Hi guys, I'm halfway through pre-production of my own CRPG and had a TB combat system designed. I was wondering if you guys can take a look at the basic mechanics and let me know if you think it's fun enough to play with.
Background
The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world in some unknown little peninsula, where the rest of the world had been consumed by fatal viruses and a huge chunk of the world's elites have taken off into space, leaving the entire world leaderless overnight.
The game takes place 400 years after the apocalypse and by then nobody remembered what actually happened at that time. Many technologies were lost, and only basic techs relevant to survival had been retained - construction, basic engineering, metallurgy, gunnery, ammunition production and stuff like that.
Game Engine
The game would be presented in an isometric viewpoint that allows the player to pan and rotate the camera, and features a fully 3D world. Locational navigation and interaction is done in real time, combat in turn-based mode on the same map, while world navigation is done like Baldur's Gate's style where you "unlock" new areas through the storyline.
Here're the list of design elements:
Combat
Okay basically when combat begins, the system compiles an initiative list. The characters involved in the combat will all be placed on this list, and once all characters have executed or exhausted their AP a new round would be calculated with initiatives being recalculated. I won't go into that part yet though.
Turns are designed to be extremely short and fast. Unlike Fallout, where you can fire off one or two bursts and then do a tapdance in or out of a doorway in one turn if you have enough AP, you can probably only perform one major move in your turn before you exhaust your APs.
Meaning, in this game you have less AP and actions have higher AP requirements.
Major moves include:
Characters can hunker down and do nothing on his turn and save up the AP for the next round, in which a character can accumulate at most twice his original AP amount. This is useful when you want to dash from one cover to the next but don't have enough AP to move that far.
Hex? Tiles? Neither
In this game no hexes or tiles would be used. Everything is calculated per-pixel, and translated to real metrics like feet and meters.
Damage
Combat is designed in this game to be as brutal as possible, in order to encourage players to make extensive use of cover. Damage model in the game is modeled differently in the sense that gaining levels does not mean you have a higher HP pool or better damage resistance. It merely means you have more skills at your disposal or simply move faster or stealthier; only by getting better armor (at the cost of reduced agility) or better tactics can one emerge victorious without spotting a missing arm or leg or a gaping gut wound.
Interrupts
I'm not sure what to call it, but for simplicity's sake I'll call it interrupts. In combat, interrupts can happen, but you have to set it up. For example:
Char A and Char B is both hiding behind cover, and Char A has the initiative. Char A selects suppress and points the suppress wedge (think of it as deploying a HMG unit in CoH) in the general direction of Char B, then ends turn (setting up suppression doesn't cost any AP).
Char B, being a n00b in the game, decides to pop out of his cover and rush Char A. He clicks a location appox 10 feet away and expects his character to run over. As the character comes out of the cover and into the suppression area of Char A, Char A rolls for an interrupt. If the roll is successful Char A opens fire, draining his unused AP and causing damage to Char B.
Char B is hit and is "interrupted" (stopped) 5 feet from his goal. He is bleeding and had tumbled, and now being wiser Char B decides to go back into his cover. He has enough AP left to return to his cover (run that 5 feet), but once he clicks and executes his actions Char A opens fire again (as he has enough AP to perform 2 bursts), killing Char B before he reaches cover.
This is how the interrupt system basically works.
Keys to tactical victory
Characters can be inflicted with status ailments like confusion, fear, and so on, and players can effectively pin down other units with properly set up interrupts.
The key to victory is to extensively employ small unit tactics, like flanking an opponent while keeping them suppressed. Grenades can also be used to flush enemies into killzones (since not all grenades detonate on the same round), or special weapons used to disrupt enemy status (flashbangs, flamethrowers, mortars, snipers, etc).
Players can also make use of explosives to destroy environments in order to gain new entry points. Most walls can be breeched, and covers can even be booby-trapped.
So what do you think?
I'm building a prototype with placeholder graphics as a proof of concept, but I'm pretty sure on how to implement all these technically. I'm not sure if this design can be converted into a dumbed-down real-time with pause mode for those who can't appreciate the beauty of turn-based combat, but that's not the main point.
What do you guys think of such a combat system?
Oh and BTW, I apologize if my english sounded funny. It's not my mother tongue - I'm from Malaysia. Greetings, codex.
Background
The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world in some unknown little peninsula, where the rest of the world had been consumed by fatal viruses and a huge chunk of the world's elites have taken off into space, leaving the entire world leaderless overnight.
The game takes place 400 years after the apocalypse and by then nobody remembered what actually happened at that time. Many technologies were lost, and only basic techs relevant to survival had been retained - construction, basic engineering, metallurgy, gunnery, ammunition production and stuff like that.
Game Engine
The game would be presented in an isometric viewpoint that allows the player to pan and rotate the camera, and features a fully 3D world. Locational navigation and interaction is done in real time, combat in turn-based mode on the same map, while world navigation is done like Baldur's Gate's style where you "unlock" new areas through the storyline.
Here're the list of design elements:
- Text-based dialog trees
- Multiple branching storyline
- Multiple endings
- Failing missions as a plot advancement device is possible
- Destructible environment (walls, doors and such can be breeched with explosives)
- Multiple solutions to problems
- Mutually exclusive factions and quests
- No trivial quests
- No easter eggs
- Turn-based combat with AP
- Traditional experience level RPG progression system
Combat
Okay basically when combat begins, the system compiles an initiative list. The characters involved in the combat will all be placed on this list, and once all characters have executed or exhausted their AP a new round would be calculated with initiatives being recalculated. I won't go into that part yet though.
Turns are designed to be extremely short and fast. Unlike Fallout, where you can fire off one or two bursts and then do a tapdance in or out of a doorway in one turn if you have enough AP, you can probably only perform one major move in your turn before you exhaust your APs.
Meaning, in this game you have less AP and actions have higher AP requirements.
Major moves include:
- Aim (ranged only)
- Suppress (ranged only)
- Fire (ranged)/Attack (melee)
- Move
- Change Stance (Standing, Crouching, Prone)
- Throw
- Use Item
Characters can hunker down and do nothing on his turn and save up the AP for the next round, in which a character can accumulate at most twice his original AP amount. This is useful when you want to dash from one cover to the next but don't have enough AP to move that far.
Hex? Tiles? Neither
In this game no hexes or tiles would be used. Everything is calculated per-pixel, and translated to real metrics like feet and meters.
Damage
Combat is designed in this game to be as brutal as possible, in order to encourage players to make extensive use of cover. Damage model in the game is modeled differently in the sense that gaining levels does not mean you have a higher HP pool or better damage resistance. It merely means you have more skills at your disposal or simply move faster or stealthier; only by getting better armor (at the cost of reduced agility) or better tactics can one emerge victorious without spotting a missing arm or leg or a gaping gut wound.
Interrupts
I'm not sure what to call it, but for simplicity's sake I'll call it interrupts. In combat, interrupts can happen, but you have to set it up. For example:
Char A and Char B is both hiding behind cover, and Char A has the initiative. Char A selects suppress and points the suppress wedge (think of it as deploying a HMG unit in CoH) in the general direction of Char B, then ends turn (setting up suppression doesn't cost any AP).
Char B, being a n00b in the game, decides to pop out of his cover and rush Char A. He clicks a location appox 10 feet away and expects his character to run over. As the character comes out of the cover and into the suppression area of Char A, Char A rolls for an interrupt. If the roll is successful Char A opens fire, draining his unused AP and causing damage to Char B.
Char B is hit and is "interrupted" (stopped) 5 feet from his goal. He is bleeding and had tumbled, and now being wiser Char B decides to go back into his cover. He has enough AP left to return to his cover (run that 5 feet), but once he clicks and executes his actions Char A opens fire again (as he has enough AP to perform 2 bursts), killing Char B before he reaches cover.
This is how the interrupt system basically works.
Keys to tactical victory
Characters can be inflicted with status ailments like confusion, fear, and so on, and players can effectively pin down other units with properly set up interrupts.
The key to victory is to extensively employ small unit tactics, like flanking an opponent while keeping them suppressed. Grenades can also be used to flush enemies into killzones (since not all grenades detonate on the same round), or special weapons used to disrupt enemy status (flashbangs, flamethrowers, mortars, snipers, etc).
Players can also make use of explosives to destroy environments in order to gain new entry points. Most walls can be breeched, and covers can even be booby-trapped.
So what do you think?
I'm building a prototype with placeholder graphics as a proof of concept, but I'm pretty sure on how to implement all these technically. I'm not sure if this design can be converted into a dumbed-down real-time with pause mode for those who can't appreciate the beauty of turn-based combat, but that's not the main point.
What do you guys think of such a combat system?
Oh and BTW, I apologize if my english sounded funny. It's not my mother tongue - I'm from Malaysia. Greetings, codex.