This two-part series looks at features of the 2011 MMORPG Rift.

Of all the mage’s “souls” – mini-classes of the mage “calling” in Rift – the Dominator is one of the most intriguing. Rather than flinging fireballs or summoning of lightning, the Dominator seeks to control his foes, reflecting spells back at attackers and robbing them of their power, if not preventing them from acting entirely. In Rift, this sort of gameplay classifies the Dominator as a support class, or one that bolsters allies and weakens enemies instead of dealing damage, healing, or absorbing blows for the group. It’s a class that evokes memories of the Mesmer of Guild Wars and the Enchanter of EverQuest. Like those classes, it accomplishes its goals by utilizing various types of crowd control (CC) including stuns, snares, silences, roots and resource drains. And while this potent assortment of spells allows the class to perform admirably in certain situations, it falters in central arenas of Rift‘s gameplay.

Have a look at some of the Dominator’s abilities (click for full size):

The underlying theme here is crowd control, and indeed, the Dominator has much of it at his disposal. The problem is that crowd control in PVE (Player Versus Environment) combat – Rift‘s core gameplay – is largely unnecessary to succeed. Mobs in Rift are not so deadly that a tank cannot sustain a beating from a gang of them at once. Combine this point with the prevalence of highly effective AOE (Area Of Effect) attacks and players quickly find that a most efficient way to progress through dungeons is to round up a bunch mobs, heal the tank as he or she absorbs their attacks, and burn the baddies down in a hail of arrows and flame. There is no room for crowd control in this equation.

An EverQuest enchanter doing his thang

In the original EverQuest (now a 12-year old game which I will refer to in the past tense), crowd control was an absolute necessity. Dungeons were loaded with menacing creatures that only a group of players could challenge, and even the beefiest of tanks would crumble under the attack of too many frogloks. In such a situation, it became one player’s full-time job to manage the number of mobs the group faced at a time (typically a task left to the bard or enchanter). Sure, the team was built around the tank, the healer, and damage dealers, but there was also a space reserved for the guy who could pull a lone mob from a group or the gal who could keep a horde of monsters mesmerized (i.e. standing around looking stupid). Where EverQuest‘s gameplay was methodical, slow-paced, and single-target focused (kill mob A while controlling mobs B and C, then proceed to kill mob B when mob A dies), Rift‘s is more arcade-like: the tank leaps into the fray and taunts everything while the damage-dealers lay waste to everything, damage numbers jumping all over the screen.

A group of developers undoubtedly familiar with past MMOs, Trion Worlds likely evaluated the EverQuest “old school” style of play involving unforgiving monsters that had to be controlled in order to win and ultimately decided it would be more fun to round things up and blow them away. You or I might agree with this sentiment. But when crowd control as a game mechanic and specialization of the Dominator soul is made superfluous in a vast majority of Rift‘s content, it becomes clear that something was overlooked.

In truth, support classes as a whole are underrepresented in Rift‘s gameplay. Even the Bard and the Archon – classes that, instead of focusing on crowd control, empower their allies with buffs – only shine in groups of 10 and 20 players (i.e. raid content, which might comprise 10% of all that Rift has to offer) where their abilities affect a maximum number of people. In small-group content, the damage sacrificed by acting as a support player rather than damage dealer is too costly, the benefits of the support not advantageous enough.

Burn (in AOE) baby, burn

The “Tank-Heal-Damage” trifecta is the heart and soul of the team makeup in Rift. What about that fourth role so prominently displayed in the Looking For Group window? Why are three of the roles indispensable while the fourth is merely optional? This is a problem, and at this point in Rift‘s evolution, it is not one that will be solved overnight. Either support classes need to become significantly more meaningful in smaller teams (while not becoming overly effective in large ones), or content needs to be adjusted in difficulty such that the support player becomes a requirement for success.

Now back to the topic at hand. If crowd control in Rift is inconsequential against common mobs, one might wonder how it fares against bosses – you know, the baddest of the bad guys with unique mechanics that force the group to work in concert to take down? Surely a silence or a stun could come into play in these battles, right? Well, no, unfortunately. The Dominator is actually at its most futile against dungeon and raid bosses because these mobs are outright immune to all types of crowd control, including attack speed debuffs like the Dominator’s Accelerated Decay.

But there is good news! While the Dominator does not find its home in PVE play, it thrives against other players. This is because control in the unpredictable realm of player versus player combat is powerful. In any given battle, a Dominator can silence a healer so that he cannot save his teammates in a crucial moment (Arresting Presence), drain a rogue of his energy to stymie his damage output (Transference), root a warrior in place to stop his charge (Storm Shackle) and instantly cleanse a friend of a host of debuffs (Deny). And let’s not forget Transmogrify, Rift‘s version of the World of Warcraft Polymorph, a game changer on its own. Of course, that’s when Rift‘s harsh system of diminishing returns on crowd control effects allows the Dominator’s spells to work.

In the real world, the law of diminishing returns relates to production capacity in an economic sense. In MMO terminology, it refers to game rules that cause repeated applications of spell effects on the same target over a short time to have reduced effectiveness. There is reason for such rules.

In PVP-heavy MMORPGs of the past like Dark Age of Camelot, it was possible to hold a player – no, a group of players – unable to act for an extended length of time. Once mesmerized, players would stand powerless as their teammates were singled out and dispatched by their enemies. Not only does crowd control have too decisive an impact on the battle in such a scenario, it’s also not fun. When a player is killed by another player, they want to feel that they had a chance in the fight, that they had an opportunity give it their best shot. The sense of helplessness caused by an inability to act generates more frustration than anything else.

In response, recent MMOs implemented systems of diminishing returns so that a player on the receiving end of a series of stuns eventually regains control of their character. While some MMOs are quite liberal in the amount of crowd control that can be applied, Rift is unfriendly towards it. And as a player who’s used the Dominator soul extensively in PVP combat, I believe Rift‘s developers took this “unfriendliness” a bit too far.

Reduced CC durations on repeated applications are not so much the problem; we’ve already justified that as a fair solution to widespread, fun-stomping crowd control. The issue lies in the CC immunity given to players who have suffered several recent crowd control effects. We’re talking total immunity, meaning CC simply doesn’t work anymore. Even worse, there is no indication that a player is CC immune. So wind up that spell, watch it cast, and – oops! It did nothing. Try again soon!

If the ability to perpetually lock down a player is flawed design, it is just as bad having an entire class of spells utterly fail a portion of the time they are used. In my opinion, CC immunity in PVP should not be innate; it should be reserved only for class abilities that grant temporary immunity, like the Marksman’s “On the Double.” A CC effect should be applied when a CC effect is used (imagine that!), even if diminishing returns dictate that the next stun is to last only a quarter of a second. (Instant cast, cooldown-free spells like Transmogrify may be problematic and in need of adjustment in this case.)

To summarize: while unquestionably more effective against players than NPCs, the Dominator and its fun factor are negatively impacted by an overly CC-unfriendly set of rules. A player using an ability should be able to expect it to do as advertised.

Dominating in PVE? Obviously 'shopped

Now let’s change gears once more and look at the Dominator’s ability selection. As a soul with the goal of control, the Dominator’s abilities are largely aimed at disabling opponents. Different spells achieve this goal in different ways: while disorients, stuns and Transmogrify stop enemies from acting altogether, some prohibit only the use of spells, others restrict movement, and others still prevent ability use through resource denial (by draining mana, for example). This diversity is good because it offers the player choice in selecting what spells to use in battle, and employing abilities effectively is satisfying.

With that said, the variety of the spell lineup could be better. Inspection of the Dominator’s list of abilities reveals redundancy in what several of the abilities do. Traitorous Influence and Mass Betrayal are two tree-topping abilities on long cooldowns meant to be powers that, when used well, have the potential to sway the course of a battle. Unfortunately, they are two spells that do the same thing: aside from Mass Betrayal being ground-targeted rather than player-targeted and causing more damage, they are basically identical. Additionally, three of the last five abilities the Dominator learns – Death’s Edict, Mental Shock, and Disorient – also feature the same primary effect, which, in this case, is to stun a single target. Two of them are on short cast times and apply residual effects following the stun (one a snare, and one a “disorient,” or mesmerize), while Mental Shock can be cast instantly. Such minor differences are barely enough to justify the creation of new abilities.

How about a spell called Latent Energy that explodes when cleansed by a healer, or an ability called Anguished Apathy that torments foes as long as they fail to use an ability? Heck, how about a charm spell – call it Mental Dominion – that literally takes control of the Dominator’s target? Such a spell would stand as a signature, class-defining ability, not to mention one that would be awesome fun to use. It would replace Mass Betrayal at the top of the skill tree and be expensive to cast, likely utilizing the mage’s Charge resource. In PVE, the player could dominate a monster for a short time and have it turn its abilities on its once-allies. Charm spells are among the most exciting ability types found in RPGs; while they can be difficult to balance (some monster abilities may be too effective against other monsters), they can also be enormously rewarding.

For reasons both positive and negative, the Dominator is a class that stands out from the pack. While thematically strong and clear in intent, its irrelevance in PVE play is apparent, its fun factor in PVP hampered by core game rules, and its ability set lacking in some degree of inspiration.

Minecraft is a shining example of indie game development that inspires me. From its procedurally-generated worlds that the player has incredible power to shape to the strange charm of “Steve” the protagonist, Minecraft elicits a spectrum of great feelings in the player. There’s a sense of ownership in your home, whether that home is a hole in the wall of a cave or a mighty fortress in the sky; there’s a tangible feeling of danger upon entering a cave, hearing the groans of nearby zombies, and seeing your food bar dwindle away; and there’s satisfaction in making it safely back to the surface with an inventory full of ore. Even Minecraft‘s simple, block-based visuals – something the uninitiated might find off-putting – become endearing after some play time.

Minecarts allow for faster travel

But while I could gush over Minecraft all day long just as professional reviewers have, I also see it as a glass half empty, or at least the beginning of something more. There is opportunity in Minecraft for a vast number of new features and possibilities. Even upon the game’s official release, it is relatively light in gameplay features populating its awesome, algorithmically-created worlds.

Very recently, I spent a few dozen hours in Terraria – a game that, while distinct in its own right, borrowed game elements liberally from Minecraft. And although Minecraft and Terraria feature a host of undeniable similarities (no explicit goals; computer-generated worlds that can be deconstructed block-by-block; monsters that come out at night; beds in player-made housing acting as save points; digging for ores to construct better and better tools, and so on), the games differ on a fundamental level in gameplay focus. Terraria emphasizes character progression that is awarded through the core actions of combat and exploration. While exploring a cave, the player might come across a heart crystal that permanently raises their maximum health value or a chest containing items with exciting bonuses, such as the ability to double jump. In the end, it is only by defeating a set of challenging bosses that the player may attain equipment of the highest caliber. It’s very RPG-like, with significant Castlevania influence.

Chests in Terraria are fun to find and open

Minecraft, on the other hand, emphasizes building. The player starts with their maximum health value, and through mining and crafting, can construct a modest set of equipment, including armor and tools. Exploring caves, gathering resources, and warding off monsters that prowl the darkness are central aspects of Minecraft‘s gameplay, but these activities do not integrate layers of RPG-inspired progression as seen in Terraria. While one could argue that this is not a weakness but a different design philosophy, I believe it’s a case of “we haven’t gotten there yet.” Just as Terraria learned from Minecraft, Minecraft can learn from Terraria.

Mojang’s latest additions to Minecraft indicate that a shift in this direction has already begun. The enchanting system, the hunger mechanic, and the final black dragon boss encounter suggest that the future of Minecraft‘s development will aim to enhance the adventuring and character building facets of the game. I, for one, embrace this new design focus. Ideally, Minecraft would transform from what it is now – a game sometimes classified as a “construction sandbox” – into something more like an “ultimate adventure sandbox.”

There are numerous ways in which Minecraft could be expanded. I list my points below not as criticisms, but as suggestions that I genuinely believe would take the game in a fun direction and build upon the impressive foundation laid by Minecraft 1.0.

Clever coding generates a diverse landscape

1. Give the world more life while better distinguishing world biomes. Although Minecraft‘s world generation is one of its strongest points, there is little that separates each biome from the rest. The forests, swamps, mountains, and deserts that comprise a Minecraft world are strikingly different in appearance, but functionally identical. Additionally, the lack of large-scale world events makes the environment feel controlled and static. This aspect of the game could be improved by:
• Adding monster types specific to each biome. Skeletons, zombies and creepers make for fun enemies, but their presence in every corner of the world makes them feel over-used. Consider monsters unique to their environment: a mother and cub bear might roam the tundra, attacking the player only if he or she strays too near the cub; harpies might swoop down on the player (and grab them?) in mountainous regions; and giants might march the plains, searching for an adventurer to smash beneath a rock. (An admitted problem: such enemies would make the daytime not a time of absolute safety, which may be undesirable within the game’s design.)
• Adding more landscape features or resources specific to each biome. Snow in the tundra and cacti in the desert are two examples of resources or block types unique to their respective biomes, but these sorts of features are rare. How about mushrooms in the swamp that act as springboards when the player jumps on them? Vines that can latch onto and slow down the player’s movement? Quicksand pits in the desert? Spontaneously melting ice blocks in the tundra that can cause chunks of land to drift out to sea? Crumbling rocks on steep cliffsides?
• Adding world events or weather effects that impact gameplay. Minecraft‘s thunderstorms are neat events that act on gameplay by reducing visibility and sending lightning to the ground. New world events would add unpredictability to the player’s experience and remind them that there are forces greater than them at play. Nether Gates might occasionally spring up, flooding zombie pigmen and ghasts into the overworld; an ominous moon might allow quick and fearsome werewolves to spawn; and snowstorms might randomly occur in the tundra, threatening the player’s survival if they do not find shelter.


The enchanting table: Minecraft's gambling machine

2. Overhaul the enchanting system. Enchanting needs work for a few reasons: first, it behaves like a mindless monster kill grind; second, collected experience often feels wasted on disappointing enchantments due to extreme randomness in how enchantments are chosen (and also because certain enchantments are more useful than others); and third, enchantments, no matter how powerful they are, are transient due to the fact that armor and tools deteriorate with use. Enchanting is, in a word, unsatisfying. Possible solutions include:
• Giving the player more control over the type of enchantment applied. Perhaps during certain times of day, certain enchantments are more likely to be granted. Or perhaps by wearing a particular trinket, you can improve your chances of applying a desired effect.
• Making it possible to disenchant items with undesirable effects to return some of the experience value. This is a relatively simple fix that offers the player a new choice: would you like to pay a small price to roll the dice again?
• Offering other ways to gain experience. Perhaps Altars of Knowledge found in caves would award experience for finding them. This would have the additional benefit of making exploration a little more interesting.
• Balancing enchantments so that they are all desirable. For example, Sharpness adds damage to every attack, but Bane of Arthropods only inflicts bonus damage to spiders. Although the Bane of Arthropods bonus is slightly greater, spiders aren’t common or threatening enough to prefer this enchantment over Sharpness.
• Adding more powerful and orthogonally-designed enchantments. How about boots that allow me to sprint without using food, a helmet with an embedded gemstone that allows me to see chests through walls, leggings that allow me to jump to great heights, or a chestplate that causes projectiles to reflect back at my attackers?
• Making the grind more involved. Perhaps bonus experience is offered for slaying monsters of a target type (kill creepers for bonus experience!) or for defeating enemies in a specific way (knock skeletons into lava for bonus experience!).
• Enabling enchantments to last longer. Perhaps there’s a Dust of Magical Preservation crafted with precious materials that can be applied to an item to allow its enchantments to be saved after repair.
• Lowering the amount of experience that is required to earn higher level enchantments. While this is a lazy solution, it would make the kill grind less “grindy” and make it so that applying the wrong enchantment isn’t as much of a kick to the groin.
3. Expand the equipment selection. Minecraft is not a role-playing game at heart, but it does exhibit a number of RPG elements, like character equipment options – options that are minimal in number and relatively boring. For the sake of variety and more interesting player choices, new types of equipment should be introduced. A goal of these additions should be to extend the armor progression curve; as it stands, the rise from measly leather to stalwart diamond armor occurs too rapidly once the player starts mining. Equipment could be improved by:
• Adding choices within the armor types that exist. For instance, branch the simple iron helmet into multiple varieties of iron headgear. There might be an iron horned helmet (an offensive option providing combat bonuses), an iron great helmet (a sturdy, defensive option) and an iron mining helmet (a utility option that offers less protection, but adds a light effect).
• Utilizing more complex crafting schematics. A high-end sword might not be made as a plain diamond sword would (i.e. wooden stick plus diamonds), but through a multi-step process that combines the hilt, the scabbard and the blade – each a piece crafted separately – into one. Alternatively, powerful weapons and armors might be created with a valuable material made in a similarly multi-step process. What if iron combined with a rare stone found in The Nether created a new type of ore? Difficult-to-make items mean a higher ceiling in equipment progression, something I believe Minecraft‘s more dedicated adventurers would enjoy.
• Adding an equipment slot. New item types often bring new mechanics or avenues for character improvement. A trinket or pair of bracers might hold a fresh and divergent set of bonuses not granted by the current armor selection.
• Allowing exciting equipment to be found in chests. If pre-enchanted armors and tools of high quality (and perhaps even unique pieces) could sometimes be found in chests, the experience of treasure hunting would be more surprising, unpredictable, and fun. Perhaps only Golden Chests unlocked with keys crafted from gold ingots would hold the best treasure. If the player is willing to sacrifice a backpack slot to carry a key into the mines, they just might be rewarded with bountiful loot!
4. Enhance the combat mechanics. Combat in Minecraft can be described as a game of “whack ‘em before they reach you” – the mechanics are simplistic, the player’s actions extremely limited. With that said, even a single new attack type or systems tweak would go a long way in making the combat truly satisfying. Suggestions include:
• Adding an alternative to the sword. The sword is Minecraft‘s consummate tool for dispatching enemies, performing its job better than any axe or shovel – fair enough, I suppose, seeing as it’s a weapon. But other choices when it comes to melee weaponry, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, would be welcome. Consider a spear, which might cause less damage than the sword but provide longer range. Used in a sprint attack (see below), the spear could be hurled like a javelin for a ranged attack in a pinch.
• Giving the sprint attack purpose. In Minecraft 1.0, the player’s target receives a stronger pushback effect from an attack if struck while the player is sprinting. This dash attack is special, but its resultant pushback is rarely useful in combat. It should be reworked into a legitimate alternative to the basic attack in any given battle. Perhaps it causes a special attack type dependent on the type of weapon the player has equipped, or perhaps it simply deals extra damage while being harder to pull off.
5. Make use of NPCs. Undoubtedly a bullet point on Mojang’s to-develop list are the NPCs that reside in desert villages. Currently, these NPCs have no awareness of their surroundings and serve no purpose other than to allow players to pick apart their homes for resources. Despite this, they provide myriad possibilities for future development. Ideas for improving NPCs include:
• Giving their artificial intelligence more intelligence. With more simulated reactions to their world, NPCs would appear more believable and lend themselves to interesting events in the game. Picture a lone skeleton archer wandering into a village at night: some NPCs might flee from it, while others might arm themselves at the blacksmith and fend it off. And if the player decides to hack away at someone’s house for wooden planks, the NPCs might see it as a threat.
• Having a mayor or king of each village that the player could visit for randomly generated quests. A small number of directed goals would not be the bane of Minecraft. Consider simple fetch quests or monster assassinations that could be carried out for item rewards.
• In-town services, such as trading or blacksmithing. While a currency in Minecraft is something to avoid, traders in town might barter with the player to exchange goods. Have a lot of wheat at home, but desperate for some iron ore? Check the nearest trader!

Minecraft is a fantastic game that I would recommend to nearly anyone, but its potential reaches well beyond what it currently offers. The suggestions I have listed are only a few possibilities that could be added to such a great open-ended experience. But whether it’s Minecraft, one of its inevitable imitators, a Bethesda product, or a Terraria sequel that brings us the “ultimate adventure sandbox,” we will see.

A highly relevant interview was recently posted on Gamasutra: Talking the Future of Minecraft

My team and I are several weeks into development of a Metroidvania game currently known as “Overgrown.” As a fan of Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, working on Overgrown has offered a fun opportunity to emulate the gameplay of those two titles.

What distinguishes Overgrown from the games that inspire it is a reduced focus on combat and greater focus on environmental traversal. Atypical of Metroidvania games, Overgrown takes place in zero gravity, which presents its own challenges and opportunities in level and mechanics design. The character’s primary tool for moving through the environment is a device known as the Orbi-Claw which allows them to hook onto, swing around, and then release from objects. Gaining a good grasp of this mechanic takes time.

If we meet our ambitious goals, the player will also uncover the mystery of the abandoned ship they are aboard as they progress through the game. Starting out, the player wakes in an infirmary in an amnesiatic state and learns vaguely of their history through a recorded audio log. They discover they used to be one of the ship’s maintenance engineers, back when it was populated by a full crew. Now, only an eerie loneliness pervades – a loneliness that turns perilous as the player reveals what is at the heart of the ship’s abandonment: aggressively spreading plants.

Check out our planned map layout here: