Movement Speed in Combat

ArchivedUser

Movement speed in combat completely changes how a game plays. The faster the game gets, the less skill shots you can have without alienating player bases, the more AOE abilities need, the less positional attacks you can allow, the more, consistent teleports, dodges and dashes you need and the significance of each individual decision diminishes as you can recoup it quickly.

Action =/= Twitch

Eastern games dominate this (BDO) and many titles like this. I like action games and couldn't find out why I couldn't get into this style for my MMORPG. The wide, aoe flash abilities make boss fights look silly and grinding feel like Dynasty Warriors with little risk or reward to your play.

Slower movement speed in combat, with punishing sprints (Stamina or end of sprint you slide costing you a few frames), allows for many systems:

-Differentiating highly mobile classes that have dashes/dodges/rolls/teleports.

-Skill shots without requiring FPS/Eastern twitch levels of skill.

-Positional combat skills become more relevant and achievable.

-Makes the combat intense, meaningful, without requiring constant giant flashes of aoe light moves and spinning everywhere dashing on everything.

-I think this is a more future-proof and inspired mmorpg combat system that hasn't been done before. BDO handles twitch, WoW handles auto attack regular speed combat.

Punishments of fast movement in combat:

-Even games without huge movement speed, but action combat wind up looking cheesy. Crowfall is a great example. People aren't flying all over, but just that relatively normal combat speed winds up removes huge possibility. Even WoW has too much, making typical melee two people circling eachother hoping they get one attack from the rear lowering dodge and parry chance isntead of using a meaning move to position themselves.
-Skill shots become a twitch gamer thing
-Dashes and movement speed is common place and not a class feature

I don't think this should change getting from place to place, but, in combat I believe this to be one of the biggest factors in differentiating possibilities and action vs twitch.

Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen is a great example. That level of speed, but with permanent out of combat sprint, would be perfect for an MMORPG I feel. 

TL:DR

I believe combat movement speed is the driving force between how games work, what abilities they can introduce and the overall feel of combat.

Am I alone in this thought process?

ArchivedUser

i feel like it would be a make it or break it deal for me if the combat doesn't end up more fluid and bit more fast paced (not necessarily harder) at the time of beta or release.it doesn't have to be anywhere near as fast as BDO but definitely faster than the most recent combat footage available.   OH and if the combat was a bit more enjoyable to look at that would help too and yes i know all current combat footage is still not close to the final product. what do you think about that?

ArchivedUser

I think that the combat is extremely important. EXTREMELY important.

Why have an economy? So that you can buy cool shit. Why is cool shit important? Because it's fun beating the shit out of people fighting. Why is having a cool house in an MMO important? A lot of the time, it's because it is an expression of yourself in the game, and you may very well express your combat interest with things like armor sets in your house.

This is a big deal. I hadn't heard of BDO, but its combat looks very good for an MMO.

My favorite combat is actually the Dark Souls series. I like it gritty and realistic. I think a medium between BDO and Dark Souls would about sum up perfection for this one.

Honestly, the "mage/tank/healer" stuff is beyond overdone. I wish they'd do the combat in a way that is reflective of the world they're building. Primarily, I'd like it if the classes were more like Skyrim, where you don't really "pick a class" but you pick a tree with certain abilities. Some things would be very imbalanced at the start and things would be gradually balanced as people find OP combinations of things.

This type of system is actually pretty simple and just a lot more interesting. Then have the skill progression be sort of natural. I.e. you might encounter a demon under the mountain, and you might affiliate yourself. Or, at the top of a mountain, you might find the opposite.

You might do something like have scales that are mutually exclusive, but your combination in the end is what determines your final "class." I.e. you might be a warrior who affiliates with light or darkness, or a ranger, or a mage. But early on you'd get a sort of base layer of talents that determines what scale you actually primarily draw upon.

This would sort of determine the difference between a shadowy warrior and a spellcasting warlock type of character. And, if I were to do this system, I wouldn't use the word warlock. I'd let the players name these mythological things themselves. Different areas might get different names for things even. You might call a particular loadout a warlock.

Or a witch doctor. Or something like that.