TLDR: I have to mostly agree to disagree personally.
The battle disciplines to me are dirt simple. The battle disciplines might come off as more complex because the medium is VR and not a keyboard with hundreds of usable key-combinations and macros. Combat complexity is something important to me, I liked to be engaged when I fight. I enjoy risk and getting that adrenaline flowing. Raid fights will at the least get your attention active, but even then I donât exactly feel threatened at any point in the fight. I donât feel the urge to try and speed my DPS up. Death also has no cost whatsoever in raids or dungeons, other than losing the time you spent/pots(and resources are abundant besides the fish- but pots last an hour). Unbending is also a terrible idea, it was only kind of fair when every mechanic 1 shot you. Itâs fine that some mechanics do that. There are some effects that do not immediately kill you now, which is nice. I personally would enjoy seeing something akin to a bullet hell on some of the hardest bosses, where your failures/successes have consequences, with people tasked to doing multiple things and maybe some everyone-dps-the-boss all at once phases. Healing/Tanking is eyhhhhh in this game, imo. Why? Because there are no resources, only cooldowns. As long as your healer/tank can endure hell itself, and the DPS can keep up with simple mechanics/not get 1-shot, you will achieve victory. True the longer you take, the longer you are rolling the dice someone will slip. I am anti bullet-sponge. Reasonable scaling is important. New players need weaker enemies as they learn, and experienced/better geared players will destroy unscaled enemies. Itâs desirable to have mobs that are not pushovers, but the challenge in advanced gameplay should come from evolving, interesting, mechanics not from taking 1000 more unnecessary hits with the strongest weapons available in game. I enjoy âfair randomnessâ or âreactive gameplayâ where you canât simply just predict what is -exactly- going to happen & when, but the event is also not going to just 100%->0% wipe your group flat out for bad RNG. Situations where the players must be aware & react, rather than purely predict & plan. A degree of randomness throws a wrench in your plans and challenges the group to recover or suffer from it. Not every fight needs this. This exists to some extent⌠but usually in uninteresting ways(adds healing the boss, floating blue balls, line-attack might come from 1 of 2 directions from the same origin point). Itâs not highly engaging, often you donât even to really move, and the mechanics usually arenât chronologically close together. Thereâs also few times that mechanics overlap. One example of where they do, the 2nd boss of airship, you might hop in the green circle & he shotguns at the same time (a bad spot, since ur tank just moved there too). Cool, you might want to hesitate jumping in there & this will apply pressure/quick decision making to you. VR combat should flow and be immersive, the current gameplay for feels little different to me here than being on a keyboard where I am mostly idle and DPSing down with a simple rotation, occasionally dodging some mechanic or killing an add.
Even the world events, like the shoot-the-shielded-mobs with a catapult have interactables that allow you to engage your environment for some light VR immersive purpose. Go ahead and throw explosives at me, shoot arrows at my head, throw a boomerang, charge forward at quick speeds, burrow underground(worms), explode on-death(instead of waiting to slowly explode⌠why not explode immediately upon death & just deal less damage(that isnât 1/2 ur hp?)? So I donât have to wait like 5 secondsâŚ), perform a charge-up attack I can physically dodge IRL / hamstring or slow me so I canât just TP-dodge everything? Or a move-while-charging attack rather than standing still every time? Rather than shield an enemy, why not enlarge/buff the damage of an enemy for a different kind of threat? Disarm my weapon (make it translucent?) for X seconds? Make a barrier that absorbs ranged attacks, or a barrier that absorbs magic damage & forces me to swap targets (if I am a mage)? How about an AoE damage buff that goes onto an enemy and punishes any players standing near the mob (and its just more dmg for the tank to eat?) How about knockback? If it were a slower knockback effect, would it really be that disorienting (I am fairly non-disoriented by VR, so maybe for some?) Bring back those good old line attacks either instantly doing damage or acting like a beam/ray attack. Or AoE effects like the ghost people from preborn that you have to get out of, just donât make it red-zone/insta damage like it used to be⌠we have the technology in reborn (and itâs great!). Throw some sticky tar under my feet that momentarily prevents movement/teleportation or eats away at my stamina quickly, down to like 25%(or maybe even 0%). I liked how terrifying tigers were with their leap attack and their damage output. Why not add an actual leap-effect(that is, there is movement to be seen, not teleportation)? If I were a new player, and a tiger literally leaped at me from a bush and destroyed my face I would probably poop my pants. In preborn I was always very aware of my surroundings and looking for tigers. More smaller bleed effects, not just curable poison? Reduce my armor? Reduce my magic resist? Add an occasional annoying mob that has bad threat handling, sort of like the shard affix, to keep the tank on their toes? An alert patrol mob in raids that has low hp, and if it sneaks up on you and sets off the alarm, you are gonna have a bad time? These types of abilities, alone for example the tar ability, may not seem so threatening. But then you begin to pair them. -oh- this enemy group can AoE snare me, and do a crazy AoE⌠I really better not get snared! Furthermore you can begin to code in advanced logic for these pairings. For this group, if in the same group an enemy has the tar ability, for shard level 5+, wait rnd(0, $difficulty) seconds for the tar ability to go down before using the AoE ability if the tar ability is up within 3 seconds, else just use it whenever as normal. Or the mob that doesnât hold aggro, now itâs been buffed with the AoE damage effect & has ran to your backline. The players must react & deal with the situation. Players start to think more carefully about CC/interrupt, timing cooldowns, dodging/positioning, kill order⌠etc (strategy/thought/involvement is born). Open world lootable chests, maybe even picklocking, and mimics? How about the occasional polymorph, that is, you turn into a chicken/toad whatever (3rd person view? or 1st person? not sure how others would feel about this - 1st person = disorienting? 3rd person = non immersive? Iâd personally be okay with having a sudden 1st person view as a chicken. Maybe you can give them a screen effect first or like shrink them down to size gradually [from the playerâs perspective, instant to others]). How about an enemy shaman and you can destroy their totems? How about weapon-parrying vs melee attacks as a warrior that reduces your damage rather than nullify it, gaining extra riposte damage on your next attack & just to not over-rely on the shield? How about more interesting talents/arrows for archers, maybe even let them equip more than a few arrows? Maybe their arrows are changed for X seconds rather than just a single shot? Like an arrow-specialist, as opposed to the now nerfed speed-shooter(that some players previously enjoyed) and the slow-shooter ranger. For dungeons, like airship, instead of slowly getting portals on your ship, why not have a badass ship-fight shooting cannon shots/running cannonballs(that is someone runs a cannon ball to it, you chuck it in, and like light a fuse with a torch-object while grabbing the cannon & aiming it), where you can actually miss your shots, all while they shoot those little arrow things at you (from the portal event) on top of crap teleporting on your ship? If you fail, the dungeon resets (rather than hitting respawn and just re-attacking the next group, or whatâs left of itâŚ). The enemy is trying to kill you & damage your cannons, they are shooting at your ship and damaging the hull. You can impede their progress by damaging their cannons with your cannons. Maybe you end up getting boarded by boss #1 (and you are still being shot at, ie you need to kill the boss quick and continue some mechanics in the meantime), then having to board their ship for the last fight (thats more than you being simply teleported, for example flying over them and being dropped onto their ship or gliding over to it / over some cool scenic battle & landscape.) Then to finish the dungeon you scuttle their ship and bounce on back over to yours, watching it crash/burn/explode whilst exchanging fist bumps and collecting your loot. Or how about in the Jungle (which is typically a really dangerous place) add more environment effects? A dense forest area with mobs that blend in, hp bars not showing. Bog creatures that lie underneath the bog, popping out to attack you as you explore an a particular swamp area of a map. Standing in the bog lowers your max stamina & stamina regen by 50%. Spiders that drop down from above (ie I am just listing ambush mechanicsâŚ). Though you might learn quick and get a hint when you enter a specific kind of area. âWeird, all this spiderwebâŚbut where are the spiders?â - âoh.â Have the spider cave be very dark, and add a torch/lantern tool, and give use to the light potion/light spell. Be able to burn cobwebs with the torch(or fire effects, like fireball/fire rain arrow, or slashing with a sword), or if you walk through them you get a slow-effect applied to you temporarily(maybe even aggro for certain webs.) Fighting a variety of mobs, to include jungle themed mobs in preborn was more interesting than more stick people in the first zone. If anywhere, the stick people actually make more sense in the jungle (in addition to other mobs though), and the first zone feels out of place. I get the lore, to some extent, why they are there but the end result is just weird altogether.
This is just a stream-of-consciousness post of random ideas, may not every idea above is gold or even -exactly- what Iâd want, given more extensive thought, but they to provide a general sense of ideas that I think are good.
Itâs a lot of personal preference, but I am very a combat oriented player. I think combat in this game is incredibly simple. I very much enjoy the VR aspect to it, physically swinging a sword and such. I just wish that the combat & class building wasnât so simple. Iâd at-least have reloading mechanics for scoundrel, but really a lot more. Iâd have different weapons & combos / playstyles for warrior. Iâd have sets of additional spells or spell-effects to pick from for mages with clear advantages & use-cases where one simply does not dominate the other because one ability is either so bad or niche(aka, âyou are a bad mage for taking that poop abilityâ). Want to be a very single DPS oriented mage? How about some support spell options? How about mechanics where those support spells look valuable (because basically only DPS matters as long as ur tank/healer can survive)? Honestly why not at this point just have a caster-healer specialization w/mana that canât fireball etc? A different set of spells, maybe altogether or partially. I might want to heal but musketeer and bard(especially, in itâs current state) both are not appealing. I might want to play warrior but I may want to do more than use a sword, spam all the day few very basic combos, and maybe not use a shield? Like a DPS warrior, with hammers, dual wielding, spears? etc. This variety gives players the ability to find something they like, and play a variant which resonates with them, & not every player is the same. They get to play around/explore the combinations of things and grow into their own playstyle. Shamans canât move, why not let them hold a totem in their hand? I literally could go on forever. All this does is simply enrich the game and add options to enjoy the game. In the Orbus VR trailer, you can see people ducking/dodging enemy attacks, I think even multiple times? To be fair Iâve never tried ducking under the cyclops laser⌠Iâll have to try that (but probably die immediately instead?). Why not make the cyclops spin faster and actually make this a mechanic? Maybe he does that AOE ability on 1/2 the platform (so you will die if you try to get behind him) and then he does the laser, with a wider laser, and basically force you to duck? Perhaps rocks start falling from the ceiling (and telegraphing on the floor) while he laser beams, not in a circle, but aimed at a random player (with speed) & leaves a burning effect on the floor momentarily that damages players standing in it. The beam doesnât instantly kill, but it does high damage very quickly. The player being chased has to be mindful to not get other players hit whilst dodging themselves. If they stand right next to the cyclops to run tight circles and allow players to stand behindd them(as this would be a cheese strategy), have the cyclops whack them in the face for standing too close and do like 50% their hp a hit while still chasing them with the laser. Maybe add some of these features as a higher level shard mechanic (shard 5+?). Also @ the trailer thereâs a guy smacking away at harvesting as if the distance/speed of his swing actually mattered at all (it doesnât). I very non-immersively lightly tap whatever it is I am harvesting, and if itâs ore I just kind of shake my hand at it and itâs still â1 swing.â
Lastly there must be the carrot, the reward. Combat itself should be fun, in some games combat is also the reward. Orbus is an RPG, there is loot & progression not just combat. If I can simply go farm the easiest creatures, and my RPG goal is to farm dram or some resource, I am probably going to optimize my farm which could include killing easier creatures. This is a bad formula if this is the case for every item Iâd want. There needs to be reward/advantage, to include unique rewards(over killing regular or weaker mobs) for taking on more challenging content(like preborn wilds/abberations - as a single 1 example). For example, in preborn, people often grouped up at like level 16, etc to take down the level 20 worms for XP & loot (when dungeon loot/xp was poor). Now you are just handed the best weapon from one of the first chests you get while leveling up. You can even choose to not explore new areas and just do dailies/events. Valuable loot should not be so easily handed out, otherwise it loses all meaning. It removes goals/activities when you are simply handed everything you want. Itâs like entering a cheat code in a game that just gives you everything, what is the fun in that? This includes increased chances at rare drops, certain rare drops altogether, unique rare drops (specific loot tables), increased dram, xp, naturally the grinder applies here (it will go to higher levels with elites), weapon/armor upgrades & rarity, quests requiring elite kills, and the reward of fighting more challenging enemies(in addition to the other benefits) / if you are grouped then social interaction. If you were grouped doing weaker content, it becomes boring because you will just demolish everything. Harder content that favors groups inspires social interaction, friend making, conversation while you farm, guild recruitment, information sharing, literally anything involving multiple players which is a fundamental component to mmorpgs. I farmed my J-for-jester item with a musketeer because [a] it made sense and [b] it was more fun to hang out with a friend. If I were 1-shotting all those mobs, and they were super easy to solo, why would I want someone in my group when my overarching goal is to farm the rare item(and in this case, non-tradeable so even worse). To clarify, itâs okay to have some rares which can be collected solo, but itâs imperative to require groups as well to obtain some rare or sought after items. To do harder content(or to do it more efficiently), you will want to be better at your class & seek better gear. The entire cycle of personal development/taking on harder content feeds into itself. Also, specific loot-tables/rares give value to all encounters. You might prefer killing stick people as fast as you can, but if you want -specific item here- you are gonna have to go out of your way and kill that other mob too. Suddenly your crypt +# is more valuable to you than your broken halls shard(which is super easy) because you can only loot some specific cosmetic you want out of crypt +#. Maybe the item is tradeable, so people who already have it are also interested in taking a crack at getting it. Maybe the item is consumable, so there is a repeat reason to go.
You could say I have high standards, maybe I do? Iâve met many other players who share similar standards and desire to see this kind of content in a VRMMO. This kind of content doesnât appear overnight, but the kind of stuff I am describing is indeed possible for a game like Orbus without any kind of major performance hit even for quest users. I donât think we are so limited. Now, put 60 people together at a world bossâŚand yes, but that is already the case.
People like J, from what Iâve derived, just want the gamebreaking bugs fixed(and some content like rare loot). I think that is the natural case for all players. What Iâve written in my posts is what Iâd describe as the biggest problem, for me, which includes gamebreaking bugs/content/more. A wholesome MMORPG with more developed features, quality over quantity (yet enough variety). 15 meaty bois and not 40 skeletons.
