Exciting co-op battle mechanics

[webs0r]

Hi,

We love to play these games MP, so why not introduce core gameplay that reinforces collaboration and rewards the players for working together.

Request: Introduce abilities that can be used during combat that can be "chained" or proc'ed (i don't know the right terms) by other players within short time windows for bonus damage/effects/cool stuff.

For example (sorry for a crappy imagination but i just want to explain what i mean):
- player one uses ability that covers a mob in oil, perhaps slowing their movement (crowd control) for a short time
- player two uses ability - say some flame burst that if it hits while the oil is still on, does double damage
- player three then uses another ability that is sensitive to burning things for quadruple damage (game tracks the chaining of these for ultimate satisfaction)

So ... the skills, players and numbers can vary but have i communicated teh core idea?
The time windows can be quite small to encourage close team work... correct placement of players / mobs.

It might not all be about damage. A successful chain might cause an aoe buff to players or some other thing. But large explosions with lots of gibs would always be cool...

What do you think??

[jiaco]

Request: Introduce abilities that can be used during combat that can be "chained"

Here is my example:

Player 1 casts "Open Earth" creating a large fissure in the terrain causing nearby enemies to take damage and become stunned.

Player 2 casts "Spectral Vacuum" creating a force that pulls black tar out of the fissure coating surrounding enemies and causing slowness and confusion.

Player 3 casts "Flock of Seagulls" and the skies fill with birds that begin attacking all enemies but due to black tar, birds stick to previously tarred enemies.

Player 4 casts "Violently Disband all Pets" which causes all the seagulls to explode coating all tarred enemies in feathers.

Very cool idea (even with my exaggerated example). Would like to see what kinds of things that people not bored out of their minds, counting the hours to the Friday night commute might come up with.

[Malpheas]

Just to try to be funny, but I could see multiple people taking part in "The Incredible Machine: Grim Dawn" online. For achievements.

But seriously, I think it would be interesting, and not just a way to tar and feather enemies - even literally.

Cheers,

Malpheas

[Confuted]

this idea is fairly neat and running off the previous post's ideas, it got me thinking. Just like in Titan Quest you received 3 skill points every level up. How about another skill tree be added to the mix that is solely for multiplayer.

Already I can see balancing issues, time/budget problems but maybe the idea can be put in the background for a future expansion. Mostly this idea is a way to add more complex skills without a third mastery.

Just like TQ's 2 mastery mix, there could be an additional multiplayer mastery...that I would speculate levels up during multiplayer. The multiplayer should level nearly the same as regular leveling but the skills gained are more complex. For example, a person who casts a fire based skill could benefit their friend's warfare build character because they teched a multiplayer skill that enhanced their weapon's brute force by % of friendly- fire within meter radius.

[Malpheas]

Just like TQ's 2 mastery mix, there could be an additional multiplayer mastery...that I would speculate levels up during multiplayer. The multiplayer should level nearly the same as regular leveling but the skills gained are more complex. For example, a person who casts a fire based skill could benefit their friend's warfare build character because they teched a multiplayer skill that enhanced their weapon's brute force by % of friendly- fire within meter radius.


I think that this is unnecessary. I think it would be better if certain skills had additional properties like.. say someone tossed something that allowed for an AoE slow covering. How about a property, say like, "Canbesetonfire"

Which would set a fire spell (damage including or a portion of it) over the radius of the skill that caused AoE status in the first place. That way you would not need to have a separate set of skills... Any number of combinations. This sort of mechanic was used in Legend of Mana for learning new moves in combat.

This way you could also learn new recipes from this sort of thing, the abiilty to make a combo based on a previously learned idea. As I write this, the idea evolves into another combat slot for combo ideas. Hmm.

More to come.

Cheers,

Malpheas

[ASYLUM101]

I approve of this idea, sounds like fun.

[Confuted]

I think that this is unnecessary. I think it would be better if certain skills had additional properties like.. say someone tossed something that allowed for an AoE slow covering. How about a property, say like, "Canbesetonfire"

Which would set a fire spell (damage including or a portion of it) over the radius of the skill that caused AoE status in the first place. That way you would not need to have a separate set of skills... Any number of combinations. This sort of mechanic was used in Legend of Mana for learning new moves in combat.

I'm afraid I don't quite understand your concept. From what I'm reading in the quote is that skills will have more passive attributes to them; they won't be additional skills. Hopefully I'm just miss-reading it.

Maybe I need to clarify? The 3rd mastery should make multiplayer more "unique" because each multiplayer skill will only be useable during multiplayer. The multiplayer mastery skills can only activate when another member of your party meets the criteria for the skill. For example: an Earth/Storm mastery can not gain bonuses from their own skills, however other players can use their multiplayer mastery to take advantage of the Earth/Storm mastery effects. As implied before, a warfare/defense character would need to have another player cast a fire spell in order to use the multiplayer skill that gives them +%X for the amount of other player created fire within a radius.

[Renevent]

I think that this is unnecessary. I think it would be better if certain skills had additional properties like.. say someone tossed something that allowed for an AoE slow covering. How about a property, say like, "Canbesetonfire"


Totally agree.

[Malpheas]

Maybe I need to clarify? The 3rd mastery should make multiplayer more "unique" because each multiplayer skill will only be useable during multiplayer. The multiplayer mastery skills can only activate when another member of your party meets the criteria for the skill. For example: an Earth/Storm mastery can not gain bonuses from their own skills, however other players can use their multiplayer mastery to take advantage of the Earth/Storm mastery effects. As implied before, a warfare/defense character would need to have another player cast a fire spell in order to use the multiplayer skill that gives them +%X for the amount of other player created fire within a radius.


My post was a mess, I'll grant that. What I was trying to say, is that they should improve interraction on skills by having other skills affect them by adding states or stats to that skills (not displayed) that make interraction possible. This is rather than invent a large overhead in the way of a new skill tree. Built in interraction rather than an aside would be preferential if this idea were created.

The difference between yours and mine is - you could create your own combos. But then you could have things that were dually affected by classes of entirely different skill-sets (think 3 masteries).

Either or, I don't think a multiplayer mastery is necessary.

Cheers,

Malph

[webs0r]

What I was trying to say, is that they should improve interraction on skills by having other skills affect them by adding states or stats to that skills (not displayed) that make interraction possible. This is rather than invent a large overhead in the way of a new skill tree.

Yes this is what I would support. You would introduce stack-able "states" via existing abilities. So the interaction is via normal abilities that detect what state mobs are in and get your bonus. It can even be in the same skill trees but having it across various skill trees improves the mp "collaboration" aspect.

Timing is crucial as well. I would suggest that some cases, animations might last longer than the "open window" another player gets to chain their ability (don't make it too relaxed, some things should require some planning to pull off).

Hey how about this modifier -
class has lightning skill - 1 target
another class has some drowning skill that covers the area in water (?)
the chaining bonus here doesn't increase damage but it turns the 1 target lightning skill into AOE :)
It might balance out as normally its a 1 target spell so it would likely do more damage than your typical aoe, so by chaining you effectively get a massive damage output anyway.

I always wanted to make an arpg game with these mechanics, but it doesn't seem like I'll ever quit my day job. :furious:

[Malpheas]

<snip>
Timing is crucial as well.
<snip>

Hey how about this modifier -
class has lightning skill - 1 target
another class has some drowning skill that covers the area in water (?)
the chaining bonus here doesn't increase damage but it turns the 1 target lightning skill into AOE

Yeah, that's more or less what I was trying to say the first time around. Really, you can go any number of directions with this, it's just a fantastically easy idea to invent up. The implementation would be a bother, though.

Cheers,

Malph