What do you look for in a combat system?

[Cairdeas]

lol this thread got owned by a Mod.

[gifthorse]

lol this thread got owned by a Mod.

i know rite.

[SuzakuCMX]

Responsiveness?
This one is a given.

Strategy?
To some extent, but nothing that requires hours of research and absolutely flawless execution of skills in an exact order or else you get wiped.

Fast pace?
Yes

Slow pace?
Final Fantasy is known for having slow paced battle but for an MMO it doesn't work out too well.

Auto-attack or Active/MANUAL attack?
Indifferent as long as the other features presented in this post are there. I prefer manual though, since it makes me actually feel like I'm doing something >.>

Combos?
Combos are nice but not necessary past the Battle Regimen. But if they made something like skill fusion (Using a skill at the same time as another person = skill combo for new skill, such as Cure + Element Spell = heal + increased protection from that element) would make me really happy.

Party vs. Single Mob or Party vs. Party of Mobs or Single Player vs. Party of Mobs or Single Player vs. Single Mob?
Again, for the most part I don't care. I prefer parties vs. a huge, epic monster in "long" (10 minute) battles rather than party vs. a bunch of tiny mobs like Behests are, though.

Acrobatics?
Only if you actually need to use them, like in GW2 for dodging and such. Otherwise it's just a whistle that adds nothing for me.

Visuals?
As long as I can tell what's on the screen.

Positioning?
Would be a nice bell but overall I don't mind...positioning will always matter as long as AoE attacks exist, but not as much as they could.

Creativity with attacks?
I like creativity, which is why I like the Armory system.

Luck/Dice-roll systems?
Only for crits and loot. They shouldn't have a large part in anything else, though, IMO.

[Lienn]

Responsiveness?
Absolutely. Its the base of any good battle system.

Strategy?
Yep. But i don't mean stuff like SC...i mean strategy like the way parties are built and the role everyone need to accept in order of win.

Fast pace?
Yup! IMO 20~30 minutes should be the time limit for a monster to fall. I hated those 1~2hrs fights at FFXI...once, while helping a friend with his brand new sky LS, we took almost 4 hrs to kill his first Kirin...Kirin even run out of MP due such long fight...its not even close to be fun.

Slow pace?
No, thanks.

Auto-attack?
Dependes of how its used. IMO auto-attack needs to be a secundary option, not the base of a battle system.

Active/MANUAL attack?
Yup! I love button smashing! I always loved this kind of games! IMO it can be merged with an auto attack system...but it should always be the base of a battle system.

Combos?
Yup. IMO combos are much more interesting strategy-wise than timed skills.

Party vs. Single Mob?
Nah. Tired of it already

Party vs. Party of Mobs?
I'm waiting this since the beta. This is what i wanted in this game!

Single Player vs. Party of Mobs?
No, thanks. 1-on-1 or many vs many. When 1 player can solo large groups of monsters something is wrong.

Acrobatics? Visuals?
Its secundary. Once the battle system is good, animations don't matter much.

Positioning?
Yes. In an active battle system positioning needs to be a key part of it.

Creativity with attacks?
Yup. Nothing worse than having every player using the very same set of actions in a certain class (Like PLD/WAR, NIN/WAR, RNG/NIN, etc in a "certain" game)...specially when players start rejecting people that decide using their creativity at their playstyle.

Luck/Dice-roll systems?
Indeed! I love games with high risk-high gain skills. IMO a good game would have from the safe, high accurate skills that deal low damage until the really inaccurate skills that deal massive damage. This also is important since not everyone plays the same way.

[Rinsui]

A battle system that requires skill,
and not just better gear and higher levels.

(And hours upon hours upon hours of time: see Pandemonium Warden)

[Rhomagus]

Interesting post, though I don't expect many surprises among the answers.

I know we're not that far into the thread but I'm surprised by the amount of people that are for a manual-attack. I'm actually one of them but I thought I was in a very small minority (maybe I still am.)

[Zhinse]

This thread sure puts into perspective on what people actually want in a combat system and now I can clearly see why so many people are frustrated with the current system.

Personally, I hope the upcoming system puts emphasis on Chess like positioning, in that its more strategic/tactical positioning than twitch positioning.

More importantly, I want a system that is clear on what its trying to be. The current battle system is a Active Turn based system more that seems like an action based system. I want the new thing to make it certain to all players about how to play and its rules.

[Physic]

This thread sure puts into perspective on what people actually want in a combat system and now I can clearly see why so many people are frustrated with the current system.

Personally, I hope the upcoming system puts emphasis on Chess like positioning, in that its more strategic/tactical positioning than twitch positioning.

More importantly, I want a system that is clear on what its trying to be. The current battle system is a Active Turn based system more that seems like an action based system. I want the new thing to make it certain to all players about how to play and its rules.

what do you mean by chess like positioning, as in you go to one position and stay there for the whole fight because thats your good range?

The current system has a long learning curve, but the exp limit difficulty doesnt require you to learn it at all, so i think thats the real problem.

[Zhinse]

what do you mean by chess like positioning, as in you go to one position and stay there for the whole fight because thats your good range?.

Sorta. not for the whole fight of course, but keeping specific spacing. Sort of like Street fighter.

[RedAffinity]

As of right now? I'd really love when I attempt a basic attack, it doesn't take 2 seconds before it executes, and other times instant. What's the problem, servers? It's incredibly not fun being front-line with this kind of lag