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Blueprint: Skill-Based MMORPG
Tuutob
Member Posts: 607
I was spacing out in math on Wednesday and thought about a great system that would be totally skill based. Instead of depending solely on your skills, weaponry, and armor, why not put a little bt of instinct into play?
In this I found one, inevitably factial statement: If the inustry's future is in skill-based games, than twitch based gameplay must be implemented and accepted.
Think about it. With click action, the only skill-based thing about it is your accuracy when clicking on an enemy or skill. Other than that, its all an equation of your armor points, attack damage, pre-determined speed, etc.
Now, with twitch-based, everything has to do with how skilled you are. This is what makes the Elder Scrolls series so special. Though it usually comes down to hacking and slashing, it's still very nice when your life depends on which way you turn, what spell you use, or what direction you hold your shield towards.
So, I came up with a way of implemeting this action into an MMO. Each class has their own fighting style. But not as before where, in example, a sneaky class is limited to a certain type of weapon, but as in the whole way they play is different.
There are no handicaps offered by the game when it comes to fighting. No autotargeting, cooldowns or spell charging bars, everythign is determined by the player's ability to adjust to his/her environment.
I'll list my ideas:
Sneak Class: A sort of 'Tom Clancy's: Splinter Cell" approach during combat. You stick to the shadows of the area OR just limit your movement to keep your visibility bar down. The goal of this class is to get behind the opponent and sap him/her with any weapon. This would knock the opponent out for a bit and give the rest of the assassin's party an opportunity to kick the victim while he/she is down. This class would have very light armor, so they would have to be skilled in keeping quiet to avoid taking damage. Their secondary form of attack would be to shoot the opponent with a ranged weapon from a concealed location, as to draw attention from the rest of his/her group.
Magic Class: People who choose this class would be recommended to have aknack for puzzle/speed games. To cast spells, this class would have to put together runes from a spellbook, kind of like the block arranging genre (Tetris, other knockoffs). There would not be pre-determined spells, the mage would have a quickbar of some favored runes, each with their own abilities and shapes. For example, some runes may have a fire damage acceleration, or may even speed up the velocity of the magic missile. The mage would put up to three runes together, then aim his spell at an opponent. There would be an MP bar, which would act just about the same way as any other MMORPG. This class would have about the same armor as the assassin and would have a small, one-handed weapon as a secondary. They would be able to enchant this weapon, but it would be a lot harder than spellcasting.
Ranged Class: Think about how Oblivion does it, but twice the realism. This class would use bows, crossbows, muskets, even slings, but it would be the most difficult class, bar none. I say this because of the realism involved. If you hit someone in the arm with a musketball in real life, you think they're going to use that arm anymore, better yet continue to stand up? I think not. Thus, this class would be bittersweet to say the least. The would have a first-person reticle, with with they would hold down a button to activate. When they'd do this, the reticle would start moving around, as if the character were aiming his/her shot in real life. The character would time the shot by letting go of the button when the reticle is over the opponent, and based on the accuracy ratio of the weapon, the opponent would take a varying amount of damage.
Now, here's where it gets interesting. If the shot hits one of the the arms, the opponent can't use anything equipped in that arm. The armor rating force the gloves/sleeves/shoulderpeice on that arm are neutralized, and movement speed decreases. If shot in the leg, armor gets neutralized AND the charcter is set at a -50% 'limp' condition. If hit in the chest (or any surrounding areas) there is a massive decrease in health. Bleeding will always occur for about 20 seconds afterwards. This class will have the lightest armor, and its secondary will be any one-handed blade.
Fighter Class: This class would be pretty generic hack-n-slash, but it would take skill nonetheless. The fighter, usuallybeing the big oaf of the group, would have to choose 3 attack combos to put on his palette before heading into hostile areas. He/she would choose these depending on what they expect from the area. In example, if it is an area with a population of rangers, he may want to choose a defensive rush combo, a disarming combo, and maybe a stunning blow combo. Each combo string would require periods of practice to master, and would have varying difficulties depending on what they do. You can bet that an attack that disarms the opponent would be longer and take longer to pull of than simple slah movement.
This class would be able to use any weapon he wanted, each weapon class with different combos. he would wear the heaviest of armors.
Any comments? Questions? Suggestions? Please, offer them!
In this I found one, inevitably factial statement: If the inustry's future is in skill-based games, than twitch based gameplay must be implemented and accepted.
Think about it. With click action, the only skill-based thing about it is your accuracy when clicking on an enemy or skill. Other than that, its all an equation of your armor points, attack damage, pre-determined speed, etc.
Now, with twitch-based, everything has to do with how skilled you are. This is what makes the Elder Scrolls series so special. Though it usually comes down to hacking and slashing, it's still very nice when your life depends on which way you turn, what spell you use, or what direction you hold your shield towards.
So, I came up with a way of implemeting this action into an MMO. Each class has their own fighting style. But not as before where, in example, a sneaky class is limited to a certain type of weapon, but as in the whole way they play is different.
There are no handicaps offered by the game when it comes to fighting. No autotargeting, cooldowns or spell charging bars, everythign is determined by the player's ability to adjust to his/her environment.
I'll list my ideas:
Sneak Class: A sort of 'Tom Clancy's: Splinter Cell" approach during combat. You stick to the shadows of the area OR just limit your movement to keep your visibility bar down. The goal of this class is to get behind the opponent and sap him/her with any weapon. This would knock the opponent out for a bit and give the rest of the assassin's party an opportunity to kick the victim while he/she is down. This class would have very light armor, so they would have to be skilled in keeping quiet to avoid taking damage. Their secondary form of attack would be to shoot the opponent with a ranged weapon from a concealed location, as to draw attention from the rest of his/her group.
Magic Class: People who choose this class would be recommended to have aknack for puzzle/speed games. To cast spells, this class would have to put together runes from a spellbook, kind of like the block arranging genre (Tetris, other knockoffs). There would not be pre-determined spells, the mage would have a quickbar of some favored runes, each with their own abilities and shapes. For example, some runes may have a fire damage acceleration, or may even speed up the velocity of the magic missile. The mage would put up to three runes together, then aim his spell at an opponent. There would be an MP bar, which would act just about the same way as any other MMORPG. This class would have about the same armor as the assassin and would have a small, one-handed weapon as a secondary. They would be able to enchant this weapon, but it would be a lot harder than spellcasting.
Ranged Class: Think about how Oblivion does it, but twice the realism. This class would use bows, crossbows, muskets, even slings, but it would be the most difficult class, bar none. I say this because of the realism involved. If you hit someone in the arm with a musketball in real life, you think they're going to use that arm anymore, better yet continue to stand up? I think not. Thus, this class would be bittersweet to say the least. The would have a first-person reticle, with with they would hold down a button to activate. When they'd do this, the reticle would start moving around, as if the character were aiming his/her shot in real life. The character would time the shot by letting go of the button when the reticle is over the opponent, and based on the accuracy ratio of the weapon, the opponent would take a varying amount of damage.
Now, here's where it gets interesting. If the shot hits one of the the arms, the opponent can't use anything equipped in that arm. The armor rating force the gloves/sleeves/shoulderpeice on that arm are neutralized, and movement speed decreases. If shot in the leg, armor gets neutralized AND the charcter is set at a -50% 'limp' condition. If hit in the chest (or any surrounding areas) there is a massive decrease in health. Bleeding will always occur for about 20 seconds afterwards. This class will have the lightest armor, and its secondary will be any one-handed blade.
Fighter Class: This class would be pretty generic hack-n-slash, but it would take skill nonetheless. The fighter, usuallybeing the big oaf of the group, would have to choose 3 attack combos to put on his palette before heading into hostile areas. He/she would choose these depending on what they expect from the area. In example, if it is an area with a population of rangers, he may want to choose a defensive rush combo, a disarming combo, and maybe a stunning blow combo. Each combo string would require periods of practice to master, and would have varying difficulties depending on what they do. You can bet that an attack that disarms the opponent would be longer and take longer to pull of than simple slah movement.
This class would be able to use any weapon he wanted, each weapon class with different combos. he would wear the heaviest of armors.
Any comments? Questions? Suggestions? Please, offer them!
Comments
third-person perspectives - the player character's ability to overcome
obstacles would be a mixture of player and character abilities,
with character stats determining the effectiveness of actions, and
player abilities determining whether or not the actions succeed?
For
example, the ability to move silently and avoid being detected is
heavily influenced by the character's Dexterity and Stealth ratings;
however, if the player does not stay in the shadows while sneaking past
enemies, the character can still be detected. Another example would be having to aim a firearm in a fps mode with your actual skill being calculated if you aim it correctly.
Your description also made me think of Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines - it adapts the pen and paper roleplay to situational combat. Since stats aren't always the end all, you can complete the game and never spec in any skills. Of course, you could be max stealth and still screw up if you are a total dumbass. The skill setup is more of what I would like to see in RPGs. If the game was multiplayer a noob could kill an advanced player if he was very cunning.
I'm pretty sure they're looking at something like you outlined for the future - 'course framerate is a problem but technology should catch up eventually. I heard of a fps/mmorpg attempt but I think it tanked.
Currently playing: Eve, DAOC, Warhammer
Games I've beaten: AC, AO, CoH, DAOC, D&D, EQ, EQ2, FFXI, FlyFF, GW, Horizons, L2, Ryzom, Shadowbane, SpaceCowboy, SWG, UO, WoW
Stay away from: Eudemons Online, DNL, and Roma Victor
If you ever expect to make any of your ideas a reality you had better stop spacing out in math class.
If you ever expect to make any of your ideas a reality you had better stop spacing out in math class.
lol that was good
I stongly, very strongly suggest you check out Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, play the demo and you'll fall in love with it like I have. Its everything you would want in a game.
Unfortunately its not MMO, but is multiplayer on a scale such as the BF series, then again if it was MMO, you would miss out on the gorgeous graphics.
O_o o_O
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
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Do I ever sleep?
You're making a HUGE assumption here, which many many people will disagree with. FPS and RPG are traditionally two separate genres, and for good reason. Personally, I doubt that I will ever touch an "MMOFPS," especially if they pretend it's an RPG by giving the player "stat points."
If you want this kind of game, go try the NGE in Star Wars: Galaxies.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.