The real reason they all seem to use the same timer system is because a true turn based system would be a pain to implement in an MMO. If your turn is up, then until you act, everyone else has to wait.
Home of CBR Rumbles-in-Exile: rumbles.fr.yuku.com...That's how I thought Final Fantasy XI should've worked, except replace the timer with ATB.
Helpful Scripts and Stylesheets here.Essentially, the huge strain an MMO places on its server prohibits true real-time; the needs of players prohibits true turn-based. And this is why almost all MMOs pretty much half-ass their combat systems, which is pretty self-contradictory when you consider that combat is the core experience of almost every MMO out there.
WOW gets a bit of a pass on this; Blizzard were moving from an RTS to an MMO, and you can see how WOW's combat is sort of a single-character expansion of RTS mechanics. With that in mind, WOW is themed around some elements of consistency from prior Warcraft games. Other have no real excuse, though, apart from technical limitations.
Swordsman Troper — Reclaiming The Blade — WatchDecided to revive this thread to post these:
Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.From the First Pocket Guide's section on the Dominion, Alinor is supposed look like this:
A forbidden city for nearly fifty years, Alinor is both capital of the Summerset Isles and the heart of the Aldmeri Dominion. Human traders were only allowed at its ports, and they described the city as "made from glass or insect wings." Less fantastic accounts come from the Imperial emissaries of the Reman Dynasty, which describe the city as straight and glimmering, "a hypnotic swirl of ramparts and impossibly high towers, designed to catch the light of the sun and break it to its component colors, which lies draped across its stones until you are thankful for nightfall."
Seconded. I always wanted to see Alinor and other places in all their Crazy Awesome Morrowind-ish glory, but it seems it just won't happen.
Instead, I have learned a horrible truth of existence...some stories have no meaning.I don't know why some MM Os have to be so formulaic, even up to the art style.
Instead, I have learned a horrible truth of existence...some stories have no meaning.Just answering questions, like why's there no dragons and whether or not Redguards count as Nedic men and saying that they're trying to keep true to the lore.
Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.

When I played World Of Warcraft, which was admittedly quite some time ago, positioning was something that could be adjusted on the fly at quick enough intervals that it could be considered real-time. Although there was no collision detection with other players, you could still do things like move out of the enemy player's facing to cancel spells that they were casting(typically by moving right through them to the other side), which is really enough for me to say it has, at the very least, real-time aspects. Character facing is another that could be manipulated as such.
I don't really consider collision or dodging a requirement of real-time systems; I can think of Valkyrie Profile to be a game with real-time combat with neither(although it's mixed in with a turn-based system). That said, I generally do enjoy the ability to dodge in real-time combat systems.
Edit: As I said, I do hope this game is on an actual turn-based system with time to think about one's actions. That would make it at least somewhat different from most MMO games these days.
edited 5th May '12 7:43:40 AM by Meophist
Helpful Scripts and Stylesheets here.