The Battle of Gravelines

[Rattletrap]

-Howdy all. On this day in 1588 the English defeated the Spanish Armada at the Battle of Gravelines. Prior to the battle, the English were able to examine a defeated Spanish ship and realize that most of the ships were not designed to fire much of their cannon ammo at all. They would fire once to start a conflict and then the gunners would take boarding positions to storm enemy ships for hand-to-hand combat. The English used that knowledge and were able to launch ships with superior maneuverability to shift in and out of range, firing broadside and avoiding being boarded.

In most MMOs there is no targeting per se. Backstab/flanking in a few, but not many give the player an opportunity to have this type of knowledge of a weak spot and exploit it save a few big boss fights. I've always wanted to see the ability for a player to research a particular mob type to find that weakness, whether it be chopping them at the knees, learning their vulnerability to crushing damage or fire attacks, or figuring out simple tactics making the fight go our heroes way.

What about you, dear reader? Have you seen this type of detail or experience in a game? How would you like to see such an idea presented, or if yer not in favor of that level of detail why not?

Rattletrap

[Dorian]

http://www.burningsea.com/ Would probably be the easiest example of what you're talking about. They've done a fantastic job recreating Naval tactics. As far as typical MMO's though, I think Dark Age of Camelot would be the closest approximation of what you're talking about. http://www.darkageofcamelot.com/
In DAoC, each realm has different vulnerabilities and resistances to different types of weapons per their armor (Plate=Crush resistant, Chain=Pierce resistant, etc..). If you knew these vulnerabilities and equipped yourself accordingly, be it on the fly or in preparation, you could afford yourself a nice bonus to your chance of coming out of the fight the victor. Along with that, all the Mobs in the game had the same resistances/vulnerabilities to melee AND magical damage so a bit of research could actually help you out in many instances. Of note, the Archer classes of the different realms were able to equip different types of arrows to take advantage of the same vulnerabilities/resistances as their melee counterparts. (broad-head arrow, pierce arrow, etc...)
Delving even further into the tactics, I know of one class in particular, the Vampiir, that was able to do called shots (chest, arm, head, etc..). If they found that hitting a certain body part on you would proc a nasty little effect on them or heal you, they could change to hitting another body part which was perhaps a bit less beneficial to you.

I think the addition of such features would be nice but considering the added amount of programming behind the scenes, plus added balancing required, and any applicable UI modifications, I think it'd be a feature best left out. Another thing to consider is that the majority of the player base would not even bother with taking advantages of such a system (simplicity typically is a bigger draw) which would render the benefits of that system limited in the terms of overall gameplay and the community as a whole.

[Ivniciix]

I can see this sort of vulnerability being useful ("don't take a knife to a gun fight") as a way of altering the difficulty of missions. As an example, you can enter the castle and fight the vampires with an axe but it's much easier with holy water and a cross. If you want holy water and a cross, you'd need to be the right level or have done the set-up missions to acquire them. If you just want to bull your way through, you can try, perhaps with a bigger team or simply with more challenge.

I think lots of MMO's have had various vulnerability schemes (radiation, disease, poison, light) but, as Dorian mentioned, the majority of players ignore them and simply find a way to overpower their subtle effect...larger teams, bring in a high level kinmate, wait till higher level, etc. Perhaps the subtle effect is part of the reason they are ignored. I can certainly think of many examples from literature where you needed the right weapon to attain victory (silver bullet for werewolves, bucket of water for Wicked Witch) so I don't think the idea is without merit but I agree players would rarely do the research to find vulnerabilities for "trash mobs". Actually, even in a set piece boss encounter, it might be OK to have a "free pass" weapon/effect to send the trash mobs fleeing but, I'd think it should also have...surprising limits...that might backfire on the player.