[MUD-Dev] Better Combat

[cruise]

Ghilardi Filippo wrote:

> Now, it's always possible (and easy) to change mob stats to have
> 100% resist and insane HP. But this can be boring as well. Trust
> me, I've esperienced it and everyone in my group tought the
> same. Happened in SWG, my group was dealing small damage but was
> able to keep up with damage taken. We took about 7 minutes to kill
> that mob, everyone of us was still in place spamming always the
> same couple special attacks. We got all excited during first few
> seconds of the encounter as we needed to get in position for the
> kill, but after that was 7 minutes of brainless press of a couple
> buttons once a while.

All three replies I've seen seem to include a common theme:
counter-abilities.

Which makes intuitive sense - in any strategy game, any attack from
your opponents can be rebuffed, quashed, or even turned to your
advantage, with sufficient skill. The ability to respond to threats
and actually deal with them is the core of strategic challenges.

Most combat now has very little of this. It has some: a healer
"counters" damage taken, and maybe other magicians/alchemists can
counter debuffs. But for the most part, there's nothing you can
/actively/ do to avoid that next blow coming in. You can't sidestep,
hit a block key, etc. And there's nothing the mobs can do in
response to your attacks.

Any MUD I've had any connection with development I've pestered them
to have counter-spells - if you recognise the spell being cast, then
you may be able to cast the appropriate spell to neutralize it. In a
MMOG actual weapon combat may be too fast-paced to have individual
counters, but being able to counter the techniques or style of your
opponent - even a simple rock-paper-style dynamic, where neutral
beats defensive, offensive beats neutral, and defensive beats
offensive - would keep players constantly trying to recognise the
current style of opponents, and second-guess which one they will
choose next. Visible stance changes that take a little time to
perform would give observant opponents the /chance to respond/.

The example above I replied to makes the point that this needs to be
an ongoing thing within the fight. Not just an initial "how are we
going to approach this fight", and you just repeat that strategy
until the mob falls over. A dynamic, flowing thing, which requires
/constant/ strategic and responsive decisions.

--
[ cruise / casual-tempest.net / transference.org ]
   "quantam sufficit"
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