Comments on: Improving Group Combat In MMORPGs

By: Tesh

Tesh — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:11:35 +0000

Mmm… Chrono Trigger Team attacks. I wish more games had taken up that gauntlet and expanded on the idea. It would be a natural extension into MMO combat, especially given CTs’ positionally important attacks. (It always bugged me that I couldn’t move my characters to angle a line attack the way I wanted to, or move an AOE focus point for tactical advantage.) With players in control, tactics really *should* be way more important than it is.

By: John Hamer

John Hamer — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:41:33 +0000

I haven’t heard of group combat skills before. This is very interesting, from how it sounds, this totally add a different in game dynamic. This could also mean a tighter crew, heighten the level of trust and player’s team work skills plus a whole lot of in game hours.

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By: Gordon

Gordon — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:32:57 +0000

I played VG for a while but didn’t really get a chance to experience the deeper mechanics of combat they advertised. I don’t know I saw anything to do with the vulnerabilities and exploits (I can’t remember, it’s been ages).

SW:G combat was fun for me just becaue it was the first MMORPG I played that had guns in it

By: Beej

Beej — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:10:56 +0000

Sadly, I always thought the queue system that old SWG had was one of the most fun. It allowed for both mindless XP/money grinds as well as pretty in-depth combat that played like a mini-strategy game. I liked having to clear my queue if an opponent in PvP did something I wasn’t expecting and having to start from scratch.

Group combat is one that I’ve never experienced. The EQII system sounds cool, but like you said, they would have to scale pretty well to make them worthwhile near the end. I really hope that The Old Republic has something new and unique that goes a little past combo/action points and no auto-attack.

I wonder how hard it would be to implement Chrono Trigger style group attacks depending on group makeup. Hmm…

By: SmakenDahed

SmakenDahed — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:54:45 +0000

Don’t forget the additions Vanguard brought to MMOs; combat chains (okay, so it wasn’t really VG that brought us that one) and vulnerabilities/exploits.

We used to make liberal use of the exploits. It sort of works similar to HOs only each ability could put a vulnerability on a target or also consume that vulnerability. Others in the party could make use of that vulnerability to increase damage.

It was nifty but, like EQ2’s HOs, unnecessary because combat really wasn’t that hard.