Well i had that idea, to make a delay between start of animation and an actual effect. Basically in a multiplayer RPG two players attack each other and as player A click attack, an animation starts and after a second it actually counted as hit unless second player block it. Simply idea to give player B time to react. But, we talk here about a masive multiplayer and after some tests i start to think this maybe wasnt such a good idea after all, specially considering how much faster and easiler it is to just make instant effects with cooldown timers like in most other RPG’s.
I have to choice between an instant attacks like in most rpgs around or a delayed attacks that is somewhat new and unusual.
Both ways seems to have their pros and cons and i am realy concerned about ressources, so maybe someone can help me make it right? Any suggestions and opinions are welcome.
Quick reaction is not gonna work in mmo. One second long reaction is usable, IIRC it was done in TERA, where you can sorta have kinda-combos/quicktime events.
If you’re talking about RPGS and not MMOs, then there is no standard behavior, and “instant attacks” definitely are not a standard.
There are games that are turn based. In that case reaction speed is not a factor. Also, there are several ways of implementing turn-based fight. (with map movement, without map movement, etc). (most JRPGs)
Then there are games that can actually take shape of your weapon into account (Dragon’s Dogma comes to mind, Gothic series, Risen).
Then there are mixed games, where character moves in semi-realtime, but attacks only start triggering when character is within certain range from target. (Neverwinter Nights 1/2, Infinite engine games)
If you’re going after MMO, then standard behavior would be where player can move around more ore less in realtime, clicking a skill starts action, and half-a-second later attack effect will apply to target. Requiring other player to block will make the game very tedious (if you want fighting game, you need to speed things up), but it could make sense to introduce “blocking mode” or something similar that will give bonus to defense, but disable some offensive actions.
@neginfinity this all being tedious is an important question. But to simplify it, it is realy about if you should put cooldown before skill takes effect or after as it is dont in most games.
I think from one side puting it before makes fighting more deep and strategic, from other side that may make game tedious.
Usually, in most games I saw, clicking the skill started skill animation, BUT actual effect was applied about 0.5 seconds later. That’s pretty much everywhere in any game that is not turn-based. That brief window of opportunity often allows enemy to move away from the target area. Badly coded-games ignore enemy moving away from target area, which annoys the user. Dragon Age: Origins was guilty of this. Basically, you could run away half a screen away while enemy makes a swing with a sword, and the hit would still connect, because the game determined hit chance at the beginning of animation. Don’t do that.
Occasionally there are uber-spells that require 2…8 seconds casting time, which gives the opponent enough time to attack the mage, hopefully interrupting the spell, but that’s different story.
In addition to that there is cooldown timer (6…12… whatever seconds), before you attempt to use ability again.
So, basically, clicking the skill usually starts ability cooldown timer and starts skill animation, BUT actual effect is applied 0.5…1.0 seconds after you clicked the skill.
I’m not sure if requiring other person to manually block would be a good idea, unless you’re making an action game. It may backfire, but I guess it might be interesting if ability to dodge/block incoming attack is triggered infrequently. It might make sense to make the dodging/blocking stat-based, D&D style.
The idea is that after a click the damage is decided, and not just dragon age but also world of warcraft seems to get away with it just fine. That saves lots of ressources so maybe it is better way if your players are ready to ignore it.
The thing is, it doesn’t work well, when player can freely move around, because it breaks suspension of disbelief/immersion/whatever. It is feels unfair and annoying, especially if enemy attacks you with sword, you’re 100 meters away, and attack still connects.
Neverwinter 2 (released in 2006) had online mode, by the way. You could run away from some spells or hide behind something, if spell required line of sight. However, neverwinter did not have any kind of lag prediction. It was still quite playable with 250…400 ms lag, though.
I don’t think that it saves a lot of resources, by the way. You’ll need to send 2 messages to client instead of one and that’s about it.
Relying on pure reaction is never going to work on an MMO. There might be similar options though. Instead of timing a reaction, imagine giving the defender a sort of QTE minigame to reduce damage, or designing combat to favor a move/counter-move battle structure. Both probably require throwing out conventional RPG combat and redesigning from the ground up.