The problem of group vs group combat

[Roac]

All tanks regenerate HP at a steady, non-trivial rate.  Tanks which are stacked can still be targeted individually (requirement was for individual turrets to be blown off), but will share a percent of their damage with the larger tank structure.  Perhaps some sort of curve, where two tanks will deliver 75% to the target and 25% to the other, whereas composite tanks of greater than some value X will do 25% to the target, and 75% to everyone else (divided amongst them).  Additionally, the HP regeneration rate is shared between the tanks, either partially or totally, so that if an individual tank is being targeted, it will notice an improved regeneration rate over what it could expect on its own.

Assuming the tradeoff for this buff is speed, you need to have some sort of requirement in battle to include mobility.  That is, there needs to be a reason for each side to do something OTHER than form Voltron at the first sign of a threat.  The classic naval/space combat scenario you might picture here is the desire for both capital ships and fighters; you need strategic justification for both.

[bhodi]

Why not make it completely immobile?

[eldaec]

oh, I see what you mean.

In that case, you could make self buffs apply across everyone linked I guess.

Espeicially if self buffs were used to deliver most of the inherent abilities/advantages of each class as in EQ2 or CoH.

[Krakrok]

Maybe tanks have shields and when grouped it's a universal shield so you have to blow through all of the combined shield before you can damage any of the combined tank. And/or single tanks takes more damage at the back. And/or a combined tank has a forward main gun (like the MagRider) and you have to get a big enough combined tank so the main gun can shoot through the enemy base shield (like a siege tank). And/or maybe there are different weapons for tanks so you can take a low damage long range or a high damage short range or a missile rack or a shield only so a combined tank could have a bunch of different single weapon tanks on it.

Could be spaceships or airships instead of tanks.

[sinij]

How about shared pool of hit points during group fights with only portion of damage dealt to individual target and rest getting distributed to other participants?

What problem is this intended to solve?

Focus-gank of soft targets resulting in bunch of instant deaths in group combat. In PvE you have agro management in PvP.... nada.

[Pococurante]

How about shared pool of hit points during group fights with only portion of damage dealt to individual target and rest getting distributed to other participants?

I think area effect is definitely the right direction.  Maybe there are threshold points at which multiple turrets on the ogre "cross beams" to create cones, the more turrets the wider the cone and stronger its intensity - but the less its range.

[Hoax]

Again though why can't something akin to that have been implemented in the current crop of auto-attack + hot-key worlds?

A Spirit Link (thanks mtg) type spell where damage received/taken is shared between the caster and the target.  One tiny spell at least adds half a layer of lacking complexity to the "hey clothie lets all shoot it really dead in .5 seconds!" paradigm that currently dominates.

Plus that leads you pretty simply to a bunch of other nifty damage sharing/redirecting ideas that could make combat pretty cool and tactical.

The problem is you can't make those types of spells (either at all or with a power level where they would matter in pvp) apparently without trivializing pve content.  Or  you can and devs are just too stupid or something.

I still blame pve for why pvp always ends up sucking in A-List MMO's.

[Krakrok]

Guild Wars has all kinds of spells like have been talked about in this thread though? Invincibility, damage sharing, damage redirect, etc.

[Alkiera]

EQ1's cleric class has an AA ability that takes the group's hitpoints and redistributes them so everyone is at the same amount of health... and depending on the rank of the ability, it's a lossy process.

It's useful in a fight where the tank takes a bit pike of damage when already low, as you can balance hp to get him up to some hp, then hit a group heal spell to fill everyone up.  The Balance AA is an instant cast, so it's faster than even the fastest heals.  it can be dangerous tho, as what happens in reality is the damage is evenly applied to the group, not the hitpoints.  So you take the 11k of damage done to the tank, and divide it by the group members, and apply evenly to the group, with damage done to other players healing the previously damaged person.

I think it was possible to kill people with it, if not careful.  Nowadays it may leave them with 1 hp.

--
Alkiera

[Arnold]

Not sure how it works now, but UO had a lag time after the character reached 0 health, but before he died.  I was in a 3 vs 15 fight, where all 15 concentrated on one character, and could not kill him.  If their timing was more precise, they probably could have, but with 15 attackers, versus 2 healers, they should have dropped him before they ran out of mana.  Too bad a 3rd group was ghosting our fight and gated in, right when we were about to go on the offensive.

We were forced into a retreat, because the inital target had burned through all his potions, and our mana was low. 

[Furiously]

The turrets are spaced out so the more you add the more field of fire the host tank has (each turret has a different field of fire). Each turret on the host tank is player controlled. The group leader moves the host tank and everyone else can only fire their turret (with it's limited field of fire). Each new turret makes the host tank move slower. Individual turrets can be blown off the host tank.

I somehow know I would always be on the wrong side of the tank just sitting there wondering why the guy WHO IS IN THE FIELD OF FIRE ISNT SHOOTING. Then realize it's because he's more bored then I am and just went AFK knowing that it was unlikely he'd get to shoot anything.

I'd much rather see turn or point based combat.