Wildstar Footage Combat Telegraphs

Published September 12, 2012 | By Myrddin

This week Jeremy Gaffneys talks about Combat Telegraphs. The Combat-UI in Wildstar displays the area of effect for hostile actions as red paintings on the floor. Jeremy Gaffneys shows these combat elements in a video on various examples. Enjoy!

Telegraphs

Sources

WildstarOnline – http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/blog/wildstar_wednesday_combat_telegraphs.php

Posted in News | Tagged developer, game mechanic, presentation, video, wildstar

105 Responses to Wildstar Footage Combat Telegraphs

TheRandomGuyNextDoor on September 13, 2012 at 00:31
Foist moist….um coist…WILD STAR FTW!
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MiZTiiX on September 13, 2012 at 00:36
i like game
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AnxietyShaDe on September 13, 2012 at 00:45
Where is my BETA !!!
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HelloImEww on September 13, 2012 at 00:47
I would really like a release date!
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KPSibley on September 13, 2012 at 01:15
One thing, I really hope you guys don’t get so hung up on PvP like a lot of these other titles that you forget about making a solid PvE experience. I’m looking for a PSO replacement, but that void has yet to be filled. Maybe I’ll just have to wait until 2013 for PSO2. We’ll see, I guess.
I’m still looking forward to trying your game, however.
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topoftheGAMES on September 13, 2012 at 02:01
Jeremy Gaffney, you sir sound a little bit like Jack Black! ehm.. I mean, Jack Black sounds like you
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domuzpipisi on September 13, 2012 at 02:29
best narration i’ve heard in a game video.
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Jmerithew87 on September 13, 2012 at 03:32
I’m quite pumped about this game. The devs seem great, the animations and art direction are awesome, and the combination of some of the things that make GW2 great with old school things lime the trinity looks phenomal. I would certainly pay a sub for this, but I really hope they consider GW2′s pay model
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ZanrielJames on September 13, 2012 at 04:48
Too bad it’s being published by NCsoft. It’ll probably get shut down abruptly, leaving players out in the cold with money spent and no refunds, like so many of their other games.
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lediadruid on September 13, 2012 at 12:27
Guild Wars 2 was a success in huge part due to its combat. If this game is half that good and free, I’m sold. But I’m just not willing to put up with the F2P, P2P model anymore after that game. So, here’s hoping for the best, guys!
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Chromie192 on September 13, 2012 at 12:48
But how exactly is the combat? I haven’t followed the game much so I don’t know if it’s similar to Guild Wars 2, World of Warcraft or a mix. Could someone clear that up for me?
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konithomimo on September 13, 2012 at 21:27
I’m not sure what the problem is with F2P P2P.. There’s no case when playing an mmo that you can’t spend real money for in-game benefits. If the game itself doesn’t offer the option, people will just buy gold from chinese farmers. Allowing players to do it through legit means makes it a cleaner, safer game for everyone. (Also, any game these days has payed services, whether it’s appearance changes, name change, server swap, etc).
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Earthmoover on September 15, 2012 at 10:38
Hey let’s put advertisements on that play movies who’s sound completely drowns out the sound from the video you came to watch. It’s GENIUS!
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spda242 on September 15, 2012 at 15:49
Looks Fun!!!
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OshMMf on September 17, 2012 at 11:47
Really great animations
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Ryan Student on September 18, 2012 at 08:43
Seems like players are given a little too much time to move out of them…
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Keegan Austin on September 19, 2012 at 23:15
that all low level content, they’ve already said telegraphs will get faster and more varied a you progress.
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TheDraGa01 on September 20, 2012 at 20:44
Telegraphs, how MMO developers help retards to play MMORPG’s. The worst thing ever to happen to the genre.
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BeastsBloom on September 23, 2012 at 11:01
I WANT THIS GAME SO BAD.
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BeastsBloom on September 23, 2012 at 11:02
We want buy 2 play!
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archxnight on September 28, 2012 at 07:31
I would gladly pay to play this game. If a game has a sub on it that means it weeds out the kids and keeps the extraordinary content coming.
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eyesout on October 10, 2012 at 02:31
meh. the game looks great but the telegraphing on every mob plus pvp is a little much. i’d rather learn the mechanics and animations of the enemy.
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DafuqGamerz on October 11, 2012 at 21:01
this telegraph system is R E T A R D E D. my gaming guild had Wildstar on our list of games to move to. but tonight about 8 of us just really soured over this. we love all the cool things that the bosses and mobs were doing – like the burrowing and such. but YOU DONT HAVE TO RUIN IT BY SHOWING US EXACTLY WHERE IT WILL LAND. this cheapens any sense of success in combat. i think we will pass on this. what dev actually thinks this is “cool combat start to finish”?!! seriously?
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Fratricide82 on November 7, 2012 at 19:49
lol so you want a game that is completely random… Got it. You prefer no skill just random dodges because you don’t know what will or will not hit you. And the door is that way. SEE YA!
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DafuqGamerz on November 8, 2012 at 21:57
so its random if there arent big red arrows on the ground telling you where and when to move? youre a fucking retard. there are plenty of things that tell a player when to dodge.. animations, sound effects, etc. SKILL IS UNDERSTANDING THE MECHANIC OF THE BOSS AND MAKING USE OF OBSERVATION AND PRESSING YOUR BUTTONS ACCORDINGLY.
youre a fucking moron perfect for this game. i bet your mother still casts a BIG RED ARROW ON YOUR ASS BEFORE SHE CHANGES YOUR DIAPER. stupid fuck.
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AverroesSearch on November 8, 2012 at 22:00
wtf? lol have you played any MMOs at all? Wildstar has no skill if it tells warns you about every single boss attack. this game combat is childish.
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Wraith von Borges on November 8, 2012 at 22:02
ya this combat is lame and boring.. no skill involved here.
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Wraith von Borges on November 8, 2012 at 22:03
hahahahaha fratricide82 just made a mess in his pants when he read your reply
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Theberusko on November 18, 2012 at 10:37
Another MMO that i had some hope, and now has been taken away.
There’s not really too much skill in this when u can see all the attacks, on PvE well yeah im fine with it. But in PvP hell no :\
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xthatwhiteguyx on December 4, 2012 at 01:23
This is not a positive feature for a MMO. Good for a single player game, but not a MMO.
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xthatwhiteguyx on December 4, 2012 at 01:25
To elaborate… Active combat like this makes balancing classes and gear impossible and negates player interdependence; possibly the two most important facets of a MMORPG.
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28welfare on December 6, 2012 at 21:49
I think these Telegraphs are a good idea. However, I think that the time length warning of its area of effect is too long. I think that the amount of time given to the player should vary based on class or lvl. The higher the level, or the more you have killed a certain type of monster, or even a special ability/trait could extend that time length of the telegraphs, so that you have more time to dodge it. In short More experience=More time to react and predict the attacks.
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celestielsigh on December 11, 2012 at 01:55
I think the window of reaction time a player has should be shortened. The combat looks great but it’d be more fun if you just barely manage to dodge a devastating attack rather then just walking away from it because you have all of the time in the world to do so
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German Avila on December 13, 2012 at 05:53
i dont like it at all…its too annoying… it should be something with just the border and not all the circle…
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evilyig on December 18, 2012 at 02:55
It’s amazing how blind most of the people criticizing this are int he comments. You can see in the video there are wildly varying levels of reaction time, from almost instantaneous to a second or so. There’s nothing skill based about AOE that has vaguely defined borders you have to guess about. You people lack vision and are going to be proven wrong about this game.
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demonic87 on January 2, 2013 at 00:13
All my interest in this game dropped to 0 after seeing how dumbed down this combat is.
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igot2remember on January 6, 2013 at 08:19
I will buy this game when it come out. I was skeptical at first but after looking at this video i set to get it.
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burts bees on January 28, 2013 at 22:43
dumbed-down combat mechanics aside, this is such an immersion breaker. youre gonna end up looking at the ground looking for glowy zones instead of up at your enemy analyzing its movements.
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Erebus2075 on February 3, 2013 at 20:33
this is soo awesome much better made then gw2 but same concept which is awesome.
i really do hope you dont get stuck to the ground when you attack yourself that would destroy the action gameplay :/
and really hope the aoe spell controls are very well made with multiple, so you can choose wheater or not you want it in gw2 style aoe placement or Smite type aoe placement.
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neostarforce on February 7, 2013 at 22:25
you mean like the games that use the same animation for different moves? no thank you. you can easily fight without looking at the ground if you want but like in older mmo’s, you can easily get sharked up by aoe’s
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PedroTheHutt on February 10, 2013 at 16:40
I’m kind of curious now if the final game will also use this 30s Sci-fi serial-esque music. It’d be pretty interesting.
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Skymom13 on February 11, 2013 at 23:10
This video alone has made me lose interest in the game. More hand holding in a mmo is not a good thing for me. It seems like more and more devs are making games for kids. Guess I can pass on this one.
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TheEndDream on February 11, 2013 at 23:31
Wow, that looks really fun!
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Scrillahilla on February 11, 2013 at 23:33
Seriously…wtf…are you serious with that telegraphing?? WOW this game failed before it was even released. WOW!!
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SwobyJ on February 15, 2013 at 10:04
So you’re saying that telegraphing attacks and using environment to your benefit is bad?
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Killarila on February 15, 2013 at 19:40
Telegraphs are for pussies!
*turns them off*
OMFG where are they attacking me from?!!!
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NosDemonic on February 17, 2013 at 01:42
This was a seriously lengthy way to say “stay out of the red”
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DraskyVanderhoff on February 19, 2013 at 15:15
Ok…. this will be the first game that i will pay the subscrition fee. Totaly insane!
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DraskyVanderhoff on February 19, 2013 at 15:19
Hey it will be like when you play Pump It Up without looking at the screen and with random included O,o It should be as a Mode for those that are mad enough.
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Puffstoole on March 1, 2013 at 02:11
Please tell me you can turn off the red boxes. That’s just awful.
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MrJalesi on March 11, 2013 at 16:23
I’m really looking forward to this game but, I have to say, I’m not entirely sold with this telegraphs mechanics. Coming from TERA, where you have to know the tells, where the mob is looking and when to haul ass out of there, it seems to make the mobs too easy to predict and avoid their attacks.
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0VikaKova0 on March 17, 2013 at 18:03
Tab targeting..
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MrMasterMear on March 18, 2013 at 14:08
Hopefully by making the tells that much easier to see they’ll be able to make more complex and difficult encounters in a different way to balance it out. You certainly have a point, but if they manage to provide an equally challenging game with the telegraphs in mind, it will probably feel less random and more skill based.
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JimmehBoy321 on March 26, 2013 at 16:12
0:13 best intro of name ever
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Amine Dassouki on March 27, 2013 at 03:10
Personally I think the colored in boxes are unnecessary and ugly.
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slowzen on March 27, 2013 at 08:21
WoW does a LOT of telegraphing.
They just happen to make all their telegraphs relevant to the mob itself. It’s not ‘random red box’, it’s ‘the earth exploding in a cone because I hit it so hard’, or ‘spikes that are rumbling under the ground in a line and will pop up and stab you’, or ‘shadow of this stalactite that is going to fall down at this spot’… stuff like that.
Random red box is a bit of a cop-out.
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everynameistookwtf on March 28, 2013 at 16:48
Anybody think that the telegraphs are gonna make the game too easy and make practically any PvE encounter soloable if you know how to stay out of the red?
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SirMalorak on March 28, 2013 at 17:06
Okay okay, dodging and voidzones n shit are cool, but what I really hope for are AWESOME mechanics. You know World of Warcraft raidbosses? These are innovative in a lot of ways, I want that here, too, not just “dodge the laser, beat the badguy GG WP”
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XenuriWeb on April 9, 2013 at 12:03
I’m hoping that because of the telegraphs the AI will be quite complex and challenging otherwise your right, it will be far to easy
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Yeiraw Raw on April 14, 2013 at 09:02
I’m pretty sure leveling will be fun . But how about the endgame? is it as good as the leveling? will it still have innovation?
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crypto66 on April 14, 2013 at 09:58
You’d be happy to know that the devs are actually planning an “inverse” to the usual fare. Waht they wanna do is that while you do get to access most content and the usual while leveling, the meat of the content will be available once you hit cap. Shit like warplots, massive raids, etc, I’m not really sure as to what exacltly, but there’s gonna be lots of things to do so that the usual “I’m at cap, I’m bored” doesn’t happen. Also, they call it the “Elder Game” not endgame for that reason.
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crypto66 on April 14, 2013 at 10:02
No. Why? Just because everything have clear signs on where they’ll hit doesn’t mean you can actually dodge them in time. For big, charged attacks sure, but say a quick horizontal slash that something throws at you mid-combo that knocks you down then eats your face. It’s really the same action combat, the only difference is that there’s a visual assist. Going by animations alone is terrible, my experience as a warrior in TERA is an example where animations+lag screw you all the time.
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Yeiraw Raw on April 14, 2013 at 17:22
Ohh that’s the elder thingy i see.. interesting… sadly I will not be able to play it as i cant pay anything :c
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crypto66 on April 14, 2013 at 23:25
Well rumors abound that it’s gonna be either fully F2P or Buy once and play, so you may be in luck there.
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DmGCRAFT on April 15, 2013 at 11:01
Will it be free?
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Matan Sarsha on April 15, 2013 at 18:06
I sure hope NOT
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Fkkize on April 15, 2013 at 18:16
It will be free.
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Databurk on April 16, 2013 at 18:50
Telegraphing for newborn babies.
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BardenHasACamera on April 16, 2013 at 19:19
But isn’t having attacks that a player simply cannot dodge also poor game design?
I was directed to the video through Twitter, and I have to agree with the Tweet – as cool as this game looks, it seems to have taken the ‘players are dumb’ design approach. This concept of telegraphs as been done better before – when enemies telegraph their moves via an animation that the player learns to recognise an associate with a specific attack. It’s good that they’re thinking about design, but this easy.
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BardenHasACamera on April 16, 2013 at 19:22
If they explain this telegraph boxes thought some ‘sense’ the player has, I’d be okay with that, so long as the attacks that they were avoiding we fast paced, challenging, and gave the player a real sense of success and badassery. Otherwise it could become “Oh, a red square. Dodge backwards… Attack…”
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BardenHasACamera on April 16, 2013 at 19:27
As a video, and as a game, I like what I’m seeing – it looks nice. But it seems interesting to me that almost all of these clips show the player being hurt. While I harbour nothing against the developers of this game, it just seems to me like they are trying to make the game seem more challenging that it really is, especially given that these boxes really do seems to make avoiding attacks much easier.
Once again, nothing against this team, but I hope they aren’t taking a lazy dev route.
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Pakuska on April 16, 2013 at 19:41
NCSoft killed Dungeon runners. NEVER FORGET.
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crypto66 on April 17, 2013 at 11:11
Yeah, but this game is about dodging, you’re supposed to always dodge, don’t know where you got what you said.
In a way it does make it easier, not everyone has good eyesight to actually recognize animations in the heat of battle, not everyone has a wonderful internet connection that they won’t get screwed by animation lag, so the telegraphs help with that. Fact is, it’s still no different than other action MMOs, the “telegraphs” don’t happen before an attack, but during.
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crypto66 on April 17, 2013 at 11:15
Hell, the term “telegraph” doesn’t even fit as that’s what got people whining about nothing. Just because you suddenly see a red circle pop under you doesn’t mean you can dodge it instantly, the attack’s already happening. Say that guy starts spinning and the red circle pops up, but you’re right next to him so you’ve been hit already, the circle just tells you how far to dodge so you don’t get hit more.
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greatemperorsteve on April 17, 2013 at 11:31
this is what happens when you piggyback off of other people’s opinions who have no idea what they’re talking about; your comment ends up mostly ignorant and nonsensical.
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BardenHasACamera on April 17, 2013 at 18:42
You said you can’t always dodge in time.
Anyway, it just seems to me that it makes to sense to fix something that isn’t really broken… Poor eyesight, honestly, does not seem like a reason to go for this over animations. Most animation telegraphs are distinct anyway, meaning that ‘poor eyesight’ should not be an issue. And, honestly, do people with eyesight that is that bad stand a chance in these games? Honestly, how could they play if their eyesight was so bad they couldn’t see an animation?
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BardenHasACamera on April 17, 2013 at 18:45
Then isn’t the red circle simply redundant? If I were making the game, I would have the enemy do a brief animation before the move, like a wind up. That gives the player a very small amount of time to react, but it is still possible. If the do not execute a dodge move, they will be hit and take damage, as it wouldn’t be an attack you could run from.
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BardenHasACamera on April 17, 2013 at 18:49
I’m not ignorant or nonsensical though, am I? Perhaps I could have phrased myself better, but I am working to YouTube’s character limit.
And, while I am only beginning to design my own now, I have been interested in game design for over a year now, and from everything I’ve learnt and observed, this seems to be a poor choice – or at least one I wouldn’t make.
About visuals; I think the boxes look too ‘one the nose’ for the fluffy art style of the game. I would use shading it I had to use boxes.
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BardenHasACamera on April 17, 2013 at 18:50
And for the record, the guy who linked me here made Braid. If you’re telling me he knows nothing of game design, then I think you need to play the game.
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t0ne09 on April 17, 2013 at 19:43
stfu faggot.
stop trying to force your opinions onto others.
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BardenHasACamera on April 17, 2013 at 20:53
I’m only looking for a discussion. Honestly, I’m just trying to learn as much about game design as I can, and this didn’t look like the way I would go about it. Calling me a faggot doesn’t help anyone, and you just come off bad. I’ll admit that I might have been a bit on the offensive, but I just wanted to discuss the design choices made, as they don’t make a while lot of sense to me.
Go all ad hominem if you want; I’m not trying to hurt anyone.
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crypto66 on April 18, 2013 at 01:53
I meant that it makes no difference with others because the “telegraph” happens during the attack, not during. Makes no difference when you see that guy face one direction so you dodge to his side, there’s simply a visual indicator. Some attacks happen near instantaneously, despite the telegraphs, say you’re in mid-combo then your opponent takes a massive swipe at you, you can’t dodge instantly, that’s what I was talking about.
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crypto66 on April 18, 2013 at 01:54
Go ahead and be an elitist asshole, doesn’t change that it actually HELPS. But even that’s not the biggest point, relying on animations and reticule alone is retarded. TERA had major lag and hitbox issues especially where I’m from, I’d be swiping away at someone but barely doing damage.
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crypto66 on April 18, 2013 at 01:59
Turn your point around and it would make more sense, THAT is an actual telegraph; something that happens BEFORE the attack. That would make the game easier since it tells you what your opponent is gonna do, this system only tells you where to dodge. WildStar emphasizes dodging, not just plain hack and slash action like so many others “action mmos” out there. They WANT you to dodge, they WANT you to move, they WANT you to dance. Plus with this system they can make some really interesting fights.
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BardenHasACamera on April 18, 2013 at 08:28
Sorry if I wasn’t clear – that WAS what I was going for; having the enemy do something BEFORE the attack. “I would have the enemy do a brief animation before the move”. Personally, I think this is the more challenging route of game design – players have to learn what attacks come after which telegraph animations so that they know when to dodge. This seems to take that element of skill out and then has them only rely on fast reactions to get out of a highlighted area.
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BardenHasACamera on April 18, 2013 at 08:32
I understand that this mechanic helps the player. I am just arguing that it helps them too much, in that it tells the player where they should and shouldn’t be standing without them having to learn anything about the enemy. I could see this game becoming an ‘avoid the shapes’ game, and draw focus away from the cool enemy designs because players are focused on the ground.
I hear your point about lag, but I’m not sure that this really helps? Surely you would still have problems with detection?
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BardenHasACamera on April 18, 2013 at 08:36
I assume you meant ‘before, not during.’ I get that this box telegraph happens before, but it stays there the entire attack. It would be better if it flashed up for less than a second and players had to react, but I still think that that is too hand-holding. And I get that some attacks may happen near-instantaneously, but I would still argue that if the player can’t dodge that attack when they are close, why telegraph it at all if the player can’t do anything?
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BardenHasACamera on April 18, 2013 at 08:38
If such an attack had a clear telegraph animation, players would know that they need to get out of their now, and stand a chance at dodging – no one likes to take unfair damage, and I don’t think they could stay far away from the enemy at all times.
By the way, I’m not trying to be some elitist asshole, I am genuinely trying to understand where you are coming from, because this mechanic doesn’t make much sense to me. I mean, aside from this, the game looks pretty good.
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crypto66 on April 18, 2013 at 08:55
Relying on animation would slow down battles, each attacks would always have windups, fights would be slower and longer=bad. This mechanic won’t hold your hand, it tells you where not to stand in that split second but your opponent can still “chase” you, which works with this kind of aiming system. It adds more to the fun and flavor, instead of a standard stand, point/click, lock attack, everyone’s dancing around.
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crypto66 on April 18, 2013 at 08:58
If that’s what you meant, then that’s simply bad. Again, animations, more than half the time, screw people over and an actual telegraph, you know something that tells you beforehand, would make the game easier, not to mention slower and much, much, much more clunky. By a number of factors, the beginning animation may fail or skip but the attack will still happen, so your idea=bad. This way the devs wanted to make something fun, not a generic hack and slash.
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greatemperorsteve on April 18, 2013 at 20:27
Your second statement says it all; that this is just a design decision you wouldn’t make (nor the people you’re piggybacking off of would either).
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greatemperorsteve on April 18, 2013 at 20:27
so? Just because he made Braid doesn’t mean he can’t say anything dumb. In fact, JB does it all the time. Also, he’s never made anything other than puzzle games.
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Sebastian Ärleryd on April 20, 2013 at 19:23
Haha, what’s the point if you can see that stuff? This is brain dead…
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Kevin Sutter on April 21, 2013 at 04:10
Telegraphs done in this manner makes basic combat easy, but allows combat to become even more complex and difficult than an action mmo without such a system (like GW2 or Tera).
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Kevin Sutter on April 21, 2013 at 04:14
About that list bit: the visual of the telegraph not fitting with the art style of the game; Remember that this is a Sci-Fi themed MMO, a lot of the telegraphs remind me of the AoE placement visuals done in other Sci-Fi MMO’s such as TOR. So on that note I think its just fine, the only thing they should do is add a slider so people can adjust the transparency of it.
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vakalkas on April 23, 2013 at 02:52
I’m not sure where to put this, but I just want to raise this concern as a possible future gamer of this MMO:
That the graphs that display the path of an incomming attack – seem alright to me, in the LOW LEVELS. however, once you’ve learned that attacks come at you at different paces and such, the telegraphs should be removed imo – otherwise it’s about looking at dots at the ground, and not actually caring about the animation of your opponent.
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vakalkas on April 23, 2013 at 02:52
2nd concern, some attacks commit a unit to following through with 2-3 seconds of hitting in a certain direction, I think this looks fine. BUT if the unit isn’t hitting anything, then it looks awefully stupid and wrong, that the unit keeps it attacking going and going.
It gives a completely wrong feel of the game, as if the units you’re fighting aren’t even aware that they are missing and just feels bad overall.
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Beg0tt3n on April 26, 2013 at 04:27
So you know the exact hitbox of it.
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GeekyBobz on May 7, 2013 at 15:34
This will bring for much more skilled play then anything in for example WoW. There is NOTHING more frustrating then “thinking you are outside of an AoE affect ,but turnsout the dmg area is not the same as the graphic and you die”. this happens quite a lot in WoW, now they have changed to more clear “telegraphs” in WoW as well, so its awesome to see Carbane fully adopting this style properly!!
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kaj idzes on May 10, 2013 at 17:36
So you can almost evade every attack in pvp?
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Wildstar Footage Combat Telegraphs

Telegraphs

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