Better Combat

* See also Weapon Fun
* See also Interfaces
* See also MMORPG_AI_Improvements
* See also Infinites Degenerated Combat
* See also Perceptions_Altered
* See also %27Make_A_Better_Game%27_-_Andrew_Ryan
More complex/interesting combat situations/actions for the MMORPG.
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BioShock:Reborn - Not Your Father's "BioShock" :
Big difference in the combat in the MMORPG, when you may have "Team" NPCs regularly assisting you, and there IS "Friendly Fire" in the game mechanics ( THIS will have to be properly handled with other Players because it is an obvious 'Griefer' abse-channel ).
Stealth Tactics, changing tactics of when enemies make a 'strategic withdrawal'.  Splicers use more tactics including defensive traps and such ( not just 'run at you and try to kill you' ).
There would thus be more care in Positioning ( and smarts of the computer AI that controls the NPCs ), and signals/coordination of tactics ( including training/configuring and instruction/control communication for the kind of tactics you want to use in various situations - coordinating your 'Team' NPCs ).
The game has Less 'Death' and more disabling/nullifying of enemies ( including accidental damage on your allies ).   A primary goal is not to kill Splicers when possible.  Substituting more non-Splicer 'opponents' to still allow Players to satisfy their blood lust - various vermin and machines.
Wounds are persistent, and can effect performance in various ways. No Insta-Heal patching you up to "Good as New" in mere seconds  -- You have to go back and get treated/repaired expensively, so you will often operate with accumulation of 'wounds' ( and have to handle things accordingly and compensate to the limitations ).
You are not Running all the time.  Movement is more critical/realistic, and running into every hazard isn't ignored.
Fast/Normal/Slow Movement have appropriate times in the game to be used.
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Greatly Increase Defensive Skills to Reshape Combat :
This game has combat being alot less fatal. The game has it be important to 'save' your Splicer adversaries ( and having the Players not die constantly from bad situations ).   
Boosting the effectiveness of defensive skills and actions could at least give the Player more time to figure out the situation and use more of the available tactics effectively.  
Less than optimal weapons might also help.   More realistic accuracy might help defense, but at the same time would make offense harder also.  
You would want more Time to react to things and to setup clever tactics/counter-moves with your NPC 'Team ( instead of the typical BioShock type firefights which are over in 5 to 20 seconds - or a long sequence of 5 second slaughters against a Splicer horde .  
There could still be some split-second action, but a majority should be slowed down -- but WITHOUT the ridiculously tiny 'hit damage' increments for things that aught to be shredding your character (rely on the cover, bad lighting, and poor marksmanship...).
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"Double-Whammie One-Two Punch" (Plasmid + Weapon) - Splicers doing this to you ... (Ouch) :
Ryan trained his Security to handle Splicers with more powerful weapons and tactics. He might be unlikely to 'Splice Them' (his own men) as much as McDonagh seems to imply (Ryan seriously does NOT need yet MORE crazy/unreliable people, particularly for his Security men).
In the MMORPG, the Plasmids are growing less effective ( old stuff or badly made recent stuff ), so you won't be fighting a 50% (half-of-time) lose scenario against challenging opponents, which would be more realistic. The Splicers might also miss sometimes (or alot), and various countermeasures available to YOU might lessen their impact. The Solo games were simplified in the Plasmid mechanics, so things like terrain obstacles could have alot more impact.
The Solo Game's Plasmid attack most frequently served to just immobilize the target ( to stay still and to not be ducking/attacking you ) while you blasted them with your weapon. That is a logical pairing, because IF you could do it chiefly by Plasmid attack, THEN you wouldn't need weapon use much in the game at all ( just spam the target with Plasmid attacks ), and hence the weapon game element would dwindle to irrelevancy.
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Less Pop-a-mole Combat Please :
Many MMORPGs with their minefields of enemies have extremely short-ranged proximity activation of the Opponent NPCs ( as little as 20/30 feet with NO cover/LOS/frontage/blockage considered ). Sometimes the game might have alot of blocking scenery/blind corners to try to justify it, others this myopia still happens in an open field. This is an idiot-simple opponent scripting, which does not have to be customized/improved to handle terrain and not have an "AI" worthy of that label.
These deaf/dumb/blind opponents also don't signal each other to call reinforcements, nor react to QUITE nearby explosively noisy battle sounds ( and they will stand like dummies/mannequins while their friends/compatriots are slaughtered merely feet away ). This is done by game companies because it is much easier to level-scale SINGLE opponents scattered across MOST of the game map to the Players level.
This is disconcerting and a breaker of perceived proper combat interaction. 
* It is done in order that the Player NOT get swamped by the multitude of ALL of the opponents in a scene when you simply walk into sight. No thinking about tactics are required on the Players part.
* It is also done so that the NPC Opponents AI need do the least possible/simplest detection (ie- no Line OF Sight checking). The behavior programming of these opponents also is an utterly simple reactive activation and attack - either to shoot (after clearing any LOS obstacles) or charge at Player and melee. 
* Usually there are way too many grunt opponents around ( usually picking their butts doing nothing, with little reason to stand where they do -- except to be targets in what is basically a roving shooting gallery ), which allows the game to handle a flood of Players on opening day ( when new content is released ) when Player hordes go thru the gauntlet-like areas like a swarm of Piranhas. 
* It is done because instead of carefully choreographing a scene, it is easier to just place opponents everywhere so that Players WILL frequently run into them and have to engage (no matter that fighting every one of them is in EXACTLY the same way -- rather unimaginatively/boringly). Players can navigate past many of them in open areas, but these opponents are often placed such that you cannot move in a straight line for more then 10 seconds without activating at least one. Spacing is usually close enough that any kind of maneuvering tactics are pointless ( you just activate more opponents ).
What would the MMORPG do different ?
Fewer Opponents, but ones with more complex/varying tactics (quality vs quantity) and using the terrain advantages (more like some Solo games). The processing power for this AI is 100 X as much as the game 'dummies' mentioned above, but they would be far fewer ( and make use of the CPU/memory advancements over the past years to have MORE Artificial Intelligence ). These NPC Opponents should also look like they BELONG where they are, instead of just being randomly dropped onto the scenery by the developers.
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Combat Complexity Conundrum :
With more complicated MMORPG tactics ( or more potential options or many more appropriate actions/counter-actions/tactics ) the Player likely needs some (more) time to think in the middle of ongoing (and more complex) situations.
Solutions :
* Have more consideration to 'set up' before things start getting chaotic/moving too quickly (as happens in reality).
* You can't really stop time if other Players are involved ( and you probably cannot 'slow' time practically either ). SO that's not viable.
* Perhaps have more stalling tactics for 'time to think' ( and then to work the appropriate controls )
* Getting useful suggestion from your NPCs can assist (Having THEM take appropriate action immediately for much of the time also could help).
* Have the game have more unexpected results ( thus being more chaotic and confusing everyone equally ). 
* Majority of interactions are with 'normal' weapons and tools the Player would get used to (effective with) using and so 'special' items get used less frequently.
* Minimize unrealistic 'quick switch' game mechanics ( in real life, if you take the time to switch guns, the firefight frequently continues and then quickly is over, and you are DEAD ).
* Absolutely DO NOT speed up game interactions to be 'less boring'. Internet delays have enough problems without that problem being intentionally exaggerated ( used most often even in AAA games to cover up deficiencies ).
* Proper cover to hide behind and hesitant enemies can give the Player a little 'time to think'.
* Creativity with given resources is a good thing.
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Visual Appearance/Actions Indicate Damage State, Instead of 'Health Bar' for Opponents/Allies/Self :
It is too perfect to know 'to the last HitPoint' when you are 'winning'/losing/tired/etc ... (Ditto about your opponents state). More realistic indicators can be done in a game which offers more clues/cues.
* Better visual effects to generally indicate damage ( red vision, blurred tunnel vision, etc ... )
* Impairments of actions as a clue ( slowness/wavering/clumsiness/stumbling/dropping things/limps/etc ... loss of accuracy ). Some can be subtle, others more obvious.
* Degradation of strength multiplies the effects of encumberment and endurance. Not having exaggerated movements and better animations give the Player more time to spot the clues.
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The Imbecile Ramp (Typical Game Design) :
When MOST NPC enemies simply get More Healthpoints (adjusted up) and DO More Damage simply by increasing their programmed attribute coefficients(damage done/hit-rates), INSTEAD of being harder because of improved tactical abilities ( which requires clever scripting/programming ). Yes, via bigger/more-powerful weapon types too, and their program controlled accuracy.
This shit poor method is the solution most MMORPGs employ, so that enemy abilities can be easily tailored (test adjusted) within a Level-bound Player Advancement System ( also mostly adjusted for the Players by upping some similar coefficients/attributes for them too ).
"Scream and Run Straight at Player" and start beating on them until one or the other is dead (standard MMORPG combat 'tactic'). Then there are the 'Scenarios' with 'placed' big opponents and 'triggered' spawns ( all canned and idiotically simple to implement ).
For the MMORPG the massive improvement would be avoiding "The Imbecile Ramp".
The problem is the huge mass of clever scripting that versatile game opponents require to adapt to the players actions (and to fit the terrain).
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Remote Sensing (No, not that Late Night radio crap) and Such (a Player's Methodology) :
* Use of surveillance/security cameras and alarms (probably you have to repair most you find/acquire and/or tap into them - that requiring certain Tech Skills ... )
* Flybot remote camera (if you can get ahold of one -- or make (?) one), though they mostly are fairly low-res and show outlines, but some were stereo ( used in range detection of obstacles ).
* Looking through holes in walls -- boring holes thru wall (or spying through vents/windows) to see if anything of interest is beyond - before alot of effort is put into opening a blocked passage/door. Cleaning the obscuring windows ( Jump Scare when you find someone inside looking out at you ... )
* Listening devices and noise makers ( Trip line string with cans is a favorite Splicer trick, and one frequently fallen-for by novice adventurers in the ruins. )
* Tapping into Phones or listening to Radio traffic ( Splicers still use such things - just because they are somewhat insane doesn't mean that they are stupid ... )
Be aware that the Splicers know these tricks, and use them themselves, or rig them to NOT show you the truth, or to bait you.
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Co-op Beatem Up :
With the lowering of game 'fatalities' ( without the ridiculous body counts ) and decline of many weapons ( no good Ammo any more and unreliable operation ... )
SO having more hand-to-hand fighting, with difficulties of Internet latency delays being involved - possibly having 'Slo-Mo' type time-dilation being made to work (OR your Client program actually handling most of the (non-Player) adversary's fight tactics ? ). 
Slo-Mo can work if the Players aren't interfered with, and that 'fight' situation is isolated (kept independent of the rest of the MMORPG game -- matching with the "Server Bubble" mechanisms this MMORPG would employ).
Oh goodie goodie ... 'Special Moves' ( A HAH !! - ANOTHER Player Creation kind of Asset Type )
Sorry, no 'Execution' moves (except for killing vermin).
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Combat Limitations in "The Ruins" :
Things like Ammo eventually run out ( and never in great supply to start with ), and the home-made stuff is usually pretty awful, so you probably should have more hand weapons and hand-to-hand combat.
Even with blunt instruments/short hand weapons, you can transition into punch/kick/grapple/push etc..
Flank/rear angles make a difference ( so many games ignore this and the maneuvering aspect of Combat )
Blocks/Ducks/Dodges/Faints (bwith the usual timing problem of getting sufficient reaction timeb)
The Less-fatal injuries helps with the MMORPG's game theme.
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Find The Way Through (Turned About) :
Interesting thing they added in BS2 was your ability of building your defenses for the 'Gathering' or 'The Big Bad Sister is Coming' and the "Obtain the LS Big Daddy Ambush' ( and if you get bored 'Fun Play with the Splicers' ). Sometimes made quickly and on-the-fly, and other times with some long preparation ( Didn't you hate when Splicers would start to respawn that would disrupt your carefully placed traps ?? ).   pix of boom room
In the MMORPG you now can have a Residence, a Store, a camp out in the Ruins, a salvage site, a Team Base, which you might protect with defenses "in depth" against who-knows-what might come crawling out-of-the-woodwork ( or the odd 'battle' with hastily deployed defensive measures or rearguard tactics ).  Various assortments/kinds of countermeasures to deploy ...
Your Residence in New Rapture (or in its outskirts) would be most permanent and warrant investment to protect its contents ( from criminals in the city and the odd Splicer invasion ).  Nice 'genetic' locks can still be 'hacked' and outright open robbery isn't impossible ( as well as the more typical leaks, fires, accidental munitions explosions ).
Your 'Team' NPC Base is where you store your equipment, tools, loot, and fabricating materials, likewise is a permanent location needing some protective measures.
A Mission Base out in the 'unsettled' parts of Rapture, can still be made reasonably secure with a little effort, though Splicers can be very creative and do the unexpected ( and they can even just 'mess with you' because they are bored ).  Picking a good spot with the best defensive opportunities, is an important factor.  
Even a fairly temporary salvage site can be subject to ambush, calling for temporary defensive countermeasures, but often relying more on personnel reaction.  Sometimes, just being as unnoticeable as possible works.
Consider that Splicers aren't stupid ( will be as smart as the Player AI Programmers can make them ), and neither always disorganized ( these aren't your Fathers 'Splicers ... ).  They can be as clever as anyone, and you can face their similar 'defenses', as you do your adventuring out there ...
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We Still Gots To Have Plasmids in the MMORPG !!!! :
What would BioShock be without Plasmids ?
Idea that some Splicer's Tonics and Plasmids 'stuck' -- That they didn't deteriorate in some individuals and continued to function ( now with MMORPG limitations and 'extra' deterioration adjustments ... ie- misfires/slow recharge-times/inaccuracy ).
Some Plasmid stockpiles may have still existed ( or Factions still making them ), but these would be few/rare.
Random ( Programming the NPC Game AI to use them properly with tactics will be the challenge).
But does this mean that some Players still have an 'ability' ?? Wouldn't that be unfair ? (Or just a interesting part of the game ?)
Players would of course get to use them in Flashbacks and during Splicer RolePlaying ...
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For Your Training Convenience :
City Shooting Gallery and Range (in New Rapture) - trying to look like a combat simulator, but with really lousy kludged targets, and things that malfunction all the time, in amusing ways.
* Various Training by "Experts" - especially for many non-lethal skills/weapons. "Think Like a Splicer", etc...
* City Sponsored Pamphlets "The Splicer - Please Don't Kill Them" ... and "Aim for the nerve cluster under the Armpits"
* Training Required for your Future Job as a Constable. How to handle a 'net' for disorderly Citizens. Fisticuffs and how to handle the brawlers. What to do against an opponent with A Pointed Stick.
* Probably a good venue for 'tutorials' about various weapons and trainable tactics ( to get used to the interface usage to make it do what you intend ).
* Variety of weapons to test shoot with.
* "Who is Atlas" posters have all been used up (target practice) - hardly one left to be found. ( Most of Lambs were destroyed by her ex-followers already ).
* BYOA (Bring Your Own Ammo)
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Excuses for Why Combat Is Less Fatal In This MMORPG :
Bullets are harder to come by, so you wont be seeing Splicers or Player spraying bullets from Tommy-guns too often.    
Ammunition Quality isn't what it used to be - alot more homemade stuff (even more of the weapons are homemade).   Quality of the ammo increases misfires, poor accuracy and range.
Rapture is generally less bloodthirsty -- particularly when no longer is some homicidal monster running around bent on shooting up everywhere it goes ( like Jack/Delta/Sigma ).  Similarly, huge ADAM Bounties being offered against 'monsters' are a bit rarer.  
Splicing has had a marked decline, with limited ADAM supplies.  Remaining Splicers have 'evolved', with those remaining alive (surviving)  being the ones who weren't so violent and more cautious.  The people who NEVER spliced also proved more productive.
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Scarcity of ADAM - So Other Weapons :
With Chaos-era ADAM shortages, various other things might be employed as weapons, besides the usual knives/clubs/remaining-guns/chunks-of-concrete. People can be creative. 
There were some Bio-Toxins projected by Plasmids ( Snake Gene recombination ??? )
But equivalent Toxins can be projected manually ( sprayers/guns/coated blades/fume-bombs ) if you have a source for them. Caustics/burning-fuels would be even simpler to obtain ( cleansing powder thrown into a face ... ). 
Various explosives have already been demonstrated.
Of course this requires similar tactics done by Splicers and NPCs - which requires good AI scripting/programming to add all the various combat actions plausible.
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Wounds ( "That which does not kill you ... " ) :
Memorable animations(s) from "Farcry 2/3" - When you were injured sufficiently, there were first-person animations of you doing crude surgery/injury fixing operations ( pulling a bullet out with pliers, cauterizing a wound with a cluster of matches, beating out your arm on fire, etc ... Besides the usual sticking in a needle or popping some pills ) which would make neat additions to this game. Doubly because you can watch/see other Players/NPCs/Splicers doing it as well.
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Slo-Mo Combat ( Solution (?) For When Things Start Happening Too Fast ) :
With the additional situational factors and more actions to be taken ( and likely more complicated interface manipulations - with same old clumsy interfaces ), and orders to issue to the players NPC 'Team' ( and maybe a bit of lag due to the richer and more realistic environment ) --- ?? Does too much happen too fast for the Combat to work to be controllable ??
Would a game solution be 'Slo-Mo' in Combat to help Players handle things easier ???
* There is the complication of multiple players involved, with players shifting into and out of the 'Slo-Mo' zone ...
* It does help that much of Rapture is 'closed in' to isolate combat areas ( to limit things involved in the combat situation )
* A significant goal change now is to capture Splicers and try NOT to kill them, which may make players actions a bit more complicated than "blast it til it is dead" strategies, ( but the goal changes may also make things harder to 'kill'/disable ).
Alternatives would be to have more 'setup' preparations of 'automatic' reactions - particularly with roles/stances for the player's NPC 'Team', so the Player doesn't have to micro-manage them ( NPCs then to have proper AI scripting to act somewhat intelligently ).
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Man The Barricades !!! :
In BioShock, you couldn't pile up Objects/props (picked up/positioned/dropped with Telekinesis) to make effective barricades - as the NPCs just walk right through them. In the MMORPG, the Physics Engine (part of the game program handling physical interactions between objects) would have higher detail, and be more dynamic, and handle all Objects appropriately (There are no 'static' objects in the MMORPG) and more realistically.
Of course static defenses have their limitations. Enemies can go around/over them, and use them for 'Cover' like you can. The Player's object manipulation interface (pickup/drop) won't be that much better than what you could do in the Solo games, so their tediousness would be the same (maybe the Team NPCs could do a better job -- Their AI could easily be programmed to do that, with a little Player direction.)
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I Really Wish We Had a 'Taunt' Button Like We Did In Other Games :
In Combat, taunting Splicers to get them to react ( in a way you hope to make them ) would be a tactic - like the throwing think mechanic to distract them ...
Even if  with Delta 'OOOOMMMing' and 'ARGGGGhing' audibly , with funny captioned translations shown - appropriate  to the current dialog/radio messages or opponent type it is addressed to.
All Sofia_Lamb's propaganda spew and whining and threats - It would have been nice to answer her back as she  deserved.  Grace was pretty annoying too.  ( Though it would have to wait until they got out their little Spiel first ).
Then having the other party reply/react in some appropriate way would be even better ( and is harder to program ).   Some simple dialog sequences with canned verbal interactions would be a good idea for the MMORPG - Built into Quests/Missions and also general responses from NPCs and Splicers ( have Player Creators writing up alot of different ones so as to not be too repetitive - Voice acting as usual complicates creating such Assets ).
Heh, this would be a good addition for the 'historic' situation recreations - Giving you the opportunity you  were denied in the original games.
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Memo : Add "Combat Roll" move for Player like Leadhead Splicers had in BS1 :
Peak/Lean around corner will be almost a required ability ( watch out, the Splicers will do it too ).
Much nicer to have options more than "Charge out and start Blasting" most of the BioShock combat mechanics consisted of.
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Psycho Booker  (Video Compilation of Unusual Deaths and NPC Reactions) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQGzbD1ERMc
So many NPCs in Infinite BS just stood there like unresponsive puppets ( even when shot repeatedly ), or simply cowered unconvincingly.  It wasn't really part of the story, so why script it any better ? (Par for most games ...)  Though having crowd fight scenes where the (in-the way) non-combatants react properly might have been interesting ( making you think fast which are trying to Flee vs ones going to Attack you ... ) -- But having ALOT of complex/sophisticated scripting was WAY beyond that game.
SO if we are going to have more realism and freedom of action in the MMORPG, then how do you handle the Players who YOU KNOW are going to try to 'see what happens' when walking around in the nice safe streets of New Rapture ? "Lets just stab THAT Newspaper Vender to see what happens !!"   First, maybe the NPCs will be better shots and faster reacting than the Player (and bystanders beat the miscreant down before they can pull that weapon at their NPC target and aim it). After a few trips to the hospital, the sociopathic Players might become enlightened.  After multiple failures the chronically immature Players will leave the game.
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The wannabe sociopath (Player) finds themself on a operating table getting a "Trans-Orbital Lobotomy" as Dr Tenenbaum talks endlessly about "degeneratz" brain tissue and "adjustinks" to the patient. There would be an interesting 'trip', seeing this surgery treatment happen from the inside  ( different but similar to the 'therapy odyssey' the Player goes thru during their entrance into the game ). The surgery sound effects should be good.
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