Thanks for all your input on the comic and this hybrid system, everyone. I realized that we may have to strike a compromise after the close vote on the forums over combat style. This idea doesn't do everything, but it does most of it.
Anyhow, we're going to have direct movement outside combat. Indirect was fine back in the RO days, but now FFXI, WoW, City of Heroes, The Matrix Online, Maple Story, guild wars... well, everyone uses directly controlled movement outside combat, it's ridiculous to use an antiquated system like indirect movement as our default, and it's easy to synthesize indirect control client-side with a bit of AI work if people really want it, so we can surely do both.
Since we have direct movement, the real problem is how to transfer into indirect combat, and can I attack outside of indirect-style combat? The hybrid system offers a valid solution to both of these concerns, by allowing both styles of fighting.
So now, I'll take a minute to answer all of your queries:
Bear wrote:d like to propose another fighting style, similar to yours but just a little different for Bows and Magic.
Bows, would have a settable distance of attack, the farther you set the distance of the arrow, the weaker the damage is to a far distance enemy, On the other hand, if u do far ranged to a closer enemy, it deals more damage.
Magic, magic would have a set area to cast, like... say were using the squares of walking, thunder bolt would take one tile space, anything on the tilespace selected by moving the arrow keys will be zapped to death.
and for Area of Effect skills, they will also have a set Tile limit, say 3x3 tiles, the skill would damage everything in the keyboard selected 3x3 tile space.
But i strongly suggest that u keep that direct attack that you demonstrated above.
It does make sense to have bows target monsters and deal less damage from far away. As for magic, we can make both area and monster targeting methods.
oiper wrote:I personally oppose the hybrid system and would be sad to have an aggressive direct fighting system. On the other hand, many points must be considered and if such a system was put in place, I believe that I could be just as happy with a passive hybrid fighting system; one that remaines relatively transparent to my experience as long as I don't option for it.
True, if you play the kind of character that doesn't like to engage in that sort of melee fighting, you won't use it often. Of course, when a monster wants to get you into the melee, you have to make an attempt to get out based on your own skills.
Talaroc wrote:I'm a little confused by it, but bascially, my criteria are two: that the style of combat not produce more lag than necessary, and that it allow for a wide range of combat strategies (tank, skirmisher, mage, buffer, ranged combat, etc). Any system that fulfills those two criteria, I will back.
This system produces no more lag than the direct control walking, and fully supports ranged combat and skirmishing. Rest assured, it is the best of both worlds.
Wakkacraft wrote:One thing I'd say is that running shouldn't be an issue for players, and that magic users should not be the prime target for monster AI (i.e. the monster kept attempting to break away the whole time it was being fought to get another shot at the mage.)
Unique AI for different monsters would be good, so there could be a monster out there with that kind of hatred for mages, but it shouldn't be all of them.
In the comic above, I assumed that the monster would target whichever player had dealt it the most damage so far, but of course, this is a monster AI issue, and we will be able to script many kinds of attack patterns.
Bjørn wrote:Everything I see happening in this comic I see perfectly possible with the idea I presented in previous comic, with no need for direct control over the character. Probably except for the locked in combat idea, which I don't think I like.
I will now reiterate, in my opinion the differences in control make this system harder to implement and more expensive on bandwidth, plus the direct control part would remain to be susceptable to lag.
The real difference between this comic and the one you proposed is not what happens in the combat, but what happens before it. This hybrid system allows several things the other doesn't:
* 1. A valid transition from the direct control walking into the queued combat style.
* 2. An alternative for players who don't like that queued melee combat style.
Perhaps "locked" is a bad word. It really just means that the two parties are targeting each other exclusively. There will be more rules about getting away from a melee later, of course, this is just here to illustrate the transition concept.
ElvenProgrammer wrote:Yay waiting for the next episode of Kain & Rydiah.
Your enthusiasm is encouraging. I'll try to write a few more comics later to detail the other aspects of this system, which include:
* 1. Engagements with multiple parties on each end, and how to switch between targets in a multiple engagement.
* 2. Extended explanation of how to get away from an undesirable engagement.
* 3. Fundamental differences in skill use and combat style while in the two modes. Some skills only work while engaged, others while skirmishing. Thus giving the player a serious consideration in the type of fighting he will use, and a reason to alternate between two styles.