>>In the end, there's no reason why retreat should be a teleport and advance should be a timer.
MUD engagement systems by and large have always been full of compromises. I've spent the past few months studying other popular engagement, combat and ability systems to try and discern improvements that can be made here. Every system that has something better, also has several things that in my opinion are worse... its just the nature of the beast.
One problem with making retreat "take time" is how to handle stalemates. In DR today it takes about 8 seconds to hit pole range and 4 more seconds to hit melee. If someone wants to stay at missile range for longer than 8 seconds, what should the contest be and what should the drawbacks be? Another problem is disabling effects and how they interact with engagement.
Any decision here fundamentally changes DR combat forever. It could incite riots and bankrupt the game overnight, so I'm hesitant to just jump in and try stuff.... and I have no good answer because adding engagement time means editing 100s of abilities that could render it overpowered.
For example, take an archer who is hanging back. From the contest we determine the engagement time is increased from 12 seconds to 25 seconds. This doubles the archer's effectiveness, and the melee user just has to sit and twiddle his thumbs until he catches up (I can just imagine all the hate mail). At 24 seconds in the archer webs him. Well dang, what happens now? Does the 25-second counter restart? The archer is technically "running away" for as long as the melee user is webbed..so it would make sense to restart it. In the meantime the melee user is a walking pincushion. At the very least the archer gets 25 seconds + another 10 seconds or so to shoot him.
Similarly if the archer is hanging back and the melee user webs him, does the 25-seconds get nullified and turned back into 12 - or less? What good is an engagement system if most Guilds have some way to "sidestep" it? Really it just becomes a contest of who can land the disabler first.
And maybe that isn't such a bad thing. Spending 45 seconds chasing down an archer isn't the end of the world if it means he is prevented from leaving the room. It means he can land 3 or 4 fully aimed shots into you, probably taking you down to 50% vitality. Once at melee can you make up the difference? It isn't like he is going to stop point-blanking arrows into your noggin once you get there!
PvE is affected much differently than PvP. In PvE archers just want to have more time to kill the horde entering their room. Except, that makes them immune to damage which isn't desirable. A more balanced system would have their hangback contest increase the time to hit melee with a large random component. So some enemies hit melee in the normal time, and some take much longer. Assuming we make using a missile weapon at melee more dangerous to the archer, this may work as the archer could just disable the quick runners and rarely be subjected to threat.
Phew, what a topic.
So anyways the design that is shaping up in my mind is something like...
Every player has an engagement range preference - Missile, pole or melee. Advancing a target kicks off a series of periodic contests to see if you gain any ground on them. This contest progressive gets easier for the attacker until they succeed. A random component at the start can result in it occasionally being no different than the 12-seconds we have today.
RETREAT and FLEE are combined to work off the same mechanics. You can RETREAT/FLEE FAST, or SLOW. Fast gives a large and long-lasting attack/defend penalty, saps your fatigue but extracts you within a few seconds. This is unlikely to succeed in PvP or against boss mobs. It is intended for use when you are done hunting and want to get out and go home. SLOW begins a series of contests against the attackers. It begins in the attackers favor and slowly ramps up in your favor with a slowly increasing set of penalties. It can take 12-45 seconds to succeed, leaving some time for a melee user to disable or kill you. If you successfully get to missile range you can then leave the room. ANY offensive action prevents further RETREATing for several minutes and prevents you from leaving the room.
This is the trickiest part really. I almost feel like it calls for some kind of mini game... of course, it is more realistic and emphasizes players being well-rounded (chucking spears at the coward's back as he struggles at pole range to get away).
Disablers would pause the engagement system, and the disabler cooldown would prevent endless advancing or retreating. For example it might take you 25 seconds to get to melee + 20 seconds if they immobilize you on the way there. However, they would have a much harder time disabling you for the next 30 seconds. It is likely you'd get to melee before they could repeat the task. If they did, they'd not be able to retreat instantly.. it'd take them 12-25 seconds and suffer the consequences.
Please poke holes in this. Its just a swirling mass of ideas at this point.
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