Group Encouragement, part II:
Classes / Roles:
PlaneShift does not have classes like many other MMORPG's. Classes often give limitations, in armor you can wear, skills you can achieve and magic you can use.
PlaneShift does not give this limitations, so you can actually learn anything. However it takes much time and patience to actually learn everything.
So while not having the limitations, thinking in the way of a class, can help you with your character, with path in skills to concentrate on. It can also help you in playing a certain role in group combat. The more experiences players, the 'jack of all trades' can play any role, and by that fill in the gaps a group has in order to sucessfully perform in group combat.
Based on my experience with RPG and mostly MMORPG's i roughly come to the following roles:
1. Tank (The one taking the hits)
2. Close combat DPS (people standing close to the mob, hitting it for as much dmg they can)
3. Range combat DPS (people keeping distance, hitting it for as much dmg they can)
4. Healers
5. Support classes
6. Puller
To give a idea, i'll put in some examples for each role.
1. Often a melee class, much skills in defence. High HP and AC (Armor Class). This role is about receiving hits, you can do damage, but it's not your primairy concern. Others can do that better. It's your role to keep that high lvl boss on you. Meaning your more then a dumb meat shield. The word Aggro (Aggression) control pops up.
Every action from every group members draws some attention from that high lvl boss. It's your role to keep it on you, instead that it's running to those healers, who are easily killed. The damage you can do it only a small part of the aggro control, since others can do that better. So you use taunt skills, you bash it with your shield, kick it with your legs, you do anything you can to keep the focus on the mobs on you. Of course while taking as few and low hits as possible, so the healers can keep up healing you. Famous stats are Endurance, Stamina, Agility, Dexterity. From those we recognice Endurance and Agility in PS.
2. Anyone weilding a sword, axe, club or whatever created damage. You stand close to the mob, maybe even behind it to use special skill (backstab, rogues). Standing behind the mobs, also gives a good view on if the tank succeeds in keeping the aggro. In other games you are called a rogue, thief, paladin, shadowknight, ranger, warrior, fighter. You have to have some skills in defence, armor, hp, because often those big high lvl bosses have a area damage effect on them. So you need to handle that. But you focus on delivering damage. Strenght is important, but in other games also Dexterity which helps with your hitrate. You have to balance between doing as much damage as you can without taking of the aggro from the tank, because by doing that, you'll die... fast..
3. Wizard, Magacians, Enchanters, but also Archers/Rangers, Axe Trowers. Anyone who can do damage from some distance. The big boss area damage effect won't reach you. So you'll actually are able to focus more on delivering dmg then the close combat dps, who need to take care of some hp and defensive skills. So the balance you need to preserve between delivering dmg and not taking aggro is even thinner.
4. The life-savers. You heal, you have different spells for that. Single target heals, group heals. You can resurrect from the death, buff others with great life boots. In some games healers/priests are always weak, while in other games, the priest apart from other magic classes can wear heavy armor and have decent hp/ac. Because they are such a favourite target. Beware, healing the tank and others can also draw attention from the mobs / high lvl big boss. So you have to choose if you only heal the tank, or also the others players who might have taking aggro over for a small time, or who can't handle the Area damage. Because if you die, everyting is lost.
5. Support Class. Often forgotten, but most important. Think about classes like Shaman, Druids and such. You aren't that Master healer. But you can help a little. You can buff everyone or maybe even better, you can debuff mobs / the boss. Image what Master Wizard would do in damage, if you could lower the mobs resistance to their way / spell.
6. Puller. Often a combined task with another role, same counts for support class. But i've playing games where in raids (large group with like 40 players), a good puller could make the difference between a success and a raid whipe (40 death bodies). A good puller can split large groups of mobs, and just bring one of only a few mobs to the group/raid. Divide et Impere! I once played a game, with a class called monk. And those were the best puller, because they had a skill called feign death, where a mobs considered the person death. That skill made it possible to split mobs.
Back to PlaneShift, how does this all fit into PlaneShift.
Also PlaneShift groups need to devide roles. The roles of Support Class and Puller can somewhat be forgotten. Since everyone can learn anything, these roles can be a combined role with any other role by a player.
So basically it comes down to a tank, a healer and two types of dps (damage per second) classes. Close and ranged.
What does we need in PlaneShift to play those roles.
General: Some kind of aggro management system, where every action (not only damage) gives you some points on the mobs aggro list.
1. Tank: Need something to control the aggro of the mobs. Something like a taunt skill and maybe a second skill that also builds up aggro, maybe a bash (with shield) or kick skill. Something that gives damage (and is also usable in solo play), but also gives some damage. (So DPS roles should not use it in group play)
2. Healer: Healing spells that can be casted from larger distance. The current Life Infusion spell, easy to grab almost anyone requires you to almost stand next to the target. In a group fight this could become a bit chaotic and lethal to the healers if the big boss mob has a area damage spell.
3. DPS classes: Nothing special at this very moment. Let's start with basics first. Later things like the backstabbing skill and such can become very usefull.
From this point on, we need a group of players, that are willing to play as a group and see what's missing.
In this text i speak alot about fight a big bad boss mob. But it could also be a large group of mobs, working together too. Or a combination of both. A big bad boss with his minions. That would make tactics become even more important. Blue Way spells like putting mobs to sleep or Dark way spells like Fear would be very usefull.
With implementing big bad boss mobs, those mobs should be immune to certain spells. Being able to put Fear on a big bad mob, would ruin fun. Maybe we'll need more AoE spells or even melee skills (Wind Spin hits all mobs around you!). Also debuff spells would be usefull. There would be more ways to kill a tough enemy. Bring enough firepower, or debuff him so we'll hit him harder.
As threadstarter, after bringing in to mind at the Meet the Dev on 24 Januari 2016 and the constructive talk with PS Dev afterward, this is my initiative how to implement group play / encourangement. It's not how it should be done, it a starting point.
What i need is a group of players who like to see more group play, just as i do. Please contact me here, or in the game. We need to try and sort out things, to give the devs more detailed insight in what is needed. I also need Devs/GM's to understand that playing together is a major part in a mmorpg and to give clear reply in what is possible and what's not. And in what timeframe and how players (who aren't programmers) can help to speed up the progress.
From the above, it more then a simple press of the button or even writing some C++ code and expect it to work. It's testing, testing, adjusting, etc.
And when things become clearer, we have to implement changes roleplaying style. So that means quests that need to be written, NPC's who can give them, but also learn us possible new skills. I'm up for it, who's with me?
