We can kinda do a party system like in other online games, were the party leader decides what happens with items and exp and gold, there could be a lvl thing going on. this would be the higher lvl people in the party get LESS exp/items/gold. Or after each battle a randomly selected player will get all the items, or it can go in an order, lvl,name,or time added.
If the party leader had to manually distribute EXP and GOLD after every fight then you would end up going so slow that you're better off playing solo.
Dlor, a few technical questions on grouping:
Can you target your team-mate? can you target them mid-combat? can you target them on the map? I'm considering the option of casting beneficial spells on friends (only Heal spells right now). Group combat is as much about interaction between players as it is about interaction between mobs.
I dont have a problem with grouping system as you have explained it. Is this meant more for the lower level players? The higher level players dont need to team up really, we can already beat the bosses/the hardest mobs as it stands. Will there be harder mobs or bosses for us to fight or different challenges that would require us to group?
I would assume that you could fight groups of mobs, either in a seperate map where that always happens or as a result of being in a group.
For splitting loot I think need/greed works best for now. The respective buttons can easilly be added to the current loot window but you would need a way of showing players the item stats before they decide (and a time limit on deciding so that DC'd players don't leave their team-mate stuck on the window).
As for combat, I think its reasonable that both players have to stay within about 400 distance of eachother in order to get 'pulled' into the same fight. I still don't know if combat start is handled client-side or server-side but if it is server side there should be no problems with it checking a team-mates distance when a fight starts and then pulling both players into combat if needed.
If you don't have a distance limit on it then a high level player could easilly invite a low player into their group and then get into a big fight miles away somewhere and leave the low-level player relatively boned; which leads me to:
If one player flees, do both flee? neither? I think it should be a group descision to run away, and that both players have to choose to flee in order to escape. It leaves little room for abuse and adds a small layer of planning and communication to the group ('If i'm at 5% health, we run away, ok?'... which is followed by 'I was almost dead why didn't you run?!' - much fun).
