by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Like many MMOs today, Wildstar – the upcoming sci-fi game from Carbine – bears some striking similarities to World of Warcraft. More than most, in fact, as several of the game’s developers are ex-Blizzard employees. But Wildstar has done a few things differently – good and bad – that WoW can learn from.

‘I’M A’ CHARGIN’ MAH LASER!’

Before we go any further, full disclaimer: I’m not in the Wildstar beta, so these are my thoughts from a second-hand viewpoint. Rather than a wall of text, I’m going to do it in list form. Because we’re on the internet. And the internet loooooves lists.

1. Early introduction to end-game mechanics

Wildstar uses a telegraph system – red for enemies, blue for the player and green for allies – for the vast majority of its spells and abilities, both NPC- and player-cast – something WoW only introduces at higher levels, and mainly in dungeons.

Wildstar’s entire combat system is built around telegraphs, adding a significant skill requirement for fast-paced play. Not something that can be added to WoW easily, but an earlier introduction would be good.

2. Breakout gameplay

Crowd control in Wildstar isn’t something you need to wait out; players have ways to counter the effects. When disarmed, your weapon will appear nearby in the world – you can wait out the duration, or run to the weapon and rearm yourself. Stuns can be shortened by mashing F; knockdowns can be broken with an in-combat Dash (more on that in a moment); disorients actually swap your movement keys around. My favourite are blind effects, which don’t limit your combat effectiveness in any way – because of the telegraph system, you can still use your abilities – but with a black haze across most of the screen, aiming is difficult.

CC is an essential part of MMO gameplay, but it’s also to blame for many keyboard-smashing incidents. Giving everyone the ability to counter CC effects – if they’re paying attention – helps to level the playing field between different classes and races.

3. Interrupt Armour

A system called Interrupt Armour (IA) means that CC in Wildstar is effective on almost every enemy – including bosses. Think of it as an anti-CC shield. Most NPCs have at least one charge, but hitting them with CC will remove a stack. So a boss with three stacks will need to be hit with four CC effects before they’re actually stunned – but when they are, if you caught them at the right time (mid-cast), they’ll take extra damage for a short amount of time.

Even though I’ve never played a game with IA, nowhere have I missed the mechanic more than my guild‘s attempts at Heroic Garrosh. Adds in the first transition phase need to be stunned and/or interrupted. As a Mage I have two stuns, one of which requires a frozen target – the adds are immune to freezes, so I have to be Frost – and the other being a DPS cooldown, Combustion, which requires me to be Fire and waste damage if used on them. Do I have other CC spells? Yes. Dragon’s Breath is an AoE daze effect, but guess what – the adds are immune. Polymorph? Immune. Ring of Frost? Immune. Frostjaw? Immune.

CC hasn’t been needed in WoW’s dungeons – aside from Challenge Modes – for a long time. IA is a way of keeping it relevant while fostering group co-ordination.

4. World engagement

I mentioned Dash earlier. All players in Wildstar have access to three innate movement ‘abilities’, in addition to class spells: Sprint, Dash and double-jump. Sprint, as you might expect, lets you run faster for a short period of time, but dazes you if you’re hit; Dash is a leap in a certain direction, useful to get out of harmful telegraphs or into friendly ones. Double-jump is…two jumps. Duh.

Because everyone has access to them, the game world has been built with these abilities in mind. WoW can’t implement a quest that requires Blink – it wouldn’t be fair to you lesser classes – but Wildstar can build encounters and areas that need you to Sprint around objects and double-jump to ledges. The result is a player base that interacts with the world, to an extent that WoW hasn’t ever seen – especially since the introduction of flying mounts.

5. Percentage-based quests

Originally, Wildstar had a lot of ‘Kill 10 rats’ quests, like WoW. Based on feedback, Carbine made a simple but effective change. The percentage-based quest system is designed so that killing harder enemies will reward you with greater completion; you can kill one Small Rat to get 10% completion, or one Mega-Rat to get 50% completion. The system gives players choice in how they want to complete quests – slow and easy, or hard and fast.

6. Challenges

Cataclysm implemented the ability to discover, accept and hand in quests ‘in the field’ by finding an area or killing a specific enemy. These help to break up the monotony of normal questing, but once they’re accepted, the majority are still ‘Kill 10 rats’-type quests.

Players in Wildstar will sometimes see Challenges pop up as they move through the world. These small objectives range from a time-limited killing spree to avoiding damage from a certain mob. There are three levels of completion and a chance at extra items at the end, like gold or housing rewards; a fun way to keep people engaged while nuking down their Small Rats.

These are my first thoughts, but there are plenty more – including some negative aspects of Wildstar – that I’ll cover in a separate, upcoming article. Until then, enjoy gaming – in Azeroth, the Nexus or elsewhere.

What do you think WoW can take away from Carbine’s MMO? Let us know in the comments.

Featured image courtesy of Carbine, with tweaks by Cantor.