By Danny "Ralsu" Gourley
Combos and the Proima
Gauge
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The user interface in
Deco
is simple and familiar.
The next part of the tutorial left me a little confused. The training
grounds NPC explained to me that I could execute combos during a fight
to score consecutive hits and build up my Proima (or combo) Gauge.
Though the explanation left me a little puzzled, I was able to see what
she was talking about once I got back into combat. This time I was to
use my combos to fill up my gauge the one point that was necessary to
unleash the Flame Repeated Hit.
As I attacked the next set of monsters, a pink version of the Eggvill
that was said to be tougher, I saw letters pop up near my character's
feet. If I pressed the corresponding keys (X,X,C,Z) with the right
timing, I landed additional hits and added a finishing move for extra
damage and gained one point on my gauge. If I missed any one of the
four key presses in the combo, the series of hits ended there and I had
to start over.
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The character
information panel in Deco
Online
A passive racial all Rain characters have at level 1 kept me from
filling the gauge past one point. This meant I had to execute the XXCZ
combo for each time I wanted to use Flame Repeated Hit. it was worth
the effort, though, as Flame Repeated Hit did about 5-6 times the
damage of a regular attack, and simply executing the XXCZ combo cause
me to do bonus damage, too.
The UI
By the time I finished my first stint in the training grounds, I had
the user
interface
(UI) figured out. The top left corner features the player's character
portrait. Wrapping around it is the combo gauge, which slowly fills as
the player completes combos. It also has the standard red and blue bars
for health and mana pools. Beneath the HP and MP bars is little bar
that fills up during a single combo to show how close to complete it
is. To the right is a 4-button mini-bar that gives access to the
personal shop, emotes, Battle Room (unknown function at this point, but
assumed to be about player-vs-player combat) and pet info.
The
top right corner has a mini-map that has icons to represent NPCs, quest
locations, and more. The map can be expanded for easier viewing on the
fly.
The bottom right corner has a text box for system messages and the menu
bar. The menu bar contains buttons for
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skills, inventory, quests, and more.
The
bottom left corner has the chat window and the skills hotbar. Only one
hotbar appears by default, but players can expand it to two rows.
Finally, under the entire bottom of the screen is the thin XP bar,
which shows exactly what players need to gain a level.
More Images
Deco Online
is not the first game to start players as a neutral class and then have
them choose a real class at level 10. A major difference between
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other games is that Deco
does a terrific job of letting players test out the class choices so
that they don't regret their decision later. The remaining images in
this preview show my character testing the Magician Fire Ball and
Lightning skills before deciding that was the right class for him and
making the transition. After the tutorial, I was teleported to the real
Rain
starting city and ready to go.
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Ball
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transformation to a Magician
change to the Magician class
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Deco Online Game Page.
