Friendly Fire

dhwood10 · April 2014

I was thinking that adding friendly fire to PVP would bring a new level of strategy and realism to the game. I realize a lot of people don't like games that are too realistic, but it lessens the immersion when I see comrades standing in flames or being bombarded by friendly siege equipment. At least add this feature to a couple of the servers. I am really interested to hear what others have to say about this?

phermitgb · April 2014

actually, I *love* friendly fire in almost any game that provides it. You suddenly discover DRASTIC changes in use of explosives, position and rapid fire fire-arms in any game that enforces friendly fire.

That being said, I'm not entirely sure how good an idea this is for a heavy melee combat game. I'm not sure what engine is being used for hit detection for both basic attacks and skill attacks, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if they relied on surprisingly large "fields" of some kind, rather than precise impact.

That would make managing friendly fire as far as weapon attacks, bows and arrows and so forth, very, very hard for players to control, without a much larger (and possibly very non-immersive) visual feedback.

Now, for spell damage friendly fire, that might be somewhat more doable, but I can imagine a certain degree of understandable frustration, if spell friendly-fire is held to a different standard than melee friendly fire.

All in all, as much as I like friendly fire in most games, I'm not sure it would add/change a great deal in ESO, but I'm relatively certain it would probably complicate things a lot. Still, I'll cope with it if it arrives, and may even embrace it if it turns out to be more useful than my suspicions.

Munku · April 2014

No. /thread.

Coggage · April 2014

Definitely no. It would open things wide open to griefing, especially so when players on one faction have friends in an opposing faction.

dhwood10 · April 2014

Right. It would complicate things and you would have intentional "backstabbing", but that's how actual war is. I like high realistic games, but games do have to be fun. haha

Lucardes · April 2014

No, the abuse and cheating that can happen is astronomical.Trust me I don't have to explain how it can be abused.

Rotherhans · April 2014

Actually it isn´t @Lucardes‌ .
There´s a game called EVE Online proving this for the last 10(?) years.

But as much as I would like this revolutionary feature, it´s simply not very feasible in ESO´s environment simulated by this imprecise game engine.

While it could work with the long range warfare, when it comes to melee all cohesion would simply break down.

dhwood10 · April 2014

@‌ Lucardes
Oh I know. I'm freaking almost 22. I am not new when it comes to competitive games. I am not really sure what you would call cheating though. Sure if someone hacked the game and made themselves lvl 50 and emperor then yeah that would be cheating but in real life if someone stabs you in the back then they were just a coward. lol What would you consider cheating without someone hacking the game?

dhwood10 · April 2014

@‌ Rotherhans
EVE is freaking epic. Unfortunately, I am in the military and that game just takes so much time, but I can see where melee friendly fire would cause chaos. In fact, a lot of casualties in war are caused by friendly fire even today. Especially in medieval times charging the enemy elbow to elbow with your comrades slinging around swords, spears, etc. That's why formation training was and is still crucial. However, I guess nobody really wants that in a videogame. haha

Lucardes · April 2014

@Rotherhans I understand where you're coming from and I have been in EvE hardcore. Was in BoB, DICE and played competitively... remember m0o?

anyways as you said for ESO it may not work... if there was a cost to death and a way to "LOCK" targets like in EvE,and the guild/organization platform was strong (like showing guild history) then people would think twice about FF. Right now I would FF a dumb guy just for the hell of it and care less about the impact of it (Given the current game systems in place). When the impact of my action matters more which enables me to think twice before I FF then yes.. FF would work. Which is the case in EvE and other hardcore pvp sandbox type of games.

MistryssNite · April 2014

No. People would use it to murder as many players as possible and camp at way shrines. Besides, I die enough as it is. And, there is too much lagging on my computer, so I would end up killing everyone near me on accident while in battle.

Rotherhans · April 2014

Lucardes wrote: »

When the impact of my action matters more which enables me to think twice before I FF then yes.. FF would work. Which is the case in EvE and other hardcore pvp sandbox type of games.

Precisely and salute to a fellow former (enemy

)pod-pilot (Xetic/ASCN 4 EVAR!

)

Stuff like this of course has to be implemented by also providing adequate consequences for your actions, otherwise it just degenerates into useless griefing like @MistryssNite‌ remarked.

For example in the coming ArcheAge Sandbox MMO excessive killing of your own faction mates brings you in front of a court of your peers(they have sh!t-you-not jury duty!) eventually flagging you as criminal/pirate.
Thus kicking you off the resource rich faction area onto the pirate island.
Where you actually have no choice but continue on your evil way due to the much smaller available area.

Don´t think ZMax can implement something similar here.
Especially right now when they cannot even stop your own bank from wiping.

GurthangSw0rd · May 2014

I agree that ESO should enable some kind of 'friendly fire'. Over the years many games have included 'friendly fire' and it has not harmed them in any way that I can see, quite the contrary it has made the player think more carefully about what they are doing. In my opinion ESO should adopt a degree of 'friendly fire' to provide a more balanced and realistic experience for their clients, and additionally promote a wider variety of in-game tactics and strategies both for groups and individuals.