Have you ever noticed that single player RPGs all seem to include "tank" classes with enmity control tools now, when this was somehow never a necessary thing before World of Warcraft and FFXIV blew up?
>>4088513Sure, but define "necessary". Besides, its not like defensive gameplay never mattered.
>>4088513>nowEtrian had the Fortress class, Final Fantasy had the Cover ability since FF3, Phantasy Star had the party order determine aggro, Romancing SaGa gave each character in a formation a % chance of being targeted along with "tank" characters. The idea of aggro control has been in RPGs for over thirty years, and it would not surprise me if it was a thing in M&M or Wizardry.
>>4088578Tbh, there should be a nuance between "This game has a taunt ability, or a mechanic that makes the character more likely to ne targeted" and "This game has an aggro system".Xenoblade X doesn't not have aggro, but there is still taunts in it as a debuff. Compare with the trilogy, who have an actual aggro system you need to manage (or ignore if you are good enough)
>>4088605>This game has an aggro systemLike badboy in Europa Universalis
>>4088605>It's dynamic and I don't understand that word and that makes me angry and scared!
Because investing in defenses is wasted resources if you don’t actually get hit, and the meta becomes massive damage in round 1.
>>4089168That literally didn't answer OP's question tho.
>>4088513It used to drive me nuts that games didn't have aggro mechanics. Even as a kid playing BG1 I thought how stupid it was that monsters could just lol past my big tough warrior and fuck my casters up before they even cast a spell Aggro is a good mechanic for many reasons but mostly because it enables interesting positioning, setup, and timing mechanics that would be aggravating or impossible without it
>>4089934But if you frontload all your aggro mechanics on to one class, then it just becomes "ok every party needs a Tank and Healer" and detracts from more interesting setups
>>4089954>on to one class,Then have multiple classes. No one complains that every party needs damage dealers even though they are FAR more essential in every game I've seen with roles than any tank.
>>4088513>when this was somehow never a necessary thing before World of Warcraft and FFXIV blew up?Ah yes, I must have imagined all those wizardry games with front rows that give higher chances to be targeted, or really all of these>>4088578
>>4089954Crystal Project handles aggro in an interesting way, you generate it by dealing damage, healing who has the most threat, or by having missing health. In other words healers, AOE mages, and characters on the verge of death are top-priority targets.
>>4090255Yeah this is how every MMO on earth handles aggro
>>4090468lol
>>4090468Nah this is how MMOs handle aggro: "Tank gets catapulted to the very top of the shitlist for some reason and stays there"
>>4090511>for some reasonyeah, the taunt button
>>4090646The only time I ever had to manage aggro in an MMORPG was when the tank had a tanktrum and started pouting because I was pulling monsters to him, and had to do the rest of the instance with myself and two DPS.Was way more fun that way. I'd rather have three players than an asshole tank.
>>4089168ThisTank/bulk is a fake role in older games, ot games without aggro mechsnics since there's no way to ensure the armored character gets hit. This makes them useless compared to just going balls to the wall offense, and just killing the enemy faster. Healers are the only characters that want to be tanky at all, because they can actually do something about it if they're the last one left alive. Which leads to boring, puddle depth spam attack or best attack skill until credits roll gameplay.
>>4092004I am pretty sure tanking in older games was achieved by positioning.
>>4092020In your SRPG and CRPGs, sure, but most JRPGs lack any form of target influencing, besides maybe stats which further means the durable character isn't helping anyone since the enemy attacks whoever they deal more damage to. Final Fantasy 1 is one of the very few to have enemy target ratios determined by party position.I'll agree that literal aggro holding mechanics are a bit stupid and arbitrary, but the other end is tanks with All My Friends are Dead syndrome that never really contribute more than basically any other way to build a character.
>>4088578Might and Magic had some interesting twists, even as far back as 2 (which is 1986 iirc). It starts with the usual party order determining chance of being attacked, but a lot of monsters have preferences, like some monsters specifically target clerics, or elves, or women. So you'd have to adjust strategy depending on what kind of monster you face. MM7 starts with a war against an ocean of goblins, who hate Dwarves, so if you start the game with a Dwarven caster you're basically playing on Nightmare Mode.
