Hi
Due to all the threads nowdays with questions about various in-game questions I've made this thread to maybe illuminate something about Combat in general in AOC and some tidbits about the Guardian class.
I've taken screenshots and made arrows, text, zooming in where possible, to give you lot a better view and try to get as many small details as possible.
This is to give a spark to some new and constructive discussion, instead of trolling and flaming. Much of it might be known, t'is alot of threads to keep track of
A small update here, Athelan has been so nice to comment this on his blog:
http://askathelan.blogspot.com/
Athelan zei:
For the most part his insights are relatively accurate with a few minor mistakes. Directional attacks indeed are always available. To the left and right of what we call the combat "rose" (like the old cartography term) you have the slots that you can put your combo's into. You have a book of combo's and can change them at any time but these are the ones that you have instantly at hand. The rose highlighting is there to help players learn the combo's, when you do not have enough stamina or a combo is on cool-down it will not be highlighted in the rose.
So what does this "analysis" show?
It will give some pointers to possibly some new information (for those interested) and point out some things that are really easy to miss, unless you look closely. All of this might be subject to change during the summer and up until release.
I also
strongly recommend that you watch the videos in question:
GDC March07 part 1
GDC March07 part 2
And read up on these excellent observations initially made by Csick:
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=22664 . For the more interested the whole script output is linked abit further down the first post.
I'm skipping the character creation as we've seen that so many times.
We start off with the HUD / GUI.
HUD or Heads Up Display as it's called, is what you see when entering the game world. It is the display that makes you control your character and is part of the GUI (Graphical User Interface).
It looks something like this:
http://folk.uio.no/joakibj/in-depth/interface.jpg
No doubt WoW has had a big impact on MMORPG games in general, which basically set the standard for what you see on the screen.
We start from the top. There you will see your own Portrait with a small level indicator to the lower left of that. Inside it will hold your Health and Stamina Points for a non-magic user and possibly Mana for a magic-user. I believe all classes and archetypes will get the green Stamina Points bar, as it is required for sprinting.
Sprinting? Yes, as GDC Part 2 shows from 02:48 to 03:00 the character sprints before becoming exhausted. Thus it means that all characters won't hold a constant speed but be able to catch up with others at some point, at foot atleast. This was featured in DAoC with an endurance bar, it had some tactical and strategical advantages when moving about, getting out of range and away line of sight or just fleeing from battle. A mount will most probably catch up to you though.
Continuing on, there is a button to show the interface for Player Searching, Group Searching, Guild Searching, Creating and searching for PvP matches and general options for the forementioned (LFG flag, Guild applications etc)
On the lower left is the chat window, with appropriate tabs for who you are chatting to (group, guild etc) also used for status output and debug. In the far lower left there is something open for debate, maybe some consumable slots, or beltslots for potions.
In the middle, we got the goodies. The well known directional attack "pad" (combat "rose"), for swinging your weapon. Below it is what I'd call an attack-queue, basically when you do an attack with another attack, the last attack will be put in the queue, as it seems to indicate, you can queue up 4 attacks and cancel them out at any time.
In the middle lower left, the speculation will start. I'll call those basic attacks, which indicates some basic move that will initiate a basic combo, my belief is that there will be no cooldown on these.
In the middle lower right, the advanced combos will be. Now these will have a N second cooldown and be slightly more advanced, my bet is that you can choose combos from a pallette and slot them there, up to max a certain combos dependant on your level.
I will get back to the names, cooldowns and other tidbits shortly.
Combos
The dev walkthrough was of a level 32 Guardian class. Thus the names of the combos will be for a Guardian class and the names and stats subject to change.
Mr. Tharaldsen shows the combos off from 07:57 to 08:24 in Part1. This made me able to time how long the combo cooldown lasted. (from the cooldown icon appeared, to it disappeared)
Exhausting Strike: 15 second cooldown
Reckless Swipe: ~15 second cooldown
Impudent Strike: ~13 second cooldown
Trauma: ~15 second cooldown
Once thing I noticed was that at some point, Mr. Tharaldsen graces those I called "advanced combos" with his mouse. This shows us something, but it's really hard to make out:
Reckless Swipe:
http://folk.uio.no/joakibj/in-depth/reckless_delve.jpg
Attack Locations?
Head-LowerRight ?
Weapon Criteria:
1H Sword
1H Blunt
Staminacost: 21? 28?
Impudent Strike
http://folk.uio.no/joakibj/in-depth/impudent_delve.jpg
Attack Locations?
??-UpperLeft
Weapon Criteria:
1H Sword
1H Blunt
Staminacost: 25
Trauma
http://folk.uio.no/joakibj/in-depth/trauma_delve.jpg
Attack Locations?
??
Weapon Criteria:
1H Sword
1H Blunt
Staminacost: 35
If you can make it out, come with suggestions
Furthermore, when you attack someone your combo options will highlight in yellow, or atleast the first hint to get you going. Then when a combo is successfully executed and you hit someone, a orange sign will come up. Saying it's name and starting the cooldown.
Some examples:
Exhausting Strike:
Right before:
http://folk.uio.no/joakibj/in-depth/exhausting_swipe_1.jpg
And right after:
http://folk.uio.no/joakibj/in-depth/exhausting_swipe_2.jpg
Notice the arrow, this indicates that this combo has started it's cooldown, also notice the bar in the middle (below the sword icon), this indicates how far into the action you are. You can clearly see what names that combo had. He also triggers a fatality.
More examples:
Exploit Vulnerability:LR
Before:
http://folk.uio.no/joakibj/in-depth/exploit_vuln_LR1.jpg
After:
http://folk.uio.no/joakibj/in-depth/exploit_vuln_LR2.jpg
At this point he also triggers a fatality (driving the sword through his belly and kicking him back). However no cooldown seemed to indicate, this led me to believe that there is a series of Exploit Vulnerability attacks (thus the LR suffix) that are a part of the basic combo pallette.
Impudent Strike
Before:
http://folk.uio.no/joakibj/in-depth/impudent_strike_1.jpg
After:
http://folk.uio.no/joakibj/in-depth/impudent_strike_2.jpg
Notice the cooldown and orange sign.
Anything else?
Well except for the character creation and showing off the monsters, there really isn't anything new. However a small detail I noticed after he looted the bag in GDC part 2, I saw that he also looted some coinage. Now I've seen there are plenty of "what kind of currency except blood money will there be" threads around. And unless someone noticed it, here it is:
http://folk.uio.no/joakibj/in-depth/tin.jpg
Tin. Tin? My guess is that one of the lowest forms of currency will be coins made of Tin. (Tin is used to harden copper into bronze)
Now this was all my guesses and no real facts, except from what you see on the video. However as I've said I wanted to spark some new and fresh discussions from things we can observe without getting a spoon feeding us.
Opinions? Constructive critisism? Dicuss.
, hopelijk gebeurd dat hier niet 
.
