10-22-2009, 03:18 PM
Without autotargeting, lag becomes a much bigger issue because we have now made it into a "twitch" game -- you can dodge my arrows if you see them in time and move. You can't dodge my arrows if you have a 500ms ping. Autotargeting actually levels the playing field when it comes to lag.
Autotargeting is also part of the "RPG". As an RPG, "you" are not necessarily supposed to be good at shooting a bow or aiming a fireball -- that's up to your character's skills to decide. If your character has crap arrow shooting skills then you won't be hitting many people with arrows, regardless of your mouse skills. If your character is good with a bow then you can have a 500ms ping and be a chimpanzee and you'll still shoot people in the eye with arrows because it's your character's skill that matters.
That's why I specifically called this thread "PvP RPG class design". I agree that if we switch to an FPS model we can forget all about the RPG stuff and go to an aiming model, which is intrinsically interesting.
But if we're building an RPG, then hit/miss calculations should come from character attributes, not player mouse skills.
Autotargeting is also part of the "RPG". As an RPG, "you" are not necessarily supposed to be good at shooting a bow or aiming a fireball -- that's up to your character's skills to decide. If your character has crap arrow shooting skills then you won't be hitting many people with arrows, regardless of your mouse skills. If your character is good with a bow then you can have a 500ms ping and be a chimpanzee and you'll still shoot people in the eye with arrows because it's your character's skill that matters.
That's why I specifically called this thread "PvP RPG class design". I agree that if we switch to an FPS model we can forget all about the RPG stuff and go to an aiming model, which is intrinsically interesting.
But if we're building an RPG, then hit/miss calculations should come from character attributes, not player mouse skills.