Action-Oriented Escalated Bidding

I've been thinking about new kinds of gameplay for MMORPGs, because I'm not happy with any of the current styles.

I love the feel of the "personal epic" games like Star Wars Galaxies, Star Trek Online, even things like WoW. There's a lot of joy to be had in running around a world in real time. But the combat in these games is always either so clunky it's painful or so action-oriented that you have to be a twelve year old with broadband.

Thinking about alternate combat styles, one with appeal is escalated bidding.

This kind of bidding (found in poker and many tabletop games) basically allows players to judge a situation and decide whether to escalate or end the round. It's easy to balance, compelling, and naturally cinematic.

However, it's turn-based.

It's easy to come up with styles of play that allow for this kind of combat, but the turn-based nature is hard to avoid. And turn-based doesn't mesh well with the epic personal feel I'd like in my imaginary MMORPG.

I was having a hard time coming up with escalated bidding that didn't involve turns, but I think I figured it out: it's just a simple rework of existing mechanics.

For example, you're playing Star Trek. You're wandering into combat with your space ship. What's the "escalated bidding" for this?

Well, it's the same as Star Trek Online currently is... just a few small tweaks.

One critical element is range. Tiered bidding is a great way to escalate. In Poker, that would be the ante, the initial bidding, and the final bidding - but in Star Trek, it might be shields, system, hull. Rather than having distinct rounds, it's based on range.

You start off at long range, taking shield damage. You get closer, your weapons tick over into optimal range... but, at the same time, you now take systems damage from incoming shots. You get even closer, your weapons are guaranteed to deal terrific damage... but now any damage that leaks through your shields will blast away at your hull... and some damage is always going to leak through.

Conversely, if you can stay at long range, your ship is not at risk even if your shields go down. Incoming fire will scratch your hull and temporarily glitch out your systems, but that's damage that can be rapidly and completely repaired.

To be clear: as your weapons enter optimal range, you take a lot more damage. The better you can shoot, the more you get shot.

This range element adds a ton of complexity to conflicts, because your systems-damage range may not be the same as your enemy's systems-damage range. A long-range torpedo boat may be taking hull damage from a small merchant vessel while the small merchant vessel is still taking shield damage! This means the small merchant vessel's shots will squirrel through the torpedo boat's shields, while the torpedo volleys will largely splash off the merchant's shields.

Matching ranges will be a major element of what ships you use, when. Party loadout becomes a really interesting challenge.



In most bidding systems, how much you bid is also critical. But in this case, the "bid" is how close you get, for how long. Starships have position and relative speed: committing to a deep run can net bigger rewards if you come out on top... but huge problems if a lucky hit knocks your torpedoes offline. Ship headings are another, interlocked kind of bid, if each shield quadrant fails independently of the others.

Additional bidding can be done using various one-off powers. This is a classic "cooldown" setup: if you overclock your reactor for ten seconds, you won't be able to do it again for another two minutes, better make use of those ten seconds well.

Unlike current combat systems which look similar to our bidding system, the cooldown skills in our bidding system would exist to gamble on the next few seconds.

You're claiming the next few seconds will be critical, either offensively or defensively. With the range-based tiering system and quadrant-based shields, it makes a lot of sense to focus our skills on being useful shortly before or after changing range tiers - either your own or the enemy's. Fire your torpedoes when the enemy enters into their systems damage range, regardless of your current range. Pump your shields just before you change to systems damage range, since the damage you take in ten seconds will be far worse than the damage you take now.

Offensive firepower should be tiered as well, basically turning it into a set of cooldown skills. A full barrage hits hard, but takes a long time to recharge. Smaller shots recharge faster - fast enough to do more damage overall, but obviously the enemy's shield recharge and maneuvering cancel much of that advantage out. Will you do some small shots as you close, followed by a full barrage when the enemy becomes vulnerable?

This timing-based "bidding" feels more natural than any kind of shared pot or other abstraction. This also plays up the differences between different kinds of enemies with different ranges, and makes engaging multiple enemies or being part of a team a very interesting tactical opportunity. Obviously, various shortcuts also have value: a stealthed warbird decloaking right on top of you doesn't need a magic "decloak and fire" special power. Their special power is that they're right on top of you: you're at hull damage range, and at least some of that firepower is going to leak through the shields.



This combat is extremely similar to the existing Star Trek Online combat engine. The tweaks are very minor: simplified range indicators, slightly different damage model, slightly rebalanced skills. But the actual play is so similar that people probably wouldn't have to think about it very hard: they'd just suddenly be having amazing, epic fights.



This model could also be used for ground combat in the Star Trek universe, since ranged ground combat is the norm. You could just have literally all the same things.

A Klingon with a blade can rush through blaster fire: their max range is quite low, which means their range tiers are tiny. The blaster fire would just burn their armor a bit. Of course, when the Klingon reaches you, they are well within your nastiest damage range, and are guaranteed to put you down in short order.

The same basic mechanic would work for any personal combat system to some degree. A Star Wars combat system could be similar, with the light sabering Jedi naturally being similar to a Klingon. A Force-user could also take medium-range powers like Force Throw or Force Lightning. These would extend their attack range... and also extend their damage tier ranges. Someone specializing in sabers would be able to bull through Force Lightning because it's outside their damage tier range!

Even in tight combat, you could still see variations. A long light saber seems like a great choice... and it is, against anyone with a gun. But against someone with light daggers, your melee range is actually outside their most critical damage tier, meaning they can hold you off without too much danger... but you're not so lucky against them. You'd have to use combat abilities to close the range or disarm them unless you have a lot of time on your hands!

The downside of this is the bidding, since at melee ranges you don't really commit to be at a specific range or a specific angle for particularly long. To counteract that, I'd recommend using "charge" skills which push you into melee combat with a large bonus for a specific amount of time, but then leave you with a big penalty until it recycles. In this way, melee attackers would choose how much to "bid" by choosing a light, moderate, or heavy charge attack. They can also do this while already in melee combat, of course.



A tiny change to a fairly ordinary combat system: your optimal attack range is also the range you take worse damage. From there, a rebalance to existing combat approaches should result in a really interesting, cinematic challenge.

At least, that's the theory!