WWWest-Online Development Blog

Yeah, I’ve been itching to say that since the first post on this blog.

Anyway boys and girls, today we’ll be talking about the thing that Westerns all through the ages are famous for. That’s right, it’s time to talk about combat. Be it a showdown, a bar brawl or a shootout between a Sheriff’s posse and an outlaw gang, I can’t recall a single Western that didn’t feature at least one fight. In addition to that, a major factor of practically every MMO I’ve ever played is combat. Even if it isn’t the main point of the game, it always plays some important part (with the exception of A Tale in the Desert). And somehow, we’ve managed to write two dozen posts without properly touching on the subject. Well, ladies and gents, allow me to correct that oversight.

Though we intend to provide a myriad of ways for players to amuse themselves, we’re well aware that many players will only come along for the ride for the chance to shoot things, or otherwise inflict damage on their fellow man, woman, or fictional opponent. So what I’m going to do today is tell you a bit about our plans for combat in WWWest-Online.

Combat in WWWest-Online will be turn-based. You’ll have a turn, your opponent will have a turn. Lather, rinse and repeat until one of you is dead. Problem is, lots of games do exactly that. And while we’re not saying that’s bad – heck, a bajillion players obviously like it well enough – we do want to do something a bit different. We want the combat experience to be a game in and of itself. What we’re going to do is this:

In combat, when it’s your turn to act, you’ll be able to choose from several possible actions. So far, nothing new. But, where in most MMO’s you can use your turn to perform a single action (e.g., attack, cast a spell, use a combat-related item), we’ll let you perform several. You’ll have a bank of combat action points which you will be able to spend in order to perform various actions. Different actions will have different CAP costs. Even better, different variations of an action will have different costs, so a quick shot from the hip will cost fewer CAPs than an aimed shot (though obviously it won’t be as accurate). We also plan to allow combining actions, meaning you’ll be able to dodge and fire a quick hipshot at the same time, for less CAPs than it would take to perform those same actions consecutively. The downside of such combinations will be a drop in the effectiveness of each action in the combo. In that last example, your dodge will not reduce the opponent’s chance to hit by as much as it would had you only dodged, and your hipshot will have less of a chance to hit. In addition, I’m thinking to exclude some actions from combos. For example, maybe an aimed shot cannot be combined with other actions. Some examples of actions you’ll be able to perform:

• Hip shot – a quick, inaccurate shot
• Aimed shot
• Draw
• Holster
• Chuck – throw your weapon to the ground. This is a way to quickly clear your hand in order to draw another weapon
• Retrieve – retrieve a previously chucked weapon
• Reload
• Throw – throw a weapon at your opponent
• Strike – a melee attack
• Move forward
• Move back

One other addition we’ll have is range. Most browser-based MMO’s seem to assume that both combatants are in range of each other. You could have someone wielding a dagger stabbing his longbow-toting opponent, while the latter fires at him from afar. What we’re going to do is add range. Since we’re not planning on having an actual graphical combat system (at least not at first) we’ll limit ourselves to a small number of ranges. I’m not quite certain what the ranges will be, but it’ll probably be at least 3 of the following: long, medium, short, melee. Every weapon type will have a range at which it is optimal, and using it at a different range will result in certain penalties. Adding range to the combat equation will have one other effect: it will mean another action to be taken in a turn. “Move forward” and “Move backward” will be among the actions you can take in a turn.

Of course, there’s more to it than that. I haven’t even touched on other combat-related subjects like PvP, dual-wielding, weapon availability and others. Maybe in another post .

As always, I invite you all to post your thoughts and comments, either on what I’ve posted or on the “untouched” issues at the end.

Kraz