by ekzarh » Thu Aug 11, 2016 9:02 am I'll try to avoid explaining obvious things to make post shorter. If someone questions some statements - please ask I'll give detailed explanation in comments.
There are some leverages which allow to achieve victory in MMORPG (or actually in any competition). I won't list all of them only the most relevant.
1) Skill - this is what remains when you give 2 people absolutely equal conditions. Like chess. You can't win chess with money, grinding, zerg or whatever.
You have only yours tactical and strategical thinking, reaction, prediction of you enemy. Teamwork if the games is team but nubmers are always equal (5 vs 5).
This is a pinnacle of game and its fun. This is what the best, thousand years-old games use as its base.
The downside of skill for MMORPG is - you don't need to spend time in game otherwise than for training the skill. So it decreases playtime.
Conclusion - skill must be highest leverage, but not 100%.
2) Quantity. Zerg. (you can divide all numbers by 4 to keep up with Haven population)
In most cases victory can be achieved by zerg. When zerg is a primary leverage ( e.g. meaning 5 players advantage in 25:25 combat is near 100% victory) it is not good and makes game less fun.
But it's not the worst. Mainatining zerg is a high challenge for a leader and his surroundings. This makes game blossom in social aspects.
When zerg is a second leverage to victory after skill - it's even more perfect. From one side - tem A of 10 high-skilled players can win over team B 30 lame ones. From the other side - zerg has to train and raise it's combat effectivenes.
And outcomes for the side are way more satisfactory than in other cases? If A wins - they are totally happy. If A loses - they are not frustraded they can blame zerg. If B wins - they are happy. If B loses - then yeah =) they are frustrated.
The downside of zerg leverage - it produces rise-and-fall of the empires. Zerg attaches to the core of skilled players, they pwn the world, get bored and dissipate. But that rarely gives big negative impact to the game.
3) Grind.
Stats, character skills, equipment, potions etc etc etc.
The main upside of this - players have lots and lots of hours of PVE content. Unlimited stats mean unlimited PVE content. So if a developer wants to make game played for long but cannot invent a good balanced system (it's not to blame - time lack, team size, other factors can make it impossible) - he just gives endless grind.
So yeah. Grind must exist in games. Otherwise we'll get chess.
But it has a bunch of big downsides.
1) If you need to grind - you make bots. Always. If the games has something to be grinded - there will be bots.
2) If a character created by bots can 1-button kill 3-5 of real players regardless of their skill - it is frustrating. This is a point where you leave the game. Would you play CS:GO if one of opponents has 5000% hp and unlimited ammo? Me - no.
3) (in case of no skill cap) you either start playing at the end of the game or you are nobody. Take 2 equal hadcore botting 24/7 and playing 16/7 players. The one who began the first - wins. More casual players? Don't make me laugh.
So what I'm trying to say.
Perfect MMORPG should have the following victory leverages 50% skill, 30% zerg, 20% grind.
Pros:
a) Players are more equal. 1 top-notch character cannot wipe the village of 10.
b) Bots give an advantage, but it is way smaller
c) Experienced players can join anytime. They'll have to be a bit inferior or work really hard but it's not 100% loss
d) Grind still gives an advantage, so players have to do PVE
e) Human is more valuable than its belongings - socializing is better for world domination than stripping newbs from their sticks and bones.
f) Permadeath is less painful if you can still kickass 3-month old char with 2-week old char if you are skilled enough.
CONCLUSION
In case of stat cap you
a) Stat 330 char of legit is very close to stat 330 char of botter. Botter would have better equipment. But the chances of victory would be about 25%.
*In case of botter uses combat assistance bots and brings 2 stat-330 characters - meh, you are dead meat. At least in current combat system
b) You are bored since you don't need to do PVE, Botter is even more bored after making 3-5 stat 330 chars.
In case of no stat cap
a) you have char stat-330, botter has stat 4400. Question closed. No chance in current combat system. Totally no chance. Even if he disconnects - you probably wont be able to kill him.
b) You can evolve further so have things to do other than PVP. Botter has a reason to keep bots running - he doesn't do PVE anyway - just jerks on his stats.
![¦]](./images/smilies/troll.gif "Trollface")
Okay, he has a reason to do PVE too.1st case is better PVP-wise, 2nd case is better in terms of making people play. And both of them are total crap.
SOLUTION
1. Make a combat system where human skills matter a lot more than character stats. So the one who made over 500 actual PVP fights(at least duels with friends) would be able to kill 2-3 people who have made 50 PVPs given equal characters.
2. Make combat system where combat assistance bots are less of value (this is really hard - banning for bots is waay easier)
3. Make leveling benefits so unlimited stat and quality character (stat 20000 and q300) has 50% chance to win against 2 players of same skill with stat 100 and q 40 and 10% chance to win against 3 such players. So there is a reason to grind. But reason to get more allies is waaaay bigger.
4- the simplest one. Make the growing stat cap at least. Add +10-+30 to all caps each week. This way people would have to do PVE all the time but botters would not get huge advantage.
No one have read until this place =)
