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New Healing System

ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
in Ashes of Creation Systems and Mechanics
Hello and thank you for visiting my post.

      Just a thought that had crossed my mind; What if AoC took a different route to combat than compared to other mmorpgs? Steven has already stated his love for DnD and personally I love it too and wish mmorpgs could be more like it. I think that implementing a new healing system would accomplish that.

                                             The System

                    So an average mmorpg healing system is designed to allow players to "take on the world" or to "be the hero of the story" by this I mean they all give the players a natural heal over time at a ridiculous rate. Not to mention giving players an ample amount of potions to heal with while in combat.

                   My idea for AoC would be to lower that natural health regeneration to a near halt. Forcing players team up with bards, or healers. The way the crafting system seems right now it will be challenging to create potions, making them harder to obtain for people not speccing in the alchemy arts. The players would then use those potions only while in combat and in dire need, utilizing food as well when out of combat for a health regeneration. Perhaps even add in a fireplace or camp item type that a player can set up in the world allowing for cooking anywhere as well as giving a small buff and health regeneration for a period of time. However those items of course would have a time limit. 

                Well thats my idea, to drastically make the game harder, and at the same time stay true to the dnd ideal that personally makes AoC my top priority in gaming.  Please let me know what you think of my idea. How would you think this would improve or dampen this game in comparison to other mmorpg titles?

Comments

  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    Quite a noob at gaming but at the outset I kind of disagree with you on this. If you force people to team up then it is not fair for people who pick classes suited and geared for solo exploration. I would love to be able to just walk around an interesting new world discovering stuff rather than killing random creatures all the time. So I would be fine without any teammates. In such a case an absence of a reasonable active ability to regenerate would be fatal. But having said that, making it so high that I can just rest myself up to full health in 10 seconds out of combat is ridiculous. Maybe a half-way arrangement. A buff from a cleric or bard would speed this up for a limited amount of time. And since we are on this aspect, I have a suggestion for IS. For support players, the amount of successful support they provide should contribute to their advancement, just an incentive for them to actively seek out other players to help. 
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    I consider HP the stamina a person has and 0 means knocked  unconcious, so when not fighting or doing something heavy it will naturally recover and when sitting will recover even faster. If Injuries was added as a thing, then you would have reduced movement from a leg wound, arm wounds would hinder combat, bleedout, chance of infection, ect. Those would require a healer type or npc Doc to fix.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    While I agree that some games have a ridiculous, even absurd, amount and rate of "natural" healing there is a trade-off between making a game fun and taking it too close to the point of near realism.

    ex. Games such as Skyrim, Fallout, etc have mods that do away with fast natural healing and introduce splints and bandages while turning healing potions into healing salves and topical ointments. Add location damage (broken limbs, concussions, etc) while enforcing a temple-or-bed rest for major healing component and the entirety becomes more unwieldy and less fun in practice. (This also applies to weather affects such as hypothermia, food and nutrition, care and feeding of mounts, and on-and-on.)

    While AoC looks to be much more group orientated than ESO it should still not punish solo play in places that do not otherwise encourage, even demand, multi-player cooperation.

    Of course, this should not rule out areas that may magically reduce, or even eliminate, "natural" healing (or similar effect) so long as players can see an obvious debuff icon and are given an opportunity to adapt to the mechanic.

    Simply another mechanic to closely monitor in alpha.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    My hope is that they do go with a slower rate of recovery. Rather than going with what most mmorpgs go with they can go with using a meditation skill to heal or eat food or use a potion. The idea isnt to eliminate solo play, but to make the game play more differently from the other mmo titles out there. Doing this would increase the need of food and potions, increase players working together whether its trading or partying up, and slows down the progression of the so called "gold farmers" should they show their heads.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    Even if they did this in certain instanced dungeons it would be a pretty awesome feature, completely changing how players would look at running dungeons.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    It would make sense if out of combat healing regeneration can be boost with some kind of buff food. Maybe same goes with mana/energy. Potions could have shared cooldown so you can use one potion only in every minute for example. That way you just cant spam those.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    The problem with this kind of thing is that it becomes unfun really quickly.

    MMO's aim to have a life of a decade or more, unlike the few months worth of life most other games have.

    A game where you are stop-starting all the time like would be required with a system like the one in the OP would get really boring really quick - and people would leave the game for one that simply didn't have it.

    Different gameplay is good, but only if it is different in a fun way.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    edited November 2018
    I agree completely with the OP.

    Limiting self-healing to bandages/potions in combat and food/camp out of combat entices players to group up in order to speed through content or else slow down if playing solo.  This is just the way it should be.  A solo player should not be able to plow through content as fast or as easily as a group of players...  it should require them to slow down due to the fact they are choosing to play solo and therefore cannot rely on other players to make up for their class limitations.

    It also requires players to think about what they do, example (Vanilla WoW): warriors couldn't heal themselves other than using bandages, potions, or food therefore they had to be careful about what monsters they attacked and how many they aggro'd.  The game also ensured that playing solo would generally be slower than in a group, as pulling/aggroing one too many monsters could kill you easily and you couldn't just plow through content without support classes behind you ensuring you didn't die.

    Vanilla WoW was was wildly popular due to the fact that it wasn't an "easy" game.  It was a slow game, and wasn't something that was just blasted through in an instant.  By requiring a time commitment it built a sense of connection, as you had put a lot of time and energy into it.  I believe this is one of the reasons people felt a connection to the game. 

    Edited: Grammar, Flow.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    A four-month necro. not bad no bad at all
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    You could call me a Summoner ;P
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    It would be a necromancer no ? 
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    AutumnLeaf said:
    It would be a necromancer no ? 
    Indeed it would ^^
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    I definitely agree with the idea of a reduced natural healing rate, but having none would really put a hamper on gameplay in certain situations. Maybe they could borrow an idea from D&D and implement a short rest-esque mechanic where you can take some time and be able to heal up.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    Healing on the Run?


    Stopping to rest and recover?



    Looks nice to me.

  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    I am 100% on board with no health regen while in combat or out of combat unless eating/resting.
    Any regen during combat should be mana/stamina and based on levels of health, the maximum amount of mana and stamina should be limited... something along the lines of 100% health = 100% stamina/mana to 50% health = 75% maximum stamina/mana. 
    This would greatly play into the fact that as your character is injured they operate at less than 100% capacity... this also then places a profound role on support classes to ensure they help buff/keep the party as fully functional as possible.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    Sulrak said:
    I am 100% on board with no health regen while in combat or out of combat unless eating/resting.
    Any regen during combat should be mana/stamina and based on levels of health, the maximum amount of mana and stamina should be limited... something along the lines of 100% health = 100% stamina/mana to 50% health = 75% maximum stamina/mana. 
    This would greatly play into the fact that as your character is injured they operate at less than 100% capacity... this also then places a profound role on support classes to ensure they help buff/keep the party as fully functional as possible.
    the problem with that is some classes may have skills linked to health like warlocks so it makes then incredibly underpowered if that was the case
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    Yeah, slow HP regen unless you rest in between fights is my ideal. I prefer eating food or bandaging wounds to replenish HP over any other system, but I always play fighter classes so I wouldn't have access to convenient healing spells anyway.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    The best system i've come across was in Star Wars Galaxies where wounds would be applied to the main attributes. One could meditate to get rid of them while the rest had to watch a dancer or play music to soothe the wounds. There were buffs from Doctors and medication from medics. The community was vibrant from this and people were keen not to die or fight beyond their means.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    I get the idea. Most games nowadays healers are not needed, they just make things "smooth".
    I 100% agree with the idea! there should be only natural healing when resting.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    edited November 2018
    Yep, OP is on the right track. Whether its directly like he explained or not, the idea is there and fits with this style of game. 
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    New to the community and awaiting AOC just like everyone else. Looking through forums and seeing what people think. After reading this my 2 thoughts on the topic are
    1- i enjoy being in groups when playing these types of games and i find the game should push people into that. if your goal is to play solo all the time then i think a MMORPG is really not what your looking for. your just looking for an rpg.
    2- i only played till before the first expansion but in RIFT there was a class called chloromancer that gave buffs and debuffs to the group and to the enemy and a portion of the damage they dealt was returned to the group in health. I played this class exclusively and loved it. Maybe they could do something similar. with one of the offshoots of the bard or the cleric or the summoner. mediocre damage and mediocre healing but powerful buffs and debuffs
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