I didn't see any previous threads on this so I wonder.
What is the Pantheon take on the management of hotbars and ability rotations? In EQ1 we had lots of spells but could only memorize 8 at a time. I thought that was perfect. In newer MMO's you could use all of your abilities whenever you wanted and the result was hotbar insanity. 4 and 5 hotbars on the screen at a time and spell rotation min maxing. I got to the point where I didn't feel like I was playing the game, instead I was playing my hotbars. I was playing 'whack a mole' with cooldowns.
It destroyed the immersion that I wanted to feel for a living and breathing virtual world. I want to 'see' the raid boss I am fighting and 'experience' the fights or any other encounter for that matter. I don't want to constantly be starting at my cooldowns waiting for them to pop.
I hope that Pantheon aims for a comfortable medium here. In the twitch stream I did see multiple hotbars which at first worried me a little until I realized that they were duplicates of each other (they showed the same spells and in the same order), so I assume that one was for clicking and the other was for cooldown visibility or maybe some other alpha testing purpose I couldn't divine.
I think you will have maximum 10 abilities/spells at times but your spellbook will contain many spells like EQ1.
From the past broadcast, I figured the vertical hotbar had 10 slots (Spells Gem) while the horizontal hotbar had 12 slots and those probably serve for skills like kick / autoattack or macro. Pretty much like EQ1 was.
Yeah I was under the impression that the number of abilities you could use at any one time would be limited. I'm not sure if they announced what that number would be though. As Meldor said on the stream it was 10 and they had other buttons available for other skills etc. I can't actually find anything official though saying this.
I do agree with you that the number of spells available to you at any one time should be restricted so that you have to plan ahead and only use the skills that are going to be most used in a particular area. Having them all available at the same time means you just spend ages looking at your hot bars and never really learn all the different aspects of your spells / skills because there is just far too much choice available. I also like the idea of different players using different spells in the same situation based on their own tactics rather than everyone always using the same set of spells all the time. It would add some much needed difference in how people played which would make the whole experience more interesting.
Mornroc i believe there already is an ongoing thread for this, did you have a look? You mentioned not seeing any. Same subforum, second page:
https://pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/2771/spell-limits
I don't have any extreme feelings for either the EQ1 or the WOW way, but i DEFINITLY hate the "locked skills" way. Let me elaborate:
The one extreme: WOW
Unlimited Hotbars and Skills, all at once. I like this system because i could use my arsenal. If i visited a new area i could adjust on the fly without having to die first, just to rearange my skills.
The other extreme: locked skills, ESO style
You choose 4-8 skills and are stuck with them untill you die, get to a town, or whatever arbitrary restriction they could come up with. Played a mage? Visted a new Area? Well, out of luck if a horde of goblins charges you and you did not have some form of AoE "memed". You had to die first and readjust from there. HATED that system in every game that did this.
The middle ground:
EQ1 had 8-12 Spell slots plus unlimited hotkeys and special skills. With AAs you could free up some spell slots with abilities, get more spell slots ect. Also you could switch spells mid fight as long as nothing hit you. I liked this as well since you had a chance to react to whatever new came around the corner and never felt like an idiot for "forgetting how to cast a fireball".
Personally i am unsure if the middle ground or the wow-style work best for me. I am ok with both. Being locked into a skillset and being unable to cast a fireball just because i use lightning right now tho,... god please no. Thats annoying at best. And no, it is not tactical planning to choose some skills. It is called "look up what you need in a wiki", or "die once to figure out what you need". I wholehearthly prefer the "see if you can adjust fast enough before you die"-approach.
Personally i am unsure if the middle ground or the wow-style work best for me. I am ok with both. Being locked into a skillset and being unable to cast a fireball just because i use lightning right now tho,... god please no. Thats annoying at best. And no, it is not tactical planning to choose some skills. It is called "look up what you need in a wiki", or "die once to figure out what you need". I wholehearthly prefer the "see if you can adjust fast enough before you die"-approach.
That's why you can sit down (meditate), open your spell book and swap whatever is best suited on the fly. You could even do it in the middle of a fight in EQ1.
Mornroc said:It destroyed the immersion that I wanted to feel for a living and breathing virtual world. I want to 'see' the raid boss I am fighting and 'experience' the fights or any other encounter for that matter. I don't want to constantly be starting at my cooldowns waiting for them to pop.
This is so funny, this exact thing happened to me last night! Every now and then I play WoW, and I recently subbed again - I was doing the first 'wing' of Hellfire Citadel last night, it was my first time there. I think it was the final boss of the wing. I am playing a ranged dps class, usually plenty of room to see everything. I couldn't see crap! The boss was huge so I would have needed to look up or at least eye level, but I couldn't there was so much crap everywhere from the mechanics, I could do nothing but stare at the floor for things I am supposed to avoid, and all the hotbuttons trying to get my interrupted 'rotation' back on track. (That's another thing I don't want to see in Pantheon: 'ROTATIONS'.) At the end of the fight I was just in disbelief I not once got to see the boss at all, other than his feet a few times lol.
Make the hot bar like EQ was, the majority of people will be happy.
I hate rotations. Period. I never want to stare at my hotbars and wait for cooldowns. I'm much more re-active, and I guess that's why I play a healer. I loved healing in EQ ... much less whack-a-mole than it has become lately.
Speaking of healing, I wonder if Pantheon will allow the purple health range like EQ did...