A few thoughts on game mechanics

Zeitlos

So, after watching through more than my fair share of AoC monthly updates, creator content and Alpha 1 videos, there were a couple of mechanics I had some thoughts on and I figured I would drop them here and see what the community thought.

Day/Night Cycle (Darkness Specifically):

Generally, I like the day and night cycle, though (as with other environmental mechanics) I am not sure if I like the timescale for it, thinking a little longer would be better, but hard to say much on that till we get a longer look at how it all works together.

The component I am poking at here is the level of darkness, which seem to me a bit on the bright side.

Now, instead of just throwing out "Make it darker" I would rather see things lean into realism a bit more and dynamically adjust the level of darkness based on the waxing/waning of Verras moons (probably just the two that arent broken). Besides bumping up the immersion, this feature could tie into zone events related to the rare times that all lunar cycles match up in a full/dark cycle.

Siege Zerg Mechanics

I know we haven't seen a lot of this mechanic, but from what is available, most of the battles seemed to devolve into your basic blob/zerg rush. Whomever has the largest/most cohesive blob wins. I think one mechanic that plays into this is what appears to be a very forgiving death respawn rate, which minimizes risk associated with death and takes away from more strategic gameplay. I would propose a progressive respawn counter based on the # of deaths in X minutes to encourage more strategic gameplay.

Dueling

I know a lot hasn't been said on this (that I can remember) but I believe Steven mentioned that there would be no limits on in-node/town/city duels. While I have no issues with dueling, I have always found it rather immersion breaking for people to be dueling in the middle of some town square, damaging spells and abilities being thrown about. I would much rather each node provide areas specifically for that activities (arenas, training grounds, illicit tavern fight pits, etc.) inside the node, while still allowing open-world dueling with out any real restrictions.

*EDIT*
Combat Animations
Forgot this one. While I like the direction the combat animations are going in general, there are a few that I would recommend some tweaking. Specifically, the more... animated actions such as the mage fireball and the ranger jump/arc/whatever move. While they don't look to bad being performed by Humans or Elves (I would prefere they be toned down in general) but I expect they would not look so flattering or realistic coming from say a Dwarf rangers/mage. I would recommend they either tone down the acrobatics in general, or code more feasible actions for each race.

Thoughts?

NiKr

I kinda already expect the first one.

Same with the second one (cause L2's sieges had mechanics that changed respawn availability throughout the siege).

And I expect pvping to get turned off in the node centers, cause waaay too many people will complain about that for it to not change. Would definitely love me some open world arenas, just as L2 had them. Even better if people could use their freehold to provide this as a service to other people, in a form of a training location.

Azherae

I don't think I did my usual parsing of the perspectives on the length of the day/night, but there's a Feedback Thread somewhere (look for Threads by Community Team member Vaknar or search "Dev Discussion").

Sieges in Alpha-1 did have quite a lot of tactics involved and the "Zerg Rush" doesn't quite work because of some of the AoE mechanics. It might still be true that the larger will win, but it didn't feel like that due to the lower TTK. You could do a lot more if you positioned well, similar to a big teamfight in the endgame of a MOBA match, if you're familiar.

There's an arena, but since nothing in particular stops you from dueling in the streets, we will certainly see some such behavior going on, and I doubt that is changing due to their unwillingness to make 'Safe Zone' style things.

Zeitlos

Azherae wrote: »

There's an arena, but since nothing in particular stops you from dueling in the streets, we will certainly see some such behavior going on, and I doubt that is changing due to their unwillingness to make 'Safe Zone' style things.

I am also not in favor of safe zones. I am all for not preventing people getting attacked in the nodes.

I was thinking more of duel challenges that occur in the node proper being essentially turned into a quest.

Player A challenges Player B > Player B accepts > Both receive a "Duel Quest" pointing to the nearest duel arena/training ground/fight pit/etc.

So no safe zone, you can get challenged anywhere, but you cant rain down fire in the middle of the town square without the City Guard having a word with you.

Diamaht

Zeitlos wrote: »

Azherae wrote: »

There's an arena, but since nothing in particular stops you from dueling in the streets, we will certainly see some such behavior going on, and I doubt that is changing due to their unwillingness to make 'Safe Zone' style things.

I am also not in favor of safe zones. I am all for not preventing people getting attacked in the nodes.

I was thinking more of duel challenges that occur in the node proper being essentially turned into a quest.

Player A challenges Player B > Player B accepts > Both receive a "Duel Quest" pointing to the nearest duel arena/training ground/fight pit/etc.

So no safe zone, you can get challenged anywhere, but you cant rain down fire in the middle of the town square without the City Guard having a word with you.

The issue is that with dueling quests and designated arenas, casual pvp becomes too combersome. I think we should just let folks go at it for fun when they like. Eve is a good example of a game that puts too many road blocks in the way of casual pvp and it hurts the game.

As far as darkness, not seeing more than a short distance in front of you adds something compelling to Ark and Valheim but it takes away the social/discovery experience in an mmo. Not sure I like heavy dark settings in this context.

Zeitlos

Diamaht wrote: »

The issue is that with dueling quests and designated arenas, casual pvp becomes too combersome. I think we should just let folks go at it for fun when they like. Eve is a good example of a game that puts too many road blocks in the way of casual pvp and it hurts the game.

I am all for open pvp in the open-world, and only limiting duels in the node town centers to specific, easy to access areas. I think it can be done in a way that isn't going to put to big of a burden on the player, though I am sure its something that could get out of hand.

Diamaht wrote: »

As far as darkness, not seeing more than a short distance in front of you adds something compelling to Ark and Valheim but it takes away the social/discovery experience in an mmo. Not sure I like heavy dark settings in this context.

Not looking for oppressive darkness either, just a range from the base that makes the world feel a bit more alive. Say take the level demonstrated in the live chat and have a have a band ~20% in either direction (brighter or darker) depending on the phases of the moons.