[MUD-Dev] Better Combat

[Ghilardi Filippo]

From: cruise

> The most entertaining combats are those which take a long time,
> which require every bit of ingenuity to emerge triumphant. So why
> do most games require several thousand odd mobs to be slain for
> the higher levels? Replacing 1000 easy fights with 5 or 10 hard
> fights could produce the same levelling rate, with a much greater
> entertainment value.

Much depends on how all this is balanced.

Anyway, why taking a change (a big one) to die and loose exp if you
can just safely kill huge quantities of easy mobs? Considering that
you can easily die and loose time and exp, don't know what is really
faster for levelling.

Also, I'm not sure about the fun factor induced by a lengthly
fight. (more about it on next section)

> Or would it? This could be done, simply, by increasing HP by
> x100. But that doesn't make it any more entertaining than killing
> 100 basic mobs. The fight is harder, as you have to survive longer
> without a break, but it's still just a time sink. What is the
> fundemental difference between combat that is fun, and combat that
> is trivial, apart from time?

For sure a one hit and die combat system isn't fun. Can be fun in
PvP FPS games (as long as everyone has same abilities, like InstaGib
servers). But in other cases you will curse the game if you die for
one hit, alternatively if you can kill with one hit you just get
bored. Players should always have a way to counter-attack. If I get
damage, I should have at least few seconds to heal or get healed.

Now, it's always possible (and easy) to change mob stats to have
100% resist and insane HP. But this can be boring as well. Trust me,
I've esperienced it and everyone in my group tought the
same. Happened in SWG, my group was dealing small damage but was
able to keep up with damage taken. We took about 7 minutes to kill
that mob, everyone of us was still in place spamming always the same
couple special attacks. We got all excited during first few seconds
of the encounter as we needed to get in position for the kill, but
after that was 7 minutes of brainless press of a couple buttons once
a while.

ciao ciao
Filippo
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