Emergent gameplay design(Food for thought)

[Sandpark]

@Shurrikhan
For me, a pre-designed best skill order might be a complexity from the developer stance. But to a player that is known as on rails. The best combat systems aren't about what order you do something but when and how you do something. Look no further than the best rpg combat game this decade which is Dark Souls. People wanted an off rails massive multiplayer space combat in Swtor, and what they got was the on rails single player. That is how games with GCD feel when I play them. The focus is more on working your own magic and not so much interacting with other people. Sure the tank and healer might have a bit more interaction, but they have to watch their UI more, and for the DPS, not so much multiplayer interaction, it's even more prevalent when there is no muliplayer synergy combos.

The entire premise of an mmo combat should be how can I combine my skills with other people in the moment not how complex can I make it to pertain to myself. A good combat UI should have you looking at the environment 95% of the times with no need to glance at it all to know when a cooldown is ready.

With a weighty combat system, with momentum, physics, and high cost for skill usage. The more difficult in terms of thought content can become. An article once called this combat cerebral vs others as visceral in the action combat mmo. I could care less about visceral, but cerebral in the sense that I can make things happen alone or with others to do things not necessarily intended by design to be done a certain way. A common phrase used to describe content that has to be done a certain way with strict mechanics is called a gimmick, jump rope. It exist not only on evasive maneuvers here but jump rope with rotations. Because there is not emergence in that.