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Hero's Journey News - Exclusive Q&A #1
Posted by Dana Massey on Jun 14, 2005 | 5 comments in our forums
It begins. On alternating Tuesdays, we will feature a five question Q&A with Simutronics about their highly anticipated MMORPG - the winner of our Best of E3 Award - Hero's Journey. Included this week is a single screenshot. Our weekly exclusive images will continue, mixed in with the Q&A on those weeks.
;) MMORPG.com: Group combat feats were perhaps the neatest innovation you had to offer. At E3 we saw a simple move where one player jumped off the back of another. Can you tell us a bit about other more complex moves you have planned and how you think these group feats will alter combat in Hero’s Journey?
Eric Slick: The “jump off the back of another player” combo we showed at E3 demonstrated how a team of players in HJ could achieve an attack that would have been impossible as a solo player. Furthermore, rather than randomly chaining abilities together, we demonstrated the necessity of actually working together as a team in order to execute a more complex combat maneuver. We plan on combos that involve more than just two players, as well. Spell casters will also have multi-player combos they can pull off. When doing so, there is a bonus to your attacks and damage that is done. We are also toying with the idea that some creatures might require such attacks to hurt significantly; but we have to be careful to balance that with solo play requirements (which is part of our core design goals). There are many technical challenges to doing these sorts of things, which may be why most MMORPG combat has avoided these features so far. But, we are very determined that technical challenges will not force us to take the path of least resistance here: we’re going to make HJ the place for interesting fantasy combat! |
You can read the full Q&A here.
My warning senses are in full alert...
I dunno why, but the ''combo'' moves are something I dont like at first reading.
Prolly because it mean it will be an ''action packed'' game, and I dont play any action game! 
Oh well, we will see, and maybe some class will be ''excluded'' for a compensation bonus from those combos moves, who know? I dont like to relly on my reflex or coordination ever(EQ is the full extend of what I accept as reflex requirement, and everyone know it is not very reflex oriented, EQ2 was to far on the reflex requirements side and I just ignore it). 
Its hard to say, I am sure they wont make it a massive click fest. It does sound different though, one to watch out for.
The combo moves don't have to do with reflexes; they're combination moves, in which 2 or more players work together to do a single attack. Sorta like the dual/triple techs from Chrono Trigger.
If you saw the E3 video, there was the example of the player who kneeled down... and the other player who jumped off his back for a mid-air slash.
Nod - the one we saw involved about one (?) click?
Basically player #1 activated the feat. Player two received an indicator where to stand. Player one moved to their spot once #2 was in position and BOOM off it went.
It sounds very similar to Skill Chains in FFXI... though HJ seems to be incorporating it a bit differently.
In FFXI there are a number of different abilities, called "Weapon Skills" that when combined with another Weapon Skill of the right element, will create a "skill chain" which inflicts damage of a certain element to do damage above and beyond the two individual attacks. It goes one step further, where a Black Mage can cast the appropriate "closing spell" to turn a skill chain into a Magic Burst. If done right, using the right element to exploit a given mob's weakness, the damage can be devastating.
Skill Chains and Weapon Bursts aren't a frantic click-fest at all. Very much the opposite, they're very deliberately planned and timed attacks that can end an otherwise tough fight much more quickly and allow the party to get through mobs very efficiently.
In any case.. when I read about the combos in Hero's Journey it sounds like something in the same vein as the Skill Chains in FFXI. Or, perhaps even the Heroic Opportunities in EQ2 - though I don't think those are incorporated nearly as well as FFXI's.
I think the key is pacing. It's paced in FFXI.. It isn't in EQ2 - or at least it never felt that way.
To read about a similar system in HJ and the examples given of how it's implemented is very very cool to me. I was already interested in this game, but that definitely raises the bar.