What you described is similar to what is used in WW2OL. As far a physics go, nobody beats the CR team, which also makes their game the most realistic on the market. Your ideas sound well founded and I for one welcome new styles of MMOs to break away from the monotony [sp?] of most of today's market. I've had a few ideas too, but to list the whole thing would take too long, so if you're interested, read my post (and the following debates for more detail), if you haven't already, and feel free to comment.

*Points to: http://mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/93935 *

Pale_Rider is right. It would be hard (though most probably possible) to make an action-oriented system wich is always unaffected by lag.

The result of a combat can't have it's base built on the kind of connection (real life money) a player have, but in his skills.

Anyway, with enough brainstorming, maybe we (read "someone") can get somewhere.

---

Originally posted by Majorjuju

Time goes on and PC's are getting better

Because of this i think the latest MMO devs should be thinking about adding phsyics engines to there games. This could create so many new oportunities for combat, rarthen than the old "Grinding" combat there could combat where you use your enviroment to win and you have to outwit your opponent rarther than just play the game more. Maybe an oblivion type combat system minus the great graphics for obvious reasons. An oblivion style engine would mean you have to time your strikes right, know when to block parry ect. Even for games with guns a similar system would work, using cover, fire and movement, flanking techniques.

I simply would like to see a more intelligent combat system with more options to it.. Dunno bout you guys :)

/discuss

---

I agree, PCs are getting better. I was surprised to know that Oblivion had to reduce the graphic quality (real-time object shadows (shown in the promo with shadows through a skeleton's ribcage), low-res parallax maps and textures, no water reflections) to work on the Xbox 360 with minimal artifacts and lag... when I enabled all those things on my computer (with supposedly less power than the 360) it worked beautifully. Goes to show you, PCs will always be better than consoles ^_^.

Now about a newer combat system: for how much this idea sound nice, I think it would be more stressful to the player... which is bad. The Oblivion combat the way it is (attack, block or parry... basic reflexes in timing) would be okay, but when you do something like implement a F.E.A.R. style AI with the PhysX enhancement used in Advanced Warfighter, you end up with more of a frustrating pattern-less combat environment than an enjoyable one. 

Let's pretend: you're shooting arrows at this slow-moving troll and manage to bloody up one of his arms real bad, this ticks him off so he heaves up the nearest boulder and hurls it at you, crushing your bones into splinters. Hmm... well, since the boulder was about ten times your size and the velocity was inhuman; you couldn't dodge it, block it, or parry it.

Unpredictability = bad. Predictability with a twist = good.

You want PvE combat to be semi-predictable with recognizeable patterns. Keep it fresh with slightly varying tactics and an 'almost' intelligent learning AI that should usually end up losing, but presents a challenge. If you throw a grenade and obliterate one guy, his ally saw it happen and now avoids your grenades. When he dies, the knowledge dies with him and the next guy is just as stupid (unless he saw you try another strategy). An ambush is always fun... in a puff of smoke, five ninja emerge from the gusts around you and draw their swords. That's always fun, unless you hate ninja.

As for PvP, my team thought of an Oblivion / Jedi Knight / Soul Calibur hybrid combat system. Although it's still really buggy, I think it's the closest thing to an easy-to-learn combat system which gives full control of the character to the player so the entire match is based on the player's ability to respond, not how good a character's gear happens to be. Basically, the combat system gives players the ability to control everything (attack, block, parry like Oblivion) and offers a smooth execution of simple combos by pressing different directions or jumping (Jedi Knight) and attack at the same time. In addition to these, players can execute combos with timed button presses of special moves (Soul Calibur). Since doing anything besides standing idle affects the stamina regeneration, players must be careful not to fatigue their characters too fast, or they'll be too tired to continue fighting (never understood why having a health of 0.5% remaining allowed a character to still move briskly and unhindered).

Oh noes, I revealed some development info on project core, omigosh... **cough**

Right, that's my bit, I'm out and off to finish a most toublesome character mesh.