The Combat mode toggles card discussion

JuliusBorisov

Howdy, folks!

We have a new card, Combat mode toggles, and we need your input about it.

What combat mode toggle functionality do players use? How can we improve it?

Discuss everything related to the existing implementation of combat mode toggle functionality and what you would like to see changed/fixed etc.

Plok

Look at how NWN 2 does it. There's a UI element in the corner with all your modes, you click one and it's on until you click it again.

Do that. It's so much better than having to engage an enemy, click on a function key to toggle in on (or worse go through the radial menu) and then have it turn itself off perioidically. It's so annoying with Power Attack and Flurry of Blows - it can be quite tricky to have your first round of combat actually use the mode you want.

Also, give us a way to add more modes to it (I'm not sure if you can do this in NWN 2).

For list of modes to start us off:

• Defensive Casting
• Power Attack/Improved Power Attack
• Flurry of Blows
• Combat Expertise/Improved Combat Expertise
• Manyshot
• Rapid Shot
• Parry
• Hide
• Search
• Any ability that can be X rounds, not all spent at once in PnP (Blinding Speed is an example of this)
• Vision modes
• Any and all auras

DerpCity

@Plok Actually, as it turns out, Sticky Combat Modes are already implemented. Just add "StickyCombatModes=1" in the [Server Options] section of your NWNPlayer.ini and they should work. They unfortunately still take up a hotbar slot, so I do concur that having a small bit of UI with all your possible combat modes clickable would be useful for some.

ShadowM

You have to be able to run these through scripting/2da so people can assign requirements/bonus/penalties etc..that are not engine locked. Control toggles, timers(2da/scripted) for if the go off when they move. Some creator may want rapid shot to go off if the PC moves to discourage run and gun tactics) or may want to create a combat mode that only on for x amount of time. Just more flexibility.

Proleric

Not sure if this is on topic, but a "focus on one enemy" mode would really help. At present, even the player seems to attack foe at random unless you spam click one, let alone associates.

Martinus

Some stuff like the power attack, flurry of blows, many shots and rapid shot could be activated in a way similar to the knockdown ability. It would help to use some abilities only on a targeted opponent instead of a random one. The drawback is that these abilities would probably occupy the hotbar and cause an inconvenience in a constant use case scenario. What do you guys think about this concept?

FinalStand

Plok said:

Look at how NWN 2 does it.

I agree, it works well in NWN2. Liek you said, in NWN it can be hit or miss, sometimes it takes a round to lock in power attack or whatever. Even worse, sometimes your character stands there for a round getting punched in the face while they think about going into their mode.

ShadowM

Oh we need to be able to add custom combat modes and allow us to place them in the combat radial, right now they are locked. So some feat.2da column or cls_feat.2da added column. Example I made custom 3.5 trip feat that replace standard knockdown but it stuck under class feat instead of the combat radial.

Faerûn

@Plok hit the nail on the head I think, including the list of combat modes they provided. Combat modes take up too many hotbar slots, are difficult to stack, and are incredibly awkward when entering or leaving combat which often results in missing a round or two of being able to fight at full capacity.

Building them into the UI or giving them a dedicated hotbar with the ability to hide unused combat modes would be enough for me. I just want my expertise up when I go into battle.

ricoyung

I played a heavily modded server that had this ability, you would just have to enter in chat window;
!mode Powerattack, or !mode flurry, etc etc. and would stay until you changed it ,to change just had to enter another string. It was wonderful. However IMO the click button and it stays on till you click a different one would be awesomely better.

JuliusBorisov

The card has been moved to the Icebox.

From here:

"Icebox List
Cards in the Icebox list are features we've investigated and want to tackle but they are not the highest priority yet."

Anyway, if you have questions about this feature request, feel free to ask them during a livestream(s).

Closing the thread for now. Thanks for the feedback, everyone! It is very valuable for the team.