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Why not with a Magic the gathering like skill/spell system?
Loke666
Member EpicPosts: 21,441
In magic the gathering you usually take 60 cards (20-28 lands for many to use the rest) , max 4 of the same card and then draw a certain number of random spells to play. Every round you'll draw a new card (but there is a maximum hand size).
I can see a MMO that uses a similar mechanics.
You put a certain number of skills that you have gotten in the game (bought for gold or xp, from quests, looted or capped from bosses).
Say that you can use 4 or 5 of the same (and you could have experts skills you can have only once). Say 40 skills, or 60.
Then you get 8 fast keys (or possibly 10) with random skills. every 5 seconds or so (something that needs actual testing to determine, maybe 5 secs is too long) you get a new skill if you have an empty slot. You should also be able to discard a certain skill you don't use. As soon as you use a skill it goes away.
No cooldown but some attacks take longer time to do. You could instead let it take a certain time before a new skills pop up depending on the skill you used just.
Once you used all your skills could you either make it so it starts all over or not, in the latter case would people have to save their attacks to be timed right.
The whole idea anyways was to makes the combat less clicking the same thing over and over.
Just brainstorming a little here, TCoS combat system was somewhat interesting but it very soon become even more goring than the usual stuff.
Combat should force people to think a little yet I often find myself clicking fast key 1 to 10 in order over and over without that much to do. And the magic idea would make speccing rather interesting, I played the game 15 years ago but I have to agree that it is a rather interesting way to handle things. You add some randomness but making a good build is something that takes brains (or copying of the net but you still would have to collect the skills).
This is course should work both in class based games with or without levels. _And it would make it easier for the devs to add new skills and attacks without unbalancing the game.
Comments
SoE is making Magic the Gathering Tactics, they bought the rights to make games.
So I wouldn't keep your hopes up it would be any good, but the idea is there.
NOOOoooo!!!!
why SOE?!? argh!!!
Many games do that.. I can think of one and it was one of the first MMORPG's..
ArenaNet people stated that for the design of GW they looked more at Magic the Gathering than other D&D styled MMO's for inspiration.
You can see it in the way that your spell 'deck' in missions is limited to 8 that you preselect from your collection, the interrupt spells that were being used, plus the model they had in mind of releasing an expansion every 6-8 months with a large collection of different spells and some different spell mechanics, just in the way that Magic the Gathering expansions were released with a large collection of different spells and different spell mechanics.
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The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I believe that Wizard101 uses deck-building and card playing for their combat system.
Gaming since Avalon Hill was making board games.
Played SWG, EVE, Fallen Earth, LOTRO, Rift, Vanguard, WoW, SWTOR, TSW, Tera
Tried Aoc, Aion, EQII, RoM, Vindictus, Darkfail, DDO, GW, PotBS
Ive been getting updates for this upcoming game. Looks pretty good.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Apart from the "cards" being randomized (hotkey #1 not always being fireball, for example), you're basically describing Guild Wars. Choose your colors (class/subclass), build your deck (choose your skills out of the ones you've unlocked), then play. The original GW classes were even straight-up copies of MtG's color playstyles.
Still, both the card game (Duels of the Planeswalkers, and similar older games) and real-time strategy game (Battlegrounds) captured much of the feel of Magic, but without being MMO. For that matter, the non-MtG game BattleForge was an interesting take on an RTS-style MtG too, but also not an MMO.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Spellborn was kind of that way...not random, but a rotating deck.
LOL, imagine my horror when I only recently found out SOE is handling DC Universe Online
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Well, yes but the used very few attacks and always in the same order, no surprises and no need to think once you got used to it.
As for Guildwars it uses part of the idea (the deckbuilding thing) but once you selected 8 skills you spamm the same fast keys as in any MMO.
When you can't be sure what skills/spells you have at any moment you have to actually think fast what to do. And it is exciting to see what skill you get next as the fight go.
Should you put some self healing in? Direct damage? Or summon a beast to help you?
MMO combat needs something to make it more fun. This might not be it but it should be different at least...
That actually sounds like it would be fun,
Of course I can think of reasons why you wouldn't want random abilities everytime, like say you are a healer, it wouldn't work so well if your "hand" of abilities didn't give you a single heal.
Maybe if you had more than one deck, like a role specific deck and a general deck. The role specific one always gives you abilities that you need to tank or heal or summon a demon, whatever role your character is supose to play. The general one is all of your other abilities.
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That could work, yes. Or you could have no real classes meaning that everyone could stack up healing spells.... Or you could stack up with 90% heals so you wont run out of them.
It all depends on if you use the holy triad or not, this idea was just about a game mechanics I gave some thoughts when I was bored at work.
Another nice thing is that you could have several "decks" for different roles.
You could use the magic colors instead of classes even or a similar system. It is a very flexible system, at least in the card game.
Mytheon is somehow like that.
"Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation: Copy & Paste."
Wizard101 is like that, but the last time i played it, it didn't seem to have much depth and not a whole lot of skills to choose from. I think Mytheon is like that as well, but not really an MMO.
Well, the problem is that random spells make combat kinda... random. I prefer GW's style and hope they don't dumb down the system too much in GW2 T.T
Hype train -> Reality