Game Design: Champions Online

[Dynamo]

As some of you may remember, I'm currently enrolled in a shake'n'bake game developer program at a local school. For the most part, I'm learning to be someone's Junior Code Monkey, but some of the coursework revolves around actual game design. Plus my wife bought me an impressively tall pile of books about games and play, which I am ploughing through with an appetite.

I've been doing some thinking about interface and gameplay, and since my current gaming obsessions are superheroes (Hero & GURPS) and MMOs, I'm toying with the notion of Champions Online. Not that I think I'm going to burst onto the computer gaming scene with the next blockbuster MMO; this is just an exercise to crystallize my thoughts. I'm at the point where I need to write stuff down or forget what I've already thought about, so it seems like a good idea to do it here and maybe elicit some input.

If you were to login to an Internet game called Champions Online, what would you expect to see and do? How would you like to see Characteristics, Powers, Skills, Talents, Disadvantages and all that modelled? Conversely, what sort of thing would you absolutely hate to see in such a game?

I'll start with some basic combat. To avoid re-inventing the wheel, the interface uses the standard WASD arrangement for movement (up/jump on the spacebar, down on X), with a multi-tiered power tray tied to the alphapad number keys.

Attack powers share a global cooldown defined by SPD. 3 SPD = 4 sec cooldown, 7 SPD = 1.7 sec cooldown, etc. (I'll refer to this as SPD cooldown.)

Movement and Recovery are continuous. END/STN recovered and distance travelled per second are calculated by multiplying the Power/Cha value by SPD/12.

Continuous Powers are on/off toggles with individual SPD cooldown.

Departing from the pen & paper game, some or many defensive actions are automatic and on their own SPD cooldown. For example, when attacked in HtH, a Block will be automatically attempted. Each additional Block attempt will suffer a cumulative -2 penalty until the cooldown triggered by the first Block completes. A missed Block will end all Block attempts until the cooldown completes.

Skill Levels are allocated by drag & drop tokens. The tokens can be moved between OCV, DCV, and Damage buckets and automatically apply appropriately to eligible Powers and Maneuvers. Not sure how to make different types of skill levels quickly differentiable to the player who needs DCV in a hurry.

I'll let some comments accumulate and then post my thoughts on character construction. Don't feel constrained to comment only on what I've said above. The wider and wilder the brainstorming, the happier I'll be. Go nuts.

[Supreme Serpent]

Skill Levels are allocated by drag & drop tokens. The tokens can be moved between OCV, DCV, and Damage buckets and automatically apply appropriately to eligible Powers and Maneuvers. Not sure how to make different types of skill levels quickly differentiable to the player who needs DCV in a hurry.

I imagine could have hotkeys for quick level allocation. F1=all levels DCV, etc.

[Dynamo]

I imagine could have hotkeys for quick level allocation. F1=all levels DCV, etc.

With a bound SFX of your character muttering "owowhothothot!!"

[Flames]

I'd give you some of my ideas but I want to wait for until it's safe for me to stand up.

[gojira]

1. Turn-based
2. Multi-player
3. GM

That'll do for starters...

[Dynamo]

1. Turn-based
2. Multi-player
3. GM

That'll do for starters...

Actually, this has a better chance of getting coded at some point, despite 1 and 3 being out of scope for my current thought exercise.

I've been looking at some of the freely available game art, animation code, and other resources. I'm sure that a networked animated battlemat equipped with a die-roller and the Hero core combat rules wouldn't be that hard. With all the existing assets that could be imported, the only really time-consuming parts would be the Hero rules engine and the surface textures for the figures. (I'm having some trouble finding Superhero textures.) The texture work could be minimized by providing some very basic costumes and then adding an import feature so that player-made textures could be added and shared with other users.

[gojira]

Actually, this has a better chance of getting coded at some point, despite 1 and 3 being out of scope for my current thought exercise.

Well that's why I suggested it, because it would be easy(ier) to implement.

Wha't your language of choice right now?

Also:

4. Chat

[Enforcer84]

Destruction of the Environment. I wanna break cards and throw buildings

[Jkeown]

On my hard drive at work, I've a multi-page doc I was going to send to Steve, but I might post it here. You might find my plan a bit out of scope as well.

[Dynamo]

Well that's why I suggested it, because it would be easy(ier) to implement.

What's your language of choice right now?

Also:

4. Chat

I'm not too worried about implementation right now. This would be the Concept Development phase.

Serious game programming is done in C++. No offense to anyone's language of choice, but if you want to wring maximum performance from the end-user's computer without learning Assembly Code, you do it with C++, with a little help from C (device drivers mainly). High-level languages make sacrifices in run-time efficiency for their ease of use.

Chat is a definite must. Social tools will make or break an online multiplayer game.

Destruction of the Environment. I wanna break cars and throw buildings.

BOOYAH! Interactable, destructible objects by the plenty. Got it.

On my hard drive at work, I've a multi-page doc I was going to send to Steve, but I might post it here. You might find my plan a bit out of scope as well.

Don't mistake my comment about being out of scope for my original thought exercise to mean that anything should be out of scope for this discussion. The kernel of this idea was "How to re-tool City of Heroes into Champions Online," but I'd love to see ideas that don't fit that mold just as much as those that do. Like I said, go nuts.

[Thia Halmades]

Here's a dream game for you.

X-COM, but updated to CHAMPIONS. Spend XP. Build a base. Gain Followers. Push back bad guys. Fly your SuperCraft to the Dangerous Place. Blow up stuff. Blow up MORE stuff.

Wow. That would be a kick-ass game. Glad I thought of it!

[Log-Man]

...Attack powers share a global cooldown defined by SPD. 3 SPD = 4 sec cooldown, 7 SPD = 1.7 sec cooldown, etc. (I'll refer to this as SPD cooldown.)
...

I was wondering how SPD would be tackled, and i think this is a great idea.

And I second Enforcer's request for edible environment.

Also, FWIW, I'm one of those who still like the turn based stuff. I'd be very interested in that as well as a real-time.

[Jkeown]

Fine. How's this?

Champions Online
A Proposal to Revolutionize Massively-Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games.
Champions broke ground decades ago by replacing Dungeons and Dragons’ Character Classes with a points-driven system that allowed the creation of the character that players wanted to play. Now, with the advent of a number of successful Online Games, Champions can once again revolutionize gaming by acting as the background for a game that breaks the mold.

Player Experience
Character Archetypes
MMOs are dominated by a number of archetypes. These go by various names, but generally breakdown into Direct Damage, Support, Tanks and Melee/DPS types. Champions has the opportunity to break out of this and into a true player-driven experience. Certainly, each of typical Champions archetypes can be used to create the “Classic MMO Archetypes” but the freedom exists to do otherwise, and create a quality single-player experience. The MMO types are replaced with Champions Archetypes that reinforce what is actually seen in comic books, more accurately reflecting the genre. We feel this will result in a more satisfying experience for the player.

MMO Stereotype Typical Power Set
Tank High Defense, Taunt, Melee Attacks, High Health
Direct Damage Low Defense, High Powered Ranged Attacks, Low Health
Support Low Health, Healing, Buff/Debuff powers.
Melee/DPS Medium Health, High Powered Melee Attacks (occasionally Stealth)

HERO characters scarcely map to these stereotypes. The centralizing feature of HERO being character concept, we propose breaking out of the stereotypes and into a concept-centered game engine. Carrying this into an MMO would be relatively easy, given the HERO System's auto-balancing points-based design.

HERO Archetype Typical Power Set
Brick High Strength (“Brick Tricks”), High Defense
Energy Projector High Powered Ranged Attacks
Gadgeteer Technological or Magical Items
Mentalist EGO-Based abilities
Metamorph Shape Shifting
Mystic Magical Abilities
Powered Armor High Defense, Ranged Attacks
Speedster High Movement, Speed-Related Attacks

The first fifteen minutes of play are the most important in any game. You must inform the player of how he will advance, what he must do to advance and what the rewards of advancing are. This can be show-cased in the character creation sequence. When the character is created, its potential is laid out for the player’s review, he knows where he’s headed well in advance of getting there. This helps him make choices in an intelligent fashion.

Each HERO Archetype carries with it a set of “weighted” powers. After the player defines his concept, he chooses an archetype that most closely matches it. He is presented with a selection of powers that are most commonly associated with the Archetype. For example: Bricks are free to choose ranged powers in the Champions pen and paper RPG, and thus should be allowed to do so online. Some limiting factor must be implemented as the game’s internal balance will be thrown off by several million flying, energy-projecting bricks logging in each day. If too much freedom is given, the game will become stale. Stale games don’t sell.

Thus, the Brick chooses most of his powers from the Brick List, and can choose from other Archetypes power lists, though these powers are reduced in effectiveness. In HERO terms, they are the same powers, bought at a lower Active Point level. Perhaps his “Primary Powers” all have a limit of 50 AP, his choice of powers from the Energy Projector List are capped at 25 AP.
Limitations are built into the powers when the character is created. In order to simulate the advances normally gained in MMO’s players use experience points to buy off these limitations. Two mechanisms of advancement spring to mind; a “power-editing” feature that allows the removal of a limitation of the players choice, or a “power scale” in which increases in effectiveness alternate with limitation removal on a menu of advancement. Certainly, the Power Editor provides more player choice, it gives a greater range of freedom which allows character concepts to stay in place. One player might choose to increase a Brick’s defenses over time, whereas another might choose to remove limitations from those defenses, this method results in the “no one right way” approach that Champions is known for.

Disadvantages
After selecting his Archetype and Powers, the player can select from Disadvantages. This was a new concept when HERO introduced them in 1980 and they will be new to the MMO scene as well. The character will literally be a part of his environment, and different from those around him, because his character is not just distinguished by how he affects the world. The world will affect him. Some disadvantages from the HERO system are very easy to code into the character. Vulnerability simply requires mathematical adjustment of incoming damage. Powers will be flagged with a Special Effect and Vulnerability Logic will read the tags and adjust the characters status each time his special effect is applied in the form of an attack or environmental effect.

Even a Dependant NPC can be included at this stage. When the player chooses this option for his character, a separate, low end character generator is invoked. The character picks the details of the DNPC from available options, chooses an in-game avatar from those available, and decides how much danger the NPC can experience. Simply having the NPC puttering around would be meaningless. The game will make the PC earn the points gained by actually involving the DNPC in the games mission structure. Missions can be generated that involve the NPC, placing them in danger or in the path of on-rushing doom that the PC will have to rescue them from. Perhaps at log-in, the player can toggle a series of Game Event click-boxes that allow DNPCs, Rivals, and Hunted missions to be generated by the game’s environment. Experience gained is modified by the number of Game Events the player selects. If he gets bored with saving Cousin Jed every day, he un-clicks the DNPC box and selects his Hunted instead. Now he’s fighting Viper agents this session, and a more individual character narrative unfolds, rather then the player simply wandering through the in-game plotline.


There is more... but its in even rougher form than the above mess.

[Thia Halmades]

I'm telling you.

X-Com Champions. Turn based. Powers. Unstoppable goodness.

[gojira]

X-Com Champions. Turn based. Powers. Unstoppable goodness.

I like these ideas....