Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

Game Mechanics!

    • 9115 posts
    October 22, 2015 4:04 AM PDT

    Game Mechanics - if you could name one favorite game mechanic from an MMORPG, what would it be and why? :)

    • 724 posts
    October 22, 2015 5:39 AM PDT

    Archeage: Gliders

    Aion: Flying/Gliding

    EQ/VG/others: Levitate

     

    I just love seeing the world from above, need I say more? Gliders are really well integrated into Archeage. Aion was also great, although I found the flying there actually more limited than in Archeage (even though Aion had true flight in some zones). VG had true flight also, and IMO it was almost necessary with the size of the world. Although you could argue that it made much of the content skippable...that's of course a problem with any true flight mechanic. I hope that in Pantheon zones can be designed so that gliding/levitate would be allowed and still it wouldn't be possible to skip content.

     

    • 9115 posts
    October 22, 2015 5:41 AM PDT

    Sarim said:

    Archeage: Gliders

    Aion: Flying/Gliding

    EQ/VG/others: Levitate

     

    I just love seeing the world from above, need I say more? Gliders are really well integrated into Archeage. Aion was also great, although I found the flying there actually more limited than in Archeage (even though Aion had true flight in some zones). VG had true flight also, and IMO it was almost necessary with the size of the world. Although you could argue that it made much of the content skippable...that's of course a problem with any true flight mechanic. I hope that in Pantheon zones can be designed so that gliding/levitate would be allowed and still it wouldn't be possible to skip content.

     



    Gliders were pretty cool in ArcheAge, I would still prefer my Venerable Griffon in VG any day of the week (even more so than the epic mounts Nightmare etc.) :)

    Lev was pretty awesome too!

    • 72 posts
    October 22, 2015 5:43 AM PDT

    Any distance closers within reason. A shadowstep for a rogue or a charge for a warrior is always great to see. Obviously this has a great impact on PVP, but I always thought it added something to the class as a whole. Nothing was more frustrating than being a warrior only to be out run by a mob chasing after one of your group mates and being unable to do anything! 


    This post was edited by Furor at October 22, 2015 5:45 AM PDT
    • 610 posts
    October 22, 2015 6:33 AM PDT

    Long term meaningful out of group buffs

    So sick and tired of 30 sec temp buffs

    Give me a HP buff on my cleric that I can cast on my group (and others out of group too!) that last a decent amount of time (1 hour or more)

    Give me buffs that are NEEDED in the game...I mean honestly what Warrior wanted to wade into battle without some loving from a Cleric or Shaman in EQ?

    What Cleric wanted to try and heal a group deep in a dungeon with out a Clarity!

    What Rogue wanted to try and dps their asses off without a Celerity?

    And who could forget the wonderful times in PoK when someone would hollar out a MGB at the Nexus stone? Would almost crash PoK with everyone that showed up.

    • 409 posts
    October 22, 2015 6:47 AM PDT

    Charm.

    Best representations of charm are EQ1 enchanters and AO bureaucrats. I used to put AO ahead of EQ because the long and short charms in AO were always fixed duration, but with my enchanter having 11k AAXP, EQ1 enchanter charms are now pretty much fixed duration as well, and like all things EQ1, the fixed duration took work to achieve.

    Charm in the hands of a proper enchanter/bureaucrat is powerful to the point of game breaking, which is why so many MOs struggle with its implementation.

    After charm, any of the other crowd/mind control stuff. Enchanters/bureaucrats taking tough content and putting it in EZ mode...there's just nothing like it to me.

    • 610 posts
    October 22, 2015 6:50 AM PDT

    Venjenz said:

    Charm.

    Best representations of charm are EQ1 enchanters and AO bureaucrats. I used to put AO ahead of EQ because the long and short charms in AO were always fixed duration, but with my enchanter having 11k AAXP, EQ1 enchanter charms are now pretty much fixed duration as well, and like all things EQ1, the fixed duration took work to achieve.

    Charm in the hands of a proper enchanter/bureaucrat is powerful to the point of game breaking, which is why so many MOs struggle with its implementation.

    After charm, any of the other crowd/mind control stuff. Enchanters/bureaucrats taking tough content and putting it in EZ mode...there's just nothing like it to me.

    Oh I just love a good CC situation. Games now days everything is just aoe it all to death

     

    • 429 posts
    October 22, 2015 8:12 AM PDT

    Sevens said:

    Long term meaningful out of group buffs

    So sick and tired of 30 sec temp buffs

    Give me a HP buff on my cleric that I can cast on my group (and others out of group too!) that last a decent amount of time (1 hour or more)

    Give me buffs that are NEEDED in the game...I mean honestly what Warrior wanted to wade into battle without some loving from a Cleric or Shaman in EQ?

    What Cleric wanted to try and heal a group deep in a dungeon with out a Clarity!

    What Rogue wanted to try and dps their asses off without a Celerity?

    And who could forget the wonderful times in PoK when someone would hollar out a MGB at the Nexus stone? Would almost crash PoK with everyone that showed up.

     

    +1 this ^^^

    • 409 posts
    October 22, 2015 8:34 AM PDT

    Sevens said:

    Oh I just love a good CC situation. Games now days everything is just aoe it all to death

     

    I was just talking about this with a buddy who played EQ, VG and WoW with me, and we were talking about the whole "just AE it" model that is so much less fun than proper crowd control scenarios, as in the evolution of the MMO away from CC entirely.

    I hate the "go go go" model of modern MMos. It's more fun to play Diablo if a loot pinata at the end of an AE button smash is the goal. And in EQ1 right now, this minute, if you are in a full group doing level appropriate content (dark blue cons) and your CC cannot lock down the obs so that no more than 2 are on your tank...yep, you just wiped. Even green/light blue AE in EQ....if that pack of mobs reaches you, you're dead.

    Proper CC is such a huge part of what makes the older PVE model superior. Maybe that's the actual mechanic I favor, not the spell/ability that is one of its hard counters.

    So let me amend -

    Favorite mechanic = mobs that con 1-5 levels below you, take 30-60 seconds to kill, that will wipe your party if there are more than 2, which makes crowd control spells/tools/abilities a vital part of the game.

    • 81 posts
    October 22, 2015 8:57 AM PDT

    That is a tough question there are so many.

    EQ: 

    Monk FD pulling

    Enchanter  Mez and Charm spells

    Casting buffs on passing players

    Fast mounts once you earn them

    Group centered play

     

    WoW:

    Flying mounts

     

     

     

     

    • 21 posts
    October 22, 2015 9:19 AM PDT

    Furor said:

    Any distance closers within reason. A shadowstep for a rogue or a charge for a warrior is always great to see. Obviously this has a great impact on PVP, but I always thought it added something to the class as a whole. Nothing was more frustrating than being a warrior only to be out run by a mob chasing after one of your group mates and being unable to do anything! 

    It's funny you say that Furor those were the reasons I played those classes. I love it when classes have some fun mobility. 

    • 1778 posts
    October 22, 2015 9:56 AM PDT
    Many fans of CC. And Im right there with them.

    My favorite mechanic would be intense interdependency between unique roles. There was never a better sense of accomplishment and comradery than when everyone was performing their roles in synergy with eachother. Especially on that big badie in that one dungeon or raid. And even more so when it was with the class set up that people said wouldnt work for that encounter.
    • 409 posts
    October 22, 2015 10:21 AM PDT

    Amsai said: Many fans of CC. And Im right there with them. My favorite mechanic would be intense interdependency between unique roles. There was never a better sense of accomplishment and comradery than when everyone was performing their roles in synergy with eachother. Especially on that big badie in that one dungeon or raid. And even more so when it was with the class set up that people said wouldnt work for that encounter.

    For more on the highlighted, please see "necromancers and how valuable to groups they could be if played right."

    When they let DoT stacking happen in EQ1, the necro-shaman combo was silly. Add any kind of tank to that mix, and the other 3 people in the group could be anything at all, and the group still rocked.

    • 1778 posts
    October 22, 2015 12:35 PM PDT
    I hear ya buddy. For XI it was always Dragoon or Beastmaster. Just utterly ignored a lot of the time. And yet The ones I partied up with to do CoP content in XI just absolutely wrecked face.
    • 211 posts
    October 22, 2015 2:54 PM PDT

    Everyone's already said the best ones, so I'll just throw this one in:

    Being able to drop coin on the ground! c(:

    • 138 posts
    October 22, 2015 3:14 PM PDT

    No level restriction on gear, but still having No Drop top teir gear for balance. I may be on an island here, but I loved being able to hand gear off to alts or if I could talk one of my brothers or friends into playing I could throw them a bone on a sword or something. I know this is something people love or they hate, but I happen to be one of the folks that always loved it.


    This post was edited by Katalyzt at October 22, 2015 3:15 PM PDT
    • 1778 posts
    October 22, 2015 3:19 PM PDT
    Im a fan as well Kata. Though id also take ot the other way with some low level gear still being valuable at level cap.
    • 9115 posts
    October 22, 2015 3:27 PM PDT

    It's great to see so many cool replies! Lot's of CC which is nice to see :)

    • 1281 posts
    October 22, 2015 4:49 PM PDT

    The ability to twink characters is probably my favorite mechanic.

    While grouping with a main and going through expansions, I always felt the need to twink a character and go back to lay waste to the zones that previously destroyed me. It really made my character feel powerful to return and more easily defeat enemies that once were a challenge for my main.

    As a more experienced player this also gave me more flexability to solo. While I prefer grouping, if I decide to take a break from my max level character and load up an alt, I feel like I have earned the ability to progress through the content a little faster with a second character. Twinks allows this to happen but also my to have a character I can log in and solo with for 30 minutes if I don't have a lot of time that day.

    A game mechanic I am passionately against is trivial loot code.


    This post was edited by bigdogchris at October 22, 2015 4:53 PM PDT
    • 610 posts
    October 22, 2015 5:25 PM PDT

    AgentGenX said:

    Everyone's already said the best ones, so I'll just throw this one in:

    Being able to drop coin on the ground! c(:

    I think money having weight and needing to be stored in the bank is great...hate most games able to carry millions of plat on you while fighting in dungeons

    • 37 posts
    October 22, 2015 5:27 PM PDT

    Flying in City of Heroes....by far the most memorable and enjoyable mechanic I have experienced in any MMO from 1999 to the present.  I could almost feel it.  Flying mounts and contraptions from other games have never even come close to that experience and effect.


    This post was edited by Vorthanion at October 22, 2015 5:29 PM PDT
    • 311 posts
    October 23, 2015 1:12 AM PDT

    I would have to say I like most of those but I also loved the crit chains in VG the fact that the druid had crits that did more damage or could put out a decent heal where awsome. I remember the tanks had health defensive buffs and damage buffs very creative crit system.

    • 43 posts
    October 23, 2015 4:25 AM PDT

    Most of the good ones have already been mentioned so I will go with:

    EQ's Shaman's Cannibalize spells. One of the best ways to see how well played shamans were in raids was by watching them tow the line between OOM and death by eating themselves non stop to pump out heals dots and buffs during combat.

     

    Also from LoTRo the Fellowship Manoeuvres (https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Fellowship_Manoeuvre) always thought they added more layers to combat by having to decide between extra direct damage to burn down the target. Or does the party need a heal over time to offset incomming Dots to summoning a short time based spirit ally to help in the fight.

    • 793 posts
    October 23, 2015 5:20 AM PDT

    Amsai said: Many fans of CC. And Im right there with them. My favorite mechanic would be intense interdependency between unique roles. There was never a better sense of accomplishment and comradery than when everyone was performing their roles in synergy with eachother. Especially on that big badie in that one dungeon or raid. And even more so when it was with the class set up that people said wouldnt work for that encounter.

     

    I agree with this. I am tired of the "everyone can perform any role" character builds.

    I like my characters class to define what I do, and my play style to define who I am.

    As a paladin I had become pretty adept at crowd control using taunts and roots, where in some groups lacking an enchanter, that was my primary role to handle adds and protect the healer.

     

    • 999 posts
    October 23, 2015 6:38 AM PDT

    /Agreed with all the above.

    Another mechanic I enjoyed was the "management/strategy" aspects of EQ.  I guess this encompasses more than just one mechanic, but I liked the Inventory Management which included limited bag slots, encumberance, coin weight, etc.  It added a lot to the realism and immersion playing as a Troll/Ogre in Unrest, who was hated by all nearby.  I had to weigh (literally) the pros/cons of what items I should keep - bronze/fine steel, /dropping or destroying coin, asking/paying players to sell/bank for me, transfering copper/silver/gold for platinum with players and considered whether literally crawling with encumberance was worth the increased chance of death etc.  Typing the previous me really appreciate a good Faction system as a gameplay mechanic as well.  I want some races to be Hated.

    Another Management type mechanic I liked was the limited spell gems in Vanilla EQ (8 total), which made you have to strategize what spells would be best for each encounter versus having all spells readily available.