Deathmatch
Edwin_Odesseiron
Member Posts: 226
We have the Black Pits, which are great.
What about some player VS player action?
It would likely be different rooms with different levels. For example, "Level 5-7 characters only" all the way through to the higher levels. Also, to prevent people from having uber stats, there should be a stat point cap of 80 points maximum per character. No more.
Every player starts naked and buys a few basic items from the merchants before the fight (or, barring that, depending on the class, the character starts the game with pre-set items.) For example, a ranger could start with studded leather, a bow, and whatever weapon he chose in his proficiencies. Long sword, or spear, whatever. Kind of like when you start a new game in TOB, the starting items are attuned to your chosen class.
This would not only be fun, but it would enable players to learn from one another about the best way to manage combat tactically, either 1 VS 1, all the way through to 6 VS 6. What spells to cast and when, who to focus on first and why, micromanagement and party management.
Could there ever be something introduced like this?
What about some player VS player action?
It would likely be different rooms with different levels. For example, "Level 5-7 characters only" all the way through to the higher levels. Also, to prevent people from having uber stats, there should be a stat point cap of 80 points maximum per character. No more.
Every player starts naked and buys a few basic items from the merchants before the fight (or, barring that, depending on the class, the character starts the game with pre-set items.) For example, a ranger could start with studded leather, a bow, and whatever weapon he chose in his proficiencies. Long sword, or spear, whatever. Kind of like when you start a new game in TOB, the starting items are attuned to your chosen class.
This would not only be fun, but it would enable players to learn from one another about the best way to manage combat tactically, either 1 VS 1, all the way through to 6 VS 6. What spells to cast and when, who to focus on first and why, micromanagement and party management.
Could there ever be something introduced like this?
6
Comments
I like the concept of learning from eachother, so you have my like. Hope that someone more competent than me can make the possibility (or lack of it) of deathmatch clear.
Fighter VS Fighter would just be luck-based, who gets the better rolls. This would be much better for developing knowledge of mage/cleric spells (which is the hardest thing for a lot of players to grasp), and party management as a whole.
Also, the pause thing can be addressed by giving each player no more than 10 pauses per fight, for example, so players would have to use it wisely, not just pause for the tiniest of things.
I doubt this will happen, though. I just thought it would be an interesting idea and would hope the devs consider it as a possibility.
Mage VS Mage would possibly be the best match up among these (certainly in terms of thinking), but this whole idea was still more focused on party battles anyway.
Also, lots of players will be like lvl40 F\M\T, and use the most cheesiest things they know, like I will do if they make this.
If Time Stop got to be that much of a problem (again, I don't think it would be), it's as simple as banning the spell. Even if you got off an improved Haste AND Tensers AND managed to cast Time Stop, the other mage could still have protections up (protection from weapons, stoneskin, etc). But honestly, what are you thinking? You think that while you're casting these spells the other mage would just be sitting there doing nothing? No, he'd be focused on you and preventing your spellcasting/casting his own.
Furthermore: No multi-classes. At all. Single class only, possibly even no kits (though that I'd have to think about a little further.) As I explained, the 1 VS 1 thing is just more for a bit of fun, this is more focused on party skirmishes. Each member of the party has his role to play, so making a one-man army such as a F/T/M goes against the entire purpose. Thus, it would not be allowed.
Contigencies could never be set up because there's no resting. Players would select their memorized spells prior to the battle, and the battle would then begin.
In lots of encounters during the game, luck is a factor. Over the years how many times have you reloaded in a battle you had pretty much won, but the enemy mage got in a lucky finger of death or wail of the banshee, killing a few party members (or you?) That's part and parcel of D & D. Any dice-based game has a luck factor involved, and that adds to the fun of it.
Also, I don't want to start a war, but I want to taking out spells annoys me, but it will be a good thing to do, because some thing are Over Powered. And with those restrictions, you've made me agree with you :P
If such a thing were to happen (and I doubt it will outside of a very ambitious mod) then just start by getting it working properly and stable, then worry about balance.
However, saying "let's just do it" with no thought of what we could work on/restrict is short-sighted and would immediately be rejected. So the idea needs to be proposed in its entirety.
I'd also guess you can't code in a restriction to limit the number of pauses per player, although I have little knowledge of IE modding. If not, it's possible there may be some workaround though like giving all players 10 uses of some instant special ability that has a timestop-like effect on everyone, including the user. If a coded restriction wouldn't work out, I guess it could be tested without pausing, although it would certainly be quite hectic for casters.
It would be interesting to try out, but I doubt it would work very well. It would definitely eventually need balancing, but I agree that you'd need a working "prototype" first. It could possibly also benefit from some simple additional goals in team battles, like capturing (trapped/locked) objectives or something.
Edit: I was thinking I was in the modding forums, so also based my thoughts on what is currently possible. Of course if engine restrictions were removed on things like the 6 player limit it would potentially work a lot better, but I recall the developers saying that it would require significant rewriting of the engine and as such won't happen.
The opposition player would just appear as enemies do in the game. As I said, I didn't expect this to go through, but it would certainly be interesting.
Does a D&D tactics type game exist? Even a single player one? (Aside from the PsP game, of course.)
https://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/10588/black-pits-pvp-option
It'd be neat to see mage duels in BG but I don't think the engine is even capable of doing PVP in any robust capacity.
However there needs to be a deathmatch arena in the main campaign. One where you can go fight monsters in tournaments or individual battles just for the fun of it. By the end of chapter 7, it would be nice to have something to fight once all the quests are completed. I may be in the minority but I don't like finishing SoA because I hate ToB and I don't want to keep on starting new games because that means doing the same quests over and over just to get to the good bits.
There doesn't need to be a plot tied to it, if anything a deathmatch campaign without a plot is a welcome change. Instead you'd submit your team to a one off battle or a tournament competition. The tournament would sequester you into living quarters where you have to fight successive battles. As a bonus you could bet items or gold, that would factor into the prizes you win.
There would be a number of tournaments to choose from, some being more melee orientated some more magical. As for the single battles, they would be more suited to boss like encounters. You would also have the option to do a solo tournament instead of fighting with a full party.
Having it in SoA instead of BG1 or ToB would be the best option. Some of the merchants or characters from The Black Pits could feature, with them eventually forming their own 'democratic' Black Pits.
I think the best location would be the Illithids Lair located in the Underdark since it has the deathmatch facilities. All you would have to do is clear the map out, and then mention to an enterprising Duergar that such a facility is now vacant. Then when you return the place would have become inhabited by warriors from the Underdark ready to battle.
Alternatively if using that area violates the contract, then you could simply add a stairwell to the Underdark map or have a location added on the world map that directs you to the Black Pits from BG1:EE.
I think this would be the easiest solution to a deathmatch idea. So easy that it could be modded...
It would be like an arena map that generates random encounters that are truly random, aside from the bare rules and guidelines like what type of monster you'd fight. The Black Pits really is just a linear campaign dressed up in the setting of an arena, not a nonlinear battle arena that is without a campaign. It would be like a player vs computer battle simulator, the next best thing to having the infrastructure for player vs player.
So the arena would ask you what sort of monsters you'd want to fight, and what difficulty. So if you chose underdark, you'd get a random number of beholders and mind flayers. Or if you chose Red Wizards, you'd get a random number of conjurers and necromancers. And if you chose extreme difficulty then they'd get a 10 level bonus onto their standard level. If you chose easy difficulty then they'd get a 10 level penalty on their standard level.
It wouldn't really be a proper battle simulator since that would be difficult to implement retroactively. All it would take would be creating a whole lot of .cre files and spawn points, then creating the dialog trees. But I think it would be an easier undertaking than trying to implement online competitive play. Especially when getting the pre-existing multiplayer feature up and running was a pretty big challenge.