Notice I mention a ring menu, this is something that has popped up recently, and I think we can make it usuable with both keyboard/gamepad and mouse, just like the targetting and moving.
The advantages of this approach over a realtime combat approach is that there can be no such thing as conflicts between client and server, it saves a lot on the amount of messages that need to be sent, it copes better with lag, it's easier to implement and it allows you to chat while fighting.
For those that argue a certain amount of control is lost, yes, this is true, you won't have the realtime feeling of Secret of Mana or Zelda: A Link To The Past. As I've stated before, my personal opinion is that a MMORPG has enough things to make the game interesting (player interaction, richer choice in actions, richer world, quests, etc.) not to need real time combat skills. Meanwhile, notice that the player is still performing the tactical choices of how to proceed in combat. I also think anybody should be able to play any character, so that I won't become a better mage or fighter by learning to use the keyboard, but simply by performing related actions in the game.
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TMW Italian community
