I can see realism of receiving attacks a bit more in a scifi setting. It could be that everyone has personal energy shields and those shields go down when you are hit. People can replenish shields (heal). You would realistically not get hurt or weaken. Of course when the shields go out and you are really hit, you die.

That is where the realism ends then, because you respawn or are rezzed moments later, hehe. Personally I would rather see a system like that, but in fantasy, I just conveniently ignore that I am getting blasted by spells, arrows and hacked with swords, but still fighting well. It is after all, a game. Most do have you running slower though when your life is low, like you're too injured to get away.

your right..when i think of realism, I think of it as you can run away freely.  Maybe take a long time for you to heal your wounds.  Have a doctor maybe.  If you die you would have to start all over with a new character, it would be realistic but annoying when you die

Realism would be a little too hardcore in a game...but I think you have a great idea for the future of combat MMO's out there.  If you want a combat MMO with player-skills as the backbone of your combat, the health system HAS to change.  I agree with Vynt that this would work real well with scifi, but why not with fantasy based mmos?

In my head I see the combat MMO's adapting and deriving a new health system using new-age FPS's (COD4 +5, Halo, KZ2).  That is, no health meter, but a damage indicator.  Now, this would need to a derivation because in the FPS's, you can die VERY fast.  Well just slow it down in the MMO.  And add the injury status with a mini-picture of your character in the lower corner of the hud to see what part is damaged (so you don't have to open a menu like in Fallout 3 since there is no pause online). 

Again, a lot of balancing issues with ranged vs. melee would need to be adressed, but like posted before, make range players very suseptiable to damage and don't allow one shots unless it is a head-shot placed arrow with a loadup of pulling the arrow back that would take 5 seconds (so they couldn't fire mutiple headshots and kill you in one shot, many people have survived an arrow to the face).  Now magic would be a little tricker, and the magic system would need to be REVOLUTIONIZED to make it very diffuclt to master since it is the most powerful in fantasy settings (old AC style is a good start.). 

But yea I must agree if these supposed COMBAT MMO's are coming out, the health meter needs to be changed.  If its player skill against player skill, stats of items should affect things differently (like how injury prone or resistant you are).

Have a good one.

Again I find myself agreeing with JB, for most fantasy games you'll want to either make bows harder to score a hit with or easier to prevent being hit by, this is simply to exaggerate the importance of getting into melee in line with most peoples perception of whats fun and in keeping with the lore.

Reduce the number of shots with any accuracy, and the accuracy at any significant range and of course the penetrative capacity and we'll see fewer bows in action. Although a long bow could penetrate plate armour it was not very efficient except at short ranges, typically the bow reduced charging mounted knights to slowly trudging knights (Agincourt). I'm happy to see bows firing around in combat, but the enemy must be free to engage such troops and not find themselves trapped by 'aggro' nonsense. Also you'll need to consider just when you can start shooting, if its as they emerge into the forest clearing you'll get perhaps one rushed shot. If its an army some considerable distance away then you can loose a few shots before they get close, but they'll have plenty of chance to shield themselves or perhaps move out of the way of your slowly arcing arrows.

So a bow will have a short period of use and then you'll be in melee, if the bow prevents you employing heavy armour and you cant get many accurate shots off, then many folk wont bother with a bow, problem solved. And those who do will have the ability to occasionally bring down a larger foe quite quickly and not even risk all that up close melee stuff; of course if they dont bring down their foe they'll need to swap weapons (quickly) and face their opponent potentially without shield or armour. Of course sometimes a bow will be vital, at other times it will be useless... thats why we have choices and friends.

Yea i strongly agree..for ranging you should turn into almost 1st person and have to follow the person with your mouse. then have to calculate the angle and power..for the future then it will be a little more balanced..and maybe have the arrows hit more when it hits more vital spots

Originally posted by xKrNMBoYx

But also that I dont think a goblin would beg for mercy, they would rather just spit at you or disrespect all the way until they die.

I agree.  I was throwing in my comment because all too often folks get myopia, seeing every scenario according to the games that they've played.  A goblin is traditionally a beastly monster, intent on death and destruction (rather like an MMO player).  But imagine if players were up against human bad guys.  Pirates, bandits, enemy knights, etc.  Having them surrender could have some significant consequences.  Players would then have to deal with prisoners as a kind of loot, to be ransomed back to their clan, city or nation.  That might involve diplomacy or negotiation skills.

There are so many unexplored opportunities in these games.

I agree..many exploits, and room to improve

SWG pre CU was the closest to "realistic injuries" in that damage taken could eventually accumulate to permanent damage that would require a doctors services to heal.

Things like that in an mmo would be great I think, along with real penalties due to serious injuries, sadly I doubt any developers are going to actually implement such a system in game, they aren't that creative.

Originally posted by Wolfenpride

SWG pre CU was the closest to "realistic injuries" in that damage taken could eventually accumulate to permanent damage that would require a doctors services to heal.

Things like that in an mmo would be great I think, along with real penalties due to serious injuries, sadly I doubt any developers are going to actually implement such a system in game, they aren't that creative.

I think its more to do with fear than lack of creativity, its all to easy to find a great many people who would 'never play that game' when we start introducing a number of new systems. If enough folk say that, and the game has enough new (often expensive to develop as well as risky for game play) systems then its producers will start getting scared that they've made an expensive flop, and will demand a number of 'tried and tested features' be reintroduced.

Red Orchestra would show you where you were shot and depending which limb would have an effect on you. Raven Sheild also if you got shot once you would limp and twice you would die.