Hey Guys and Gals,
(This all Pre-new dawn. )
I want to like paragon, I really do. It’s a gorgeous game but I feel like it is missing a very large element. It’s not crisp.
Crispness in a game is a feeling of timing and mastery, it is the feeling of the weight of your actions. And in a MOBA I think one of the most important elements in the game design. The thing that I find missing from Paragon is the feeling of the weight and timing of the actions. For example I think that Both Super Smash Brothers Melee, and SMSB Brawl, were to very crisp games. In Melee, you would need to get certain actions right on the frame, if your timing wasn’t perfect you couldn’t wave dash, and you weren’t as good. But once you mastered the timing it was pretty accessible to use in a match.
What I mean by crispness is a close to one to one ration where each input, gives you back an action on screen. If I do a lot of inputs, and most of them are ignored, the game feel distant and not crisp. These games could be like strategy games and don’t feel “in the moment” Think of a game like civilization 5. You can click around a lot with out having significant action.
With last hitting in a MOBA, if it is not crisp, I don’t feel like Im doing anything other than watch the time go down.
But anyway, I could talk theory all day, what do I want to change?
This lack of crispness is across the board, but is most felt on melee characters. I think it has to do with the design
of the “cool down.”
So here is the challenge: How do you keep the game crips i.e. matching inputs to onscreen action-- yet still have variables for attack speed?
What is happening now.
Pseudo code:
On mouse down --(f) is attack available? N-- Do nothing Y–Attack Animation–> Set attack not available – Wait (attack speed index).
So what this does, is make it so I can press my mouse but 20 times, and it might only swing the attack 3 times. It’s not crisp at all, there is not a one to one ratio of inputs to onscreen execution of the inputs. This makes me feel super distant from the game and not engaged. Increasing the speed doesn’t change this.
What I suggest instead is a completely different way of looking at melee combat. Instead of the sequence being attack, then cool down. It should be the “cool down” first.
Ie a charge up:
On right mouse button down-- Wind up melee strike–. wait (attack speed index)-- Set Attack is available
On left mouse button down-- (f) is attack available-- N-- Do nothing Y–Attack Animation
In this case a melee attack would feel tangible, you would have the mastery of the timing of it, and also still be able in to factor for attack speed by have a quicker wind up speed or a slower one.
I think the basic reason why this is an issue, is that certain elements of isometric view MOBA’s do not translate to 3rd person style game.
Anyway, cheers the game looks gorgeous I just wish it was more fun. And I want it to succeed.
-Jordan