Diablo® III

What about just locking the skills so that you can't swap them while in combat? Has that been tried/thought of?

09/16/2011 04:29 PMPosted by Daxxarri

We're currently testing a few different solutions, but I don't have anything specific to report on that front just yet. We're okay with players changing their builds while they're out adventuring, but we're not comfortable with players running around with their skill pane open swapping skills during combat. We'd also rather not have a system which forces players to return to town. We’ve tried it, and it feels really bad. Of course, worse comes to worse and if our attempts to curb use in combat fail, it could very well be what we have to resort to.

Big news :-p

So you guys want a limitation so people cannot do so in combat? There have been quite a few good ideas on the board with regards to this. If you want some ideas that is :)

09/16/2011 04:36 PMPosted by JuiceyJoe

Make the skill screen take up the whole screen, cant fight blind

You can try.

LOL I knew a guy that fought with his inventory open cause he didnt figure you could put them on the hotbar.

I kinda agree a belt slot for potions and scrolls would be ideal.

09/16/2011 04:35 PMPosted by Paulywally

I agree.

Based on what data? We have no idea what the other solutions could be.

We're okay with players changing their builds while they're out adventuring, but we're not comfortable with players running around with their skill pane open swapping skills during combat.

I think it could be less of an issue than everyone is making it out to be, as likely the mob density and difficulty will scale with each 'difficulty level' meaning the higher you get (into the more "important gameplay") the less time you will have to waste dragging things in an out, where each second could be your last... !

WHY dont they just add a lock? Cant even use the menu if you are "in combat" status.

09/16/2011 04:29 PMPosted by Daxxarri

We're currently testing a few different solutions, but I don't have anything specific to report on that front just yet. We're okay with players changing their builds while they're out adventuring, but we're not comfortable with players running around with their skill pane open swapping skills during combat. We'd also rather not have a system which forces players to return to town. We’ve tried it, and it feels really bad. Of course, worse comes to worse and if our attempts to curb use in combat fail, it could very well be what we have to resort to.

Sorry, I don't really understand the distinction - you're ok with players changing builds while out adventuring (so I'm assuming you mean anytime out of combat), but you want to discourage swapping during combat? I'm curious what the logic behind that is - do you want skill swapping in preparation for various encounters to be part of the strategy, but not during combat so as to prevent cooldown abuses and that sort of thing?

09/16/2011 04:29 PMPosted by Daxxarri

What you place into your various skill slots will vary from player to player and build to build. Depending on your skills you can have both left and right mouse button bound to skills (and pressing 'x' will swap your right-mouse with yet another skill button for a total of 3 mouse binds) and if you don’t have the resources to use the skill, then you’ll normal attack instead until you have the necessary resources to use the skill again. There should be space for, at least, a potion. Diablo III isn't designed with potion spamming in mind anyway, so really, you should have plenty of space on your bars for the elements that will be important to your hero's success.

That still only leaves you with 8 slots. It's a given that 6 of those should be skills. If the player equips a skill, the UI shouldn't be any restriction on actually using that skill. Otherwise it kind of defeats the purpose of having 6 skills.

That still leaves only 2 slots for potions, basic attacks, and scrolls. Basic attacks, and especially potions, should ALWAYS be availible to the player. A player shouldn't have to choose between having a basic attack and a potion. That's just... ridiculous... to put it lightly. And then scrolls are left out in the dust. Or you could have scrolls and potions, but can't benefit from and of the skills/passives utilizing basic attacks. Or worse, the player could be confronted with the idea of only using 5 skills.

If I were the UI designer, I'd simply give potions and scrolls their own place on the UI.
A control scheme that I've found works well, and could easily be adapted to this game, would be to have the skills on numbers 1-6, and potions/scrolls on R and T. This keeps them quickly accessible without moving the fingers away from the main controls.

09/16/2011 04:29 PMPosted by Daxxarri

We're currently testing a few different solutions, but I don't have anything specific to report on that front just yet. We're okay with players changing their builds while they're out adventuring, but we're not comfortable with players running around with their skill pane open swapping skills during combat. We'd also rather not have a system which forces players to return to town. We’ve tried it, and it feels really bad. Of course, worse comes to worse and if our attempts to curb use in combat fail, it could very well be what we have to resort to.

It seems to me like most people are only considering the higher level skills with longer cooldown durations when they have gripes about the skill switching mechanic (ie. the 120 second ones). Why not just pause the cooldown timer where it's at when the skill is switch back into their skill panel and replaced by something else? For instance if I use the Witch Doctor's Zombie Dogs skill and then 6 seconds later I decide to switch it for another skill, not only do my Zombie Dogs unsummon, but the skill also returns to the skill pane frozen at a 54 second cooldown remaining. If I brought the skill back into my active skill toolbar, it would resume from the 54 second mark.

09/16/2011 04:46 PMPosted by Daxxarri

That's one of the options on the table currently.

Well there are a few options.

Since you guys do not like how the town return is working.. thats out.

Global CD after a player hits "Accept" or "Apply" could help somewhat.

The idea of adding cast time.. Basically have a key that puts your character in some sort of meditative state that can only be done out of combat would be nice too. Associate a button with the "meditate/trance/focus/etc" state and add a 5 second cast time would be enough as well.

I am glad to see that Blizzard did see(and probably had already seen) that the on the go swapping would have been highly exploitable.

Good luck :)

Simple solution - Add a cast time

That's one of the options on the table currently.

How much theory-crafting does Blizz do before they implement something like this? I mean it sounds like a really simple way to avoid the problem you originally described. You don't want people to have the skill-tab open half the game while they fight... so disable it during combat and put a cooldown timer on it. Is that too "sloppy" of a solution or something? Genuinely curious.