10-23-2012, 02:48 PM
I don't think the pseudorandomness covers it that well. I also think it's a crap way to provide "variety" to fights as "luck" can sometimes largely dominate a fight; taking the control out of the hands of the player(s). Heck, no one enjoyed it in MMOs when a boss could get a lucky crit and one-shot the tank so MMO designers changed the mechanics so that the damage would be "less spiky", "more predictable" ... "less random". This shifted those fights from "pray we're lucky" to "learn the mechanics".
I think an ideal system would be where when player A fights player B and uses skill X you have skills that fall into something like the following categories:
It seems like many games don't fully leverage this as much as it could be but instead stop at generic CC and then pad this lack of depth with crappy pseudorandom numbers.
GW2 has done a good job with adding active mitigations like dodge rolls, blocks, blinds, etc. as well as various types of abilities that react differently based on various criteria, but I think the connections between abilities could be stronger as these are broken down into primarily "cooldown wars" and the boon and condition metas that we've seen in several MMOs. I think there are still too many abilities that fall into "X is unaffected by Z" and "Z is unaffected by X" ... especially with some classes (I think Ranger is quite guilty of this).
I think a combat system that does not make use of "random" numbers and resembles something like playing Magic The Gathering where you both have the same deck, your deck is your entire hand, and you are somehow playing in real-time instead of turn-based is what I'm looking for. You have moves that you can do that help/hinder yourself and/or help/hinder your opponent based on their moves. When your opponent uses X, you can use Y which is optimal now or use Z is which isn't optimal now but sets you up for another skill in a sec or so that could be better than just using Y.
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We already account for characters differing skill levels with X weapon(s) or Y skill(s) with actual player character levels and stats in games.
I'm fine with your damage being calculated based on your level and stats and my level and stats.
I'm fine with my 100 damage attack only doing 66 damage to you because you have some damage mitigation buff/skill/etc.
I'm not okay with my attack doing anywhere from 50 to 200 damage to you when there isn't anything different between the attacks other than pseudorandomly generated numbers.
I think an ideal system would be where when player A fights player B and uses skill X you have skills that fall into something like the following categories:
- skill Y used by A
- Y is enhanced by X
- Y is disabled by X
- Y enhances X
- Y is enhanced by X
- skill Z used by B
- Z counters X
- Z enhances X
- Z diminishes X
- Z is diminished by X
- Z is enhanced by X
- Z is disabled by X
- Z is unaffected by X
- Z counters X
It seems like many games don't fully leverage this as much as it could be but instead stop at generic CC and then pad this lack of depth with crappy pseudorandom numbers.
GW2 has done a good job with adding active mitigations like dodge rolls, blocks, blinds, etc. as well as various types of abilities that react differently based on various criteria, but I think the connections between abilities could be stronger as these are broken down into primarily "cooldown wars" and the boon and condition metas that we've seen in several MMOs. I think there are still too many abilities that fall into "X is unaffected by Z" and "Z is unaffected by X" ... especially with some classes (I think Ranger is quite guilty of this).
I think a combat system that does not make use of "random" numbers and resembles something like playing Magic The Gathering where you both have the same deck, your deck is your entire hand, and you are somehow playing in real-time instead of turn-based is what I'm looking for. You have moves that you can do that help/hinder yourself and/or help/hinder your opponent based on their moves. When your opponent uses X, you can use Y which is optimal now or use Z is which isn't optimal now but sets you up for another skill in a sec or so that could be better than just using Y.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We already account for characters differing skill levels with X weapon(s) or Y skill(s) with actual player character levels and stats in games.
I'm fine with your damage being calculated based on your level and stats and my level and stats.
I'm fine with my 100 damage attack only doing 66 damage to you because you have some damage mitigation buff/skill/etc.
I'm not okay with my attack doing anywhere from 50 to 200 damage to you when there isn't anything different between the attacks other than pseudorandomly generated numbers.