Combat System Idea

tallred

I have a great idea for the combat system. I'm just amazed I have never seen a mmorpg do this.

Still do the typical click the mob to target it then click the attack button to begin an attack. But here is where it should be different. After you target a mob if the user holds down their "Alt" key you will see six little crosshairs show up on the mob. Each one will do something different to the mob.

Once you are holding down Alt to see these then you can click on one to target that area with your attack.

Head - Harder to hit but higher chance of crit
Chest - Easiest area to hit but lowest chance of crit
Arm (weapon hand) - Chance to reduce the mobs attack speed
Arm (shield hand) - Chance to reduce the mobs chance to block
Leg (left) - Chance to slow down the enemys running speed
Leg (right) - Chance to slow down the enemys running speed
If both legs have been severly damaged the mob is cripled and can barely walk.

tallred

You could also say if both legs are messed up then the mobs chances of dodging your attacks are reduced.

This right here would make the combat a lot of fun.

Warrior - Attacks weapon hand to reduce attack speed then attacks the mobs shield hand to reduce blocking his attacks. Then he goes all out on the body of the mob to kill it.

Archer - Attacks mobs left leg to slow it down then attacks it's chest to kill it. A good way to keep the mobs at a distance.

Warrior is about to die to a mob so he attacks it's legs real quick to slow it's movement down. Then the warrior runs away with out dying.

Renian

I already suggested this because Simu's text-based games had this system.

They said no due to bandwidth issues.

tallred

Ohh
Well, hopefully a game will come along that has this in it. Would be a ton funner than just clicking attack and every once in a while cast a spell or special attack.

I keep picturing the Jurasic park game at arcades. They put up these circles and  you have to shoot them.

Nalvest

bandwidth issues means that they aren't trying hard enough.  It very probably means that someone said: "Ouch, that's a lot of data and will take a lot of bandwidth" and everyone else nodded sagely.. 

This shouldn't be a bandwidth issue, it really shouldn't, it's not that much more data and I suspect with the huge client side system that most games have it's really a matter of sending the "got hit in the leg" message which has to be almost no bandwidth.

Bandwidth.. bah...

JamesStavros

I think that is a great idea for a combat system. Having never seen or experienced such a system in an MMORPG, I think that it will greatly benefit gameplay as it steers away from the typical Target-Attack-Wait systems that are monotonous for melee based classes in most games. Having the option to target a mob in different areas with certain ones harder/easier to hit thus increase/decrease dmgs is a spectacular idea to improve the effect of real combat. Wonder what the chances are of Simu adding such a feature to HJ? P-p-p-p-lease!!!

Renian

They never said that they wouldn't later if they could find a good way to do it. Since they do it in their text-based muds, it may happen eventually, but not when it first goes live.

Kougaru

That would be kinda distracting when you're fighting a mob.

tallred

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Originally posted by Kougaru

That would be kinda distracting when you're fighting a mob.

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Yeah I thought of that. That is why I said the red crosshairs only show up when you have selected a mob and you hold down your ALT key. If you let go of your alt key there are no red crosshairs.

Smooth317

Good idea in theory.  The bandwidth issue is more of a lag issue.  MMO's lag more than you think they do.  They just hide it well because there isn't any aiming or bullets that "should" have hit your target, according to what you see on your screen.  Planetside did this and I believe the new Auto Assault uses aiming as well.  However, Planetside was dumbed down to a crawl because of how much the aiming system limited the server because of the calculations involved.  Did that swing land? Did it not?  You're talking about adding hit boxes and such which adds an exponentially larger amount of calculations.

If there's no aiming involved and its simply more choices to swing at (head, arm, leg, etc.) and your aim has no bearing, then it should be fairly simple to code for.  The difference in bandwidth, you'd think, would be negligible.  I know their text-based MMO DragonRealms added body part selection to combat several years into the game and it did make it much more logical.  Shots to the head tend to stun more often, leg shots make them off balance.

I'm with the crowd that is dying to see a direct graphical port of DragonRealms.  After all, they're using the same world of Elanthia from DR

Adreal

They said no due to bandwidth issues.

What about AC1's system of aiming your attacks high/normal/low?

Renian

If bandwidth seriously is a hardcore issue, then Simu will do it once everyone has Internet 2.

I mean, come on, Whatley said so when replying to my post about this system. Or at least, they *could* do it then.

jimmyman99

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Originally posted by Renian
If bandwidth seriously is a hardcore issue, then Simu will do it once everyone has Internet 2.I mean, come on, Whatley said so when replying to my post about this system. Or at least, they *could* do it then.

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I dont think the issue is with internet bandwidth but rather game processing bandwith - in other words, the game that is being run on your PC, cannot handle processing this information fast enough. Example, lets say you dont have all those parts of a target, but rather one big target, every time u shoot, or swing at it, the computer just has to check the general area where that swing went into and calculate a chance to hit/miss. If you have several body parts( in your case its 6 parts ) then the program has to identify which part is being hit, roll the dice on hit/miss, and apply modifications based on that part ( hit a leg, cant walk fast etc).
This does not seem like a big deal, but in a project this big, each line of code and each calculation (literaly) can make the difference between 100 fps and 10 fps. I know from a personal experience, a small change in code, even if it seems minimal, can increase or decrese performance exponentially.