Combat Rebalance snippet

[Syban]

(Torn from Stratics)

I know many of you are anxious to hear about the details of the Combat balance changes. Here is the first of many design documents that will be coming up. Please stay on topic. Thank you.

HAM Revamp Discussion

The current HAM system was designed to allow variety in the combat styles and tactics of the various professions. While it is a bit tricky to learn for the novice player it does provide a broad potential for tactical interactions.

However there are two key failings that at this time which defeat much of the usefulness of the HAM system. The first problem has to do with the nature of special abilities doing damage to your character and the second is the unique nature of the Mind bar when it comes to damage and healing.

The primary problem can be argued to be only a philosophical or perceptual problem, but the end result is the same. For the majority of players it is no fun to “kill yourself” simply by doing required combat actions. To stand any chance in combat special actions must be used. These special actions essentially do damage to your character and if overused will guarantee the death of your character. While most players can accept a certain amount of damage done in this manner the amount they are willing to accept is dramatically different per person. Finding a common ground that is acceptable to all players is virtually impossible and makes balancing the special action costs extremely difficult.

The second problem came about due to the evolution of implementation during late Beta. Doctors have the unique ability to heal the damage they do to themselves through special action costs. Their ability to heal is supposed to be limited by size and regen rate of their Mind pool, but this is completely negated by the ability to heal that pool. During Beta, Doctor’s could use their healing ability (and any other ability for that matter) indefinitely. For this reason Mind healing was removed. This has created a situation where Mind damage combat tactics are completely unbalanced with any other tactic in the game.

The HAM revamp intention is to remove both of these problems while remaining true to initial vision of the HAM system. Some amount of player frustration will be unavoidable as they adjust to no longer being able to use their old combat tricks and have to learn the resulting balanced combat tactical options. Ideally this frustration will be minimal and the resulting game dynamic will be much more interesting and fun to play.

Overview

The basis of the HAM revamp is to add a Special Ability layer to each pool. Each Health, Action and Mind pool will then have a Wound, Damage and Special Ability layer.

The maximum value of the pool is what is available as both damage and ability points when a player is completely undamaged. As the player takes wounds, the total amount of damage to be inflicted until incapacitation is reduced until they have those wounds healed. As the player takes damage the total amount of ability points available for special actions decreases. These special ability points will regenerate at a much faster rate then normal damage and will not healable in any manner.

This change keeps the core interaction of combat the same. Damage done to a pool reduces the available tactical options used by that pool. The key differences will be that use of ability points in a pool no longer risks death and healing damage done to a pool will not immediately allow a player to take more special actions. Healing damage only increases the maximum potential ability points possibly giving access to more powerful special abilities. The only way to regain ability points to perform a special action will be to wait for them regenerate naturally.

*** Challenges ***

Interface

Some way to display this new layer of the HAM bar will be needed to be implemented. This interface needs to easy to comprehend and quick to digest during a frantic battle.

Because the special ability layer will be draining and regenerating fairly quickly during combat it should not be necessary to display hard numbers. A graphical method incorporated into the existing HAM Bar UI should be sufficient.

One idea is to have ability points spent on an action drain the dark color (red, green or blue) of the bar leaving a lighter version of the color. This way ability points remaining can be seen as the dark portion of the bar, damage left till incapacitation is the light and dark color combined, unhealed damage will still be white and wounds will be black. Other possible interfaces should be discussed and explored.

Regen & Drain Attributes

With the change to the new HAM system the actual affects of the Drain and Regen Attributes should be evaluated. Since these attributes primarily influence the cost and reuse time for special abilities they will need to be adjusted to be correctly balanced within the system. The regen attribute for each pool will also directly influence natural healing rates but at an order of magnitude slower than ability point regeneration. Total natural healing time should be comparable to the current Live game.

A secondary problem with the Drain & Regen attributes that can potentially be addressed is the progression of affect as the attribute gets larger and larger. Currently it is possible to get a regeneration stat so high through various buffs that players have essentially no special ability costs. This should not be allowed in the new system. A non-linear progression method will have to be defined so the ever increasing values provide smaller and smaller benefits. This causes an effective soft cap where high number are so ineffective as to not be worthwhile while still allowing, and rewarding, players for pushing the value higher if they desire. At no time however should the numbers be allowed to get to a state that invalidates the core tactical interaction of combat.

Please discuss.

Kurt "Thunderheart" Stangl

Community Relations Manager

(For some reason I still smell NERF in all of this... )