Auto facing target = easy mode

[LightSpeed]

I've noticed that although Aion uses WASD for movement, when you select a target and attack them you will auto-face them. Is it just me or does enabling the player to automatically face your target on attack defeat the purpose of using the WASD keys in the first place?

You might as well be just using click to move then. If you think about it, wouldn't the reason to use WASD keys be so you have to face the enemy to attack, thus taking away a bit of the boredom in grinding and perhaps allow a slight bit of skill involved in pvp. That kind of combat system can only be done effectively using the WASD keys.

Games like Dekaron/2 Moons or RFO both had a WASD feature but characters would automatically face the target to attack. In my opinion, you'd be kinda disadvantaged with your movements when using WASD instead of the point and click.

When using WASD in these games your character would normally slow down to walking speed when 's'. In situations where you have to run from a mob and you react by hitting 's', you'll walk backwards while the monster gets to run towards you. Sure, if you're fast enough you can pan around 180 degrees and hit 'w' to run. but that'll require the extra effort of doing that and can cost you a few seconds compared to just conveniently pointing and clicking away.

From my experience, I've actually died or got close to dying a lot more when using WASD so I chose to use point and click. Except in Aion I don't think we have a choice.. do we? It's just annoying to have to use wasd and feel like you're playing WoW or some fps but you're able to attack your target without even facing him. Kinda feels like cheating...

Auto face target = old, boring & makes WASD pointless
Force to face target when attacking would have a major impact on pvp and pve combat, more player skill involved. Can't be bad can it? Unless the majority of South Korean gamers prefer to play in easy mode.. idk

[Morrobane]

Hmm, this is a tricky topic. I haven't played a MMO game that auto faces you to the target. From watching the Aion combat video it didn't seem like it was making this correction too frequently though. There were some moments where the characters were schewed abit in stance, not face to face. Also there were only 2 moments where the auto correction was blatant, and that may have been due to a specila being used. I am of course speculating entirely here, but in both sequences it looked like the attacking character used something beyond a basic attack, and that this was initiated within a reasonable attack cone, as in the attack would hit the player anyway if it wouldn't have moved. So maybe this is in place so that if you sucessfuly use a move that initiates a combo of hits or some special attack the victim is not capable of mitigating the damage by moving erratically. I could be entirely wrong and the force facing is more present than this, but from what I have seen in the videos I'm not convinced of that at this point. Even if I'm close to correct my conclusion is subject to debate on whether its the right thing to do anyway.

In closing, I agree that I don't want combat to be made noob friendly in such a manner. But something I got real tired of in WoW were hows duels were often just fits of jumping and spining trying to thus land and avoid contact. Thats a very stupid system and I wouldn't mind never having to deal with that. So if force facing gets rid of that without breaking combat in some other way I may be just fine with it.

[osric]

as far as i know you can use both wasd and point-and-click movement

[Necrosis]

It sure takes alot of skill to face a target! What about targeting systems, isnt that another easy button? Or skills that can be activated with just a single button press and not some kind of key combo like BACK DOWN FORWARD FORWARD SPACEBAR? I think auto attack is also easy mode, it should require a gyroscopic motion sensing device to simulate actual weapon motions, and if you screw it up you hit yourself instead!

See how stupid it sounds?

[Shenduke]

Are you sure it's the character that's facing them, or is it the camera? Both are very different and I've played in both sets. Having your camera automatically face your opponent just saves you the annoyance of having to turn it yourself. FFXI did it the best in my mind, and you could always turn it off if you didn't like it.

[Orphaned]

I highly doubt it is autoface, what is the point, with dagger classes, it would be impossible to backstab.

[Cynthe]

Well hopefully you'll be able to turn auto attack, auto face on or off. I personally like it, it was really easy in FFXI but at least it made grouping organized I mean the game demands everyone to be on their toes when it comes to firing off their skills and playing roles. In EQII there's also an auto face when you select a target and attack it, I don't really mind as it makes switching between targets faster for me.

But to each their own ^^

[Mark]

I've read something about having to be in very particular situations to perform certain attacks. We'll have to wait and see, but saying some feature = easy mode makes no sense.

If that's how the game plays, then that's how the game plays. There's no "mode" to compare it to.

[NickyMunne]

The only feature I would like to see in an mmorpg is if someone stuns you, or slows you and goes out of your view range .. ( Like if you cannot see your opponent on your screen) It should automatically drop target!

I remember in other games I would sleep or stun or slow and blink away or something, and go Hide behind a rock or a tree , but the person still had me clicked and all they had to do was follow the click circle till their skills said were in range.. I do find that lame ...

[teldath]

i hope it autofaces- i hate wow style PVP- people just jump around- its annoying at takes all skill out of it, it just becomes a lag fest.

if you want to backstab, use stealth and come up from behind.

[Kyuzo]

When someone says something is 'easy mode' its just an expression so don't take it so literally.

And from the videos I've seen, I can't even be sure auto face target is on, how can you? In one of the newer Aion videos which had a little bit of PvP it looked like they were forced to manually face the position of their players.

[Koji]

It has been said that you strike for more damage from behind. It didn't specify that that was just the rogue class so there is a good chance for all to be like that.

If so...

Auto facing would be very bad. Especially for the rogue class. That from the latest batch of videos has teleports in combat to get behind a player. Auto face would just be silly.

It won't happen in my eyes. Would be a damn shame if it did.

[LightSpeed]

The video labelled Jeju Media - Fight on the european aion site has a short duelling scene where his opponent moves around and even behind him and all he has to do is continue attacking to face his opponent. In every other Aion video I've seen it was also like that.

Like it is in Vanguard or WoW, having to face your target yourself would feel more fast paced and involve slightly more skill during pvp. Like someone said, it would be an impossible for a dagger user to use backstab if his opponent is already attacking him. There would be no point moving around and trying to get behind him. You might as well just stand in the same spot and spam some skills and attack with your opponent. Then the outcome of a fight will only be based on player lvl/gear/numbers/classes.

But... I guess most people do prefer the auto facing feature. And I think some of you misunderstood what I meant by easy mode. Yes it was just an expression. Take it literally and it would make no sense but this feature does have a significant impact on the gameplay by making things a lot easier for pve but it also takes a bit of fun out of the pvp.
But that's just me and it's all up to what the majority of the players would prefer.

[plasma06]

i was watching the video and i can see what you are talking about the char moves with out the camera changing direction i think it is when you use a skill.
it looks like a good idea i hate people jumping around in wow thinking it helps will make for better combat and faster base killing and it will help people still running p4 and a 5 yr old gpu from losing due to lag.

[Cynthe]

I don't know if it's such a bad idea for rogues.. Maybe for 1 on 1 PvP it would be, otherwise I don't see it. I was a thief in FFXI for a while and with a good tank, or tanks you don't have much of a problem, the class was also built around hate control... You'd think Aion devs would think of something to counter this auto face problem with rogues as well.
Also a lot of the time backstab takes quite a bit of health off someone, I remember being backstabbed in a game I beta'd and dude took half my hp.. o.o