Going as far back as Team Fortress 2, the pioneering class-based FPS game, cool downs were pretty much non-existent, except for Spy's invisibility watch, which operated on more of a resource meter than a traditional cool down. The special utility and abilities of each character were built directly into their weapons, or otherwise maintained by ammo and resources found through out the map. Soldier doesn't use a cool down to balance his rocket jumping, and is instead measured by the player's own skill and the cost to the character's health. Engineer's buildings aren't limited by a timer, but instead based on scrap and resource collection. Likewise, the air blast capability eventually added to Pyro's flamethrower wasn't something levered by a cool down, but by their overall ammo.
Since the Moba and RPG-ification of multiplayer gaming at large in recent years, cool down based balancing has infected everything it seems. Rainbow Six: Siege launched in 2015 without any cool down based mechanics, and introduced only one character within the first year of DLC (Caveira) who's defining ability was fueled by a cool down or resource-esque mechanic. Going into to the first season of Siege's fifth year, the abilities of both new operators are balanced by cool downs. Overwatch from 2016 is similar to a moba in that cool downs dictate virtually every ability in the game (there's only one character in the game, Zenyatta, who is not cool down dependent), but the core gameplay and modes feel unquestionably Team Fortress 2 in inspiration. In the years since launch, Overwatch has even REMOVED other methods of resource management, by completely getting rid of Torbjorn's scrap collecting armor mechanic and redesigning him with only cool downs.
Shoot-and-loot games like Borderlands, Destiny, and Division have obviously had huge relevance in the industry and rely enormously on cool downs to define character types and classes. Apex Legends brings cool down abilities to battle royale on a huge scale (I know it's probably not the first, but it's the most influential in this regard), and the multplayer portion of the upcoming RE3 Remake, RE Resistance, has character classes defined by cool downs. Even strictly single player ventures like the new God of War, Spider-Man, and Astral Chain have gameplay tempos and balancing that at least partially pivots around cool down based skills.
The most recent offender to this is Granblue Fantasy Versus, which is a terrific fighting game by most accounts and one that I'm immensely enjoying, but the game offers quick inputs for some more complicated moves that are, you guessed it, attached to cool downs. It would be one thing if the cool down was only tied to the cost of ignoring the traditional "technical inputs" (the game's own language), but the cool downs are still there regardless! They're just less severe if you avoid using the short cuts. Now even 1-on-1 fighting games are subjected to balancing around cool down based moves and abilities. Mortal Kombat 11 also uses cool downs for the characters supers and defensive options (like tech rolls). Attaching any kind of resource to something tech rolling feels absurd, much less an arbitrary cool down.
I know why cool downs have become so popular; they're similar to regenerating health in that they're much easier to balance and design around. Cool downs create a guaranteed "floor" of player empowerment, ensuring that their agency and capabilities are only a timer away, while also putting a ceiling on the player's output by still limiting their overall effectiveness. They help the player from ever being totally out of options while also not being able to stack up and expend resources in a way that breaks the game (most of the time).
Still, I'm getting tired of how ubiquitous cool downs have become in modern games, especially in multiplayer games. There's so many other interesting methods of resource management that can make games and characters play more uniquely from each other; not just in how distinct their abilities are from one another, but how the reliance and recharging of those abilities can encourage players to interact with situations differently, instead of just waiting for a timer to fill up. Also, this is less important, but it just makes more sense for abilities to be measured differently than on an arbitrary timer. I get why Engineer needs to collect enough metal and weapons to build a turret, but why can Roadhog only throw out his hook every 8 seconds? My Legion's incredibly good auto-bind ability is for some reason only usable every 12 seconds, but Sekiro's High Monk combo string can be used as often as possible, but is built to be much more situational, so mashing it out all the time just because it's not on a measurable or refilling resource still isn't worth doing.
Does anyone else feel this way, or is this just oldmanyellsatcloud.jpg?
Since the Moba and RPG-ification of multiplayer gaming at large in recent years, cool down based balancing has infected everything it seems. Rainbow Six: Siege launched in 2015 without any cool down based mechanics, and introduced only one character within the first year of DLC (Caveira) who's defining ability was fueled by a cool down or resource-esque mechanic. Going into to the first season of Siege's fifth year, the abilities of both new operators are balanced by cool downs. Overwatch from 2016 is similar to a moba in that cool downs dictate virtually every ability in the game (there's only one character in the game, Zenyatta, who is not cool down dependent), but the core gameplay and modes feel unquestionably Team Fortress 2 in inspiration. In the years since launch, Overwatch has even REMOVED other methods of resource management, by completely getting rid of Torbjorn's scrap collecting armor mechanic and redesigning him with only cool downs.
Shoot-and-loot games like Borderlands, Destiny, and Division have obviously had huge relevance in the industry and rely enormously on cool downs to define character types and classes. Apex Legends brings cool down abilities to battle royale on a huge scale (I know it's probably not the first, but it's the most influential in this regard), and the multplayer portion of the upcoming RE3 Remake, RE Resistance, has character classes defined by cool downs. Even strictly single player ventures like the new God of War, Spider-Man, and Astral Chain have gameplay tempos and balancing that at least partially pivots around cool down based skills.
The most recent offender to this is Granblue Fantasy Versus, which is a terrific fighting game by most accounts and one that I'm immensely enjoying, but the game offers quick inputs for some more complicated moves that are, you guessed it, attached to cool downs. It would be one thing if the cool down was only tied to the cost of ignoring the traditional "technical inputs" (the game's own language), but the cool downs are still there regardless! They're just less severe if you avoid using the short cuts. Now even 1-on-1 fighting games are subjected to balancing around cool down based moves and abilities. Mortal Kombat 11 also uses cool downs for the characters supers and defensive options (like tech rolls). Attaching any kind of resource to something tech rolling feels absurd, much less an arbitrary cool down.
I know why cool downs have become so popular; they're similar to regenerating health in that they're much easier to balance and design around. Cool downs create a guaranteed "floor" of player empowerment, ensuring that their agency and capabilities are only a timer away, while also putting a ceiling on the player's output by still limiting their overall effectiveness. They help the player from ever being totally out of options while also not being able to stack up and expend resources in a way that breaks the game (most of the time).
Still, I'm getting tired of how ubiquitous cool downs have become in modern games, especially in multiplayer games. There's so many other interesting methods of resource management that can make games and characters play more uniquely from each other; not just in how distinct their abilities are from one another, but how the reliance and recharging of those abilities can encourage players to interact with situations differently, instead of just waiting for a timer to fill up. Also, this is less important, but it just makes more sense for abilities to be measured differently than on an arbitrary timer. I get why Engineer needs to collect enough metal and weapons to build a turret, but why can Roadhog only throw out his hook every 8 seconds? My Legion's incredibly good auto-bind ability is for some reason only usable every 12 seconds, but Sekiro's High Monk combo string can be used as often as possible, but is built to be much more situational, so mashing it out all the time just because it's not on a measurable or refilling resource still isn't worth doing.
Does anyone else feel this way, or is this just oldmanyellsatcloud.jpg?
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