugs combined with a sweep.

Of course, these combinations would mean many more cool looking attacks, and would create an almost endless amount of new attacks. Please, keep in mind this would add greatly to the combat, while keeping everything we had before intact. The downside? The amount of work the developers would have to do would be huge! We're talking probably a year or more, working on these combat updates alone. But it would make the combat in this game amazing.

I enjoy POTCO, and this update would do a lot, but it's up to the developers, not me.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, the power of these dual wielding weapons would mean a need for new and more powerful enemies. Of course, more islands could fix that easily.

More enemies are i must, i don't think anybody disagrees with you there.

Honestly... PvP has never been teh main focus of POTCO. It is still the Red headed step child, but POTCO will probably never add dual weilding due to the fact there is PvP. It is already unbalanced and unfair for players who may have returned like I have. I mean, it has been two years since I came back, and this loot system has completely been good to me. Sadly enough the Seven Seas cutlass and Blade Shark Blade don't cut it when they only people who really search for PvP have weapons with combo point boosts. Honestly seeing as there are two stages I would just shut the lag fest down. I run PvP on a sub 4000$ computer, but it is still laggy as can be. Sadly for all of the fun I have in PvP it is a let down, and overall ruins one of the main aspects of the game for me.

Honestly I would shut it down and add new levels and more islands. Think about the grand old server search between all servers to find other players for your match. Yes I believe in new enemies, I just hope the next bunch doesn't look like a bunch of PvP clones or a load of yellow aura-ed ghost freaks.

I agree with new high level enemies completely, but just don't see it happening. POTCO doesn't seem to make very much updates for higher levels.

Also, another great leap for weapons is when POTCO finds the difference between single target attacks and area of effect (hits mutiple targets) attacks.
If I could choose between a pistol (assuming there are more 3 enemies fighting me, and I want to kill them the fastest) that hits 6k to 1 enemy, and a blunderbuss (before nerfed) that can hit 10k to all enemies, I would probably got for the blunderbuss. Why? because instead of doing 6k damage/hit, I'm doing 10k+10k+10k=30k damage total to all enemies.

It makes sense to have weapons that hit mutiple enemies do less damage then weapons that only hit 1 target, but in POTCO, weapons that hit lots of enemies often do the same damage then single target damage weapons, if not more.

i hate WOW because of the combat and i dont want potco to become that complex

Who said i thought POTCO should have a crazy complex fighting system?

I also agree that the combat in WOW is more complex than it needs to be. To be honest, you have to try just to get to the attack you want. At least in POTCO, you simply select the attack at the bottom and click.

As far as PVP goes... what we need, is a third island, near the SVS islands, which if for PVP land combat only. On the island, jumping would be disabled, of course. New game aspects like hiding in bushes, and under rocks and what not.

The island could feature two castles, both ruined and at opposite ends of the island. One castle would be french, and the other spanish. This could introduce more quests, and clothing items, along with cool spanish and french dual wielding swords,\ or other new weapons.

The problem with PVP in potco is that it's not balanced enough. A PVP island would be absolute chaos, so what we'd need to have is different areas on the island, specifically for certain weapons. A small swamp for dolls and staffs, and large open areas for pistols and muskets. There would be a small forest for swords.

PVP in this game has a lot of potential, like many other things. I can't wait to see where this game goes in the next five years.

Complex doesn't mean hard. I soloed WoW to 80 in two weeks, decided it wasn't the game for me. Really is a huge overrated load of dung.

Also on the PvP island thing King, I could see many big things out of this island.

Red means that this idea is Copyright to Haruka and any process of copying will lead me to thinking you is a bad people.

Dark Green means you will hear(hear, see, whatever, you can feel me... feel me figuratively that is..., forget I said this in the parentheses, READ ON!) an idea that has not come out. But came upon me from either Mac or my own thoughts.

What you need to know

They do need to balance weapons, but here is my idea, pirate enter without any weapons. Chest hold all weapons, and pirates cannot be harmed without holding a weapon or digging. Each loot bag/ loot chest/ skull chest would consist of four weapons. Based on how the battle is going you will get better weapons if you are losing, and worse weapons if you are winning. In the beginning you can find things like lower powered standard weapons in loot chests. Crude weapons in Bags, and rather much stronger common weapons in skulls. There will be only crudes for the team ahead by a good bit, (5 or so kills should be a decent lead.) They should ban all healing spells except for Healing boost. Healing with a doll when your enemies are dead just isn't fair, you have enough time to heal if you are a decent pirate anyways. Digging is the next big thing, you can dig for Rare items and sometimes special things such as full team potions that increase power for certain weapons, or even the chance to use a navy cannon for 12 seconds.

Hiding

This would involve jumping into a hole you dug up or in bushes, maybe even in Cellar. Check Mac's post to see more on this.

Type of PvP

This is pretty much just going to be about Team Battle PvP. I am sure POTCO could not afford 8 castles. Alright, here we go.

Castle Defense: teams would battle for power over the island in a group versus group PvP session. Pirates can use staff powers such as Desolation to make some rubble crumble, use explosives to destroy some of the castle, or use a land cannon if one becomes available.

(Available weapons that are available consist of the Sword to protect your castle. The staff to help destroy the enemy castle. Muskets to attack enemies from a range. (bushes and various other hiding spots make your musket a bit weaker, but can prevent other snipers from locking onto you. And of course grenades to destroy the foundation.

Check back tomorrow for more ideas.