What's the point in using profiles?
At first glance I was, nice idea, easily makes up for being limited to only three skill slots. Let's do this. Oh well... After many hours I found myselft sticking with just the same profile all the ...
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They really unnecessarily limited the game. Like they thought this was League or something that needed fine tuning and tiny numbers. No, this is a singleplayer or PvE game where you want the players to feel like they're some awesome transhuman with an AI in her head.
They play it up with Alec switching profiles constantly on Habitat 7, but you just cannot do that. The game actively discourages you from switching profiles.
• There is NO reason switching profiles should put anything on cooldown.
• Active abilities from one profile should remain active when you switch.
• Profiles should be shown in the main radial menu and not hidden under another layer (Have to press X when in the quick menue just to see them)
Do these and it'd actually feel really great like part of your character. It's what makes Ryder special, allegedly. With it gimped like this there's little reason to bother switching, and it's actively a detriment to bother in combat. She just feels like any other character as is.
There is no reason not to go all out with profiles. Any little balance change to hold it back? No, don't do it, it's unnecessary and just makes the experience less engaging. I lends to the overall feeling that Bioware preemptively nerfed everything severely before release.
They wanted an open character design with lots of options but the limiting factor they built in was they wanted to make it so it was controller friendly I suspect.
This of course negates all the advantages that a PC has over a controller which are multiple keybinds which bites for PC users as that is one of the key reasons to play on a PC over a consol.
Ditto for the TEXT option in multiplayer being gone. That also bites. But then console users don't type. So you can't tell the fool who is chomping and grunting with an open mic to turn the darn thing off. (seriously he didn't say one word just disgusting noises all match long till I figured out how to mute him.)
The only advantage I can see to profiles is swapping them out according to enemy type. Some are more resistant to biotics than others for example. First Architect I encountered taught me my adept needed something else going on for that fight. So perhaps you make a profile specifically for that situation.
@NueeArdente wrote:
They wanted an open character design with lots of options but the limiting factor they built in was they wanted to make it so it was controller friendly I suspect.
This of course negates all the advantages that a PC has over a controller which are multiple keybinds which bites for PC users as that is one of the key reasons to play on a PC over a consol.
Hey! Don't go blaming us controller users for this... at least not entirely, lol.
But seriously, you can map a lot to a controller. Not as much as you can with a keyboard but after making a few custom controller profiles myself, I know we could have easily had more than 3 powers. Besides, it has been awhile since I've played Inquisition, but I remember using a controller for that one and having more than 3 powers active at once.
Considering how many different abilities I go through in FFXIV using a controller, I'm confident in saying that its not the controller's fault we're limited with abilities and the profile system.
At any rate, I can see what they were going for with the profile system...IE different play styles for different situations, but the problem is that you can essentially use almost every play style in every situation. I think the only exception would be fighting something like a Fiend where you want to remain long ranged since it does that one-shot-grab-smash thing. I tried to do different profiles, myself, just to have more viability and ended up sticking to mostly just one profile unless I wanted to just spice things up for fun.
If they wanted a system like that, they should've made the abilities a little less homogenized, I think. With the exception of Combat abilities, because #bleep# those ammo capacity abilities. 😃
@sirexodus84 wrote:
At any rate, I can see what they were going for with the profile system...IE different play styles for different situations, but the problem is that you can essentially use almost every play style in every situation.
And I would have to try a successfully implemented version of this to be able to judge it fairly. Right now, it seems/feels too inconvenient to be switching profiles and or favorites with powers due to cooldowns.
Outside of that, I prefer to just pick one way to go and stick with it but have there be advantages and disadvantages. As you pointed out, it all seems a bit the same. For the most part, it doesn't seem like the advantages/disadvantages (if any) are significant enough period. Even among many of the weapon types, I don't know.
Either way, I picked one profile, stuck with it, and would spend points to raise that profile. And perhaps that also hurts switching profiles as well. I mean to have those profiles to their maximum, you would have to adjust how you spent points as well.
@NueeArdente wrote:
They wanted an open character design with lots of options but the limiting factor they built in was they wanted to make it so it was controller friendly I suspect.
This of course negates all the advantages that a PC has over a controller which are multiple keybinds which bites for PC users as that is one of the key reasons to play on a PC over a consol.
Ditto for the TEXT option in multiplayer being gone. That also bites. But then console users don't type. So you can't tell the fool who is chomping and grunting with an open mic to turn the darn thing off. (seriously he didn't say one word just disgusting noises all match long till I figured out how to mute him.)
The only advantage I can see to profiles is swapping them out according to enemy type. Some are more resistant to biotics than others for example. First Architect I encountered taught me my adept needed something else going on for that fight. So perhaps you make a profile specifically for that situation.
Controller shouldn't limit options as much as MEA is limited.
DAI let you have upto 8 skills equipped at once, MEA has a measly 3.
A simple button push in DAI let you swap between the first 4 skills and the second it took no time at all making all 8 perfectly viable in combat. This limited to three skills thing is annoyingly restrictive.
Is it not possible assigning pressing 2 buttons at once for additional functions? 2 buttons on the control pad like we did in some fighting games, for example? I concur this 3-power-assignment setting is things too flat, making all the other related mechanics poorly presented/explored as well.
@PandaTar wrote:
Is it not possible assigning pressing 2 buttons at once for additional functions? 2 buttons on the control pad like we did in some fighting games, for example? I concur this 3-power-assignment setting is things too flat, making all the other related mechanics poorly presented/explored as well.
Why the combats set up like it is I have no idea tbh.
Its pretty bad on a controller.
It already takes a duel button push to activate the middle skill, I think because of the jump jet.
The jumpjet alone takes up three buttons (jump, dash mid jump and hover). Then melee attack is perm assigned to a button. Your weapon to another, reload another. The jump jet being per assigned to combat keys and required has restricted console combat a lot.
They could have added a couple more duel button presses but i think people would end up complaining, if they don't hit both right , they will end up jumping or dashing out of cover instead of using a skill.
Cross-platform game design is the worst in general. Give me an old fashioned PC game any day, and hundreds of key binds. Reducing the number of inputs to console controllers without adding nested menus is impossible, so the game is click-click-click a lot of the time while going through menus.
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