Controls and Combat Mechanics

[Hannar]

Controls and Combat Mechanics


08-12-2011 10:21 AM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...=7050#post7050

I pop my pre-fight buff potions before some of the nastier fights, but certainly not before every fight.

08-12-2011 09:53 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...=7124#post7124

Wow, that sounds awful. *shudders*

And no, we don't do that. We buffer inputs, so if you mash the button quickly you'll get a basic attack chain, even if you mash it super fast. The only way you will NOT get that basic chain is if you deliberately slow down your button presses (this can lead to alternate attacks) or if you throw in a dodge or a block (or an attack with your other weapon) amidst your attacks.

Joe and the rest of the combat team have done a great job of making the combat feel very "purposeful"--between the way input is handled and the way the targeting system works, it's nearly impossible to make your character do something other than what you intended for him/her to do.

08-15-2011 11:52 AM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...=7488#post7488

Right now you use the mouse wheel to switch between your 2 weapons and attack with the left mouse button. The right mouse button is for casting spells, and you can switch the available spell using the number keys. We do allow remapping of keys as well. We'll continue to play with these and refine them based on testing feedback.

08-16-2011 02:32 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...=7707#post7707

If you use a 360 controller on the PC version of the game, you'll get the 360 controls and UI. The moment you move the mouse or hit a key, the game instantly switches back to PC mode (with whatever keybindings you've chosen), and vice versa. So if you want to, you can seamlessly switch between playing "PC style" and "console style" at any time. It's pretty slick.

08-17-2011 10:05 AM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...Reckoning+Team

Everyone demoing the game kicks major booty. What's it like for most people playing? Do you guys actually "discover candy," as you play, like Ken Rolston says, or do you guys all know the secrets of great combos and attacks already?

I'll jump in here and answer this one, as I’ve demoed the game a couple times at shows and for television. The folks, like me, who demo the game obviously have had a lot more time playing the game, so we’re aware of ways to string together combos and have our favorite ways to combine attacks and spells to pull off some pretty spectacular stuff. While I would like to attribute the major booty kicking to my spectacular skills as a player, it really is fairly easy to wreck your enemy in Reckoning with minimal practice.

To begin with, stuff like weapon chains, holds, juggles, parries, etc. are all explained to the player in our main menu. There is a section that is currently called "Moves" that shows you how to pull of combos like a pro. But the cool part is that those moves are fairly easy to learn for anyone. Most times it is something as simple as blocking an enemy’s attack, or delaying a sword swing a half a second, that will allow you to chain together some cool attacks. Combined with abilities and skills, it’s fairly easy for any player to knock out some pretty killer combos and feel like a badass by using only a couple of buttons or keys.

The "candy" discovery is when you unlock a cool new weapon skill or active ability that you can work in to your combat rotation. For example, the dagger hold attack allows you to dash between multiple enemies and stab them in a flash of steel. Once you unlock that, you may figure out how to juggle an opponent in the air, use the dagger hold attack, and bounce him around as you dash around stabbing the heck out of everything. Or you may unlock an ability that stuns an enemy for a second, which you can incorporate in to your combat chain and in turn allows you to add a hammer bash in to your weapon chain that previously would have got interrupted without the stun. It's a constant upgrading of your playstyle that should make you feel more and more powerful as you level up in the game.

08-24-2011 09:32 AM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...Reckoning+Team

I know you don't do your melee combos like God of War, with memorized combo system, but I was wondering whether or not we, as we progress through the game, will get, just as we get more abilities and upgraded stats, different ways to attack with melee. More combinations, more hits in the hit cycle and different aerial and ground attacks, or will be have access to all combinations at the beginning?

We’re focused on keeping combat fun and intuitive, and that means avoiding the necessity to memorize combos that entail quarter-circles and button combos. Despite that, we have maintained depth by introducing weapon specials like charge and contextual attacks, from Dodge, Block, and Parry.

When you start out, you won’t have many of the special attacks unlocked. You’ll unlock them by playing the game, and investing in certain abilities when you level up. The staff, for example, starts with only the base attack chain. After improving your skill with the staff (investing points), you’ll unlock a special attack that happens when you attack out of block. This Block Special can be used to suck enemies into an elemental vortex, lining them up and locking them down for a spell or chain of attacks.

08-31-2011 09:51 AM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...Reckoning+Team

What are some of the games that have influenced you throughout the development of this game?

This is a complex question, and one that I can only answer personally. As a Combat and Systems Designer, my contributions to Reckoning are weighted more heavily toward the action and mechanics of other games. For example, Secret of Mana is one of my favorite games of all time. It was the first Action RPG I ever played, and probably one of a couple that drove me into the industry. There were eight different weapons to invest in, each with their own specials and contextual uses! I loved the class customization this afforded me.

Defense of the Ancients and League of Legends have also been hugely inspiring. Both of these games have almost a hundred playable characters, each with their own set of abilities. I love dissecting the characters, trying to find their niche in combat. When I read what the abilities do, I look for both observed and contextual uses. I ask myself how the abilities play out if the enemy is stunned, cornered, or amidst a group. I also play a lot of Street Fighter and BlazBlue. Although they have fewer characters, their move lists are considerably larger, with significantly more depth.

In Reckoning, I look to design systems and combat mechanics with both observed and contextual uses. I like to think that giving abilities a clear, observed use, makes the game accessible to anyone, while the contextual uses offer depth to people as they become more immersed in the game.

An example from Reckoning: A Frost Trap explodes, launching and slowing an enemy who walks over it. Harpoon allows the player to pull enemies toward him in an instant. If combined correctly, you can pull an enemy through a Frost Trap with Harpoon, launching him in front of you, and setting up for a vicious chain of attacks from your favorite weapon!

08-31-2011 05:36 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...1098#post11098

You will need to go into aggressive mode to do damage to NPC's. It's a simple button or d-pad directional press to indicate you want to kill NPC's.

08-31-2011 05:41 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...1101#post11101

D-pad left and right are health and mana potion quick use. Right now D-Pad up is agressive mode toggle. Of course this stuff is how it stands right now, and there's always potential these mappings could change.

09-14-2011 10:02 AM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...2905#post12905

Are there going to be different difficulty levels available for players who wish to challenge themselves? If so, are there plans to enhance enemy AI instead of just buffing damage and HP?

Reckoning offers three difficulty levels out of the box for players of all experience and skill levels. We’re hoping to cover a broad enough range with these difficulty levels to satisfy everyone from the casual gamer to a hardcore action gamer. When crafting the gameplay and tuning the moment-to-moment experience of Reckoning, we thought a lot about how to appeal to both of these sets, which is why we ended up with a combat system that allows fantastic moves without memorizing combos, yet still lets players find interesting attacks to string together.

Obviously, hit point amounts are an easy way to start scaling difficulty, but in Reckoning we try to go beyond that since there's more to being challenged than just being able to take fewer hits before death. A skilled player that puts the difficulty level up a notch has already mastered dodging and blocking, so what's the point if they still don't take any damage? Likewise, a more casual player may be able to handle the basic mechanics of combat, but might instead have trouble dealing with the pace of combat itself.

So while we certainly take advantage of adjusting hit points with difficulty, NPC's in Reckoning scale the frequency of their powerful attacks as well as change how many can be attacking the player at any one time. This isn't to say that easier difficulties won’t see powerful attacks, but a player choosing harder difficultly levels may also have to contend with several of these attacks from many directions.

09-16-2011 10:15 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...3510#post13510

That's absolutely correct. There are 9 weapon classes, and some of them (Daggers, Faeblades, and Chakrams) always come in pairs. So you get a pair of chakrams as a single item, and can equip that as your primary or secondary weapon. This means that you could have a pair of daggers equipped as your primary weapon (X) and a pair of chakrams as your secondary weapon (Y). The primary and secondary weapons aren't representing your right and left hand; they're more like the "weapon swap" concept that you see in some other RPGs--just faster and more fluid than the norm, allowing you to combo between the two things at will.

(for the record, Daggers and Chakrams are actually a really sweet combination)

As for Flamechamp's question about damage output on the weapons that come in pairs: it's a single number representing the pair. So we don't say "one of the two daggers deals 5 damage and the other deals 6." We'd just say "this pair of daggers deals 11 damage."

Note from a Lore Nerd: From a fictional perspective, it's worth calling out that the dual wielding style of knife fighting is very popular in the Faelands during our time period, hence why you generally find daggers crafted in pairs in Reckoning. (If you watch some of the more rogue-ish enemies in the game, you'll notice that even they wield two daggers rather than one.) There are some instances of standalone daggers that you may come across while playing Reckoning, but they're generally utilitarian (think butter knife) or ceremonial in nature, so you don't equip them as weapons.

09-18-2011 03:37 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...3841#post13841

That brings up a good point, how will the controller work as far as the keyboard goes. Can I be lying down on my bed using my tv as my computer monitor and be using the controller to play while having my keyboard sitting on my bed next to me (my keyboard has an unnaturally long chord for whatever reason) and say ... hrm what would be a good example of something a controller couldn't do ... I'll go with "use the keyboard to hit f5 and quicksave while using me controller to play the game"? Basically everyone always says you can use a controller OR a mouse and keyboard as your input, but no one ever says "well why not use a controller and keyboard but not the mouse". Is that a viable controller scheme for this game? (Maybe I should re-ask that in the ATD thread)

Any time you touch the keyboard or mouse the game will automatically switch to using those controls and vice-versa with a controller. It's pretty sexy.

09-19-2011 10:14 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...4008#post14008

You can pause during combat.

What they probably meant is that the combat is all in real-time--i.e. You don't pause the game to select a spell/attack from a menu before using it. Even that is a little misleading, though, because you CAN pause mid-battle to use items from the itm radial if desired.

09-20-2011 10:01 AM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...4071#post14071

The item radial is currently accessed by hitting Left Bumper and it allows you to use items that you have mapped to the radial and pauses the game while you are choosing. I like to put all of my potions here. Also to clear up an earlier question, you cannot save in combat. You can save everywhere else.

09-23-2011 03:21 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...4746#post14746

You hold down left and right trigger at the same time.

09-28-2011 06:46 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...Reckoning+Team

How is the 'Reckoning' weapon chosen? Is it a player choice or some aspect of how you destiny impacts you in game?

When you go into Reckoning mode, the Reckoning weapons are super versions of your character’s equipment. They are larger, and are ethereal, but retain all of the same stats and damage effects (along with a significant damage boost).

Now when your character performs a Fate Shift, the Fate weapon is specific to the Fate Shift being done. Sometimes these are using weapon classes that you may never see in the rest of the game. For instance, when Fate Shifting a Banshaen, because she's such a nasty fish-like creature, the hero forms giant ethereal fish hooks to tear her apart with. Fate Shifts are spectacular moments of pure dominance over the enemy, so the hero conjures the best weapon we can think of for the job.

10-01-2011 02:11 AM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...6156#post16156

You can change your difficulty setting whenever you wish. (Warning: Doing so may have an impact on certain Achievements)

10-09-2011 02:54 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...8127#post18127

It's also amusing from a psychological perspective; lots of folks in this thread make great points about how just increasing an NPC's hit points isn't actually making the game harder, which is true from a lot of perspectives! However, if you give people two different builds of a game where the only thing changed is how much damage enemies take before dying, they'll rate the harder-to-kill enemies as being "smarter." No kidding.

(Note: Not actually referring to KOA:R in this example. But it holds across genres!)

10-26-2011 02:39 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...Reckoning+Team

Block almost seems non-directional. I am sure it is possible Joe is just that good, but watching the Brigand's Hall demo, there was clearly a second where he was blocking, facing one Niskaru, and the other came in 180 degrees behind him, but it still blocked. Was he just that quick or do you block and or parry no matter if you are facing the enemy or not as long as you have the button held down or you time it right (for parry)?

You are correct. Blocking and parrying do not require any directional input. As long as you hold the button down you will continue to block. But don't think that it's too easy! The difficulty with blocking and parrying really comes from whether you're committed to a strong attack or not.

Your basic weapon attacks can be canceled immediately into a block or parry, but they aren't very damaging. Your most damaging attacks are your weapon combo finishers, unlocked weapon special attacks, and magic abilities. Once you begin one of these larger attacks, you are giving up the luxury of being able to block instantly, thus making yourself vulnerable to enemy attacks.

Blocking isn't perfect defense, either! Shields can only block a flat amount of damage, so you can't go up against, say, a high-level Rock Troll and expect to block every attack without taking any damage. On top of that, some of the larger enemy attacks will force your shield out to the side, and open you up to a follow-up attack for a brief moment. We call these attacks "block breaking" and the only way to get out of harm’s way after being pushed back with one of these is to dodge or teleport out of the way.

10-26-2011 02:39 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...Reckoning+Team

Because of the Destiny system in Reckoning, your character is set up to be a real powerhouse. I am aware of Reckoning's difficulty setting, but what other measures will be taken to ensure that players will not be running through Amalur with such a powerful character being pit against opponents who do not measure up?

Great question! This is a unique design challenge we ran into when we started out, because we didn't want a highly skilled player to be able to dominate extremely high level enemies. We really want your RPG choices to matter – the investment in skills & abilities, the armor and weapons you have equipped, and Destiny you have chosen – these should all play a larger impact on combat than your ability to parry or kill groups of enemies without getting hit.

The answer to this question could go on for a while, so I'll limit myself to three points: One Versus Many, Enemy Variety, and Over-Leveled Enemies.

One Versus Many is a great way to think about our combat as a whole. The hero in Reckoning IS a powerful being, and fighting against one enemy is rarely a challenge. Fighting enemies in groups presents the real combat challenge. While a strong hero can juggle a single Murghan until it's dead, doing so with two other Murghan and a Banshaen is a sure-fire way to get flanked and take a lot of unnecessary damage. So, you’ll need to think about where each enemy is, be on the lookout for incoming attacks, and consider the presence of any obstacles like walls or poison pools. Our combat camera does a great job at keeping all the enemies on screen so you have all this information and aren't getting hit with any cheap shots.

Enemy Variety is how we keep things fresh and keep you on your toes. We put a lot of effort into making a bunch of enemy types, and keeping them different enough from each other so no two enemies fight exactly the same way. Then we thought about how these enemies fight alone, how they fight together, and how they fight when mixed with other types of enemies. This gives us a huge palette to try out different combinations, and be really creative with how we challenge you with groups of enemies. One of our most devastating combinations has turned out to be the Ettins and wolves. Ettins are strong melee fighters and try to get close to the hero, but are moderately easy to keep at bay by themselves. But when they are paired with a single wolf, the wolf will use its long range running attack to hit you, and by the time you've recovered, the Ettin will be right up in your face – often with a flying leap attack!

Finally, fighting Over-Leveled Enemies, or baddies that are much higher than your player level, is an exercise in futility. They will shrug off attacks as if your weapons were feathers. Their own attacks can't be parried, and they have bonus resistances to damage and stun. When these action elements are combined with the sheer damage numbers they can deal out, the fights are clearly not in your favor.

These are just three examples of how we keep things challenging for you. We can't wait for you to get your hands on it and see just how fun it is.

11-02-2011 09:45 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...Reckoning+Team

How will attacks work on the PC? (What buttons are currently used in place of let's say X, Square, O and Triangle on the computer?) What steps did the Reckoning team take to make sure PC combat without an XBox 360 controller is as fun as combat on the consoles?

We've spent a large chunk of development time, and more importantly, play-testing time on getting the PC controls to feel right for Reckoning. At different stages of the project's development, we've put the game in front of players from outside of the studio. During these sessions, people will go hands-on with the game for a few hours or more with no guidance from us. Meanwhile, I (or another designer) watch through a one-way mirror and takes notes. Many of those players have been playing with a mouse and keyboard instead of a controller. That is where we have gotten a lot of our most useful feedback on what we are doing right and wrong with our PC controls.

Attacking in the default PC control scheme doesn't have an exact 1:1 remapping from the gamepad-based control scheme. On a controller you can attack with one weapon by hitting X (or Square on a PS3 controller), and attacking with your second equipped weapon with Y/Triangle. On the PC, your weapon attacks are tied to the left mouse click, and you have one weapon available at any given moment on that click. However, you can quickly swap to a secondary weapon by scrolling the mouse wheel, similar to switching from an assault rifle to a handgun in a first-person-shooter. The right click on the mouse is used to cast your active spell. This "left-click weapon, right-click spell" setup allows you to quickly mix weapon and magic attacks mid-combat.

You can map additional spells to your keyboard’s 1 through 0 number keys, which gives you 10 options to quickly swap to as your active spell. This is a big difference from using a controller, where you just have 4 magic options to quickly switch between (one for each face button – X, Y, A, B). The rest of your basic combat suite is rounded out with dodge on the Spacebar and blocking controlled by holding down Shift.

11-02-2011 09:45 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...Reckoning+Team

I've heard that the console versions of Reckoning will have a few presets you can use to customize the controls but what about the PC version? Will it be fully customizable or something similar?

Every keyboard press in the answer above is from the default control setup. They can all be remapped to whatever buttons you prefer. Dodge with shift, block with control and sprint with Spacebar, if you'd like. It's very customizable. And if you're playing with a trackball, or any mouse without a scroll wheel, you are free to move the secondary weapon swap command to a button on the keyboard that works for you.

And worth noting, you can always plug in a USB controller if you'd like the play the PC version of the game but prefer console controls. The game's UI will even dynamically change itself based on what controller you are currently using. When playing or testing my work on the game here at the office I actually find myself using a controller to do all the fighting and exploring in the game and relying on my mouse when I'm navigating menus. I'm not sure many people will utilize the quick swapping of controls to that degree when they are actually playing the game, but it's neat that it's there.

11-26-2011 11:49 AM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...4868#post24868

I'm tempted to tell you all about the mechanics of the sceptre, how it works, why it's cool, and what role it's bested suited for in combat...but I won't, because we've already got some sweet new info on that planned for you a little bit down the road.

I will say, however, that although recoil on the basic sceptre shot is minimal, that's definitely not true for all sceptre attacks. The recoil varies--as you might imagine--based on the power of the shot, and one of the sceptre moves which Phil hadn't unlocked yet in the Game Informer video literally sends you flying.

12-03-2011 12:58 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...6465#post26465

I can safely say if you want a game that is NOT easy to roll through, you can make Reckoning that game. The combat, on normal, to me anyway, is perfectly challenging. I'm going to get stomped if I play eyes closed button mashing. But I can 'get good' by paying attention and make the game 'less hard' if I get good.
It's a combat system, imo, that's very easy to intro to, but very hard to master.

12-03-2011 01:29 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...ll=1#post26486

There is absolutely a Legolas feel to the archery combat when you get good at it. Also, as a rogue/hybrid rogue, when you start to realize the depth to the combat system and you integrate traps with bow attacks and in close execution of opponents, and you realize and see your stats impacting your combat, that to me was when I finally realized the "Deep RPG stats" DID feel incredible with a GoW/Fable style combat system. That's where I think this team absolutely nailed it, and absolutely did something no ones ever done in one game.

12-03-2011 08:40 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...6603#post26603

I've never seen them in game, not even sure we have a toggle option for them. If we don't I am pretty damn sure there is a design reason for it. If that's the case it's a feature we can agree to disagree on. Pretty sure when the time comes someone will make a creature level mod that tags them
I personally don't like it, never have, always enjoy a MOB danger being visual in color or UI feature rather than a number.

12-07-2011 02:04 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...7315#post27315

Quick Correction, though I will never refute my Jedi skills: The frequency of Fate Shift Kills in the video is a result of editing. We ran through the demo twice, as well as played around in the world for some time after just to grab some more footage. Everyone will play the game differently, but "the way I play" I fill my Fate Meter every 10 minutes or so. Even then, I tend to be conservative with my fate until I come up against a big Jottun fight or mini-boss fight.

12-11-2011 12:35 AM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...8562#post28562

Not much of a twitch guy either but was stunned by the fact that I felt better and more powerful by just reacting a bit more or less at times. There's a feel to each combat style more than there is button pressing combo's, and as I've played through the early game styles it feels to me like the more comfortable with a class I get, the better at combat I get.

12-11-2011 02:57 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...8697#post28697

If you do decide to play that way (on PC, with both controller AND mouse/keyboard) I recommend mapping your most frequently used active combat abilities to 1-4 and your sustained (i.e. toggled) abilities to 5-0. Most character builds won't have more than 4 active-use combat abilities*, so that you should give you good in-the-moment access to things like Storm Bolt or Wrath right on your controller while letting you quickly/easily toggle on/off whatever sustained abilities you have without having to remap anything.


* Bear in mind that all of the weapon-based abilities require only the weapon attack button and perhaps one other general combat button (like block or dodge), so you don't need to worry about mapping them to the ability bar. Ditto for some of the "upgrade" abilities like Tempest--to cast Tempest, you just need to hold down the button to cast Storm Bolt, rather than clicking a separate button. Basically the idea is to give you (especially in the late game) a lot of options for your moment to moment combat with as few buttons as necessary and little to no "combo" memorization.

For example, here's the suite of stuff one particular Mage build might have access to at any given moment (without remapping anything even on the console). This is a pure-mage Ljosalfar character I was recently playing with. She's level 20, using the Sage Destiny, and her weapons are a Flame Staff and a pair of Frost Chakrams. On a moment to moment basis (without remapping anything or changing her gear loadout), she can...

1.) Do a basic 3-hit attack chain with her Flame Staff by hitting the primary attack button.

1b.) Switching between Staff and Chakrams before completing the chain will let her continue attacking incessantly, but if she's willing to commit and complete the attack chain then she gets an extra strong blast in.

2.) Charged Entropy - Hold and release the primary attack button to float into the air and charge up a big AoE burst of fire.

3.) Mage's Vortex - Hit the primary attack button while blocking to slide backwards whilst sucking all enemies in front of her together via a vortex of flame and wind.

4.) Arcane Fury - Hit the primary attack button then delay a moment before hitting it again and she can send forth a rising wave of flame that lifts enemies into the air.

5.) Do a basic 4-hit attack chain with her Frost Chakrams by hitting the secondary attack button.

5b.) As with the Staff, she can choose to either switch off to her other weapon before completing the chain for a faster rate of attack, or complete the chain for a single strong hit.

6.) Maelstrom - Hold and release the secondary attack button and she'll charge up her chakrams then send them out in a broad loop, knocking down enemies in a wide range.

7.) Elemental Escape - Hit the secondary attack button then delay a moment before hitting it again and she can slam down the chakrams and hurl herself backwards, distracting enemies and buying her time to get off a larger spell.

8.) Ice Blink - Hit the dodge button and she'll "blink" (teleport) a short distance, leaving a trail of ice magic in her wake. This can be used either as a pure evasive action or even offensively, but deliberately teleporting -through- enemies. The ice effect will slow those enemies down.

9.) Orbital Blades - Hit the secondary attack button right after teleporting and she'll throw her chakrams into a vertical loop, launching an enemy into air and keeping him there as the whirling blades strike again and again.

10.) Hit the block button to bring up her Frost Talisman and block attacks.

10b.) Hit the block button right as an attack is incoming and she'll parry it, discharging the frost magic of her Talisman into the enemy for a few seconds. If other enemies are clustered close, it can affect them too.

11.) Hit the Storm Bolt button and throw a burst of lightning magic, damaging and stunning enemies in a small AoE.

12.) Hold down the Storm Bolt button to cast Tempest, bringing lightning bolts down over a large AoE.

12b.) If she gets hit when she's in the middle of charging up Tempest, she'll be interrupted...but the lightning will discharge out of her and into the enemy who hit her (provided it was a melee attack).

13.) Tap the Healing Surge button for quick bursts of healing or hold it down to channel a larger amount of healing energy (while leaving yourself open to attack).

14.) Hit the Mark of Flame button and she'll tag enemies with a magical "mark."

14b.) Hold down the Mark of Flame button and she'll detonate all the marks.

15.) Hit the Ice Barrage button and she'll hurl a torrent of ice shards toward a foe.

So that's at least 15 active things I can choose to do in the middle of a fight, even using only the controller (not the additional options granted by having the 5-0 keys available for abilities on the PC). And that's ignoring the fact that I've also got Sphere of Reprisal (a defensive spell) on, which I toggled on earlier and then unmapped so I'd have more buttons free for active stuff. What's extra nuts is that this isn't even a top tier character--for instance, if I level up a bit more I can get the Winter's Embrace ability, which will give me a heat-seeking snowstorm I can cast by just holding down the Ice Barrage button (still no additional mapping needed).

....ok, I'm done rambling now. Got excited there.

Back to your regularly scheduled thread (great thread, btw).

01-04-2012 10:40 AM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...Reckoning+Team

I really liked what was said in the last live dev chat, about how enemies react to you attacks. It makes me think of really great action games like GOW or POP where you constantly have to occupy all the enemies by hitting them repeatedly while also having to block. But I was wondering, for the game not to become too easy, can the enemies also block the player's attacks as well, or maybe just some of the stronger ones?

Only a few enemies can actually block or parry, most notably the Bolgan because of his large shield. Other enemies can evade attacks with dodges, jumps, dashes, and rolls too (which is more often a better defense than simply blocking) as well as flank, heal, and control space with their attacks. The larger enemies are strong enough to take a few hits before being interrupted, so they force you to defend when they attack. Your strategy of attacking enemies to keep them in hit reacts is a strong way to play the Reckoning, and the best strategies should always culminate in a way to minimize incoming damage and maximize your damage output. I have to say that in Reckoning, and this comes with lots of play experience, a good defense is absolutely necessary to survival. In short, it’s definitely not too easy.

01-17-2012 02:31 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...1010#post41010

Yes, [the ressurect feature is] just for the demo (due to the lack of save/load).

01-19-2012 05:57 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...4402#post44402

Very simple answer to this because the first time I played I asked the exact same question. You can have weapons, or shield, not both. You COULD have both, but then you would have some insanely ugly clipping at a minimum and Todd and the team eventually decided since there are a crap ton of awesome weapons and VFX associated with them, those would be what we want to show off. I was adamantly opposed right up until I saw the mage talisman come out, then I was ok with it

01-20-2012 04:27 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...5511#post45511

Quick reply

What you see on the inventory screen is always going to be just the base damage of the weapon itself. As you noted, you'll see the damage you deal out change in game though.

01-21-2012 03:11 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...6459#post46459

I'm on the road so I can't check right at the moment, but I'm about 80% sure the final balance pass on both sceptres and lockpicking happened after we branched off the demo.

01-30-2012, 08:17 AM
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthre...=#post34684428

If you care to read the shield thread on the Reckoning forums check it out. I was, and I emphasize the was, in total agreement about the lack of a shield as I moved.

Heard the reasons that decision was made and many have already been mentioned, but the most important one, or one of them, was the decision to choose. We could have had weapons and shield visible, but that was an issue for animations, clipping and some other stuff inside our combat system.

Ultimately the weapons, in depth and breadth, are so huge and so many that we wanted them to be the visual eye candy out of combat.

I hear the LOD stuff and I ain't touching it because there are far smarter folks than me that can explain what the demo is doing and/or if that is different than the game, and if not why not.

So many issues not present in the final code made their way into the demo that honestly surprised me, even with a demo of code that was carved out of the full game, things you would not think would be impacted, were.

01-30-2012 11:31 AM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...6770#post56770

There have been a couple requests for this. I'm not opposed to trying this out, but the reason we didn't do this initially was for a couple of reasons that I'll detail here:
1) targeting is done by moving in the direction of the target. If you are using the ability bar on the PC, then that means you are using some combination of WASD to target. So your left hand is already in use for targeting.
2) Some abilities have multiple presses associated with them (like Quake, Wrath, and Elemental Rage). Rapidly pressing a mouse button is much easier than rapidly pressing a number key, especially if you want to be target switching mid combo (see #1).

I realize that the presentation of the abilities creates the expectation that they will use on press (like any MMO, or Diablo), but the functionality has more action game similarities, so we put the use of the action mechanics on the mouse.

Again, I think it's worth some of my time to look into, it just might be lower priority than other things like camera.

01-30-2012 01:31 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...6922#post56922

This is a hidden feature, but if you have SCROLL LOCK set to ON, then hitting a key on the keyboard won't switch your input.

01-30-2012 01:32 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...6926#post56926

I think we're talking different paradigms here, aren't we? The camera issues all seem to revolve around fps precision vs. 3rd person camera without strafe. Is it technically feasible to add a slider option to "tighten" the controls somewhat? That would alleviate a bit of the two worlds in my book. As i said different backgrounds make things feel weird so i'd welcome some method of bringing them together, especially since the game takes such a fantastic approach of bringing gamers favorites together. As a PC Gamer with strafe/jump/aim mechanics in my blood i am at first a bit taken aback by the "lack" of jumping, strafing and precise controls.

Indeed. I have a prototype of this working on my PC, and I think it works pretty good. I'll make a video later in the week and send it out.

01-31-2012 10:03 PM
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/s...9270#post59270

Thought you guys might like to see this post from NeoGaf

I'm 15 hours into the game right now (on 360) and was able to get six in on what was called the "post alpha" version during a press event in October. While I'm still under embargo, feel free to say that none of my demo complaints are there, including my issues with the camera. I don't know if it's been adjusted slightly or if I'm just adjusting myself, but no issues. I also have trouble believing that I'm playing an open-world RPG, because I'm not finding any bugs or having the game crash on me.

I've said it before and will say it again, the combat system is awesome in this game. Anyone who finds themselves simply button mashing should try some different combinations of weapons, moves, and skills. I thought I would go mage to start with, but am now doing a perfect jack-of-all-trades build. Daggers, chakrams, feyblades, melee skills like quake, harpoon, magic barrier, stealth kills. My little Varani gal can really tear things to pieces. I wish I could take screenshots on the 360 easily.

I think you guys will find the 4 button thing might go away once you get a bit into the game, realizing that the four buttons, while never growing in number, have more than just 'mash' as a way to use them.
Does that make ANY sense?