Imagine you come across a group of paramilitary troops selling guarding a corridor to a bunker. You and your team leap into action, punching and blasting the enemy with skill and confidence. Then the officer sounds a retreat. The well disciplined troops don't just run away, they form a line and move backwards while firing at the heroes. Their officer then calls in reinforcements. The next encounter mob rushes down the hall to join with their retreating comrades, increasing the difficulty for not taking out the enemies fast enough. The other officers realize the soldiers fighting you are a lost cause. They instead order their minions to load into their mechs, grab the missle launchers, and prepare an ambush for when you enter the main hall. With the boldness that only heroes can muster you and your allies rush head long into villains. That was a mistake. Just as you enter the center of the great room tele-troopers teleport directly behind you, making escape impossible. Even as you engage the enemy, other platoons are setting up fall back positions for these soldier to retreat to if they fail.
Is this something you'd like to play? Does this sound more interesting than defeat enemy group A, defeat enemy group B, run by enemy group C? I think this is what is required to be a leader in the mmo field.
Idk, some mob/squad mechanics would be nice. But I don't think we'd like to stray into RTS (or otherwise) strategy territory.
Verdict: add some, but don't go nuts.
If they appeared behind me, I feel like any TK, Super strenght, forcefield, explosion, fear.etc could remove them and re-establish a line of scrimmage.
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This was done in Tabula Rasa, most notably during the beta before they nerfed the AI of the enemy. The enemy mobs could pin you under cover whilst other mobs then flanked you.
At that point in time, it got toned down due to how much of a load it put on the servers, but now I think it should be at least "easier to do" due processor improvements since then.
This, or at least elements relating to this, were discussed a while ago. One focus of the discussion was if or when the enemies should 'forget' that the PC is there and return to their usual spot or path (if patrolling). Included in this was how well the enemies could chase a PC, since it appears to be a given in most MMOs that enemies will unerringly follow and find the PC so long as they don't hit the limit of their leash (if any). Or how enemies that spawned as ambushes would typically know where the PC is located and could see through any level of stealth. If this could have been done I think it would have made groups like the Malta or Nemesis more interesting, as opposed to relying on giving them specialized attacks and defenses.
I also agree with desviper. Within reason this should be interesting. If I end up having to play some kind of Splinter Cell Lite I won't stick around for long.
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I never played Tabula Rasa, but from people's comments on these boards it sounds like they got a lot right and wouldn't be a bad place to look for some supplemental inspiration--after CoH of course.
In my experience, mechanics like this are game-enriching if you ad a light touch of them to the game. Either just a hint in general play or only certain instances, or a little of both. But if not over done, it definitely enriches the fun of the game.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
I would like this, especially if used somewhat sparingly for enemy groups that are supposed to be really smart/master tacticians as part of their schtick, with the enemies possibly being weaker stat-wise due to more intelligent and threatening behavior. You could have a bit of a scale, so enemies like zombies are really stupid (attack nearest hero with whatever power is recharged, forget about heroes immediately if they get out of range) but strong and durable, where a super elite special forces group comprised of normal humans would be able to respond in a more intelligent fashion (spread out if we're getting AoEed, use flashbangs and other non-bullet weapons on the indestructible guy, shoot the healer, concentrate firepower, retreat when a loss is clear, bring in reinforcements, prepare ambushes, etc) but would be physically weaker. Other groups, like a normal gang, would be somewhere in between where they might make some intelligent decisions but not coordinate flawlessly as a group.
It would end up making AI part of the balance for each group. It would need to be handled carefully, since some smart behaviors could be unfun from a gameplay perspective, but I think it could be helpful for creating diversity in the enemy groups.
While I agree with the others that I wouldn't want the game to turn into an RTS, I do like this idea a lot. It would make a group like the Malta make a bit more sense to me if they were weaker but smarter. I always thought it odd that my character had fought zombies, cultists, demons, robots, incarnations of nature, aliens, etc. yet one of the strongest groups of enemies were just some regular guys with good training and equipment.
Spurn all ye kindle.
Great ideas, 7thGate...
I always felt that most MMOs' (including CoH's) enemies needed to be simultaneously smarter and dumber - in essense...more realistic. Tone down the aimbot-style, no-scope abilities that enemies have when sensing the sniper hiding 100 meters away, or the stalker who dove around a corner and is now fully invisible. Give some battle tactics like flanking to military groups. Make the zombies brainless, and the supercomputer-hivemind's bots lore-driven abilities to cooperate with phalanx defenses and so forth. Allow that Criminal Mastermind to act smart and not exclusively target the loud annoying hero punching him, but maybe send his minions to deal with the other player standing in back, whose magne-tech gloves are making PunchMan too tough to defeat right now. Similarly, give players some tactical tools to overcome those smarter AIs or interrupt their maneuvering, at least when teamed with someone who has the appropriate support and control abilities to hack / freeze / break the spirit of the enemies.
I should note that in CoH, the Abominations had a reduced aggro range and a nice shuffling walk - so there's certainly precedent for this sort of thing, even from our spiritual source. Sadly, they still had aimbot-enabled projectile vomit... >_<