Caiden’s Core: MMORPG Combat Systems

Granted, yea I’d rather a different type, and not the crappy click to do every freaking thing with the occasional use of the keyboard to use 50 skills, Instead I’d rather something new, I kinda would prefer if a game featured the smooth movement and controls of a ~Gasp~ console game since those are always better, but it’ll just be a dream, for now i’ll just run into fences and eventually jump over them after shooting something to death.

ddo has the action style option I love playing it that way where you get your little circle and gotta kinda point it at enemy and hold mouse button. Though I am still waiting for a good openworld fps/rpg style game outside of the waiting rooms, I am half surprised other then a few scifi titles noone really has experimented with such a concept. I don’t mind point click mash buttons
As for skill choice overload allods coulda narrowed it down to maybe ten skills and improved gameplay, sometimes the basic 4-5 skills feels restrictive so is hard to find a balance.

I play Allods Online and I sort of disagree with this article. The skill system works just fine. The real question is more of a fact that you didn’t take the time to look at how the skills worked BEFORE you started playing. That’s a simple solution whenever you begin a new game. Also if a stat is low for your level a red arrow will appear next to it with a simple message saying its lower than it should. The game system will do this for any of the core stats highlighted in blue that are class specific.

Glad to see so many comments. Anyone else heard any news on future ‘gender’ releases for Vindictus? Or the new game Martial Empires coming out tomorrow?

I’m fine with either.combat mechanic, but I prefer games like Maple Story’s combat, but out of the three (click and wait, manual aim and keys to attack) I guess I’d go for click and wait. I’m just so used to it.

I’d want something more. While I don’t entirely mind as long as there’s some excitment and some movement to ATLEAST make it FEEL sorta twitch-based and fast, which is why I commonly play as a ranged-based class.

I’d like MMORPGs with more action. I like action gameplay, but most action style MMORPGs I’ve found feel like they’re missing something.

Is TERA online gonna be good?

The current system bores me to death x.x If you’ve played one, you’ve played em’ all. That’s what drives me nuts.
Almost all the free/reasonable MMO’s have the same class system, the same Health/Mana/Stamina, press 1 for this 2 for that wait for the charge then strike. ZOMG

I’ve recently tried: Grand Fantasia, Jade Dynasty, Aika, and NEO Online. Seriously they’re identical x.x NEO is the only one even remotely different because of the skill system, but It’s still virtually the same in every other way. v.v

2 Years ago I stopped playing Runescape after a 5 year run. With the sad selection out now, i’m actually considering going back. Even though I hate it’s graphics. It’s the only unique MMORPG I know of.
D’:

This will change soon. with kinnect and move soon to be out, we will have to move asround and actually swing the sword ourselves. that will be the day when a noob defeats an epic boss thankes to doging and skill. Hands on action is the future!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, and leauge of legends uses right-click, so don’t have your friend play it. LOL

I’ve played my fair share of MMOs now, and I agree with the article – the current system works, and the developers who make these games want to earn money – which is only natural. And most publishers know that this kind of combat works, so why do anything different, the fewer risks the better. Funny thing is that small development houses often challenge the standards and try something different, but for an MMO, you just requires a good deal of resources. MMOs take many man-hours to create (think about all the coding, testing, animating, organizational expenses etc that has to be done for such a game). So until one triple-A MMO goes out there and succesfully implements a new combat type, it’s going to be hard to persuade the people with the money that your new combat system will earn itself in in the long run.

For example, take the Grand Theft Auto series and All Points Bulletin. APB may be your average shooter game with a twist, but there’s no doubt in my mind that GTA was a good argument to why this game was even made (and GTA wasn’t even an MMO) – they might even have described it as GTA Online at the idea stage. GTA was immensely succesful, and an online version of the series would likely be successful as well if well implemented. Proven success is almost certainly guaranteed income.

But if we try to see this from another angle, what other combat systems could developers make? We have the standard hotkey-semi turn based combat, there’s the fully action-shooter like combat (dodging, aiming and potentionally shooting manually), there’s fully tactical turn-based combat (like Atlantica Online) and real time strategy combat (Battleswarm, Battleforge, etc). Surely there are other types, but these seem to be some of the main categories. How could one create combat that would be innovative and entertaining, and what should it be like?

On a side note – when did combat become a necessary element in MMOs? We’ve locked ourselves onto this idea that we level up a character as we beat up stuff. Check MMOHut’s main page and see how many games fall under this category

Finally, I’m a big fan of games that bring some sort of originality to the table. That’s why I think games like Eve Online, The Sims Online, Lego Universe, Fifa Online, All Points Bulletin and Atlantica Online are fantastic games solely by the fact that they at least dared to do something new or different from that of any standard MMO. Some of them might not have been good games in their execution, but then they’ve served as inspiration for developers and gamers who realize that you don’t always have to follow the same road.

i like cabal online you better f off. you mmohut people dk that cabal has a number 2 coming out so i love it im a lvl 102 force archer. u guys have no right to make fun of any game just the developer find there own mistake and wish people didn’t care about the way the game looks.

Well, I agree with you about wanting an inovating system. And Of all games that you wrote about, you forgot one that feel my heart with hope. It´s called: “divine souls”. Think about a fighting MMO. I alpha-tested it, and (besides the fact that it was lagging like hell) I could see the wonderfull combat system it had.

It uses a combination of mouse/keyboard system, and you use a lot of button combination to do your moves. When you buy new skills, they usually modify a little a combo that you have, or add a new button to a different kick, or a punch. But these are just “dry” moves, and weak combos. The trick is putting then together in the way that you like. In the occasion, my favorite combo needed to use 2 “useless” punchs in the air, just to keep my toon in the sky for enought time for the enemy to come back, so I could grab him and take him to the ground with a serie of other moves ^^

Oh, and about the collision system, of interceptating projectiles… DDO actually uses that \o/

A nice trick is to get the tanker in front of an ally archer, and make the guy ready his shield. In this formation, the archer can snipe enemy archers/mages, and theyr projectiles will stop at the tanker. (well, hurt but works)

I have one question, for Caiden or Omer, Did you guys like the Combat System in Chronicles of Spellborn? I know you liked it Omer you said it in your video, but im just seeing if after a while you still think it’s ”good” or fullfilling whithin

Action mmorpgs are good, but did anyone look at TCOS (the chronicles of spellborn) before it went offline? it had an awesome combat system where there was a rotating skill deck and you arranged your skills as to what your fighting style was. it was manual aim so when you pointed your bow if it wasn’t on target you did no dmg. you could dodge attacks. because of the option to costimize your skill deck any class could play any role in combat there was no class that was a tank or DPS or a healer these could be played by anyone. this was an awesome system but I think it came out ahead of its time and it was too different for everyone.

seriously SOMEBODY needs to address this NAOUW!!!

I find it weird all these games get compared to wow because non of these f2p mmo’s have ever copied the combat system of wow. Because here is the kicker in WoW you can MOVE during combat, yes MOVE without canceling your attacks<- this is a huge insane difference in how the game feels and plays and why non of these f2p or even subscribption mmo's will be so succesfull as WoW.

Because at the end of the day these new mmo's will be stand still and click skills with no movement needed.

A lot people seem to gravitate towards the idea that there are only 3 combat systems:
1)Classic ability bar hotkeys with varying abilities. (EQ, WoW etc..)
2) Twitch interactive like player controlling movement and dodging which operates
like a FPS more than an MMO in the classic sense.
3)No auto attack click fest mixed with hotkeys (Diablo type)

Guys there are more genre’s than ADHD control systems of fps, and facemashing
systems that are WoW clones. Is no one old enough to remember turn based rpg? Not everyone enjoys playing games that you need massive twitch skills to even come close to being competitive at. I would like to see a sort of turn based queued combat system with interrupts from the player involved. Example would be you have 15 different abilities/stances and you can only take 5 with you in a control scheme. You enter combat and based on your selected moves vs opponents selected moves determines what happens with each move lasting 5 seconds of real time. You would see a combat system that would actually look like what we see in a cinematic cutscene now except you choose the strategy ahead of time. Kind of like a quick-time event on the console except way more strategic. Interrupts offer a way to interrupt one of your 5 moves to counter a move or perhaps run or recover from a big hit. Dunno something like that would be amazing to me. Each move constitutes 5 seconds of real time with a time limit to choose an interrupt move of 5 seconds. It’s not super twitchy but still immersive enought to be fun for those fps kinda fans perhaps. Just a thought is all.