QoL suggestion: Speed indicators
Although we all hate to admit it, the combat in this game as it is now leans heavily on speed. So much so that all the upper-tier events 'earn' their difficulty through cheesed-up super fast enemies that come with free opening turns too, and arena largely devolves into mirror matches decided by the tiniest differences in speed.
This thread isn't to bemoan that fact however: that's being done and dusted in multiple threads here already. Instead, since we've pretty much acknowledged that the game will not change this behavior for the forseeable future, why not implement some QoL/game-changing features that facilitate that focus? My suggestions below are, I feel, incredibly needed at the very least to mid-level players like me who aren't sharp enough to 'feel' each toon's speed in a match accurately.
1) In-combat TM indicators
This is my biggest pain: we can only rely on 3-year-old tiny TM bars above each toon to guess which one is about to go first. This devolves into squinting between several almost-full meters in the beginning of combat trying to discern which one is the tiniest bit longer, and then after everyone has taken their first turn, it's practically chaos after that, where properly-modded toons can be so fast that they can lap another toon that's half a meter ahead of it. In such an environment, the current TM bar is woefully inadequate. Show exact numbers next to bar instead, or better yet an indicator above the toon(s) most likely to go next.
Now I know that with all the increasingly convoluted active- and passive ways to gain TM in the game as well as the 'multiple winners, flip a coin to go next' mechanic that turns up increasingly often these days, it'll be impossible to accurately predict and thus indicate the next toon to go, but I'm not asking for that much: a simple calculation based on toon speed is already a big help especially for that opening first round of turns.
2) TW pre-loaded TM indicators
This is a no-brainer: no one likes taking up the 2nd fight against that all-gold team sitting there with their protection barely scratched from the witless, anonymous lamb that walked in earlier for the slaughter. Without a way to know just how much the other team has left to move next, or whether or not the last match merely timed out because that last player crashed (also something that's happening alarmingly often lately) and the team is essentially unchanged, fighting these battles is a random, frustrating drag. A simple TM bar indication under each toon while selecting battles would make a huge difference. This goes also for GW; for those still struggling with it.
3) Speed values on match selection screens
Also a big factor in TW but really applicable to just about every PvP feature in the game: let us see at a glance what speed values we're up against from all 5 of the toons waiting for us. It's an incredible drag to have to press-and-hold each one to see their speed, go back up to the TW territory team list (which takes awhile each time to load), and then do the same when comparing our own toons. It's much worse when we forget a value or two, *and*, we also need to waste time hunting down that same team again from the re-loaded list. We *know* 90% it'll all gonna come down to speed, so save us some time and yourselves (CG) a few computationally expensive server refresh-calls and give us what we need up-front.
Yes, I know these are all potentially 'game-breaking', 'against the spirit of game', laziness, crutches or even potentially misleading, but really, how do we know for sure? Turn meter management in terms of UX; just like health/armor or tenacity/potency estimations, have barely changed since their initial forms while the complexity, quanta and importance of their mechanics have surged incredibly these 3+ years.
There might be an argument about the potential complexity of the calculations needed, but I don't believe this is so: several times I've noticed AI opponents disable a critical toon at *just* the right time that had been taking its time, untouched, to finally to make its move. The AI itself has access to this data to some extent: there shouldn't be much more work to translate that into a few more UI indicators.
For the sake of the health of the game as well as the fun in combat, please give us this little but critical extra bit of tactical control over our fights. What do you guys think?
This thread isn't to bemoan that fact however: that's being done and dusted in multiple threads here already. Instead, since we've pretty much acknowledged that the game will not change this behavior for the forseeable future, why not implement some QoL/game-changing features that facilitate that focus? My suggestions below are, I feel, incredibly needed at the very least to mid-level players like me who aren't sharp enough to 'feel' each toon's speed in a match accurately.
1) In-combat TM indicators
This is my biggest pain: we can only rely on 3-year-old tiny TM bars above each toon to guess which one is about to go first. This devolves into squinting between several almost-full meters in the beginning of combat trying to discern which one is the tiniest bit longer, and then after everyone has taken their first turn, it's practically chaos after that, where properly-modded toons can be so fast that they can lap another toon that's half a meter ahead of it. In such an environment, the current TM bar is woefully inadequate. Show exact numbers next to bar instead, or better yet an indicator above the toon(s) most likely to go next.
Now I know that with all the increasingly convoluted active- and passive ways to gain TM in the game as well as the 'multiple winners, flip a coin to go next' mechanic that turns up increasingly often these days, it'll be impossible to accurately predict and thus indicate the next toon to go, but I'm not asking for that much: a simple calculation based on toon speed is already a big help especially for that opening first round of turns.
2) TW pre-loaded TM indicators
This is a no-brainer: no one likes taking up the 2nd fight against that all-gold team sitting there with their protection barely scratched from the witless, anonymous lamb that walked in earlier for the slaughter. Without a way to know just how much the other team has left to move next, or whether or not the last match merely timed out because that last player crashed (also something that's happening alarmingly often lately) and the team is essentially unchanged, fighting these battles is a random, frustrating drag. A simple TM bar indication under each toon while selecting battles would make a huge difference. This goes also for GW; for those still struggling with it.
3) Speed values on match selection screens
Also a big factor in TW but really applicable to just about every PvP feature in the game: let us see at a glance what speed values we're up against from all 5 of the toons waiting for us. It's an incredible drag to have to press-and-hold each one to see their speed, go back up to the TW territory team list (which takes awhile each time to load), and then do the same when comparing our own toons. It's much worse when we forget a value or two, *and*, we also need to waste time hunting down that same team again from the re-loaded list. We *know* 90% it'll all gonna come down to speed, so save us some time and yourselves (CG) a few computationally expensive server refresh-calls and give us what we need up-front.
Yes, I know these are all potentially 'game-breaking', 'against the spirit of game', laziness, crutches or even potentially misleading, but really, how do we know for sure? Turn meter management in terms of UX; just like health/armor or tenacity/potency estimations, have barely changed since their initial forms while the complexity, quanta and importance of their mechanics have surged incredibly these 3+ years.
There might be an argument about the potential complexity of the calculations needed, but I don't believe this is so: several times I've noticed AI opponents disable a critical toon at *just* the right time that had been taking its time, untouched, to finally to make its move. The AI itself has access to this data to some extent: there shouldn't be much more work to translate that into a few more UI indicators.
For the sake of the health of the game as well as the fun in combat, please give us this little but critical extra bit of tactical control over our fights. What do you guys think?
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Your 1 is much more complicated than it seems. I mean: "most likely to go next", how to take TMR and TMG in account? So lots of 'false positives'. 'Easy' first step would be other color for full bar (and/or: progressing lighter for fuller bar, combined with darker start color).
Your 3 might be doable for TW (and GA), but for Arena it would make the speed-race even worse... Cause anybody with a little less speed is going to be a target (even more than now), so adding speed is like adding G12+Zeta now: doesn't necessarily make you easier to beat, but does make you stand out less in the crowd. So unless it's done TW/GA(/GW) only, i don't think it's 'good for the game(experience)'.
Thanks for chipping in: the colors thing is a great idea! I did put my disclaimer for the false positives thing: I understand the confusion it might cause but with enough expectation management and communication when introducing the feature, I believe it'll still be useful even if not 100% reliable. Along with the colors idea, anything to make prediction a little better.
3 makes sense too: I'm not anywhere near aggressive in arena so it didn't occur to me but you make a good point.