Active blocking

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Tank active blocking with a Shield in Alpha-2.[1]

The shield version would probably be better but you'd still be able to parry or whatnot with a two-handed weapon, or even maybe a dual wield.[2] – Tradd Thompson

Cleric active blocking with a Shield in Alpha-2.[3]

Active blocking is a universal skill that applies to all classes.[4][5][6][2][7]

Active blocking might be an ability that- it's universal, of course it's universal- but it might be consuming mana; and you'll be able to adjust that mana consumption based off of your passive spec into your skill trees. In addition, it might also consume stamina, where that's something we're going to be testing as part of Alpha-2.[6] – Steven Sharif
Q: How are you designing encounters around active blocking? Will it be situational use, or would I expect to be laying on my block keybind for most of the fight to prevent getting deleted by bosses?
A: It depends really on the type of adversary you're facing. Some of them are going to have indicators or tells that a big attack is coming. It's an animation wind up where you'll have an opportunity to use active block in very unique situations that are based on timing and additional mitigation for those incoming one-off attacks. In other occasions you'll be able to use it off of rotational cooldowns, or if you're waiting for a particular ability or you're during the use of your Aegis. There's different situations for when active block is a relevant use-case.[10] – Steven Sharif
  • Some abilities may be able to overcome, surpass, or cancel active blocking.[4]
If a player is in a state, such as an active block, or an active tumble state, there will likely be some types of abilities that interact with reacting to those types of states and will either overcome surpass or cancel out those states, particularly as it relates to not just active blocking, but also potentially passive blocking as well; and that would be something probably related to physical penetration values as a stat, or even CC breaks that could be relevant as well for those types of things. I think that's on the radar for the combat team.[4] – Steven Sharif
  • Previously the developers had not finalized designs for active blocking and were leaning toward using more traditional buff-oriented universal damage mitigation for the MMO, and were also considering interaction between action-based blocking and a passive block stat.[11][12]

Dodging

Dodging in Alpha-1 early combat.[14]

Another thing that's important about these action combats is the ability to dodge and moving out of the way of certain skill shots.[14] – Steven Sharif

Evasion moves such as dodging and weaving will be present in Ashes of Creation combat.[5][15][16]

So you see an animation windup that's a telegraph on what's coming; and then you have response actions that you can take as a result of that in order to dodge, weave, move, do whatever. It is both a combination of what your rotation is but also how you have reaction abilities ready to go that you save for certain circumstances that are important.[15] – Steven Sharif

Combat revamp

Alpha-1 split-body melee weapon combat sneak peek.[18]

I can move while swinging on this guy. I can back up then continue to attack him. Just have complete control over my character while attacking.[18] – Steven Sharif

A revamped combat system will be rolled out during and post Alpha-1 testing based on player feedback.[19][20][21]

  • The goal is to give more agency to the player and achieve a more fluid flow of combat with greater mobility when using abilities.[22][23]
  • The current hybrid tab and action combat system will remain after the revamp.[22]
  • This revamp will not represent the final form of combat, but will set the general direction that combat will be taking.[24]
  • The revamp will be iterative and will be rolled out to testers in different phases.[23]
  • The developers will be testing whether or not to use global cooldowns GCDs on different types of abilities during Alpha-2.[25]
    • As of July 2023 global cooldowns are not currently in the game.[26]
    • Instant cast abilities are referred to as off-global-cooldown or OGCD abilities.[26]

The revamped combat system will feature split-body animations, where the character's upper body can be locked by weapon attack animations while the lower body is free to continue moving.[18][27][28]

You'll be able to move forward while swinging your weapon; and this will allow you complete control over your weapon attacks for melee.[18] – Steven Sharif

Alpha-1 combat was focused on core functionality rather than combat balance.[28] Alpha-2 combat will include archetypes, significant ability support, augments, split-body combat, weapon attacks, and many additional items, among other things.[29]

Directional attacks

There will be directional attacks (back attacks, flanking attacks, frontal attacks) that deal additional damage depending on the positional context of the attack.[31]

Cleaving

Weapon attack cone in Alpha-1.[32]

As I attack I am hitting multiple numbers of these opponents; and that's important because all weapons, regardless of whether you are in reticle mode or tab-targeting mode will be able to have a action-based type weapon attack. Not active skill, but weapon attack.[32] – Steven Sharif

All weapons have a forward attack cone, regardless of being in tab or action mode.[32]

Polearms for example will have a much wider arc and much further out. Daggers will have a more fine-tuned arc, so you have to be more precise in that regard.[32] – Steven Sharif

This is described as a weapon attack not an active skill.[32]

Mobility

Revamped Alpha-1 Mage Fireball ability.[23][21]

The general approach that we're taking based on a lot of feedback and just good combat design in general. You know philosophy is that we want to give more agency in the hands of the player and the antithesis of that is locking the player down for really long amounts of time. The sort of concept behind that is like you could make an animation effects as glorious looking as possible but if it's taking away control of the player, none of that really matters. Especially the 100th or thousandth time you're using the spell you're tired of that happening you don't feel powerful: You feel the opposite of powerful. So we're trying to like give a lot of control back to the player while they're using these abilities so they can still control their movements, they can react simultaneously while they're taking actions; and we just want to get overall more of a fluid flow, I guess, of combat. And that's the general design philosophy we're using to approach the overhaul.[23] – Tradd Thompson

A lot of abilities you have the capability of moving while casting. It's going to decrease your movement speed significantly or depending on the type of ability. We do reserve the cost- and that's really what it is when you tie ability usage to mobility- we do reserve the cost of requiring the character to remain stationary on some big effect type abilities.[34] – Steven Sharif
  • Most abilities in Ashes of Creation are capable of being cast while moving. Some abilities may slow the caster down during the cast, but only rarely will the player be rooted in place.[34][36]
Most abilities you'll find in Ashes of Creation are capable of being cast while moving. Some of those abilities might slow your movement during the cast, but you can continue to move. Very rarely, and depending on obviously the importance of the ability or the power level of that ability, you might be rooted in place. So, for example, the AoE ability [Chains of Restraint] has a lot going on. It has damage ticking over time, it is an area of effect, it also has a status condition application; and in those instances the player character gets rooted.[36] – Steven Sharif
  • Unreal Engine 5 has enabled improved forms of locomotion, such as crouching, tilting and mantling.[39][40]
    • Crouching may or may not be in the game.[41][42]
  • The ability to prone is not be in the game.[41][42]
There's a balance in the game design between your movement speed on attack and the movement speed of your opponent. When you have a game that is both PvE centric as well as PvP centric, you have to make sure that combat is blended for both approaches; and we can always run into problems where, if you're significantly hampered in your movement speed, that has an effect on how we expect player versus player engagements to interact; and we don't want to restrict a player's ability to be mobile if they're the target of an attack. And as a result of that we need to make sure that we don't restrict the movement abilities of the player who is doing the attacking as well. So we want it to be relatively free for you to stay with each other. Your opponents move around the battlefield together and if we're hampering you on the attack action, we have to then implement some type of snare, or slow, or cc effect essentially on your opposing target; and that's not the approach we want to take for for PvP.[44] – Steven Sharif
Q: If a ranger is super mobile, what are the melee's options in order to catch them?
A: Different class kits will provide different gap closers. They'll provide different mobility skills. They'll have lockdowns. They'll have chains to pull back. They'll have a lot of different things in the rotation. That's part of what an MMORPG experience is. You're not just restricted to three or six skills, you have a rotational suite; and depending on the type of challenges you face is going to help determine which of those rotations you spec into from your skill tree.[45] – Steven Sharif
info-orange.pngThis section contains information from early testing phases. It will be updated as soon as new information is made available.
Skill Icon Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3
Blink Blink.png Instantly teleport a set distance in the direction you are moving.[46][47] - -
Rush rush icon.png Rush toward a target; and upon reaching the target, deal an amount damage with a chance to knock the target down.[48] - -
Wings of Salvation Wings of Salvation.png Sprout phoenix-like wings and leap to target ally, then grant a small amount of temporary health to that target on arrival.[49][50] An ally is defined as any non-combatant player or non-mob NPC.[51]

Player movement

Walking and running shown in pre-alpha gameplay.[52]
  • Sprinting will consume a percentage of a character's mana pool. Sprinting will not be permitted while in combat.[53]
    • A sprinting/dash skill with a cooldown was confirmed to be part of a class kit.[54]
I've instructed design to incorporate a mana consumption that's percentage based for sprinting. So it'll be a similar amount of time that each class, regardless of their mana values, will have in order to sprint and it will not be accessible while in a combat.[53] – Steven Sharif
  • There is a toggleable walk/run (autorun) capability.[55]
  • There is not going to be any "go to waypoint" (auto-pathing) mechanics.[56]

Collision

There are player and spell collision mechanics in Ashes of Creation.[60]

  • Inertia and momentum physics will help prevent blocking doorways/access points. This is based on a character's direction and movement speed, and can be used to push people out of the way.[61][60]

Animations

Alpha-2 work-in-progress combat animations and decals.[62]

The intensity of those weapon trailings; how they scale based on the type of weapon, the level of weapon, that you have; but not just the trailing on the weapon per-se but also the ground decals. Like for this heavy weapon, that first strike you see that decal in the ground is- I love that look- and even on the backswing when I hit the ground behind me, it's causing that decal.[62] – Steven Sharif

We really wanted to build the combat system to- like i said earlier- be as physical as possible. So we have it very animation driven. Everything is handled based on a reference of animation as opposed to nebulous timings, which allows it to feel very impactful and very responsive.[63] – Keenan Reimer
  • Races will not have unique combat animations, but will have unique non-combat animations.[64][65]
We're not going to be having I think unique combat animations. However we will have unique non-combat animations, such as your idle, your walk, your run cycle: things that the combat attacks do not have to blend back into.[64] – Steven Sharif

Animation cancelling

Animation cancelling will not be a combat mechanic in Ashes of Creation.[66][67]

Combat targeting

Ranger hybrid combat in Alpha-2.[68]

Our desire has always and continues to be how we can create a mixture of tab target abilities and skill-shot oriented positional, directional-based ability usage and make something cohesive in that design. And I think that what we're achieving with that regard may not fully feel like an action-oriented game, but we've always intended to be more hybrid-oriented, leaning towards tab target. So you're going to see a mixture of abilities that require the targets and that don't; and then you're going to have an option as the player's perspective to utilize an action camera mode, which utilizes a soft target lock feature and our reticle.[69] – Steven Sharif

Hard-locked friendly player target.[70]

Hybrid combat refers to the choice between tab and action combat in Ashes of Creation.[69][71][72][73][74][75] A toggle button (default Z, but can be re-bound to another key) allows the player to switch between action and tab combat modes.[69][76][22][32][77]

  • The action mode camera is tied to the to the player's reticle (crosshair).[69][78][79]
    • There will likely be a hotkey that when held down will allow free camera movement in action mode.[79]
    • In future the user will have the ability to choose from different reticle appearances.[80]
  • Targeted skills require either a soft or hard locked target.[69][78]
    • Soft locking is when the reticle moves over a valid target while in action mode. The targeting plate will appear slightly grayed out to indicate that this is a soft-lock target. If the reticle moves away from the target or the target moves away from the reticle, the target is lost.[78]
    • Hard locking is when the player uses right-mouse on a soft-locked target in action mode, or when the player selects a valid target in tab mode. The targeting plate will not be grayed-out to indicate that a hard-lock target is selected. Unlike soft locking, if the target moves out of the reticle, the target is not lost. Tab will still cycle between hard-locked targets in action mode based on proximity priority.[81][78]
Q: Is the development team moving away from action combat, or is action combat more prevalent with the melee classes, and the healing/range classes are more tab-target other than AoE spells?
A: We have not moved away from our hybrid approach to the development of Ashes of Creation's combat; and specifically to reiterate: that approach is incorporating elements of skill shots, fast and reactive gameplay that is situationally relevant, and incorporates the camera mode of both tab-targeting as well as action combat reticle. That's something that is still in progress. We haven't moved away from that however. To note, our approach of that hybridization is going to incorporate things like templated skill-shots, directionally relevant activated abilities, along with the ability to dodge to roll projectiles that can impact collision. Those are elements of action combat that are present.[84] – Steven Sharif

Templated and targeted versions of skills will have different characteristics.[85][76][86][87][88]

Skill progressions, skill point allocation is determined by the player. The player will be able to choose either more tab-target oriented skills or more action-based skills and customize their playable experience to what accommodates their preference. From a balancing standpoint for us developers, we need to make sure that certain abilities house certain functions so that there's a balance between skill shots and tab-target abilities.[87] – Steven Sharif
  • Targeted skills will be greyed out if the target is not within a valid range but templated skills will generally require the player to assess the correct range for the skill.[89]
info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
  • It may not be possible to be able to fully spec into just action or tab targeted skills. There might be a 75% cap on choosing skills from any one type.[87]
  • For the purposes of balance, certain skill types will be either tab or action oriented skills.[91]
    • Hard CCs may be housed in action oriented skills because they are skill shots that are more difficult to land.[91][87]
    • Softer CC's would be housed in tab-targeted abilities.[91]
As an example: Let's say you're playing a ranged class. You could have an action-oriented power shot in your skill tree or you could have a single target power shot that ramps up and does more damage.[88] – Steven Sharif

Hitboxes

The developers are testing different approaches to accommodate varying hitboxes between the races.[93]

  • There may be a single unified hitbox with some exceptions or some special collision rules as opposed to having different sized hitboxes.[93]

More than likely we'll have some sort of unified or unified-ish hitbox. But again it's going to probably have a unified hitbox with some exceptions or some special sort of collision rules based on them as opposed to just making it smaller for one and not the other.[93] – Jeffrey Bard

There aren't separate types of hitbox categories in the Ashes of Creation MMORPG as there were in Ashes of Creation Apocalypse.[93]

We don't have separate types of hitbox categories, for example. There's no head hit box in the MMORPG like there was in APOC. So from a critical standpoint you're not going to see a greater risk of critting for a larger hitbox.[93] – Steven Sharif

Weapon swapping

Alpha-2 Mage swapping from a Greatsword to a Wand while in combat.[94]
There will be a loadout system that you can use in your inventory to help manage those different types of set that you can customize. So you can do a simple hotkey press and be able to swap your armors, out of combat of course, with a single button click.[95] – Steven Sharif
  • Weapon swapping is possible while in combat but armor cannot be swapped while in combat.[98][99][81][100][101][102]
    • Previously it was stated that swapping weapons (from inventory) into a hand or range slot is not possible in combat.[99] Prior to this, weapon swapping was said to be subject to a cooldown period (in the range of a few seconds) following any damage taken or done by the player.[103][104]
You may not swap armor when you're in combat, but you may swap your weapons; and there's obviously a few reasons of why this can be important: We're a itemization agnostic class design, so players equip with items that there are most necessary based on the adversary or the challenge that they're facing; and so we want that to be available for players to swap with weapons.[98] – Steven Sharif

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Video, January 27, 2023 (35:51).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Video, December 2, 2022 (34:41).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Video, December 2, 2022 (16:55).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Livestream, September 29, 2023 (1:12:16).
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Livestream, January 27, 2023 (1:06:02).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Video, January 27, 2023 (40:24).
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Livestream, November 19, 2021 (50:38).
  8. ↑ Livestream, January 27, 2023 (15:22).
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Livestream, December 2, 2022 (1:05:08).
  10. ↑ Livestream, January 27, 2023 (1:13:29).
  11. ↑ Livestream, September 24, 2021 (1:22:46).
  12. ↑ Livestream, June 26, 2020 (1:19:50).
  13. ↑ shieldactiveblockA1.png
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Livestream, August 28, 2020 (1:19:24).
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Livestream, June 30, 2022 (51:17).
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Livestream, January 30, 2020 (1:34:12).
  17. ↑ Livestream, June 26, 2020 (1:24:06).
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 Livestream, July 30, 2021 (31:22).
  19. ↑ Livestream, May 28, 2021 (1:14:50).
  20. ↑ steven-combat-revamp-update.png
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Video, February 26, 2021 (6:17).
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 steven-combat-revamp-update-2.png
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 Livestream, February 26, 2021 (27:41).
  24. ↑ Interview, February 7, 2021 (49:18).
  25. ↑ Livestream, July 29, 2022 (1:05:20).
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Video, July 28, 2023 (10:18).
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Interview, June 13, 2021 (4:12).
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 Livestream, May 28, 2021 (1:13:05).
  29. ↑ Livestream, May 27, 2022 (1:11:41).
  30. ↑ Livestream, May 27, 2022 (1:16:17).
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Livestream, March 26, 2021 (1:11:25).
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 32.3 32.4 32.5 32.6 Livestream, August 28, 2020 (1:15:39).
  33. ↑ class cleaving.png
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 34.4 Livestream, July 28, 2023 (1:02:23).
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Livestream, June 30, 2022 (46:30).
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 36.2 Livestream, December 2, 2022 (59:47).
  37. ↑ Livestream, April 30, 2020 (1:17:13).
  38. ↑ Livestream, May 8, 2017 (43:30).
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 Livestream, December 23, 2021 (55:32).
  40. ↑ Video, December 23, 2021 (23:53).
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 Livestream, October 14, 2022 (48:45).
  42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 stevenclarification.png
  43. ↑ Livestream, June 26, 2020 (1:30:40).
  44. ↑ 44.0 44.1 Livestream, June 30, 2022 (49:42).
  45. ↑ Livestream, September 30, 2022 (51:28).
  46. ↑ Video, April 28, 2023 (4:40).
  47. ↑ progression.png
  48. ↑ Video, July 28, 2023 (24:03).
  49. ↑ Wings of Salvation Info Panel.png
  50. ↑ Video, July 28, 2023 (24:16).
  51. ↑ Video, May 25, 2017 (0:02).
  52. ↑ 53.0 53.1 Livestream, July 30, 2021 (1:11:29).
  53. ↑ Reddit - Developer response to unique ability visuals.
  54. ↑ autorun.jpg
  55. ↑ Livestream, May 4, 2018 (51:57).
  56. ↑ Livestream, December 15, 2017 (1:35:38).
  57. ↑ Livestream, May 31, 2023 (1:10:08).
  58. ↑ Video, December 23, 2021 (7:05).
  59. ↑ 60.0 60.1 collision.jpg
  60. ↑ Interview, March 27, 2020 (15:20).
  61. ↑ 62.0 62.1 Video, June 30, 2022 (20:29).
  62. ↑ 63.0 63.1 Video, June 30, 2022 (21:19).
  63. ↑ 64.0 64.1 Livestream, June 30, 2022 (53:33).
  64. ↑ Livestream, December 22, 2020 (1:12:56).
  65. ↑ 66.0 66.1 Livestream, November 22, 2019 (1:09:37).
  66. ↑ Livestream, May 17, 2017 (1:05:11).
  67. ↑ Video, September 30, 2022 (17:03).
  68. ↑ 69.0 69.1 69.2 69.3 69.4 69.5 Livestream, April 28, 2023 (53:58).
  69. ↑ Video, May 31, 2023 (11:20).
  70. ↑ Livestream, April 7, 2023 (49:45).
  71. ↑ steven-hybrid.png
  72. ↑ Livestream, August 27, 2021 (1:16:04).
  73. ↑ Livestream, June 25, 2021 (22:34).
  74. ↑ Livestream, November 16, 2017 (30:45).
  75. ↑ 76.0 76.1 Livestream, June 25, 2021 (27:43).
  76. ↑ Livestream, April 30, 2020 (1:09:51).
  77. ↑ 78.0 78.1 78.2 78.3 78.4 Video, September 30, 2022 (17:00).
  78. ↑ 79.0 79.1 Livestream, March 26, 2021 (59:21).
  79. ↑ Livestream, June 25, 2021 (26:11).
  80. ↑ 81.0 81.1 Livestream, September 30, 2022 (49:16).
  81. ↑ Livestream, September 30, 2022 (52:33).
  82. ↑ Livestream, September 30, 2022 (48:10).
  83. ↑ Livestream, August 31, 2023 (2:22:01).
  84. ↑ 85.0 85.1 85.2 85.3 Livestream, September 30, 2022 (41:06).
  85. ↑ Newsletter, 2018-08-7
  86. ↑ 87.0 87.1 87.2 87.3 Livestream, 2018-04-8 (PM) (37:57).
  87. ↑ 88.0 88.1 88.2 88.3 88.4 88.5 Podcast, August 4, 2018 (1:07:59).
  88. ↑ Livestream, January 27, 2023 (1:11:07).
  89. ↑ Livestream, August 28, 2020 (1:12:50).
  90. ↑ 91.0 91.1 91.2 91.3 91.4 91.5 Podcast, August 4, 2018 (1:11:05).
  91. ↑ steven-action-tab-attack-range.png
  92. ↑ 93.0 93.1 93.2 93.3 93.4 Livestream, October 30, 2020 (1:15:59).
  93. ↑ Livestream, April 28, 2023 (39:06).
  94. ↑ 95.0 95.1 Interview, September 10, 2023 (47:13).
  95. ↑ Livestream, February 24, 2023 (46:15).
  96. ↑ Livestream, November 19, 2021 (40:53).
  97. ↑ 98.0 98.1 Livestream, April 28, 2023 (51:16).
  98. ↑ 99.0 99.1 Livestream, September 30, 2022 (51:09).
  99. ↑ Podcast, September 29, 2021 (40:50).
  100. ↑ Interview, May 11, 2018 (16:32).
  101. ↑ Livestream, July 28, 2017 (34:32).
  102. ↑ Interview, July 18, 2020 (1:03:45).
  103. ↑ Livestream, May 30, 2019 (1:15:58).
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