[MUD-Dev] The 10 basic rules of a good PvP system

[Raph Koster]

Written by Azeraab, a player of MMORPGs and participant at the new PvP
design board at the Crossroads Gaming Network.
http://boards.xrgaming.net/cgi/xroads/conflictresolution.cgi?view=0


start quote--->

This is, of course, just a rough draft. Comments are fine, but I dont want
to hear about all my spelling and grammar errors. =P

1. Options.

There needs to be a number of different ways to perform the 2 basic
functions of combat (offense and defense). Every player need not have all,
but they do need to have more than just a few at their disposal. This should
be fairly obvious.

2. Opportunity Cost.

Basically what this means is that every power* should have a cost in lost
opportunity. For example: healing spell uses up mana that could be used for
an attack spell.

Another way of saying this is that there there should always be a reason to
NOT use a power. The most common would be that it will be rendered
unavailable for the remainder of the fight (harmtouch).

3. Maneuver, not Attrition.

A battle where you slowly beat down your opponent over a long period of time
is lame. A good PvP combat should be like a game of tennis, each contestant
tries to put his opponent into an awkward position so he can make a kill
shot.

UO around the time of the rep patch, as well as DSO and NWN are good
examples of this type of fighting. A battle could last an hour, but would
take only few shots to end. EQ is a pure attrition model - you beat each
other and hope your opponent runs out of health first, the victor is almost
always left on the verge of death himself.

4. For every offense there is a defense.
4a. This applys to powers not plinks**.
4b. These defenses must be ablative***.

Not only should there be one, but preferable more than one. Defenses for
being paralized in UO: Magic Reflect (counter - being hit with magic),
Hiding (counter - area attack or detect hidden){this defense has been
removed}, Trapped box (counter - limited in number)

5. Damage is a range, defense is a percentage.
5a. This applies to plinks.
5b. Hard ceilings and floors are preferred.

Plinking attacks should always do an amount of damage in a certain range. eg
sword does 1-8 damage. That range can be a set number eg Ice Shards spell
does 5 damage every time.
If the range varies depending on situation, such as a spell doing 1-6 +1 per
caster level there should be a ceiling and floor for the spell. Such as 1-6
+1 per level of caster, but never less than 4 and never more than 25.
For defenses there should be a percentage of damage that they block, or a
percentage to deflect/avoid the attack totally. Setting a hard range of
blockage devalues weaker weapons and weaker defenses making it impossible to
balance your combat system. eg a shield could block 50% of melee damage and
have a 75% chance to totally stop a missile attack. If the shield would
block 10 points of damage it would make a weapon that does 20 damage 10
times more effective than one that does 11 damage making the second weapon
useless.


6. Limited Powers.

To have an exciting system you really need to have the ability to do a
"finishing move" this is what powers are for. Since there isnt really a set
standard for what is a power and what is a plink it should just be kept in
mind by the designer that lower powered attacks should be virtually
limitless in their use and the most powerful should be available only once
or twice per battle. The way the AD&D system handled spells is a good
example. You would have progressively fewer higher level spells, and all
spells would only be usable once per battle.

7. Action timer.

Every game needs to limit the number of actions you can take by time. In the
early UO beta it was impossible to be killed so long as you had healing
potions. There was no limit to how fast you could use them. Everything from
drinking a potion to casting a spell to swinging your sword should be tied
to a single timer. Older games used a turn based system to do this.

8. Maximize the sweet spot.

The sweet spot is where you have a significant chance to succeed and a
significant chance to fail. This is mostly directed at melee/missile combat
and resists on direct damage spells. If you are whacking at someone with
your sword and miss 99% of the time it's totally useless. And if you hit 99%
of the time it's unfun.

Even a newbie attacking a veteran, a fighter useing a weapon he has never
used before or a mage attacking a fighter with a melee weapon should have a
good 25% chance to hit, and the veteran fighter should have no more than a
75% chance to hit back. Remeber we are talking PvP here, not PvE.

9. The best defense is a good defense.

The key to making PvP fun is to make it a chess game. One where you must
take risks to win, and more importantly where the first guy to move does NOT
have a significant advantage. The way to do this is to make defensive
actions stronger than offensive ones.

10. Standardization or Alteration.

I know those who play EQ especially will hate this concept, but the best PvP
systems are ones where the players are more or less the same. Quake is a
good PvP game, there everyone is exactly the same. In UO you really need to
be a 7x GM (or close) before you can compete. Just letting you pick your
skills/stats like on TC makes it THE place to PvP in UO now.

Unfortunatley this makes for the Tank Mage syndrom and eliminates the
possiblity of forcing diverse parties of mixed classes.

The other option is to allow players to change mid-course. To pick up new
skills and customize existing characters without having to start over.

Notes:

* A power is defined as a strong option. In EQ Shadowknight's harmtouch
would be a power, whereas his sword not. A 5th or 6th circle spell in AC
would be a power, a 1st would not. Any form of charm or paralysis is a
power.

** A plink is defined as an inexpensive and weak attack to slowly wear down
your opponent instead of kill him quickly. Sword, Bow, 1st lvl spell in AC,
etc.

*** No need to get a dictionary, basically this means it must be possible to
wear it down or have it run out.
<---end quote

-Raph




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