raids already have some situations kinda similar to this
i cant remember the boss but when the abilities are on individual timers it is important to push it before certain overlaps and they were kinda artificially difficult because of it...didnt make them well designed or increase the quality of the fight because it just made it annoying to deal with
Random mechanics are messy, since by virtue of being random, they can overlap with Mechanics that already require precision or coordination and can cause wipes basically due to just being badly timed.
ITT: People just want easy predictable content
Amazing, if people were in charge of video games, it would only have one button
Randomness is pretty bad by design. Remember when ppl wiped on Morogrim because 3 healers would get graved? Tgat was just bullshit.
You might be joking, but look how many popular one button games there are out there. You could almost make the observation that the fewer buttons the game has, the more popular it is.
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That doesn't even make sense. You can also only move forward with randomness. What do you mean by scripted then, do you want bosses to just come up with completely new ability every time or what? Because even your definition of "random" would be scripted.
Because if you think the pull is 100% the same every time you do a boss, you are completely wrong. There are points of divergence and points of convergence and that's what makes it fun.
Wouldn’t work. Bosses would have to be designed (A) to where every one of their abilities is telegraphed with enough time so you can prepare for it, and (b) to hit weakly in case you don’t have CDs for it.
Random encounter design leads to potential ability overlap which can cause the boss to use 1 Shot kill abilities, or just very strong hard hitting abilities, back to back or even back to back to back where the group would not have the ability to counter.
Lets just imagine a 5 man scenario ...
You clear the trash and reach a boss.
Boss has 5 abilities. A B C D E
So the fight looks like this. ABCDE ABCDE ABCDE atleast I believe its similar to that.
When you read the strategy about the boss or watch video or something in advance you already
have pretty good idea whats gonna happen or perhaps you done the boss 30 times so you know
exactly what and when its gonna happen.
So the boss never or rarely suprise you.
So you dont have to play so reactively. Maybe you dont realize it but you play in too scripted fashion.
Now the gameplay feels like 80% scripted and 20% reactive.
What I would like to see its if the slider moves more towards reactive. Lets just say 50/50 or even more.
And in order to create more reactive gameplay you would introduce more random elements.
Most people don't play to get surprised, they want to overcome known challenges.
But faction champs is not good example because its very unique in different ways also.
Its the obvious fact that you face 10 NPCs of minibosses instead of just one boss.
Perhaps this is what made the fight dislike by many players.
I played factions champions a lot and I was not aware they are using random abilities ...
Obviously if you have 10 mini bosses and they are using all random abilities thats little
bit overwhelming.
Im talking now how it would work on a single NPC boss character.
Yes, I want it significantly more random then its now but not too random.
Let me tell you another example.
Krosus boss in Nighthold.
There is a mechanic called Orb of Destruction.
It puts debuff on player and it explodes by big damage to all nearby allies
Ranged dps and healers can get targeted by it.
And they have to run behind the raid on the beginning of the bridge to drop it
in order to not hurt another players or perhaps even kill.
But imagine there would be more types of orbs.
Orb of Destruction, would do the same and player who gets it would glow green or got green symbol on him.
Abyssal Orb, it would explode but instead would increase damage taken by boss by 50% for 20 seconds and players would glow red.
Infernal Orb, it would explode but instead increase mana replenishment of nearby allies by 100% for 20 seconds and player would glow blue.
So you pull the boss.
And player would get an orb out of the pool. Green, Red or Blue, chosen randomly.
So this time player would have to make a decision based on the type of orb.
If you get green orb you run behind the boss,
If you get red orb you run near boss.
If you get blue orb you run into healers.
Now you have to make meaningful decision. And you dont know until you get the orb what would you have to do.
You see ? When you have random things you have to make decisions.