Mechanics That Would Spice Up New Operations
INCOMING WALL OF TEXT!
With the announcement that there will be no new operations with the release of the new expansion, I think it’s safe to assume that a new operation has not already been designed/coded/etc. With this in mind, I would like to make some suggestions for possible mechanics that keep boss fights interesting without oversaturating them with RNG. (Note: These are all mechanics which I have experienced either in this game or in other MMOs. After conferring with several guild mates, these are the top suggestions.)
It is important to note that these are mechanics and not fully fleshed out boss encounters. This means that these should not be the ONLY mechanics during a fight. They are simply boss mechanics that make encounters revolve more on player skill and coordination, rather than RNG and tank n spanks.
1. A “healing boss.”
This type of boss encounter is a reverse of what raiders are usually faced with. Instead of a big bad enemy who needs to be slain, the raid team is faced with an ally NPC boss who is critically injured. The raid team must heal the ally to full, while fending off waves of enemies attempting to damage/heal-debuff the boss. Other adds spawn to attempt to damage the raid members themselves. This adds another layer of strategic decisions to an encounter as DPSers with healing abilities will need to weigh when to throw a heal on the boss or themselves and when to dps the enemies. This style of fight also tests the Tanks' ability to pick up adds, rather than just tank swap a single boss all day.
2. Mind control.
This mechanic is always fun in a raid. At various points during the encounter, the boss (or an add) will cast a mind control on a random raid member (excluding the tanks). This causes the player’s character to fight for the boss, either healing the boss and the adds or damaging the raiders. The MC’d character’s model should also appear larger for easier recognition for the team. This mechanic usually is accompanied by a damage/healing increase buff on the MC’d player, making the ccs of the rest of the team absolutely vital. The mind control should last for no less than 10 seconds. This forces the raiders to chain their CCs on their ally, preventing the mind controlled player from attacking the rest of the raid. Since there are no raid warning addons in this game, here is an example of how this might work:
- <In red letters across the screen> “Boss X summons a Dark Sorceress.”
- The add runs to the middle of the room, and casts a five second mind control cast (can’t take damage for this phase)
- When the cast finishes, a player is mind controlled. The add then casts what looks like a Sorc barrier (is now able to take damage).
- It is now up to the raid to chain CC their teammate, while doing enough damage to the add to break the barrier and kill the add.
- When the add dies, the mind control ends.
3. A parkour boss.
Movement always spices up a boss fight. And in an MMO, movement should never be restricted to just two dimensions. We are in a three dimensional world, use it. On the Soa fight, having to jump down, dps pylons, and heal at various intervals…all while knowing the platform you are on will be falling out from under you at any moment! That was a fun mechanic. We saw something similar in the Revan fight. However, to this mechanic, I would suggest something that is unique to swtor (that I know of): the MGGS. Anyone who has ever gotten the fleet datacron knows about this. How about a boss with a platforming phase like Soa, except where the team heads up instead of down. A boss fight where everyone is grappling all over the place could make for an exciting encounter.
4. An LoS boss.
Line of sight is absolutely vital for any abilities to hit. This is true for bosses as well. We saw this mechanic from the Titan in S&V. However, there was little skill required for this. Players simply went behind a rock and took their hands off their keyboards for a few seconds. Here is an example of how to make this mechanic more interesting:
- Bounty Hunter Boss flies into the air and, after 5 seconds, puts two random raiders into carbonite ( this allows for the raid team to position for this phase).
- He then channels an “inferno” AOE, radiating flames out in all direction that go until they hit either a wall of the room OR a frozen raider.
- Raiders must hide behind their frozen comrades to avoid heavy damage.
- They must also deal damage to the frozen carbonite blocks in order to break their friends out (frozen raiders should be taking ticking damage from “hibernation sickness” and while encased, cannot be healed).
- If the raiders break the block too early, there is no more LoS and the whole raid takes the full damage for the “inferno” aoe.
- If the raiders break the block too late, their ally inside dies from periodic damage from “hibernation sickness.”
- Bounty Hunter Boss finishes his channel, so the aoe stops, and the raiders finish off the carbonite blocks to break out their comrades before they die.
This change to the LoS mechanic adds much more nuance to the “just go hide and do nothing while the boss does something” mechanic.
5. A vehicle boss.
Sometimes, mere humanoids just don’t bring enough utility to a fight! This type of boss generally is a single tank fight, where the offtank gets into a VEHICLE of some sort, gaining a new action bar with 3-4 new abilities (probably a walker). Alternatively, the fight can require two tanks and have a longer enrage timer, allowing for a DPS to handle the VEHICLE duties. It is important to note that this type of fight requires a large area (can’t code this type of boss encounter in a room like the one we see Torque in!) Here is an example of how this fight would look:
- Whoever is in the vehicle is AGGRO IMMUNE.
- Vehicle has 3 abilities:
1) Overload, deals X damage to a single target. (1 sec cd)
2) Extinguish, splashes a large amount of water onto the floor immediately underneath the vehicle. (1 sec cd)
3) Hinder, slows an add by 50% for 5 seconds. (10 sec cd)
- Boss occasionally throws a thermal detonator at a random raid member, leaving a fiery circle on the floor. Every 4 seconds, the circle gets bigger and bigger. On a scale of 1-10, let’s say it starts at size 3 and grows until it reaches size 10. VEHICLE RAIDER must get to the circle and spam Extinguish to lessen the size by 1 upon every use (so a minimum of 3 uses).
- Every 20 seconds, a bomb droid add spawns from the right side of the room, then the left next time the spawn timer is up. It quickly races toward the raider who is farthest from it. VEHICLE RAIDER must use Hinder on it, slowing it so it doesn’t hit the raid member it’s targeting. Rest of the DPS kills it before it reaches their ally. Upon death, the droid explodes, creating the same kind of fiery circle that the Boss’ thermal detonators do. VEHICLE RAIDER now must Extinguish this circle as well.
- VEHICLE RAIDER’s Overload ability is basically an auto-attack. It is used whenever there is no fire on the ground to soak up and no adds to slow. This should not happen often.
- If too many fiery circles get put down and are not controlled, their size will become so big (at size 10) that the raid runs out of room and will die to fire damage.
- There should only be 1 or 2 other mechanics in the fight as too many mechanics on a fight like this make it too chaotic. (But great for nightmare mode!)
- Other mechanics should generally revolve around the boss, as the vehicle mechanic inherently relies on adds and raid awareness away from the boss. These boss mechanics should be fairly simple, such as: 1) a frontal cone knockback or 2) a debilitating debuff put on a DPS which lowers their damage by half (cleansable by all healers).
**This last suggestion is not a mechanic but it is an important part of a well-made operation…It is also something that we have never seen in in this game…
WINGED OPERATIONS.
One of the most important aspects of an MMO, and especially one so focused on story, is the illusion of CHOICE. When fighting your way through an operation, raiders should be able to choose the order of the bosses they attempt (except for the final boss, of course). It makes it feel like you are invading a fortress, rather than fighting down a linear hallway. For instance:
- Raid defeats Boss A
- Raid continues on through trash packs until they reach a crossroad with an elevator in the middle.
- Turning LEFT allows the Raid to take a ramp down to Boss B or a ramp up to Boss C
- Turning RIGHT allows the Raid to cross a bridge and fight Boss D
- Going STRAIGHT allows the Raid to fight Boss E
The order the Raid defeats the bosses is up to them, however ALL five of the Bosses (A,B,C,D,E) must be defeated to unlock the elevator at the crossroad, which takes the raid to the final Boss (F)
WINGED OPERATIONS allow for players who are good at some mechanics but not others to still progress. It also fosters different clearance strategies among teams. It also HUGELY benefits the Development Team, as it allows time to fix a bugged boss while the player base continues to raid other bosses.
TLDR: Top five boss mechanic suggestions.
1) A "healing" boss.
2) Mind Control.
3) A "parkour" boss.
4) An LoS boss.
5) A vehicle boss.
Non-mechanic operation suggestion = winged operations.
With the announcement that there will be no new operations with the release of the new expansion, I think it’s safe to assume that a new operation has not already been designed/coded/etc. With this in mind, I would like to make some suggestions for possible mechanics that keep boss fights interesting without oversaturating them with RNG. (Note: These are all mechanics which I have experienced either in this game or in other MMOs. After conferring with several guild mates, these are the top suggestions.)
It is important to note that these are mechanics and not fully fleshed out boss encounters. This means that these should not be the ONLY mechanics during a fight. They are simply boss mechanics that make encounters revolve more on player skill and coordination, rather than RNG and tank n spanks.
1. A “healing boss.”
This type of boss encounter is a reverse of what raiders are usually faced with. Instead of a big bad enemy who needs to be slain, the raid team is faced with an ally NPC boss who is critically injured. The raid team must heal the ally to full, while fending off waves of enemies attempting to damage/heal-debuff the boss. Other adds spawn to attempt to damage the raid members themselves. This adds another layer of strategic decisions to an encounter as DPSers with healing abilities will need to weigh when to throw a heal on the boss or themselves and when to dps the enemies. This style of fight also tests the Tanks' ability to pick up adds, rather than just tank swap a single boss all day.
2. Mind control.
This mechanic is always fun in a raid. At various points during the encounter, the boss (or an add) will cast a mind control on a random raid member (excluding the tanks). This causes the player’s character to fight for the boss, either healing the boss and the adds or damaging the raiders. The MC’d character’s model should also appear larger for easier recognition for the team. This mechanic usually is accompanied by a damage/healing increase buff on the MC’d player, making the ccs of the rest of the team absolutely vital. The mind control should last for no less than 10 seconds. This forces the raiders to chain their CCs on their ally, preventing the mind controlled player from attacking the rest of the raid. Since there are no raid warning addons in this game, here is an example of how this might work:
- <In red letters across the screen> “Boss X summons a Dark Sorceress.”
- The add runs to the middle of the room, and casts a five second mind control cast (can’t take damage for this phase)
- When the cast finishes, a player is mind controlled. The add then casts what looks like a Sorc barrier (is now able to take damage).
- It is now up to the raid to chain CC their teammate, while doing enough damage to the add to break the barrier and kill the add.
- When the add dies, the mind control ends.
3. A parkour boss.
Movement always spices up a boss fight. And in an MMO, movement should never be restricted to just two dimensions. We are in a three dimensional world, use it. On the Soa fight, having to jump down, dps pylons, and heal at various intervals…all while knowing the platform you are on will be falling out from under you at any moment! That was a fun mechanic. We saw something similar in the Revan fight. However, to this mechanic, I would suggest something that is unique to swtor (that I know of): the MGGS. Anyone who has ever gotten the fleet datacron knows about this. How about a boss with a platforming phase like Soa, except where the team heads up instead of down. A boss fight where everyone is grappling all over the place could make for an exciting encounter.
4. An LoS boss.
Line of sight is absolutely vital for any abilities to hit. This is true for bosses as well. We saw this mechanic from the Titan in S&V. However, there was little skill required for this. Players simply went behind a rock and took their hands off their keyboards for a few seconds. Here is an example of how to make this mechanic more interesting:
- Bounty Hunter Boss flies into the air and, after 5 seconds, puts two random raiders into carbonite ( this allows for the raid team to position for this phase).
- He then channels an “inferno” AOE, radiating flames out in all direction that go until they hit either a wall of the room OR a frozen raider.
- Raiders must hide behind their frozen comrades to avoid heavy damage.
- They must also deal damage to the frozen carbonite blocks in order to break their friends out (frozen raiders should be taking ticking damage from “hibernation sickness” and while encased, cannot be healed).
- If the raiders break the block too early, there is no more LoS and the whole raid takes the full damage for the “inferno” aoe.
- If the raiders break the block too late, their ally inside dies from periodic damage from “hibernation sickness.”
- Bounty Hunter Boss finishes his channel, so the aoe stops, and the raiders finish off the carbonite blocks to break out their comrades before they die.
This change to the LoS mechanic adds much more nuance to the “just go hide and do nothing while the boss does something” mechanic.
5. A vehicle boss.
Sometimes, mere humanoids just don’t bring enough utility to a fight! This type of boss generally is a single tank fight, where the offtank gets into a VEHICLE of some sort, gaining a new action bar with 3-4 new abilities (probably a walker). Alternatively, the fight can require two tanks and have a longer enrage timer, allowing for a DPS to handle the VEHICLE duties. It is important to note that this type of fight requires a large area (can’t code this type of boss encounter in a room like the one we see Torque in!) Here is an example of how this fight would look:
- Whoever is in the vehicle is AGGRO IMMUNE.
- Vehicle has 3 abilities:
1) Overload, deals X damage to a single target. (1 sec cd)
2) Extinguish, splashes a large amount of water onto the floor immediately underneath the vehicle. (1 sec cd)
3) Hinder, slows an add by 50% for 5 seconds. (10 sec cd)
- Boss occasionally throws a thermal detonator at a random raid member, leaving a fiery circle on the floor. Every 4 seconds, the circle gets bigger and bigger. On a scale of 1-10, let’s say it starts at size 3 and grows until it reaches size 10. VEHICLE RAIDER must get to the circle and spam Extinguish to lessen the size by 1 upon every use (so a minimum of 3 uses).
- Every 20 seconds, a bomb droid add spawns from the right side of the room, then the left next time the spawn timer is up. It quickly races toward the raider who is farthest from it. VEHICLE RAIDER must use Hinder on it, slowing it so it doesn’t hit the raid member it’s targeting. Rest of the DPS kills it before it reaches their ally. Upon death, the droid explodes, creating the same kind of fiery circle that the Boss’ thermal detonators do. VEHICLE RAIDER now must Extinguish this circle as well.
- VEHICLE RAIDER’s Overload ability is basically an auto-attack. It is used whenever there is no fire on the ground to soak up and no adds to slow. This should not happen often.
- If too many fiery circles get put down and are not controlled, their size will become so big (at size 10) that the raid runs out of room and will die to fire damage.
- There should only be 1 or 2 other mechanics in the fight as too many mechanics on a fight like this make it too chaotic. (But great for nightmare mode!)
- Other mechanics should generally revolve around the boss, as the vehicle mechanic inherently relies on adds and raid awareness away from the boss. These boss mechanics should be fairly simple, such as: 1) a frontal cone knockback or 2) a debilitating debuff put on a DPS which lowers their damage by half (cleansable by all healers).
**This last suggestion is not a mechanic but it is an important part of a well-made operation…It is also something that we have never seen in in this game…
WINGED OPERATIONS.
One of the most important aspects of an MMO, and especially one so focused on story, is the illusion of CHOICE. When fighting your way through an operation, raiders should be able to choose the order of the bosses they attempt (except for the final boss, of course). It makes it feel like you are invading a fortress, rather than fighting down a linear hallway. For instance:
- Raid defeats Boss A
- Raid continues on through trash packs until they reach a crossroad with an elevator in the middle.
- Turning LEFT allows the Raid to take a ramp down to Boss B or a ramp up to Boss C
- Turning RIGHT allows the Raid to cross a bridge and fight Boss D
- Going STRAIGHT allows the Raid to fight Boss E
The order the Raid defeats the bosses is up to them, however ALL five of the Bosses (A,B,C,D,E) must be defeated to unlock the elevator at the crossroad, which takes the raid to the final Boss (F)
WINGED OPERATIONS allow for players who are good at some mechanics but not others to still progress. It also fosters different clearance strategies among teams. It also HUGELY benefits the Development Team, as it allows time to fix a bugged boss while the player base continues to raid other bosses.
TLDR: Top five boss mechanic suggestions.
1) A "healing" boss.
2) Mind Control.
3) A "parkour" boss.
4) An LoS boss.
5) A vehicle boss.
Non-mechanic operation suggestion = winged operations.
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