Humble Suggestion: Encourage Variety

[sinisterpink]

Summary: encourage players to exploring a variety of ways to engage in combat.

Possible solution: include a combo system whereby players are rewarded through attaining higher levels/multipliers in combat.

The game provides so many visually stunning and cool ways to engage in combat. Multiple melee moves, head shots, wall runs/grabs, powers etc. However, I find (especially multiplayer games) that combat often devolves into run and gun, or run straight for the group to melee spam. Since there are so many players contributing to DPS, it often becomes a necessity to rush through content just to participate in DPS.

Players should be able to play how they want; this is true. And if a player wants to do nothing but spam rifles or a single ability throughout an entire map they should be free to do so. However, if there were a system in place that incentivized players to explore different movement abilities/skills/combinations to kill mobs, it's likely they'd discover new ways to keep the combat fresh for themselves; potentially adding more replayability.

My idea is implementing a combo system that recognizes chains of cool moves. Players could build certain points/progress to a combo pool/multiplier. Killing a mob, or killing multiple mobs with a variety of attacks would be a high value combo, whereas continually killing mobs through pistol shots to the leg would be negligible. Initiating an encounter by fly-kicking a mob, jumping stunning then, and performing smart attacks on downed mobs in sequence would be rewarded more highly than just mashing melee. Killing multiple mobs with 1 well timed ability, or lining up a multi kill with one bolt gains more value than just killing mobs one at a time.

As for how players are rewarded via the combo system, there could be a lot of options: scaling shield/power regen, scaling power increases,"berserk" ninja-bloodlust activated ability, increased chance at credits/resource drop, or a higher "score" that translates to better rewards on mission completion. The rewards should be adjusted fairly so it doesn't imbalance the rate of reward acquisition to the point that it screws the market place. Nor should it force players to jump around like Chuck Norris on meth just to get decent rewards equivalent to what they are getting now.

The point is to keep players engaged in the combat, to have them explore the benefits cool movies and abilities this game offers, to try new things, and to keep it fresh and fun. What do you guys think?

Edited March 31, 2013 by sinisterpink

[highlifeSW]

The problem is, that at the moment there is no "power" play. Powers are strong but you just use theme scarcely cause the amount of energy is highly limited. Also the powers are not designed to work together. You can't prime a target to make it easier for your squad to kill it. There is no "debuffer" and there are no power synergies that boost another power. Your only way is to deal damage is weapon damage so you just get a run and gun game. A small exception is the trinity warframe.

[sinisterpink]

The problem is, that at the moment there is no "power" play. Powers are strong but you just use theme scarcely cause the amount of energy is highly limited. Also the powers are not designed to work together. You can't prime a target to make it easier for your squad to kill it. There is no "debuffer" and there are no power synergies that boost another power. Your only way is to deal damage is weapon damage so you just get a run and gun game. A small exception is the trinity warframe.

Hey highlife, I didn't mean really 'chain powers' cuz its true some Warframes don't have active abilities that mesh well in sequence. But if a power was thrown in the middle of some other actions, I think it would be cool if the game recognized that. So for instance:

Very low score - melee attack, melee attack, melee attack, melee attack, melee attack

Low score - active ability (like loki decoy), melee attack, melee attack, melee attack, melee attack

Medium score - active ability, rifle fire, melee attack, melee attack, melee attack

High score - active ability, rifle fire, slide, melee attack, melee attack

Very high score - active ability, rifle fire, slide, radial attack, melee attack

Extremely high score - active ability, slide+fire, radial attack, charge attack

I guess one question we'd have to ask is how the game would start recognizing a worthy sequence of combat events. The client might implode on itself if it had to track absolutely everything.

[sinisterpink]

Also, players don't have to be just limited to doing cool things in sequence. Like I mentioned before, stuff like skillshots could be recognized too:

- Double/Triple/Quad bolt kills

- Stealth attacks and smart attacks

- Double/triple/Quad knock-downs

- Successful dodges from incoming fire/melee

- Kills achieved while wall-running

- Kills achieved while wall-grabbing

- Kills achieved while in mid air

- Kills made through charged/radial attacks

- Sequential headshots

I think it would add a bit more ingame competition too, while also allowing people to focus less on rushing and more on exploring unique gameplay variety. Especially if there were global announcements made in game, or a visual effect that occurs when a certain player reaches a very high level in their combo system.

Edited March 31, 2013 by sinisterpink

[LordLokai]

I personally use multible varities of combat to kill things, just having a simple combo meter that counts up as you kill stuff, and awards bonus exp to mobs/stuff killed or a style meter builds up and allows you to do some kind of special move based on class. Are alot of things could be done, but i'd love to see some power interactions at some point... like a damage bonus or some special side effect when two frames use powers close together on same enemy like... a mag uses pull and a rhino uses radial slam, so rhino gets a bonus damage to his attack.

[sinisterpink]

I personally use multible varities of combat to kill things, just having a simple combo meter that counts up as you kill stuff, and awards bonus exp to mobs/stuff killed or a style meter builds up and allows you to do some kind of special move based on class. Are alot of things could be done, but i'd love to see some power interactions at some point... like a damage bonus or some special side effect when two frames use powers close together on same enemy like... a mag uses pull and a rhino uses radial slam, so rhino gets a bonus damage to his attack.

Also a good idea :) +1 The game can definitely do more to encourage and reward 'style' and cooperative play.

[Vaskadar]

I like! Keep this thread going.