While I think I read that enemy (AI) aggressive behavior will be different than most current mmorpg's out right now, I would like to see what people think about traditional aggro mechanics and an idea I have come up with that I think may benefit an mmorpg greatly. Correct me if I'm wrong, but traditional aggro mechanics rely mainly on two things. 1. The first person to walk within a certain radius of the enemy. 2. The player who deals the most damage, heals the most, or uses abilities to increase aggro toward them. While this method has proven to be fairly successful in mmorpg's, I feel like improvement can definitely be made. While it seems that Zenimax Online also thinks that as well, my idea might prove useful to them if it ever reaches someone of influence or they may already have a similar idea and we simply don't know. In other words, I see no harm in putting it out there.

My idea is fairly simple. I have always wanted to play games where there are enemies that don't instantly attack the player once you are within range. A recent game that made this possible was no other that Skyrim. While I think that this AI may not be the best choice for a mmorpg, some aspects of it could be used. Naturally, I agree with some enemies being neutral to the player at all times, so this idea focuses mainly on characters that are natural enemies to the player. First, my suggestion relies all enemies having what I call an "aggro meter" (for ease of clarification) while being able to acquire multiple targets and labeling them with individual aggro meters. Basically, every enemy starts with 0 aggro toward the player with a maximum of 100 (50 being the trigger to attack while 30 is the trigger to give up on that target). When the player triggers certain triggers (such as attacking or approaching on the enemy) this amount increases at certain rates. Attacking would obviously result in instantly acquiring at least 50 point of aggro, while running near the enemy would result in smaller increments depending on how close the player is (I will discuss this later). More sophisticated enemies (humanoids or beings of fair intelligence) may be able to determine if a player has a weapon drawn or not and therefore acquire aggro quicker or lesser while more primitive opponents would gain aggro at fairly consistent rates (I suggest some minor deviation in aggro rates of creatures of the same type to keep players from being able to easily manipulate the aggro system) albeit individual rates for different types creatures. For example, wolves gain 4.5-6 aggro points every .1 second while ogres gain 7.5-9 per .1 second along the outer radius. Now, I will discuss the new topic of radii. Basically, every creature has 2 aggro radii. The outer radius gain aggro at a slower rate and will be about 30% longer than the inner radius. The inner radius gains aggro at 3x the speed of the outer radius. All creatures obviously slowly lose aggro over time to all nearby targets (even those inside either radius) but they lose aggro quicker of the current target if not successfully striking (in other words if the target is running away or very good at blocking attacks).

Now that I have explained the basics, I will go into a more advanced idea and give an example to illustrate the pros and cons of this type of system. But first, I will illustrate a common situation on most mmorpg's. You are minding your own business, questing for rewards in a PvPvE area. Next thing you know, you have been stunned and struck repeatedly for severe damage. You get some health back and realize the fight is lost if u return blows, so you attempt to escape. However, in this area, naturally aggressive monsters are everywhere and weaving in between them will slow you greatly, decreasing survivability. You either run through them, taking their damage/stuns plus possible player damage/stuns or weave and pray he/she is slow because you know going near these creatures will pull aggro to you before your attacker. This system may seem balanced for PvE, but unfair for PvP encounters for the defender.

With a system like mine in place, we will run through a similar situation. You are minding your own business, attacked, stunned, healing and running. You see naturally aggressive monsters. Instead of running around them, you cut close, but just enough so the monster notices you (you can will be able to tell if you enter a monster’s outer radius as it may change behavior through sound cues and/or movement) and purposely gain the aggro points of this monster through the outer radius. The monster begins growing aggro for both nearby targets, but the first player to reach 50 will be the main target and will usually be the defender (you in this case). After chasing for a short time, the monster begins losing aggro toward you due to never being able to strike you, but changes targets instead of returning to its original location. Since that player was a secondary target, aggro drops much more slowly for him/her and because that player is within range, it is still a viable target (assuming the player is still following). Once you notice the attacker has acquired aggro, you can either continue running and hope that it is able to change his/her decision to attack, or turn around and aid the monster in defeating the attacker.

While not perfect, I think it may prove beneficial to those who can interpret what I am attempting to describe and may be able to benefit a game I am looking forward to playing (assuming the cost isn't absurd). I haven't thought through all possible situations, but I know it will be scrutinized greatly. Tell me what you think.

I think you are trying to reinvent the wheel with how aggro works. If you get attacked while in an area that`s full of hostile mobs you should expect to get aggro if you run too close and don`t weave in and out of the radius they have. If you get too close they attack and chase for however long they are programmed to pursue you. That is even if you are able to outrun mobs without being beaten to death while trying to escape. Mobs are always going to aggro the closest person to them first if you are just running around. Some games had it to where the mobs would have a larger aggro radius that detected players under the lvl of the mob itself and they would go straight for them even if a higher lvl was closer. This adds more of a thrill to the experience.

Things like this though make games alot more fun. Another thing too is that pvp will never ever be balanced in any game. There will always be people who use dirty tricks to try and kill you. The answer to balance is giving everyone the same exact skills so everyone is on equal ground. However you pick or assign your skills is your own decision. There we go balance obtained, problem solved. Yeah right see how far that theory goes when the game goes live and is played for a few months.