Game Play Idea's and Boss fight mechanics

Kreed

maouw wrote: »

I reckon there's great opportunity using deep-learning neural nets for boss AI in a way that takes in the raid's abilities.
Doesn't have to be trained to perfection (coz at that point, humans resort to cheesing the AI like in DotA2).

Also if the same boss can occasionally spawn with a different personality: like in one raid where the boss is really defensive and the battle is more about going all out at every opportunity you get before the boss flees, but then another raid the boss is really aggressive, so your concern is more about keeping everyone alive.

I enjoy the classic bosses with protected weakpoints - where you have to do something for the boss to fall over and then you can attack its weakpoint.

It'd be cool if there was a boss that goes invisible and tries to jump attack someone in the back lines

HOWEVER, there is a danger of going overboard coz boss mechanics can become annoying gimmicks.

Considering the advancements of computer programs I can totally see your idea's being plausible. The protected weak points are some what common in some MMo's , but I always felt they were not really scripted properly in some cases.

I think poorly scripted Boss fights can be annoying, it should be tough and some what hard earned. A well laid out script can make the whole fight an interesting challenge.

One of the tricks we used to do in LOTRO with the guild I ran with ( Aegis, I miss you guys !) was to enter any new dungeon or Boss fight with minimal gear, this way we would learn to stay alive the hardest way possible and learn every move the Boss would do and sharpen your playing skills to hit the right powers when required. After dieing dozens of times we would eventually beat the Boss. Once we did that we would properly gear up and smoke through the dungeon putting it on farm status to gear up the rest of the guild.

Kreed

Xenotor wrote: »

A boss having multiple Phases that change the way it attacks is pretty common.
But as stated above. It become stale quickly as guides pop out saying "Do this in phase 1 and do that in phase 2."
A better way would be to have multiple different skill sets for each boss.
Every time the boss spawn they random a set of them.

Example.
The ogre can in Phase 1 - 4
Swing around his tree and has skills corresponding to that.
Or he has no tree and starts garbing and swinging players.
Or he spawn as a Elemental variant but you only see it after he starts breathing Toxins.
Or he calls Adds that he usually only calls on the second phase.

There could be dozens over dozens of moves for 1 boss that could be miss matched to different phases.
When the phases start should also change with each boss spawn.
The first time you killed the boss he went into phase 2 at 80% health.
In your second fight he switched to phase 2 at 95%health and switches phases randomly every 5% - 10% health, never changing at the same % twice.

There is so much potential for engaging boss fights.


The only negative site is the time to create all that.
Each boss would take the time of several "Normal" bosses to create.

I am however a fan of Quality of Quantity.
Better a small number of engaging bosses then a large number of boring bosses.
#MakeBossFightsChallanging

I do like the idea's you have presented, it does mix up the fight styles and expectations. Adding the ability to grab a specific player or players and throwing them around in some way would make the scenario's way more fun. So many things can be done to mix up the fight sequences and make them far more fun to engage.