PvP game design

[Slamz]

Rambo won because it was a movie, not because 1 guy can take out 5 more than 1% of the time.

Actually this happens on a fairly frequent basis in any FPS. Not necessarily "5v1" in the sense that you are standing in a wide open field with 5 enemies and you kill them all but rather, you rapidly manage to kill 5 people in a row because the combat is paced quickly enough that you can kill the first one before the second one realizes he needs to turn around, then kill the second one right as the third one rounds the corner, then kill the third one and round that corner to find the 4th one reloading, etc. I'm sure every FPS player has had their "Rambo" moments as they manage to pull off a killing spree.

You can't get that sort of action in WOW/WAR because combat takes too long. You attack the first guy and his buddies have ample time to respond. But if you took WOW/WAR as they are and made fights last 1-5 seconds, it wouldn't feel like there's enough skill involved, since there's no aiming.


So the question is, "How can we shorten the battles (to allow for the FPS style 'Rambo Effect') without taking away too much skill and without adding 'aiming'?"



Some sort of pre-battle setup is all I can think of. But while that could work for "wizard battles" (spells and counterspells) I'm not sure how well that would translate to melee combat (memorizing "slice" and "parry" doesn't make as much sense as memorizing "fireball" and "magic missile").