Random Numbers

[Sebrent]

Vlad, how will the combat be "more boring"

Non random engines turn players into more calculated players.

Why? Have you not taken a look at all the calculations people (myself included) are doing for all our current MMOs and their stupid random number generators? The calculations are still possible, the randomness does not stop that. The randomness takes some power over the outcome away from the player (how much is dictated by the abundance/lack of randomly generated values).

Non random engines are NEVER balanced

Again, why are they "NEVER balanced"? I discussed earlier how removing the randomization would make it possible for the QA team for that game to create an engine to iterate through the possible permutations in a 1v1, etc. fight ... even enable them to code it to try different levels of skill such as actions per minute, mistakes made (such as cast the spell but too late, so missed the chance at a "success" and wasted some "resource").

so the people who play them typically play them at a much slower pace in order to achieve success. Take WWII on-line, you would sit in the bushes for 20 to 30 minutes waiting for a target to run in front of you before you took a shot. If that shot was not optimal you may not even take a shot. It was not unheard of to wait an hour before engaging in PVP.

I don't believe this is a product of non-randomness. This appears to be more of a product of being able to one-shot people (I'm assuming this is possible from what I've read from earlier posts talking about it) or too much advantage being given to the person who initiates the fight.

Even WWII on-line was flawed in this way. It wasn't random at all which is why it wasn't a better game than it was. WWII on-line combat was very predictable. Only the human element changed the outcome.

I never played WWII online. What was the gameplay like. It sounds like it was simply a non-random game with a shallow combat system.

Combat in real life has completely random elements which WWII on-line never really captured. If you want to sim real combat you need elements of randomness.

Most importantly MMO's and other multi player games need mechanics to balance the difference in players. Not every player is equal and if you want large team based competition you can't have players that are far superior to others. MMO's are not a single player competition. Typically they are a team competition (hence the term MMO). You simply can't achieve that if some players are way out in front of other players. The team concept will fail without balancing components. Just look at "APB" for an example of what happens when the random elements are removed from the game.

Why is a difference in player skill a bad thing? I don't think it is. Also, what keeps the design of the combat system from placing a ceiling on the capabilities of the "best" players? There isn't much any game can do about vast differences in actions per minute between players except restrict how quickly players can activate skills, change their movement, etc. You can however largely reduce the likelihood of the one of the "best" players killing a whole group of people through use of the resource system. If it takes a minimum of 30 "resources" being expended to kill a player who stands still, never heals, and never mitigates damage and a player as a maximum of 100 "resources" at any time and regens 1 "resource" every 2 seconds, then they can "immediately" (no factoring 'cast time' of skills) kill 3 players and then must wait 40 seconds before they have enough to kill a 4th ... and this example is assuming that the "best" player is not expending any resources to protect their self and their opponents are doing nothing to heal/mitigate damage.

Why can't you have a system of large teams where one team has some better players than the other? We already have this, even in random games.

Now playing a single player competition is totally different. If you want to eliminate all random factors and just have a game where players test their skills vs. other players that is totally different. Those games are out there but their player base is very, very small. Only the best players invest time to play them. None of them are in the MMO chaundra for a reason.

I do not see how making it so that when I cast Illusionary Berserker + Mirror Blade on a guy and instantly kill him the first time and then the next time I do it and he's only at 60% health makes the game any better. What exactly was added by this randomness? The fight went differently? Yep. But it went differently not because of things we did, it went differently because of random numbers. If a fight is going to be different is should be because of the movement, skill use, etc. of the players. This keeps the power over the outcome in the hands of the players.