Design Notebook: Fixing MMO Combat

Welcome to our first installment of Design Notebook, where I kick around an idea I've been toying with. This is a nice catch all for ideas that aren't really a full game.

It's no secret the combat in MMO's is boring, it basically boils down to clicking on a guy and hoping his hit points run out before yours do. There might be a little strategy in pressing hot-keys at just the right time, and perhaps positioning yourself correctly, but all the same it's a rather passive activity.

Worse, there is almost no skill involved, combat effectiveness is solely based on how powerful the character is, and that is almost always a function of how much time the player has put into the character. Assuming their is some sort of skill in MMO combat, even the most skilled new player isn't going to be able to beat an unskilled player with a higher level character.

There are reasons for this, MMO controls have to be something simple anybody can pick up, to make it easy to resolve combat and for players to learn the game. Also a computer has a limited number of inputs it can take in, information for an attack has to come in through either the mouse or keyboard, and there is only so much you can do with these. Finally the core conceit in these kinds of games is that the players get better over time, and it is difficult to do this without statistical progression.

So what other option is there? Funnily enough the best answer might be typing. Think about it, monitoring key presses is trivial for a game, attacking enemies based on spelling out words wouldn't be that hard to implement. Typing based combat would allow for quickly designating which monster you wanted to attack, just assign it a letter, no more fumbling to click just the right priority target in the middle of a horde. If implemented correctly this form of combat could be even more simple, and a lot more fluid than combat is now.

Typing based combat also involves the player, no more clicking on a boss monster with a lot of health and leaving to make a sandwich while your avatar chips away at it's health, the player has to be constantly in the game typing the words that come up. The player not only has incentive to perform his actions by requiring constant input, he has incentive to perform those actions well. MMO's are all about dealing damage as fast as possible, with typing based combat you can have attacks resolve upon completion of the word instead of just assigning a time to the action. This way words per minute translate into damage per second, the player actually learns a (useful) skill as a result of play.

Having a player type out his attacks might add a nice bit of flavor to the mechanics in your typical fantasy MMO. Consider the basic character types:

• A Knight to tank damage to the other players.
• A Spellcaster to lay down Areas of Effects and hit enemies with powerful spells
• A  Cleric to keep the Tank on their feet and provide buffs.
• A Barbarian who does a lot of damage in a short amount of time.
• Finally a Rogue to do sneak attacks, ranged combat and maybe some debuffs.

You could have the player type out something in character to perform the particular attacks for their role. For example say an enemy is rushing headlong towards the vulnerable charactes in the back ranks, it's programmed ahead of time to go for the vulnerable characters unless something stops it, so just attacking it isn't going to draw it away from the squishy wizard in the back unless you kill it. Giving the Knight an attack, where he types out something like "face me" or "get back" that also draws the enemy into combat with him seems pretty character driven to me.

It works for the other characters to, for the wizard longer magic words would translate into a more powerful spell and area of effect spells would highlight only effects as many enemies as letters typed before the spell goes off. Clerics have to type out their prayers to heal their allies, beseeching their divine patron in their own words. Barbarians deal damage based on how load and incomprehensible their war-crys sound, staying in their rage so long as they don't make a mistake transcribing the words that pop up on screen. Finally Rogues can write out taunts and insults for their intended targets, rhetorical salt into the literal wounds.

Interesting concept, I might come back to it later.

Just for fun, the ideas expressed in this blog are Copyright © Edward Golden.