New QOL Feature: Combo Tracker!

Kabam ZeroKabam Zero Moderator Posts: 165
edited July 2023 in General Discussion
Greeting Summoners!

I am excited to introduce to you a really cool, new feature coming to the Contest. While it certainly most benefits our new Summoners, I know there are some useful applications for our experienced Summoners as well!

Traditionally, new players (and even some more experienced players) have had trouble understanding the exact application of our combo system; the Combo Tracker feature is here to help!

Before I get into it, it’s best to explain what I mean by the "combo system" as it often gets confused with "hit count." The combo system is what limits how many attacks a character can string together before leaving an opening that the opponent can punish. The most common one Summoners know is the 5-hit combo or MLLLM (M is Medium, and L is Light), but not everyone knows why that’s the limitation. To lay out the general rules, a combo will end with either the 2nd medium or 4th light attack, this means that even as whacky as it would be, LLMLM is a totally valid combo.

One important thing to note is that some Champions have multi-hit attacks but they still only count as one attack with regards to the combo system. This is why Champs like Quicksilver will end up with a lot more than 5 hits from an MLLLM combo.

Now that we are hopefully all on the same page about what a combo is, let us introduce: the Combo Tracker. The Combo Tracker, in essence, is very simple: it will display the actions of the player and their opponent.



There are some important notes about what the Combo Tracker will display:
  • The Combo Tracker will display all Light and Medium attacks
  • The Combo Tracker will display enemy combos, but won’t include heavy or special attacks as AI doesn’t typically include them in combos
  • The Combo Tracker only displays an icon by actions, not hit count, ie multi-hit Mediums still only show as one icon
  • Specials or Strikers executed at the end of a combo will be displayed
  • The Combo Tracker will display hits into a block or whiffed (hitting the air) as they have the same combo implications
  • Icons will reset 1 second after the last action's animation has finished or if a new combo is started
  • Dodging back will end the current combo and make any following attacks start a new combo
  • Heavy attacks will be displayed if following basic attacks (this is mainly to support champs like Doom, Chavez, Wasp, etc.. that can chain heavy attacks following their basics)
  • The heavy icon will only show up upon the release animation starting, not the charge
  • Will not display heavies, Specials, or Striker attacks as combo starters, only finishers, the accumulated combo will reset if these are activated in a new combo
It is worth noting: Lights/Mediums/Heavies cannot come after Heavy Attacks/Specials/Strikers, doing so will start a new combo. While Strikers and some specials that stun will allow the player to chain another combo after it is activated, the goal of The Combo Tracker is to illustrate basic combo parameters, and using a striker or special will reset that portion of the combo. For this reason, and also not wanting to balloon out how long the combos could visually be, The Combo Tracker will reset when the player starts the new combo after using the special or striker

As an additional note, while this feature will be enabled by default, it is another piece of UI in the fight that not everyone will enjoy and can be disabled in the settings menu.

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoy the combo tracker when it releases with our 40.1 build on July 10th.
Post edited by Kabam Jax on
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Comments

  • SeenkSeenk Member Posts: 214 ★★
    edited July 2023
    It's great!
  • Fit_Fun9329Fit_Fun9329 Member Posts: 2,185 ★★★★★
    It’s an onboarding thing for new players right?
  • Eb0ny-O-M4wEb0ny-O-M4w Member Posts: 14,025 ★★★★★
    Mackey said:

    Eb0ny-O-M4w said:

    Kabam Zero said:



    As an additional note, while this feature will be enabled by default, it is another piece of UI in the fight that not everyone will enjoy and can be disabled in the settings menu.

    So when is this coming for BG emotes?
    Them emotes need a permanent mute option, it's so tedious having to remember to press twice every single match up but I highly doubt there will ever be that option considering they monetise them
    At the very least they could just reverse the default (make it so that the "hide" option is the default one), or just make it memorize the last option selected kinda like arena memorizes filters, but make it for the entire season
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    Two years from now this'll be a net benefit and nobody will be talking about it
  • ErcarretErcarret Member Posts: 2,915 ★★★★★
    I like this feature! Yeah, it won't be too useful in most scenarios for seasoned players, but new players need cool features as well. However, I do think it can open up for some new champion designs in the future where they deviate from the standard 5-hit-combo template. While there are some champions that have an extra hit or two in their combo, I think it's only QS that has a really wacky hit-count in his combo. When I first began playing with him, I was completely unable to combo into special attacks since I lost track of when my "fifth" hit was. I've since then learned how to use him somewhat, but I still find myself counting hits (or more precisely, button presses) in order to line things up properly.

    I think this sounds like a great tool to learn how to play champions that utilize other hit-counts, and hopefully this can lead to more champions that find themselves doing fun and weird alternative combos. In a perfect world, I'd hope that this empowers Kabam to go outside of their comfort zone when designing future champions since they now know that players have a reliable way to learn how to play those champions without just getting confused by them. I always like it when we get new and quirky champions so I really hope this can shepherd in some. I don't anticipate the floodgates to open completely and every champion to come with a 26-hit combo, but hopefully we see more experiments with it than just QS.
  • Ace2319Ace2319 Member Posts: 619 ★★★
    SpideyFunko said:

    Kabam Miike said:

    Eb0ny-O-M4w said:

    Kabam Zero said:



    As an additional note, while this feature will be enabled by default, it is another piece of UI in the fight that not everyone will enjoy and can be disabled in the settings menu.

    So when is this coming for BG emotes?
    Never, and I think there's a misconception that we said that this would be an option in the future, and we have never said that.
    Just out of curiosity, why not?
    Probably to help them sell. Nobody will pay money if they know they’ll never be seen etc
  • Chris_118Chris_118 Member Posts: 28 ★
    While this is obviously targeted at new players, I can see this being really useful for miss champions like Cassie, meaning you no longer have to recognise every champions 2nd medium animation and can safely release heavy whenever the opponent finishes their combo
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