General Feedback, post 1.18

First I'd like to say that I like patch 1.18 so far. I've never quite seen the pros with auto-attack but it works okay so I'm happy. The most important thing in this patch for me, is that the zones are starting to feel more alive. The camps and the settlements, NPCs in the settlements that have been empty since release. It's nice to see the map filling up with icons and points of interesting. The quests have also become more interesting with SP reward and I'd like to see even more of them.

Here's some feedback from me. I have also created some demonstration images for good measure.

Duration of Spikes and Surges (and similar effect)

This also goes for other similar effects, if any.

I see no reason why these abilities have such short duration. There is no tactical element involved in whether to spend time re-applying in combat or not since their duration normally lasts longer than one fight, and the result is crucial yet annoying abilities that need to be recast constantly. I see two viable options:

1. Make the duration 1 hour or more
2. Make them last until death or until a grouped effect (that doesn't stack) is applied. Like replacing Life Surge with Speed Surge.

Easier quest tracking

Having a separate map showing the quest objectives (and only one at a time!) is an extremly clunky system. With the addition of lots of quests and good rewards, we really need a better way to manage and track them.

Make it possible to track a certain number of quests on the regular map. This can be done by adding maybe checkboxes in the quest window. This will show a marker for all the objectives of each quest and you should also throw in different colored markers for each of the tracked quests. Maybe even add the name of the objective above the marker. I addition, when a quest is completed and only needs to be handed in, add a green "checked" tag to the specific quest in the quest window.

One of the significant improvements this will bring is the fact that you can easily plan an effective route between the quest objectives of multiple quests.

Demonstration: http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...strExample.jpg

Auto-attack facing

I think you should make auto attacks automatically face the target, the same way abilities do. I've pretty much gone from spamming Light Thrust to spamming my, "Face Target"-hotkey.

Auto-attack swing timer

This would be a great addition to the new auto-attack feature and would add a bit more depth to the combat. Just simply a bar filling up as you're getting closer to the next auto-attack and then completely deplete again when it fires of. And please make it work properly, not like the cast bar in its current state ... (Going into detail shouldn't be necessary)

Repairing and durability loss upon return

Durability depletes at fair rate on armor and a bit fast on weapons. However, when you start dying, it drops like a rock. Combined with a tedious repair system and limited inventory space (for backup gear), it quickly becomes very irritating having to teleport back and sit around waiting for repairs all the time.

There's a few ways you can improve on this:

• Make repair at vendors a better alternative. This should be done by calculating repair cost based on gear damage percentage. Let's say two lancers wanted to repair their feathered harpoon. What sense does it make that they both have to pay the same price if one only needs a new feather and the other one only got the feather left?
  
  You should also make it possible to repair everything at the NPC, including rings and such and the option to repair everything with a single click (Getting to know the total cost first)

• In addition to the repair NPC changes above, you should add also add repair NPCs in all the camps and possibly the settlements.

• Optionally, you can remove the durability penalty upon using return or reduce the amount.

• Last but oh so important: Change how gear repairs occupy two slots in the bazaar list. If I am going to go afk to wait for repairs, at least let me put up all of my pieces at the same time.

Multiple actionbars and full customisation

The new actionbars are looking great, but there's still only one of it. I really need more
than one in order to track all my cooldowns. You should make it possible to show 1-3 actionbars and allow us to fully customise the keybinds. That means, individually rebind these 30 buttons (For example, I personally like using R, F, A and D for abilities). Also, allow for free use of modifiers (alt, ctrl, shift), again individually for each single button.

Choosing a different actionbar page with the arrow buttons is not an option for a keyboard+mouse user. Also, I never know whether I change page or switch target mode ...

Demonstration: http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...BarExample.jpg

Rebinding used hotkeys
You should make it so that when you try to bind an action to a key that is already in use, you get a message saying what it's already bound to and if you want to overwrite.

Lastly ...
I'd like to address the changes to collision and movement. While I do like how we're more free to walk up/down slopes, I hope this is a temporarily "fix" as preparation for a jump feature. As much as these changes are nice, they also break immersion, especially the fact that I can walk straight through fences now ...

Thank you for reading ;)