General Discussion

Does any game besides DDO have the ability to dodge spells manually by moving out of the way?

I think AC1 had this for arrows and such not sure about spells.  It only applies to some spells in DDO. 

I am pretty sure both major MMORPG FPS-style games, Neocron and Tabula Rasa have auto hit psychic powers. 

Guild Wars has arrow/missile dodge.  Most spells are undodgable but some are missiles and dodgable I believe.

Almost all MMORPGs let you get out of the way for AOE spells, but all single target spells are basically autohit.

I wonder why this is so rare?  I am sure collision and lag contribute but that can't be the sole answer given the AOE case.

Darkfall has it.

And its so rare for a few reasons. Pings, people would whine and complain that it isn't fair. The lag would get them killed. (not that many games even have a bad death penalty anyway)

Also, and I seriously say this, it takes too much skill. Most MMO companies don't want to take the risk innovating and making the player do more than press a few buttons. Casual and easy worked with WoW, so developers want a piece of that pie.

AC has it.

That about all I know of aside from what you already listed. Why don't more have it? Because most devs went with copying WoW is really all I can think of. AC was able to do it just fine in 1999, any shooter does it without any issues, why MMOs don't. /shrug, who knows, Devs are still d*cking around with knothead garbage like raids and kill task.

AC did have spell dodging, problem with it (like the above poster said) is lag.

Spells you dodge on your end, actually hit server side, thus causing deaths that should have been avoided.

Originally posted by Torak

AC has it.

That about all I know of aside from what you already listed. Why don't more have it? Because most devs went with copying WoW is really all I can think of. AC was able to do it just fine in 1999, any shooter does it without any issues, why MMOs don't. /shrug, who knows, Devs are still d*cking around with knothead garbage like raids and kill task.

MMO's tend to have a lot more lag than any singleplayer game with multiplayer features. Although, technically, the hardware to fight this is out there, but no developer seems to be interested in it .

Originally posted by Pyrostasis

AC did have spell dodging, problem with it (like the above poster said) is lag.

Spells you dodge on your end, actually hit server side, thus causing deaths that should have been avoided.

Back when I played a Feral PvP druid in WoW I had a number of speed enhancements and I could not hit positional attacks for crap when I was chasing someone and clearly behind them.   There were many many other feral druids with various speed enhancments that reported the exact same problem.  It was so bad that I stopped using my positional attacks as I simply could not get them to work on the run.

While I am sure lag is often given as a reason and is a real and genuine concern it did not stop them from implementing things that are equally affected by lag.  So I really doubt it is the full reason whether devs and players admit it or not.

Is it becasue they want a lack of skill.  I think that is part of it.  I think that because I have seen people on forum say that right out.  They don't like twitch based stuff.  But again that is not quite good enough either.  Many MMORPGs have various mechanics that require good timing.  A WoW rogue who wants to stun lock well needs quite decent timing.  Interrupt builds in GW take far more timing than a simple dodge.

In the end their seem to be all kinds of reasons (many of them bad IMO) but when you compare them to other things that exist in many MMOs each of those reasons starts to not make as much sense.  As there are things that suffer the same technical problems or are actually harder to perform.  Dodging a missile is actually pretty easy.  Its probably one of the simplest twitch type reactions.

Perhaps it really is a combination of lag and a desire to not have twitch based combat mechanics.  If it is then there is something really wrong IMO.  Not because either of those are wrong, but because when applied to this feature your reaction should really be "Uh come on dodging is way less of a burden than 10 other things in your game, this doesn't make much sense."

Originally posted by BizkitNL

Originally posted by Torak

AC has it.

That about all I know of aside from what you already listed. Why don't more have it? Because most devs went with copying WoW is really all I can think of. AC was able to do it just fine in 1999, any shooter does it without any issues, why MMOs don't. /shrug, who knows, Devs are still d*cking around with knothead garbage like raids and kill task.

MMO's tend to have a lot more lag than any singleplayer game with multiplayer features. Although, technically, the hardware to fight this is out there, but no developer seems to be interested in it .

I agree, technology has move ahead a lot since 1999 and it they could do it then, they can do it now...only better. The servers that ran games 10 years ago are more then likely doorstops and large paper weights now a days.

Oh, oh...one other game for the unbelievers...Planetside.

Originally posted by Torak

 

Originally posted by BizkitNL

Originally posted by Torak

AC has it.

That about all I know of aside from what you already listed. Why don't more have it? Because most devs went with copying WoW is really all I can think of. AC was able to do it just fine in 1999, any shooter does it without any issues, why MMOs don't. /shrug, who knows, Devs are still d*cking around with knothead garbage like raids and kill task.

MMO's tend to have a lot more lag than any singleplayer game with multiplayer features. Although, technically, the hardware to fight this is out there, but no developer seems to be interested in it .

I would hardly call BF2's large maps "single player with multiplayer features" or many other shooters for that matter. Most shooters are built around a multiplayer setup not single.

 

I agree, technology has move ahead a lot since 1999 and it they could do it then, they can do it now...only better. The servers that ran games 10 years ago are more then likely doorstops and large paper weights now a days.

Oh, oh...one other game for the unbelievers...Planetside.

And dont get me started on Planetside! The game that "could have been", but never was.

Originally posted by BizkitNL

 

Originally posted by Torak

 

Originally posted by BizkitNL

Originally posted by Torak

AC has it.

That about all I know of aside from what you already listed. Why don't more have it? Because most devs went with copying WoW is really all I can think of. AC was able to do it just fine in 1999, any shooter does it without any issues, why MMOs don't. /shrug, who knows, Devs are still d*cking around with knothead garbage like raids and kill task.

MMO's tend to have a lot more lag than any singleplayer game with multiplayer features. Although, technically, the hardware to fight this is out there, but no developer seems to be interested in it .

I would hardly call BF2's large maps "single player with multiplayer features" or many other shooters for that matter. Most shooters are built around a multiplayer setup not single.

 

I agree, technology has move ahead a lot since 1999 and it they could do it then, they can do it now...only better. The servers that ran games 10 years ago are more then likely doorstops and large paper weights now a days.

Oh, oh...one other game for the unbelievers...Planetside.

BF2 has a cap of 64 players. It doesnt have any spawning mobs, or zoning players. Players connect, and there they are. I didn't mean to say that 64 players is "few". Its a lot. But with MMO's, theres more to it than the amount of players. On a sidenote, I still play BF2, yet I get bored of every MMO Ive tried this last month within a week's time or so. Thats saying a lot.

 

And dont get me started on Planetside! The game that "could have been", but never was.

Have you tried BF2 with the mods "point of existence" or "project reality"?