The Elder Scrolls Online

Draegan_sl

2 Minutes Hate
10,034
3
I think there are some non-retarded ways to have large PVP that doesn't turn into blobs. For example - no tab targeting, using collision detection for projectiles, swings, and even player bodies standing next to each other. You couldn't have two hundred people hitting the same door, because only realistically say 10 could get close enough lined up. This would force the fights to be small focused fights that happen out around the map or whatever as well.

However, then of course you run into the "but this is an internet game with latency" and even with a high speed connection, it's hard to get real-time interaction like that with large player counts. I just don't think it'll ever work well in this genre (it being large scale player battles).
The only way that would remotely work is if you had friendly fire on, because hello Grief City.
 

Bruman

Golden Squire
1,154
0
Yeah, in my "lets ignore technical issues" armchair game designer/developer , I was meaning it as friendly fire on, forgot to mention it. The collision detection combined with having to aim where you swing, so you don't hit friendlies, would prevent zergs from being logistical.

Not that any of that would ever happen anywhos, especially not in this MMO. Even thought the combat we're talking about is pretty much the definition of TES combat (first person real time collision detection).
 

Utnayan

F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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For TES games definitely. Not this one.
frown.png
 

Denaut

Trump's Staff
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Yeah, in my "lets ignore technical issues" armchair game designer/developer , I was meaning it as friendly fire on, forgot to mention it. The collision detection combined with having to aim where you swing, so you don't hit friendlies, would prevent zergs from being logistical.

Not that any of that would ever happen anywhos, especially not in this MMO. Even thought the combat we're talking about is pretty much the definition of TES combat (first person real time collision detection).
Well it isn't just a technical issue, I've come to think of it as a design issue. An individual player's impact is diluted the more people there are, and if there is say a giant battle with say 200 vs 200 people your contribution as an individual is 1/400th as opposed to say an awesome 10v10 fight where what you do and the decisions you make as an individual matter much more.

When you start to creep up over groups of 10 or 20 then commanding/organizing becomes much more important and while that is fun for the commander it is mostly just lots of waiting for everyone else.
 

Felmega_sl

shitlord
563
1
Well it isn't just a technical issue, I've come to think of it as a design issue. An individual player's impact is diluted the more people there are, and if there is say a giant battle with say 200 vs 200 people your contribution as an individual is 1/400th as opposed to say an awesome 10v10 fight where what you do and the decisions you make as an individual matter much more.

When you start to creep up over groups of 10 or 20 then commanding/organizing becomes much more important and while that is fun for the commander it is mostly just lots of waiting for everyone else.
Depends on the game type. For instance, if there was a separate, instanced, 1 death-and-you're-out battleground of 200vs200, every kill is important so any contribution is significant.
I say skill can exist in huge battles. Many times you have several small skirmishes happening at one time in close proximity, allowing team coordination to shine, even among the chaos.
10v10 is very competitive and produces good close quarter combat. But for epic scale, lets talk hundreds. I say the more the merrier as long as the game engine and the world map can handle it.
 
Depends on the game type. For instance, if there was a separate, instanced, 1 death-and-you're-out battleground of 200vs200, every kill is important so any contribution is significant.
This reminds me of those tactical shooters where its 1 kill and you're out and you have to wait in ghost/spectator mode for the next 15 minutes while the two remaining survivors are camping opposite sides of the map.
 

Utnayan

F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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This reminds me of those tactical shooters where its 1 kill and you're out and you have to wait in ghost/spectator mode for the next 15 minutes while the two remaining survivors are camping opposite sides of the map.
^^ Yep.

And the fact remains they are not making it like this. For TESO, spawning is the key. So you need to take keeps to get the spawn point to advance. Along with random spawn markers players can drop down to try and break a balance or zerg. So their answer to the Zerg is to try to get players to move around in the map in a black ops sort of way. Problem with this is the zerg will prevail, or everyone will zerg from a spawn point.
 

Quaid

Trump's Staff
11,859
8,265
Meh, just give every class a ridiculously OP skill that punishes zergs. Ex. Chain lightning for Mage, lightning increases in power every jump. Infinite targets. Rangers get piercing arrows with a similar effect. Effective and hilarious solution.

PVP usable only, obv.
 

Mr Creed

Too old for this shit
2,394
287
AE mez, unlimited targets, duration increases with targets hit. I would buy it just for that skill.
 

Grim1

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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The only way that would remotely work is if you had friendly fire on, because hello Grief City.
Which would be a lot of fun and make for a better game.

Friendly fire (and griefing in general) force communities to develop in ways that we haven't seen in a long time in mmo's. Suddenly, your friend list and guild become much more important, while spies have real value. Drama is reintroduced and fun is had for all... except the casual pussies of course.

Fuck casual pussies... and leave them behind. Sorry Draegan, that means you too.
 

Miele

Lord Nagafen Raider
916
48
I am glad everyone else sees it as well, theideaof large scale PvP battles is awesome but the reality isn't anywhere close.

And the player behavior behind it makes perfect sense. Force concentration & local superiority are basic military concepts that are simple but incredibly effective. If you hand players a simple to execute and extremely effective strategy on a platter they are going to use it just like anyone else would in a real conflict and you get Zergs.
You can force skirmishing forces with terrain (e.g.: a dense forest) or defensive weaponry such as deadly artillery, deadly being the key word here.
As much as I love GW2 I can't stand WvW because I end up clashing with the opposing zerg way too often and this just makes me want to logoff instead of playing.
 

Sabbat

Trakanon Raider
1,970
856
Meh, just give every class a ridiculously OP skill that punishes zergs. Ex. Chain lightning for Mage, lightning increases in power every jump. Infinite targets. Rangers get piercing arrows with a similar effect. Effective and hilarious solution.

PVP usable only, obv.
You're a fucking idiot.
 

Laura

Lord Nagafen Raider
582
109
I personally hate large-scale anything. Whether it's PvP or PvE.
The more players you have past a certain number; the less fun it is to play. It will be too chaotic to make any sense especially if the game is also designed for PvE group/solo content.

15 years ago, big scale battles were something we dreamed about. I've seen it in PvE in EverQuest and PvP wise in Lineage 2 and I really think it's not something to get the attention of players anymore. It doesn't have that "buzz" because it's nothing new anymore and in practice I highly doubt it would work unless severely controlled (BGs/instance)

I think, and this is my personal opinion, the game should focus on smaller groups of people (whether for PvE or PvP).
 

Denaut

Trump's Staff
2,739
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I personally hate large-scale anything. Whether it's PvP or PvE.
The more players you have past a certain number; the less fun it is to play. It will be too chaotic to make any sense especially if the game is also designed for PvE group/solo content.

15 years ago, big scale battles were something we dreamed about. I've seen it in PvE in EverQuest and PvP wise in Lineage 2 and I really think it's not something to get the attention of players anymore. It doesn't have that "buzz" because it's nothing new anymore and in practice I highly doubt it would work unless severely controlled (BGs/instance)

I think, and this is my personal opinion, the game should focus on smaller groups of people (whether for PvE or PvP).
It is because it is a failed experiment in a standard 3rd person MMORPG setting. It just didn't work and in retrospect is is a slightly obvious why it didn't.

However, in a slightly different type of game where you have much more battlefield awareness itcouldwork. So maybe something like a large scale MMORTS or a game that looks and controls like League of Legends but isn't match-based.
 

Blackwulf

N00b
999
18
I had fun in daoc because the zone was big enough to avoid the zerg. It was fun to prey on zerg stragglers too. Cyrodiil has potential for this sort of game play, and their stated goals are that there will be good reasons to pve there. I'm not dumb, however, so I'll wait to see the final version before I buy in.
 

Utnayan

F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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I had fun in daoc because the zone was big enough to avoid the zerg. It was fun to prey on zerg stragglers too. Cyrodiil has potential for this sort of game play, and their stated goals are that there will be good reasons to pve there. I'm not dumb, however, so I'll wait to see the final version before I buy in.
But it really doesn't. There were realistic end goals to capture relics and how you needed to do that was fairly clear, and it didn't take months and playing ping pong with 30 keeps to be used as spawn points (Although that did happen on a lesser scale, it was static and much less time was taken to "win". The end goal of being an emperor which doesn't have any impact on the game after you leave Cyrodill. This game is a 180 from what DAOC was, even at DAOC's worst points.