General question about combat?

[Luna Eclypse]

First off, hello, I just joined your forums after hearing about this project recently and decided I'd drop in and see what the fuss is about.

That being said, I have question about what you'd like do in terms of the flow of combat for SoH.

What concerns me with some of the other superhero projects out there is that they may not be considering the main nuance to the way combat functioned in City of Heroes and will gloss over it entirely with their own games.

That being the way every power you used rooted you in place.

Some hated it but, for me, it was key to the way combat behaved and made it strategic and appealing. This doesn't happen at all with most powers in Champions Online and I felt it was a large part of the combat in that game being really 'floaty,' disjointed, and having no weight or impact. It's one of those things where I've said time and again, 'Cryptic got it right the first time.'

So for my question: If you've at all gotten into planning this game's combat out, is this something you've considered or will consider in the future?

Thank you.

[AxerJ]

I think this is a very good point, and a great thing to have noticed that many of us, myself included, probably "took for granted". Great point!

[JestersGhost]

There's definitely grounds for having at least some powers root you.

Though there is some tactical and game-play advantage to having some wind-up, AoE powers be adjustable before they fire - I reference League of Legends as a game, love it or hate it, which has a *lot* of experience in designing abilities for simulated combat, and quite a lot of their recent designs involve an AoE power which you trigger, and locks angle, and position relative to your character, but shows the targeted area for a second or so before firing. This allows both sides to readjust their positioning and provokes a brief game of cat-and-mouse between attacker and defender.

Fundamentally, having a power root you while activating is an important tactical and gameplay consideration, and I second the original idea that it should be considered and used, though for the reasons above, I don't think it necessarily has to be across every power.

[Taivas]

To me, being rooted while you use a power gave CoH an almost tabletop turn-based strategy game feel. It's something that hundreds of classic MMOs have stuck with and for good reason; it works. Like one of you mentioned, Champions Online does indeed feel very floaty and weightless. The combat doesn't have a grounded importance to it. In CoH I always felt like the powers I used were exactly that... powerful, because your character had to stop and focus.

Of course, it was always fun to run and jump as a Blaster right at the moment when you were clicking a power to allow you to root yourself somewhere else, perhaps closer to an enemy so you could snipe, or further away to avoid damage. If you can freely run in all directions firing off abilities, that level of experimentation and strategy will possibly be lost.

[Luna Eclypse]

In CoH I always felt like the powers I used were exactly that... powerful, because your character had to stop and focus.

My thoughts exactly.

Another way I looked at everyone being rooted in place was imagining that moment of combat between you and the bad guys freezing in place and captured in a comic panel, as cheesy as that sounds.

[brawlizard]

I absolutely hated this aspect for many powers. It pulled me out of character in most cases.
Why does my machine gun wielding super soldier need to stop to shoot a single bullet while running.
If every power in the game stopped you while it wound through the entire animation would be a show stopper for me.

The other thing how this made a difference is that all powers were not interruptable (by the player) once started. (I'm looking at you "Full Auto" on assault rifle). The channel mechanism in other MMOs for these types of powers is a good compromise. You have to stand still to use it, but you can still interrupt it if you need to react to changes in the combat.