The sheer number of buttons is just not fun

Heres a genius idea. If you think you have too many abilities... dont use some.

....using a keyboard with a single button labeled " NUKE " that he could then bash his face into repeatedly?

perhaps.

A simple cascading macro system like Rift has would solve most of the problems, allowing the combination of reactives and instants, making more room for situational/utility abilities on the hotbars.

It seems that too many design teams feel “clicking bunches of buttons” is what makes for an addictive game rather than granting good output for a select number of needed abilities is what sells lately. I’ve come to feel this game could benefit from a degree of ability consolidation and conversion to passive boosts in some cases. While it might get me shot at, I’d even turn class “energy builders” into auto-attacks. It’s about having fun in the strategic management of one’s limited resources rather just banging on fifty keybinds.

The amusing thing about the typical learn to play argument in regards to ability consolidation in order to combat ability bloat in MMOs is that it boils down to someone telling you to buy a multi-button gaming mouse and gaming keyboard so you can pretend to be skilled cause you’ll click keybinds faster than the average PC user. Who says gaming isn’t pay to win for many, right?

Don't need a ton of abilities to make combat fun or hard or engaging. Lots of people are drawing false correlations between combat difficulty and amount of different abilities. Should have one filler/resource builder (or dump) and the rest should serve a specific function. Look to LotRO's warden or runekeeper classes for different approaches to traditional combat. Of course, SWTOR is very traditional--and that's putting it politely.

Not to be a downer, but myself and many others asked Bioware to have Assault and Sundering Assault merged into one ability for Juggernauts. We received no reason as to why this wasn't an option, and as you see, nothing has changed. I doubt fundamentals will be refined until pink slips start going out.

we do need macro, if only for the chat functionality and its many applications , LFG messages, raid warnings, just fun vanity or role play things.

wtb macros

Pretty much this.

My assassin has a ton of skills. But for the most part, my usual rotation is... six or seven abilities: Flurry, Thrash, Death Field, Crushing Darkness, Creeping Terror, Discharge.

Then I have my CC in Electrocute and Whirlwind.

After that... I use sprint to close gaps/get around, and my stealth skills to evade enemies. Force Shroud/Force Cloak for escape.

That's everything I use with any kind of regularity. Oh, Recklessness, because it's a decent steroid and doesn't use GCD.

My powertech might actually have a larger rotation.



I could go for simple macros. No branching functionality, no looping functionality. Under no circumstances should the structured program theorem kick in. Ever.

The word " Fused " caught my attention.

Take those situational abilities off the GCD , introduce macros and merge or " Fuse "
two abilities into one hotkey spot, alla Rift , or WoW , probly some other games have this.

I'm making the comparison to reaction abilities in other games that are often triggered by some combat occurence like block or dodge etc.

I agree too many buttons.

the major difference is, in WoW you can have an absolutely slick interfacxe with various cooldown/proc/duration timer bars (or whatever way works best for you) and other visual cues, allowing you to focus on gameplay.

In SWTOR we are stuck looking at tiny icons at fixed positions for procs and dot durations etc. The only way to check your cooldowns is to stare at your bars. this was acceptable in 1999. It's not in 2012.


the problem is not the amount of abilities. It's the complete lack of any meaningful UI customization that would allow you to focus your eyes on actual gameplay. That's what is not fun.