Codex Alera MMO — Combat
This is to expand upon the combat already covered in the post about Classes. You may want to read my post about Tab vs Action Combat before reading this article.
One of the things any new MMO (or any game, really) needs to provide is something new or unique. Which can be extremely difficult given the decades worth of games that have been released.
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
So sometimes you just have to beg, borrow, and steal from a lot of places and hope you can bundle it all up into something better than before. This article therefore, will cover both the Weapon Combat and Ability Combat systems being proposed.
Weapon Combat
The Weapon Combat system is all about picking up something sharp, heavy, or pointy and using it to injure someone or something.
How It Works
If you read up on the proposed classes, you’ll know that different classes get bonuses to certain weapons. That’s all well and fine, but realistically the idea is for it to be viable for any character to wield any weapon. And it is not intended for basic weapon combat to be a worthless “auto-attack” sort of thing either. How many games have you played where at the starting level even your mage or cleric is smacking things with a stick or smashing something with a hammer? How long does that last? Pretty much until you get a couple of levels in and start getting special abilities and then you usually only hold a weapon for the stats. Meh.
So, what is the solution? Special abilities should pretty much always outshine a standard slash with a sword and that’s fine, but we can do something about how often we use specials. That will be covered in the next section, but just assume that’s what will happen. Now you have time between specials where you shouldn’t just stand there and get hit or stand there and let your enemy heal or hide or whatever. Now your weapon isn’t just a stats boost, you’re going to want to actually use it frequently for what it is. Yes, even the casters and healers (though probably less so than the pure melee classes).
The Interface
Most likely it will be something along the lines of using Mouse2 (right-click) to block and Mouse1 (left-click) to attack, with the movement of your character and duration of the hold determining the power and appearance of the attack. For example moving forward with a quick left-click while wielding a sword will probably do a medium damage thrust. Moving forward and holding left click may do an overhand chop. Obviously there would be a lot of details to work out for each weapon. The closest analog would be the combat system in Skyrim, including the archery.
Ability Combat
This is where we change things up a bit and use tab targeting. Why? Well because in this case these abilities are more about mid to long range attacks (or heals/buffs of allies). Also it allows you to split your focus from right in front of you to also contributing to the madness around you. Beyond that, it will be pretty standard fare in terms of some abilities being instant cast, some having a cast time, and others being channeled.
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As mentioned above in the Weapon Combat section, special abilities will be somewhat limited so as to more fluidly pair with the use of weapons and require some tactical thinking and timing. I’m not sure yet if this should be based on long cooldowns or managing the “willpower” resource. I’m inclined towards longer cooldowns so people aren’t staring at yet another resource bar instead of focusing on fighting.
Ability Examples
Woodcrafting: Stealth
- Description: Hides the caster in stealth, not usable in all areas or within 50 meters of an enemy’s sight line
- Cast Type: Toggle-Channeled
- Cooldown: 10 seconds
Windcrafting: Weapon Rush
- Description: Rushes the player forward doing medium damage with a very high degree of accuracy
- Cast Type: Instant
- Cooldown: 30 seconds
Firecrafting: Flame Burst
- Description: Ignites the air around a target (enemy or ally) doing AoE damage around that point. Allies are shielded from the effect. This does massive damage.
- Cast Type: Instant
- Cooldown: 60 seconds
Ritualist: Depraved Assault
- Description: Single target, short-duration, massive DoT with a highly visible animation and a medium health cost to the caster that is replaced 5 seconds after the channel ends (and only if completed).
- Cast Type: Active-Channeled
- Cooldown: 60 seconds
Conclusion — How They Work Together
So now that you’re roughly familiar with the two systems, here’s how they might be experienced… (Trigger Warning: Creative Writing Ahead)
The noise is astounding, with bursts of fire exploding through the ranks of the oncoming Canim, causing devastation and death in neat little circles of carnage that soon collapse and are filled with even more of the wolf-like enemy.
You watch, in horror, as the Legionnaire next to you is ripped apart into a gurgling puddle while harshly chanting Canim ritualists behind the front lines focus their fell energies upon the unlucky man.. woman, you can’t even tell who it was and have to step back as the vile and still bubbling puddle begins to consume even the steel of the Legion Lorica.
Glancing down at your own armor you realize this battle may continue without you, without caring about you, without even noticing you are gone. As you hesitate, frozen by the crushing fear rolling out in front of the Canim onslaught, you catch motion in the corner of your eye and turn to see your Captain raise their sword to the sky, a howl of defiance on their lips matching and surpassing even that of the enemy.
With a blast of heat and light, the Captain’s sword erupts into spitting flame and your fear melts away as you turn back towards the accursed wolf bastards. You reach deep into the solid and loyal steel of your armor and weapon and then, calling upon your wind fury Cardea, you watch in satisfaction as the battle seems to slow down and you rush forward, singling out a particularly burly Canim warrior. There is a howl of anguish as you pass and you know that at the very least, this battle will never forget you were here.
Spinning as quickly as you can, you immediately raise your weapon into high guard, catching and turning the blade of the still dying Canim warrior. With a quick thrust forward you pierce the throat of the warrior, silencing them for good and forever. For Alera.
