RPG Combat

[hallsofvallhalla]

So I am working on my MMO game and am stuck on a decision. Combat style and wanting some comments and opinions

1. Real time combat - Much like Browser Quest where you walk up to creatures and fight them and they fight you, chase you ect...

2. Final Fantasy like combat - Creatures still roam the map but when you touch them you go into a separate combat screen


It is not a question of difficulty. Either one is feasible and with multiplayer. The party system I have planned will allow multiple players to battle at once using option 2.


What is everyone's opinions?

[Renavoid]

I think it'd be pretty interesting to make a FF style combat system in an MMO. If nothing else, I think you'd have an easier time managing some cool animations for skills like that.

[srachit]

Although the idea of a FF style battle sounds interesting, let us think of it from a player point of view. We all know that these kinda MMO's usually involve getting a high level, which needs a lot of grinding, so the basis of this game is grinding. Now in a FF style battle system, time is getting wasted going from main screen to battle screen, rendering amazing animations and coming back to main screen, grinders do not like that waste of time, they want to kill, move to next creature, kill again. Now you may say that it is just a few seconds of extra time, but a grinder is killing 100's of monsters, those few seconds really do add up and might push away those players who want fast action. Just my 2 cents

[Viper]

I like real time simply because seeing others in their fights and just the events going on in the world around me is more appealing.

[hallsofvallhalla]

Thanks for comments.

This game won't be about combat grinding. More about exploration and doing harvest type things like lumbering and mining.

I am building a random dungeon generator that will add an interesting twist to the game. Lots of instanced maps for a massive world of changes.

[Jackolantern]

If nothing else, I think you'd have an easier time managing some cool animations for skills like that.

I actually kind of see it being the opposite. I think players will expect more complex, detailed animations in a FF-style game than if they battled on the map. Final Fantasy itself has kind of set players' expectations high when it comes to battle animations, whereas with everyone being on the same map, I think most players would be accepting of fairly simple battle animations.

[Renavoid]

I actually kind of see it being the opposite. I think players will expect more complex, detailed animations in a FF-style game than if they battled on the map. Final Fantasy itself has kind of set players' expectations high when it comes to battle animations, whereas with everyone being on the same map, I think most players would be accepting of fairly simple battle animations.

That's not really what I meant. I actually don't even want to call it the Final Fantasy style, because it's by no means limited to FF. In a simple combat system, I think it's 100% appropriate to just use a quick "character approaches and makes a slash before returning" animation. But, what I was actually thinking about is letting some cool magic skills throw things all over the combat screen to make the spells feel larger and more powerful than "blip - little fire circle just appeared in the tile in front of my character for half a second." But then, I'm very much a "I can see it both ways... so, do whichever you prefer" kind of person.

[Hamilton]

I prefer Option 1; however, as so long as the AI (or AI process) is decent or good. If the AI is poorly thought out or easy to defeat (assuming that all monsters, no matter of intelligence act the same), then with Option 2. It is that kind of perception... my opinion of course.

[tboxx]

I think option 1) would work fine if certain animations/cut scenes (like in FF) that take a long time to display could be shortcutted by pressing esc or space bar etc.. FF Style seems like it would standing out from the crowd more.