[MUD-Dev] Alternative team based approaches to game-play

[olag at ifi.uio.no]

Adam M:
> olag at ifi.uio.no wrote:

> I'm not sure what's wrong with the existing designs of the
> MMORPG's.

  1. Players grow into stale game play patterns.

  2. Testing and balancing content becomes difficult because teams
  are very different.

  3. Teams can get difficult to assmble. Too many healers => too
  slow pace.  No healers => no chance.

  4. Teams are unstable. Healer log off => team disband.

> Check. Most people want to be in any group so they can actually
> dare to fight bosses with good drops.

Wrong. You are referring to new games where players don't know what
they are doing.

>>   - players have to shift gears (fight or heal mode) during a
>>   fight

> Check. The standard tactics of group combat in these games (aggro,
> each monster grossly outpowers each player if solo, etc) force
> this often.

Not at all. Players stick to one mode.

The main point of my proposal is that each player HAS to switch mode
during a fight. The player also have to make the right choice for
when to switch. If you allow players to both fight and heal then
they are basically stuck in one mode. No cognitive shifts at
all. Same with having specialized roles. This leads to stale
gameplay.

Some classes have some shifts, like calmers with fighting
capabilities, but this isn't really all that typical for the RPG
genre. Of course, I don't know all RPGs, so that is why I asked if
someone knew about game systems which provided this type of
gameplay.

>>   - players cannot act selfishly (no self-heal)

> Check. Common to have classes that cannot heal at all (to all
> intents and purposes) in a major nasty combat, and those that can
> are too weak to survive on their own so absolutely must keep the
> non-healers alive or they die themselves seconds afterwards.

Yes, but healers typically get to heal themselves, and healers get
cursed if they don't heal when expected to. The scope for making
decisions is rather narrow. You might as well forget about having
healers and give the players tear-and-wear team-armour or
heal-over-time magic.

>>   - if players don't look after each single individual then the
>>   entire team goes down (a char with low hp receive more severe
>>   blows which affect team hp)

> Check. Lost any key member of the team and the remaining people
> are so unbalanced due to racial or professional etc choices that
> they'll die quickly.

Ehm. No, the weakest member dies often and then the team is spread
out.  They don't remain co-located unless they can resurrect. =>
waiting rather than doing.

My proposal gurantees virtual co-presence without taking away
penalties, which means they can continue to on their adventure
immediately, but still have to fear death.

> So...what, *exactly*, is wrong with the status quo from those
> games (which is pretty easy to appropriate) that you're hoping to
> improve upon here?

A lot! :-)

However, I didn't say I was hoping to improve on RPGs, I questioned
the need for having the RPG mechanics as they are. I want something
different, obviously...

Ola.
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