MMO Consider Systems

Many MMO games offer some sort of consider system, or con. This is a way for the player to determine the relative strength of a creature compared to the player’s character. This allows the player to choose fights carefully – knowing which creatures to flee from, and which will be a simple fight. Most of these also let the player know which creatures will give the player experience, and which will not.

Con systems typically provide three pieces of information.

The strength of the monster or beast (mob). This is usually colour coded for instant information. As an example, Dark Ages of Camelot uses grey for very easy, through green, blue, yellow, orange, red and purple. Creatures that are grey provide very little threat, yellow mobs are around the character’s level, and red are much more powerful.

The attitude of the mob. This allows the player to see what is likely to happen if the character approaches it. This includes whether the player is likely to be attacked, whether the shopkeeper will sell to the player, whether the NPC will give the player a quest etc.

The levels of experience expected. As can be expected, killing more powerful mobs generally gives more experience. However, most MMO games feature an important cut off. Killing creatures below a certain level (dependant upon character level) results in very little, or no experience. Often, this is a sudden cut off, instead of a gradual decline.

However, although most con systems perform the same tasks, there is a big difference between how they work in practise. To take two games as examples:

In Everquest, mob levels and player levels aren’t the same – a level 50 mob is far, far more powerful than a level 50 player. In fact, a level 50 player isn’t much more powerful than a late 30’s mob, which is classed as not being difficult enough to earn the player much experience. It is not uncommon for a character to be killed by being attacked by a couple of green (no exp at all for kill) conning mobs. However, when in a group, the con system is more useful, as the con of a mob is more suitable to a bunch of individuals vs a creature.

Another problem with this system is that it is not consistent throughout the game. In the early levels, mob and character levels are relatively similar, so in the low level game, the player can attack equal, and sometimes slightly higher level mobs. As the game moves on, equal level mobs become too powerful, and by the end game, significantly lower level mobs are more than a match for a lone player.

The unreliable nature of the Everquest con system means that I don’t like it very much. It provides both types of information well enough, but not in a particularly useful way.

Dark Ages of Camelot works differently, in that player and mob levels are very similar, and mobs that don’t give experience (grey in this case) are very weak, and hardly able to damage the character at all. The problem with this system is that in a group, you almost always fight “purple” mobs. Since a “purple” mob is anything that is 30% or more above the character level, choosing the right mobs to hunt can be difficult (at level 20, level 27 creatures and level 65 creatures con the same). This means that in a full group, the con system becomes largely useless, but in solo play, it is excellent.

Other games, such as Asheron’s Call 2 and Earth and Beyond use a much more factual system, and show the player the exact level of the mob (Asheron’s Call 2 even shows the amount of health numerically). Since the focus of the article is based around more opinion based consider methods, I’ll leave these out of the equation for the moment.

Although I don’t believe that a con system needs to hold more information than ones in current games, I think the con system needs to be made a little more dynamic

The con of a mob should reflect how easily the mob could be defeated under current player conditions. At the moment, mobs con the same whether the player is on his own, or with a group of 6 or 8 people. Something that is impossible for one player may be laughably easy for a group, and the con should reflect that. Ideally, the con should be based upon the power of the player (equipment and class) rather than simply level.

Of course, in order to do this, the sudden XP drop based on the con of a mob would have to be lost, otherwise the incentive to group (as opposed to fight together as individuals) would be lessened. Since I’ve always felt that the sudden cut off is pointless, I don’t think this would have a dramatic effect.

A Brief Example Con System

In this system, Considering a mob would be a skill that can be learnt and improved over time.

Mobs (and players) are assigned power ratings according to class, level, equipment etc, giving a starting value for each entity in the game. This rating is based on the entity’s power, not the other way around. This is used as a basic con, available to all characters. Groups have a power rating based upon the individuals within. Mobs that function as a group will have the same.

Each time a player is killed, the mob that killed them has a slight bonus applied to their power rating, dependant upon the power rating of the character killed.

Each time a mob is killed, the mob has a slight penalty applied to their power rating, dependant upon the power rating of the character that killed them.

Both the above power rating modifiers would be level capped – a level 50 mob would not receive a boost in power rating for killing a level 10 character, and visa versa.

What this creates is a system where creatures should naturally gravitate towards their true power. If two level 10 mob types are created, but one proves to be dangerous, and another proves to be easy, then the con’s for the two will alter to reflect this.

Characters with different consider rankings may get different information. For example, a warrior may just get a power rating comparison, a wizard may get a power rating with modifier comparison, and a ranger may get the group power rating comparison. There may also be a variance between the true power rating, and that reported to the player. This would depend on the consider skill of the character.

In most cases, the modifier wouldn’t change much, but I’m sure everyone is aware of under or over conning mobs in their favourite MMORPG. This method would actually create a con that truly does reflect how difficult a particular mob should be to tackle.

This is a very brief example, and obviously has holes in its current format, but it does work as a demonstration of how a con system could work.