Evaluating Abilities for Skill and Synergy

SamuraiWindu

One way to balance player abilities in a multiplayer team game is to consider those abilities along two scales: Casual vs Skillful and Individualistic vs Synergistic. Casual qualities require little effort to utilize effectively, while Skillful qualities require faster reflexes and greater effort to utilize effectively. Individualistic qualities can be fully realized by yourself, while Synergistic qualities require other players to maximize their potential.

Casual (Low tier)
• Un-aimed effects (tab-target effects, self-target effects, self-origin radial effects)
• Instant effects
• Slow pace

(Mid tier)
• Forgivingly aimed effects (cone effects, large projectiles)
• Forgivingly timed effects
• Moderate pace

Skillful (High tier)
• Precisely aimed effects (hit scan, small projectiles)
• Precisely timed effects
• Fast pace


Individualistic (Low tier)
• Single target effects
• Instant effects
• Guaranteed effects (100% chance of success, homing projectiles)
• Permanent effects (damage, healing)

(Mid tier)
• Small area effects
• Short duration
• Reliable effects (high chance of success, fast projectiles)
• Temporary status effects that you can combo with (crowd control)

Synergistic (High tier)
• Large area effects
• Long duration
• Unreliable effects (low chance of success, slow projectiles)
• Temporary status effects that teammates can easily synergize with (crowd control)

The qualities of each ability determine where it falls on both scales. Casual and Individualistic qualities are generally easier to learn and utilize, while Skillful and Synergistic qualities are generally more difficult to learn and utilize. To reward Skillful and Synergistic play, abilities that exhibit qualities that are closer toward those ends of the scales should be slightly more powerful.

A system like this can be used to balance abilities or optimize skill point expenditure. Let’s take the Mage archetype’s Implosion ability as an example (https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Implosion). At rank 1, Implosion launches a powerful burst of fire (fireball) at a single target. This sounds like a projectile attack that deals a considerable amount of damage to the target hit. Without actual statistics on the ability, we have to make some assumptions, but it seems to lean toward the Casual side of the Casual vs Skillful scale, having forgiving aim (assuming it launches a large projectile), an instant effect, and slow pace (assuming it has a long cooldown due to its high damage). It also seems to be mostly Individualistic on the Individualistic vs Synergistic scale, affecting a single target, and having an instant reliable permanent damage effect. At rank 2, Implosion becomes a burn (damage over time) effect. This makes the ability slightly more Synergistic by providing a longer period of time that players can potentially stack other effects with. At rank 3, Implosion gains an area of effect around the target, making it even more Synergistic by enabling it to take advantage of effects that cluster creatures together.

I imagine ability augments should be designed to slide abilities along these scales one way or the other. That way players can customize their character to their playstyle.

Tragnar

Interesting topic, but I do not know why did you choose these categories. Yes skills are going to be on a "skillful" usage scale, where player aimed projectiles are going to have an edge against pure tab target abilities and augments are going to play pivotal role.

However I don't think that augments should "downgrade" any ability to instant tab target usage, because these skills are designed with a certain power boundaries in mind. For example if mage has powerful "curse" projectile that makes anything it touches takes 100% more damage and having it balanced with slow travel speed is almost nonconvertible to a tab targeting usage, because you take the balanced side of it out (it needs CC setup for example, because it is easily dodgeable). You would need to gut it almost to a few percent, because this ability would change from being a sort of execution on crowd controlled enemy to an automatic first skill in any combat

Datsuni

Fast pace does not equal skills.

SamuraiWindu

Tragnar wrote: »

I don't think that augments should "downgrade" any ability to instant tab target usage, because these skills are designed with a certain power boundaries in mind. For example if mage has powerful "curse" projectile that makes anything it touches takes 100% more damage and having it balanced with slow travel speed is almost nonconvertible to a tab targeting usage, because you take the balanced side of it out (it needs CC setup for example, because it is easily dodgeable). You would need to gut it almost to a few percent, because this ability would change from being a sort of execution on crowd controlled enemy to an automatic first skill in any combat

I agree that an augment this extreme should be avoided. So assuming that there is an ability that has a large slow projectile which on hitting a single target would make that target take double damage for a short duration, an augment that speeds up the projectile would make it more Individualistic, and an augment that adds a slight homing effect would make it both more Individualistic and Casual. Alternatively, an augment might cause all targets within a certain radius of the projectile to be affected, making it more Synergistic.

Tragnar wrote: »

I do not know why did you choose these categories.

I think it helps to be aware of how augments might affect mechanical Skill compared to team Synergy. Mechanical Skill and team Synergy are two very different things that contribute to effectiveness in combat. Mechanical Skill can be trained through repetition, while team Synergy is applied through effective communication. Different augments can change which aspects of gameplay that abilities emphasize. A player who has good mechanical skills but poor communication will want different augments than a player who has poor mechanical skills but good communication. Keeping these scales in mind while designing augments can help make more archetypes applicable to more players.