From the perspective of a mobile gamer, I feel Eternium inches close to tedium especially at the high end mobile play. Absolutely love the unique gesture based game control; however, such a control scheme more easily lend itself to a more leisurely paced game. Watching any videos of mobile high trial pushing, one sees frenetic finger swipes and blinding explosions that makes it hard to make out what's going on. The major advantage of the more common virtual gamepad based button control scheme is the unobstructed view of the battlefield (around the center of the screen), and the quicker reaction times of tapping vs drawing.
I think it's high time that we all recognize the deficiencies of the gesture based control scheme and not pretend they don't exist.
With its limitations in mind, I don't think Eternium should try to match the "cadence" of gamepad control scheme mobile ARPGs (such as the forth coming Diablo Immortal).
I define cadence as how busy the game gets. How much the game demands from the user input perspective.
The major advantage of the gesture based control scheme is that it intuitively incorporate aiming into the gameplay. It can offer greater strategic depth in a more natural/smoother way. In fact the control is more embed in the game itself. In no small way enhances the overall immersive feel of the game. Whereas button based control scheme feels more forced, a case where the human adapts to the instrument vs the other way around.
So in short, let's keep what is unique about Eternium, the gesture based control scheme. This ultimately makes it a potentially better game than anything button based.
But let's also tailor the gameplay to suit the uniquely immersive control scheme.
In a long winded way, I'm saying the cadence of the game is too high for high end mobile play. Or in Adrian (Developer) 's words, how to remove tedium where it makes sense.
I see two fundamental ways to address this issue. Jose Sarmento might chime in and feel I'm describing a non existent issue. But this suggestion is partially based on one of his posts: the idea the game needs +12Dex modifier to play.
Method 1 (Jose's offhand remark)
Slow the game down significantly but cutting the attacks per second in half. More specifically change the attack speed formula from 6x (blah blah) to 3x(blah blah). This is a very elegant solution. Stats that used to produce 10 attacks per second now does 5, 8->4, 6->3 etc. As normal attack speeds slow down, alacrity triggers will drop, lengthening the effective skill CDs. Now skill spamming will be far less prominent. Giving mobile users time to think/plan instead of reactively drawing symbols because "I can't let the skill goto waste and not in CD". This also means skills like BR doesn't have to be 5 sec duration anymore. The buffs can last longer because the number of casts will drop. Again slowing the overall cadence of the game.
Method 2 (Perhaps the Developer's aimed solution)
Greater automation so tedious tasks/user inputs can be reduced. I was on this path before. Suggested a skill autocast scheme where two quick successive draws of the symbol skill symbol will put it into autocast mode. Auto potion/apple usage based on pre-determined HP % (slider bar to control to each player's own taste). Simpler normal attack switching based on preset %. Any of several other enhancements that will generally make the mobile gamer's live better. Red (Developer) has talked about more proc based damage/gear. That in itself is a small way to address the cadence issue as more the damage can come from non user input needed sources. That's why I feel this is perhaps the developer preferred way of dealing with this issue. Generally speaking, giving player the optional trade off of less precise control for more leisurely game pace. This approach can keep the current cadence of the game while giving relief to the tired/raw fingers of the mobile players. I shudder to think how my finger will hold up (I play with one finger basically) during the next ANB.
There is no wrong answer on how to go about addressing this issue. But address it please, as a plead from the mobile playerbase. We are all competitive. With PC players stomping all over mobile players in an originally mobile only game is semi disheartening.
Comments away.
I think it's high time that we all recognize the deficiencies of the gesture based control scheme and not pretend they don't exist.
With its limitations in mind, I don't think Eternium should try to match the "cadence" of gamepad control scheme mobile ARPGs (such as the forth coming Diablo Immortal).
I define cadence as how busy the game gets. How much the game demands from the user input perspective.
The major advantage of the gesture based control scheme is that it intuitively incorporate aiming into the gameplay. It can offer greater strategic depth in a more natural/smoother way. In fact the control is more embed in the game itself. In no small way enhances the overall immersive feel of the game. Whereas button based control scheme feels more forced, a case where the human adapts to the instrument vs the other way around.
So in short, let's keep what is unique about Eternium, the gesture based control scheme. This ultimately makes it a potentially better game than anything button based.
But let's also tailor the gameplay to suit the uniquely immersive control scheme.
In a long winded way, I'm saying the cadence of the game is too high for high end mobile play. Or in Adrian (Developer) 's words, how to remove tedium where it makes sense.
I see two fundamental ways to address this issue. Jose Sarmento might chime in and feel I'm describing a non existent issue. But this suggestion is partially based on one of his posts: the idea the game needs +12Dex modifier to play.
Method 1 (Jose's offhand remark)
Slow the game down significantly but cutting the attacks per second in half. More specifically change the attack speed formula from 6x (blah blah) to 3x(blah blah). This is a very elegant solution. Stats that used to produce 10 attacks per second now does 5, 8->4, 6->3 etc. As normal attack speeds slow down, alacrity triggers will drop, lengthening the effective skill CDs. Now skill spamming will be far less prominent. Giving mobile users time to think/plan instead of reactively drawing symbols because "I can't let the skill goto waste and not in CD". This also means skills like BR doesn't have to be 5 sec duration anymore. The buffs can last longer because the number of casts will drop. Again slowing the overall cadence of the game.
Method 2 (Perhaps the Developer's aimed solution)
Greater automation so tedious tasks/user inputs can be reduced. I was on this path before. Suggested a skill autocast scheme where two quick successive draws of the symbol skill symbol will put it into autocast mode. Auto potion/apple usage based on pre-determined HP % (slider bar to control to each player's own taste). Simpler normal attack switching based on preset %. Any of several other enhancements that will generally make the mobile gamer's live better. Red (Developer) has talked about more proc based damage/gear. That in itself is a small way to address the cadence issue as more the damage can come from non user input needed sources. That's why I feel this is perhaps the developer preferred way of dealing with this issue. Generally speaking, giving player the optional trade off of less precise control for more leisurely game pace. This approach can keep the current cadence of the game while giving relief to the tired/raw fingers of the mobile players. I shudder to think how my finger will hold up (I play with one finger basically) during the next ANB.
There is no wrong answer on how to go about addressing this issue. But address it please, as a plead from the mobile playerbase. We are all competitive. With PC players stomping all over mobile players in an originally mobile only game is semi disheartening.
Comments away.
I wholeheartedly agree it is a "problem" (wherein the quotes imply it's not like it "kills" the game -> we still can have fun). And, like you, I can't very well point a solution. The AS scaledown might help, but it would potentially disrupt the class balance (by skewing how much damage is dealt via attacks / how much is from skills / how much of that is boosted via Alacrity / etc.). So it's far from a win-win option.
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