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Design Updates to MMOG Combat Systems
In a nice bit of synchronicity, updates have been posted for the combat designs of two major Massive Games. A thread has been posted on the upcoming combat upgrade to Star Wars Galaxies, discussing design goals and opening up conversation to the game community. The initial post has been followed up by several other developer posts. Meanwhile, the folks at Blizzard have released the second part of their PvP Battlegrounds Preview. The new preview offers details on win conditions in the instanced areas and more information on PvP questing. As an aside, Blizzard is also offering 48 free hours to its customers because of the recent downtime problems.
Right now Alliance outnumbers Horde almost 2 - 1, and, in most cases, much more, on almost every server.
Battlegrounds will only let X number of players in from each side at a time.
This is an interesting method of population control, and balance, especially for those that don't want to wait in queues to fight pvp.
Ironically, the company that invented "The Zerg" is working to elminate that tactic in PvP!
The idea is a very good one; however, how might it be implemented? Is it truly feasible?
...and let's face it, Blizzard needs to focus on some of the other issues before it can go crazy with something like this.
The first problem you'll have is people arguing over who gets to be the commander. You can't necessarily just give it to the person with the highest level, as they don't necessarily make the best generals. I suppose the easiest resolution would be to institute a voting system; however, guilds could easily favor their leader instead of someone who is better qualified.
Honestly, the only way I see this working is creating a complex karma system. Allow people to be leaders on a very small scale (parties) first and have them directing the actions of the party. After all, many people do this already, but they are not necessarily rewarded beyond that they can effectively pull, kill, and loot high-level MOBs.
If the party believes the leader is competent, they can give them some sort of karma point that will increase their status and lead larger parties, eventually leading whole battleground armies (people with the highest rank get to lead).
It's not perfect, and you have to consider some of the abuses (I don't have time to flesh out the system completely). The only problem is that it would be VERY difficult to deploy this system...
Like I said, it's a great idea, but from my perspective, at this point, I don't think it's possible. Hopefully Blizzard can get their shit together and truly revolutionize the MMORPG.
Respect It.