Combat System Research
To start of this report i will state the combat systems from other MMOs i will compare with Pirates of the Burning Sea's combat system:
The Matrix Online's interlock system (the closet to Pirates of the Burning Sea's Melee combat system)
World of Warcraft
Auto Assault's driving combat
Star Wars Galaxies space combat
Voyage Century's ship combat (Closet to Pirates of the Burning Sea's ship combat)
First this report will explain how each combat system works on those games and then compare them to Pirates of the Burning Sea, this should give people who have not yet played the game more details on what the combat system will be like.
The Matrix Online - The Matrix Online created by Monolith and now owned by SOE uses an interlock style of combat. The interlock system works like a board game, behind the scenes a dice is rolled and the person with the highest roll wins that round and gets to make an attack. One of the main reasons Monolith created this type of system was because they wanted to create impressive looking moves that connect with the other player. Players have 4 basic moves of attack: Speed, Power, Grab and Block. These basic moves have different types of buffs and can be used to tactically beat their opponent.
Aswell as basic moves the player also has special moves available to them which deal more damage and create better debuffs or buffs to give them the edge.
World of Warcraft - World of Warcraft does not have a very unique combat system, however i added World of Warcraft to the list because most new MMORPGs are measured against World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft's combat system works by the player targeting the player in which they want to attack, when the player has targeted a player or npc then they must click on an attack on their skill bar for the move to take place, however if a special move is not chosen an auto attack will take place which is a low powerful move like a warrior swinging his sword, which is similar to MxO's system where a basic move will happen if a special move is not chosen. World of Warcraft's combat system was created towards multiple players attacking one npc like in a dungeon, which is unlike MxO's combat system which is geared towards a 1 on 1 combat style.
Auto Assault's driving combat - Auto Assault's driving combat works alot like a first person shooter in which the player has to aim their guns on their target and not just target the enemy by simply clicking the player or npc however this must be done if special moves want to be used. The combat uses a first person shooter type system because the game is geared towards multiple foes being fought at the same time so players can shoot their guns while driving around and hit 3 enemy's at the same time. Special attacks work the same way in which World of Warcraft works in that the enemy must be targeted and then a skill a must be chosen on the skill bar and then the special attack happens on the targeted person.
Star Wars Galaxies space combat - SOE released the space combat system for SWG in their first expansion Jump to Lightspeed. The system is like a first person shooter in which players control their ship and have to aim on the enemy while the enemy is trying to target them and shoot them. This system causes alot of flashy moves while the enemy is trying to dodge fire and target the player so they can start an attack.
Voyage Century ship combat - Voyage Century uses a boarding system in which NPCs or players try to take over your ship if you let pirates too close to your ship similarly like POTBS. The combat system is said to be very action packed but fast which means players could destroy another persons ship in seconds however getting ready to attack takes time, for example to position a ship to use a certain canon or special move.
Now that the combat systems from other games are briefly describes its time to compare Pirates of the Burning Sea's Melee and ship combat to these games.
Pirates of the Burning Sea Melee Combat (MxO, AA, WoW)
Pirates of the Burning Sea's combat system has the same cinematic features in which MxOs system depends on to make the combat seem fast paced and look like the moves connect and look more powerful.
The swashbuckling system is very similar to MxO's interlock system in which it has 3 main style (MxO has kung fu, karate and aikido), The Swashbuckling System is built around Defenses, Combat Pools, and Skills. There are three defenses: Block, Dodge, and Parry; three Combat Pools: Health, Initiative, and Balance, and a huge number of Skills. This means that the combat system is alot like MxO's.
However unlike MxO, AA and WoW a highly skilled level 1 character could beat a level 50 character in a swashbuckling fight if they use the 3 main defenses, combat pools and skills correctly.
The 3 main defense ability's are:
Parry is the first line of defense, and the best result for the defender. If the defender Parries an attack he gains 5 Balance and 5 Initiative, and the attacker loses 10 Balance. The disadvantage of parry is that there are many types of attacks that bypass it, most notably attacks that target the Balance pool.
Block is the next defense, and the most neutral of the defenses. Block has no secondary side effects; it simply stops the incoming damage. There are a handful of attacks that cannot be blocked, most notably gunshots, but most attacks can be successfully blocked.
The final defense is Dodge. Dodge is the defense of last resort, and as such it is not a great result for the defender. If the defender dodges an incoming attack he loses 16 Balance. The upside of Dodge is that it works against virtually every attack. (Link to source)
These are similar to World of Warcraft because WoWs combat system also uses dodge, parry, block defense moves that are automated. In WoW the chances of of these defense moves working are determined by the players stats, so the player does not have alot of control on these defensive moves happening.
There are 3 combat pools in POTBS these are:
health Pool - The more HP you have the more attacks you can take without fainting, HP points can be found in WoW, AA, MxO and all other MMORGs. Aslong as the HP does not reach 0 a player is still 100% ready for combat and can do all their moves. In POTBS similar so other MMOS their are skills which allow players to gain HP points back and even increase their HP points for a short time.
Initive - This is not found in MMOs such as MxO or AA however in games like CoH/CoV and WoW it is called rage. The mechanics of this system are basically that they start at 0 and during combat increase and moves will require initive to be used so it is an important combat pool to master in POTBS, their are also skills that decrease the amount the time it takes for the initive points to decrease. Powerful moves will do alot of damage but will need an increased amount of initive then normal skills.
Balance - This combat pool is not found in any other MMORPG including Voyage Century. If the players balance is full it is very hard for the enemy to successfully main an attack that will hit. Skills have been designed for balance to be lowered which must be used to lower the enemy's defenses and in the brief window players can launch powerful attacks using their initive.
Skill points are used similarly to MxO's ability tree or WoW's talent system, this system brings uniqueness to the player and every player could have a different build. Like WoW players are given points in which they can spend in any of the branches (example; mages using talent points in frost tree, so they are masters of the frost part of a mage, similar to POTBS where a player could use all the points in 1 tree and be the masters of dirty sword fighting) Players are given 26 points over their characters 1 to 50 adventure and these points are then spent on skills.
In conclusion the combat system of Pirates of the Burning Sea uses alot of elements of MxO and WoW, with the interlock system, defense moves, skill points and combat pools, however Pirates of the Burning Sea also brings new elements to the MMO combat system like the balance pool which brings alot of strategy to the combat system.
Pirates of the Burning Sea's Ship Combat (Star Wars Galaxies Space Combat, Voyage Century Ship Combat
Pirates of the Burning Sea's combat system is alot like Voyage Century's combat system because in both games a player must like up their their ships with the other ships to create an opportunity to make an attack, however the combat system could also be said to be like SWGs space combat because players must move their ship to make an opportunity to attack while trying to stop their enemy from attacking them.
Similar to Voyage Century, players must gear up their ships with weapons and other useful components. The combat system has been measured alot of EVE Online which is the most successful space MMO running.
Their are 100s of different kinds of ships to choose from unlike Voyage Century and SWG. Some of the ships people can expect when they buy the game are:
Yacht
Gunboat
Large Sloop
Cutter
Trinity
64 Guns Ship
104 Guns Ship
Each ship looks unique and have different stats.
In conclusion the combat system may seem to be like Voyage Century however with the tactics that can be used (for example keeping your target in range while making sure they are not in your range) the combat system is most like EVE with the complex learning curve that the system seems to to have. Also like EVE their are 100s of different ships to choose from, loads of components that can be added to the ship and also tactics are a must before going into combat in Pirates of the Burning Sea.
Blog News
This will be the last blog post until 9th August 2007, however this post should keep everyone interested for a while. These kind of research reports i hope to create once a week until the game has been released.
The next research report will be a comparison of the Pirates of the Burning Sea's Player Vs Player system to EVE Online's Player Vs Player System.
The next post on the 9th August will evaluate all the news released between now and the 9th August and beta news.
Here is a screenshot of avatar combat:
