One Shot, One Kill - Eliminating Hitpoint Bloat

Renfail

Recently, we had a blog post about eliminating hitpoint bloat, and bringing back the concept of one shot, one kill. In our recent test weekend this past April 30th and May 1st, some players were surprised when, as a non-tank character, they found themselves quickly one-shotted and two-shotted by what they assumed were simple creatures, like boars wandering in the hills. It quickly became evident that they needed someone wearing plate-mail to be taking the brunt of the hits, and even then...tanks were surprised a few times when mobs critted against them and took them out in a few blows. 

A few eyebrows were raised on Twitter recently as well in regards to the last part of the post when we talk about how it's even possible for your tank to get one-shotted, under the right circumstances. I can remember one time in Vanguard when our group's caster (Necromancer) had to take a phone call in the middle of a boss fight, and as a result of him missing the counterspell on the massive nuke being cast, our entire group was one-shotted. 

It's not a foreign concept, just not the most popular one with a generation of gamers accustomed to always being able to have "win mode" switched on by default from the moment they set out on their theme park of single-serving, solo questlines. 

Read the blog post here to get the full details of what we're aiming for, and if you've got any questions, we're more than happy to answer. 

Slapshot1188

The key to succeeding with this will be your ability to execute a strong AI.  I have always hated how games just added a billion HP to bosses and then had to do similar actions to players.  

Renfail

Slapshot1188 said:

The key to succeeding with this will be your ability to execute a strong AI.  I have always hated how games just added a billion HP to bosses and then had to do similar actions to players.  

Robert has been tinkering with the beginnings of the advanced AI behavior trees recently. Long road ahead of us still, but there's a lot we're working on, including the requirement for counterspelling that we enjoyed so much from Vanguard. 

Personally, one of the things I'm most interested in seeing is the culmination of the caravan aggro radius, and how that affects the Hunters/Seekers and bandit-type mobs within a zone. The more loot involved, the larger the aggro radius...but then there's also factoring in how well-armed are the caravan members and how does the AI take into account the "threat" of the party in question...how does it/they gauge whether or not they are worth the risk of attacking?

Fun times ahead  

waynejr2

I want longer fights.

Renfail

waynejr2 said:

I want longer fights.

Indeed. That's one of the reasons we're not going the "action" style of MMORPG, but instead back to the EverQuest style of combat where fights take considerably longer, crowd control is mandatory, tanks are mandatory, utility and support classes are mandatory, and you can't just spec full DPS and expect to burn everything down. 

Pulls will require coordination and planning, mob placement and crowd control are everything, especially in the early months of Volume I before players have earned any Relic gear with healing abilities attached, because if you get too many mobs on your tank (or someone else), they will die very, very, very quickly. 

Gonna be a strategic game of how to pull, where to pull, who locks down what, and etc., to get it down to one mob on the tank, everyone else assisting, while others keep mobs locked down and beyond...and DPS will have to learn how to control themselves so they don't get hit...as that "one shot, one kill" rule can very quickly mean a party wipe. 

No DPS meters telling you how much aggro....it'll be a game of skill and talent to determine how to play with a given party, or roll with a pre-made static guild group or with friends that operate like a well-oiled machine....the Heroes of the Lance, the Fellowship of the Ring, Jason and the Argonauts.....

Lokero

Renfail said:

.but then there's also factoring in how well-armed are the caravan members and how does the AI take into account the "threat" of the party in question...how does it/they gauge whether or not they are worth the risk of attacking?

Do you happen to already have a blog post or something about this?  I'd love to hear how you guys are approaching the "threat assessment" ability of AI. 
Is there some type of... forgive me for using the awful phrase... "gear score" check that NPCs will read into?  Point being, I'm curious how your AI will determine "how well-armed" their targets are.

Octagon7711

Reminds me of Skyforge.  The trash mobs can be brutal.

Renfail

Lokero said:

Renfail said:

.but then there's also factoring in how well-armed are the caravan members and how does the AI take into account the "threat" of the party in question...how does it/they gauge whether or not they are worth the risk of attacking?

Do you happen to already have a blog post or something about this?  I'd love to hear how you guys are approaching the "threat assessment" ability of AI. 
Is there some type of... forgive me for using the awful phrase... "gear score" check that NPCs will read into?  Point being, I'm curious how your AI will determine "how well-armed" their targets are.

Not yet; this is all working theory at this point. We've got a lot of work ahead of us still in the camps/caravans department. 

Renfail

Octagon7711 said:

Reminds me of Skyforge.  The trash mobs can be brutal.

Indeed. You can't take anything for granted in our world. Even the bunnies have teeth.