PvP game design

[Slamz]

In the rest of your pondering, are you trying to combine the RPG and the FPS together?

Not really. I just like the quick, skill-based action that an FPS can bring, and I'm trying to think of a way to capture that while using a character-based RPG system, which normally takes a much slower pace in order to give players a chance to do the ability/counterability game, which takes the place of "aiming".

For example, let's suppose we're talking about combat between wizards, especially old school AD&D style wizards.

The spells they can do can be devastating but they have to be memorized beforehand. They can't simply decide that what they need right now is a second fireball. Either they memorized two fireballs spells or they didn't. If they did, then they had to give up something else to do it, because they only had so many spell spots.


Hmmm...

Suppose instead of 10 rows of 10 hotkeys, you had 3 hotkeys. This is what you start with and it's all you ever get.

Each hotkey must be assigned a type:
OFFENSE
DEFENSE
UTILITY

You may assign these any way you wish. 3 offense. 2 offense and a utility. 3 defense. Whatever. You can only have 1 spell of the appropriate type in each hotkey. You may have a whole book of spells to choose from, but you can only ever have 3 "ready". Once a hotkey is used, it's on cooldown for 3 seconds and you can only cast 1 spell per second, so 3 OFFENSE hotkeys lets you spam offensive spells while 3 DEFENSE hotkeys lets you spam defensive spells (e.g., counterspells, shields, etc).

Or perhaps each hotkey represents a stack of spells which you have to spend time outside of combat setting up. e.g., hotkey #1 alternates Fireball and Magic Missile while hotkey #2 alternates Cone of Cold and Fireball. Maybe there are no cooldowns and each hotkey can be assigned to a different target, so that 3x OFFENSE lets you engage 3 targets simultaneously.

Combat can then be fast paced, because we've shifted a lot of the strategy/thinking/skill to the setup. You might need to create completely different setups for ideal performance in different environments or against different enemies. A well prepared player might have a sizable advantage against a less prepared opponent, but getting the jump on someone and knowing what spells to sling when still plays an important role.


You might be able to get additional "one-off" hotkeys -- clickies. Like you can wear 1 magic ring which tends to either do something really weak really frequently or really strong once in a great while. So again, preparation is a big part of combat, but you still have to look for the right time to use it.



WOW/WAR equipment builds aren't really what I had in mind because they aren't very situational, or if they are, "PvP" tends to be one situation and other situations are various types of PvE. That is, a "crit build" isn't likely to switch to something else based on the type of PvP situation he expects to get into. A crit build is just what he is.

Not that that's a bad idea, but I'd call that "character customization", not a direct component of a skill-based combat system. That is, switching from "crit build" to "strength build" to "armor build" is an interesting customization choice that can impact how you play, but I'm not sure I'd call it a "skill".