Massively^™

Age of Conan players have started getting to the stage where they can partake in the game's much-hyped "Massive PvP" -- the first battlekeeps are up, and you can be sure that people are all too keen to go and knock them down. However, it seems that the first wave of these epic battles have not gone so smoothly, and not just for any guilds left with a pile of smoking rubble.

Funcom has posted on the official forums (with the actual message being penned by Gaute Godager) in the hopes of reassuring the community that the problems that have been experienced with these battles are being looked at. The main issues are identified as those of client performance, and those of content and collision. Client performance is apparently the biggest problem being reported, and even before people started to get into massive PvP, some fixes to do with this have been worked on behind the scenes.

Collision detection in an MMO is just one of those things you may take for granted. If it works, you don't really notice it. If it doesn't work, it's a fun little exploit to hide in a rock and amaze your friends! But collision detection is becoming increasingly important in upcoming MMOs such as Age of Conan and Warhammer Online because of their predominant PvP natures.

So in a recent post at Relmstein's blog, he dissects the different types of collision detection, how they work and in which situations they would be most useful. These situations can range anywhere from player-to-player, player-to-fixed-object or player-to-moving-object collision. Each one requires its own type of algorithm which reacts differently when applied. Most of these detection methods would be set in place to avoid exploit, but can be tricky when it comes to things like line-of-sight.

Everyone is familiar with the tried-and-true combat systems found in just about every MMO to date, although more games are becoming the exception as time goes on. Age of Conan happens to be one of those exceptions and with its very active directional combat system comes some new ways to manage your defenses during the heat of battle.

Funcom has gone and made an informative overview of all the different ways to 'defend thy self' in their upcoming Hyborian online adventure. It's a good thing they have too, because there is a lot to consider when keeping your head firmly attached to your body in this game.

I hadn't heard that WAR would have collision detection (it must be in the whole game, right? can't only be in PvP, can it?), but Hardcore Casual did, and just like him, I'm very interested in the possibilities. He cites it as a problem of premades and PuGs-- premades will know much better how to deal with line-of-sight and positioning and formation problems, while PuGs will trip over themselves trying to get past someone else. Me, I see it more as a problem of pranks and griefing. In World of Warcraft, where Blizzard hasn't implemented collision detection, they're already having issues-- giving players the ability to block space in large numbers just opens up a whole world of griefing.

But as HC says, it's all in the implementation-- it may be that some things need line-of-sight, while others (spells and such) don't, and any blockage depends on just where the hitboxes are-- if characters can sneak past each other, or are able to push each other out of the way, then that would change any plans.

It'll be interesting to see how it all pans out, however. Collision detection is a minefield for developers, but can definitely lend itself to new types of gameplay. While most MMOs have avoided the issue entirely, we'll have to see if WAR is willing to hit the issue (so to speak) head-on.