Choice based design working with encounter design

[ralphieceaser]

Decided to make this thread when I show someone complaining about the new 7.0 choice system, which I agree isnt perfect but I consider an improvement since it starts affecting more of our core abilities.

 

The main subject I want to talk about is choice based design, when a player can make a build by choosing one out of more options

 

There is a major flaw in that design that has existed since its inception, it is the fact that encounters dont always support player choices, instead encounters force player "choices" therefore technically the players dont get to actually choose.

Let's say you have 3 options

1) 30% more single target damage

2) 30% more AoE damage

3) 30% armor penetration

 

When an encounter is 90% single target damage with low armor then your only realistic choice is 1.

The option 2 and 3 is USELESS in such a situation, a person who might have made a cool build around armor pen is literally pointless in such an encounter.

And when most encounters tend to favor one kind of play, single target and sustained for example, suddenly all the rest of the choices are extremely niche, this is where encounter design is VITAL, you need to have more types of playstyles benefit the group.

 

Obviously we cant have every encounter require a phase for burst, a phase for armor pen, a phase for rot dot spread, a phase for aoe etc, this would limit encounter design extremely, and would make ever raid boss feel samey.

 

But there is no need to include all those in one encounter, we just need a lot more than what we have now, and I am talking about the mmorpg genre as a whole in general, not just swtor. Encounters need to start benefiting from more than just 1 type of playstyle to a decent degree, for example in WoW where AoE during fortified weeks dominates, that makes all non aoe choices pointless, we need more playstyles to have value so an encounter is a MIX of all those, not just one dominating by a giant margin which is also what happens to dominate in all those types of encounter.

 

So now it would be a good idea to start collecting all the playstyles you have or even think of

Start with available TYPES of damage choice

-Single target

-Aoe

-Melee

-Ranged

 

Then playstyles:*

-Burst

-sustain

-armor penetration

-Dot/dotspread

 

*A note, this list is an oversimplification because you can have both dot sustain builds and dot burst builds so some elements seep into each other and I am not getting paid to write this in detail xd.

 

Now you only need to spread SOME of those playstyles in encounters, and try to spread them evenly.

 

An example would be a flashpoint where you:

Start at the early floors with a lot of weak enemies, that is where you have AoE be relevant. (Can also add some shield generators that could be destroyed first with people who have high armor pen to make it easier but that is just a small cheeky idea, not a main one)

Then you fight the first boss which is where the single target element is important, could also give it a weakness to dots so dots have more value

Then you get to the next area where maybe it has fewer trash but they have more armor so armor pen element here is valued

Then another boss with a lot of spread adds, where ranged are best to deal with them or classes who can dot everything quickly

Then you can move to the higher floor with again more trash so AoE is relevant again but include small bombs or items that need to be bursted down quickly so burst has value

Then a final boss where burst is again important because he summons deadly adds that do more damage the more time they are alive

 

OPS boss encounters can follow a similar example so they can incorporate more than just 1 dominant playstyle such as single target sustain dps or the occasional burst/add phase, those phases need to be big and relevant enough in the encounter otherwise people are just gonna stick to single target sustain if that is what is relevant for 90% of the fight

 

That way, if encounter design incorporates a few of those playstyles, then your choice and build is meaningful, you have a lot more value in certain phases and you feel you are helping the group a lot, just like others with different builds are helping you during different phases or different encounters, instead of just people going "its a FP so just use AoE loadout"

 

Obviously people who obsess over muh meta and muh optimal combs will exist, you can never get rid of those or design encounters that are literally perfect in balancing those playstyles, but the majority just focus on playing the game with friends/guilds or pugs, so you want for such groups to feel "Oh this guys specializes in armor pen, that will make our life easier on X encounters"