[MUD-Dev] Can "non-twitch" ranged-combat be fun in a MMORPG?

[Zach Collins {Siege}]

On Sat, 5 Jul 2003, Daniel Anderson wrote:

> Planetside is a MMOFPS, and it has ranged combat involving guns.
> It's fun, but it also twitch based.  How can you make it so ranged
> combat involving guns is at the very least an enjoyable activity
> for a MUD, or is it even possible without being twitchy?

I would refer to the game Phantasy Star Online (I and II), for
Dreamcast and now GameCube.  It's a graphical game, so it doesn't
cover all MUDs, but some principles do apply across the board:

Targeting.  Since PSO uses a view-to-aim system this is still
somewhat of a twitch factor, but much reduced.  Targets are acquired
if they are in front of a player and attackable.  Perhaps an element
of training or equipment can be added here; with a resizable
targeting circle (within which a target is acquired), or with
different speed of acquisition (a newbie takes three seconds to aim,
an expert just half a second), or perhaps by allowing called attacks
(headshots and so on).

Accuracy.  More experienced players hit their targets more often.
Nothing special here.

Patterns.  The weapons in PSO have light and strong attacks, with
different cool-down periods between them, as well as an overall
cool-down timer for the weapon itself.  Learning the most efficient
pattern for your weapon's attacks (more light attacks can be used
between cool-downs, heavy attacks knock enemies back a little) can
mean the difference between swift kills and being swarmed.

--
Zach Collins
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