there were a combo system in which using your powers in various combinations could have different advantages it would make for a more diverse PvP/ End Game.
Lets use Brand from League of Legends as an example (since that's what I got the idea from really) Your abilities all apply a condition and when that condition is active when you use other abilities it can have an additional effect.
Each of your abilities could apply a different condition that affected the next ability used on the same enemy or enemies.
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enjoy your niche. Don't be a whore.
20041004-20120910
I've played several games with combo-building mechanics and they all seem to share a fatal flaw. One's target may change in the process of combat, thus disrupting the combo-chain and forcing one to start all over again.
The premise of combos seems to be that one accepts the tyranny of making a series of (weak) attacks in a specific order, to earn a big payoff when the combo completes. In planning (and in stories) this makes logical sense, pulling off the combo is Presumed. However, in practice, in MMOs, one's immediate target may drop before the combo is finished, or there may be a tactical or strategic reason for targeting another opponent. Thus, a character whose motif or mechanic includes nifty combos for special effects, often finds themselves working at a disadvantage, as the combo-chains 'break', for whatever reason.
The one time that one might expect to pull off a combo, or more than one, is when fighting a boss (with no other targets to worry about). I just can't be happy with the notion of being handicapped against all other content, just so one can pull off an occasional flashy move against the top 10-percent of opponents. Perhaps it's a flaw in my make-up, but I prefer to have consistent performance.
I might save a special power (like a Nova) for just the right moment, and not use it when the situation isn't ideal. That's a case of Expected performance, so still consistent.
Be Well!
Fireheart
Personally - I like systems like this - maybe not for every power set, but I had a lot of fun with Street Justice and some of the other similar sets in CoH. It was good to change up the combat a bit.
Apparently, we are getting a set - "Brawn" - or whatever it ends up being called, that is supposed to play like Street Justice, at least as far as I understand. Plus, we have all the different ways the momentum system can interact with our powers. Should be interesting to see what the devs will come up with.
I agree I would not want a "combo" system like this built into every powerset but if they could get several "combo'd powersets" to work well it would be nice to have them as options for different alts.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Build your own combo? Where you get a power set that has ten available combos, and you can pick up to three (assuming the powers in the combo are obtained)? And you only pay the "penalty" (as Fireheart points out, the basic attacks are weakened so overall balance is maintained) if and when the combos are taken? Or maybe the "penalty" is that the combos take tertiary slots or similar?
(FYI, I have no info from the actual game side of the operation; this is purely me speculating. And I doubt you'd see this at launch.)
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
Come to think of it, I don't see why "combos" have to be limited to attack chains. Maybe there could be some that are combinations of other, mundane powers, like Log Horizon's "Mysteries"? Buff/debuff combos? Control combos? Travel + defense combos? (I recall that "superspeed + attack" has come up elsewhere...)
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
The combo described is more of a conditonal trigger which the player can set up on a target. Unlike say, Dual Blades which required a particular set of attacks as a chained-condition to trigger an effect.
Tactical Combat (brawn) is more...free form.
Other power sets will rely on other conditions to trigger effects. Others don't have conditions and are easier to play with some depth if you want to really leverage an effect a power in that set may have.
Basically, each set will play differently than every other set either in the unique ways it uses momentum, conditions, or in how it uses basic play with unqiue effects.
Now, we had to "pair"' quite a few Melee and Ranged sets with similar mechanics, or at least using a complimentary mechanic for when we make our Assault and Manipulation sets.
[hr]I don't use a nerf bat, I have a magic crowbar!
- Combat Mechanic -
[color=#ff0000]Tech Team. [/color]
I wasn't a huge fan of combo systems in CoH/V. I didn't care for Street Justice at all, and I didn't like how the Momentum mechanic was implemented for Titan Weapons (it could have been so much better with an incremental scalar like Brute's Fury but applied to animation times), and I eventually warmed up to Dual Blades after a few deletes and re-rolls. Other games certainly have attempted similar combo systems but in my opinion they all seem like re-hashed builders and spenders.
I like the sound of this though.