Does it really matter whether the combat in a game is more prone to hand-eye coordination or calculated stats?Yes. Yes, that matters very, very, very much in a game. Really. A lot.
The combat style is one of the main determining factors in whether I will like, and can play a game. One click (or a couple) per opponent results in a certain number of button/key presses in a given time frame. One click per attack can easily double to quadruple that amount of clicking. Having to use various key combinations to swing, dodge, parry, etc, greatly increases the number of key presses again. Even if I had the coordination and desire to try such a combat system, my wrists would not last nearly long enough for a 50-100 hour game (unless I took 200+ days to complete it). The tendons in the back of my hand got sore after playing
I of the Dragon a few hours a day, and that was just using the up, right and left arrows to fly.
The reason I am hoping you keep gamepad support is that using it for movement would be much better than the keyboard. You have not revealed much about combat, but I suspect since it doesn't use a mouse cursor, whatever you came up with would have to be at least as good on a gamepad than on a keyboard and mouse. Even if there are a lot of button presses or combinations, the shape and button positions of a good gamepad should allow a more neutral hand positioning with less effort.
Ignoring the possibility of carpal tunnel syndrome inducing controls, I just do not like twitch based gameplay. I do not want to memorize a combination of key presses and practice them over and over until I can click out the right pattern within a game's tolerance whenever certain triggers appear onscreen.
From what I have seen so far, the combat could be anything from ok to poor. If it is worse than I suspect, it could literally make the game unplayable for me. I don't want the game to be unplayable.
Or whether this sort of stuff falls under the term 'action' or not?Not directly, but I would like the game to do well. The way you choose to market the game will have a large impact on people's first impressions. Without other information about the game, some people may assume it is yet another Diablo clone. Maybe the action RPG term will attract more people than it turns off; maybe there are enough real RPG games coming out soon that people expect more than straight hack and slash, so the action description will not have as much of a negative connotation for some people...
Lar was the one who mentioned seeing reactions online that the game may be too action oriented. I just pointed out that calling it an action RPG (and releasing mostly action style screenshots) isn't necessarily helping with that perception.
If you
really didn't want us splitting hairs over 'minor' points, though, you'd give us more information about the game, so we'd have better things to discus or debate.
PS just so you don't forget, twitch based combat sucks.
