Absinthe
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2012
- Messages
- 4,062
Trash combat is basically combat that has no challenge to it and exists as a form of padding. The better implementations of trash combat usually use it as a form of resource attrition and a way to make you pick your fights carefully. The more common form of trash combat is just as pointless grind for free exp and resources which not only serves as a source of easy combat victories but also a way to power up your character with grinding so you can make the rest of the game a joke too.
Trash combat as resource attrition threat is really only effective when it actually inflicts resource attrition. In Dragon Age: Origins, for instance, enemies drop tons of health potions and everyone has free out of combat regen to heal everyone to full. The consequence of this is that a trash fight serves no attrition purpose at all. That's a bit extreme, but in many other games you still have free resting (or a positive feedback loop where the grind reward more than covers the cost of using an inn/whatever to fully heal the party) or enemies that drop the very resources (health & mana potions) that trash combat is meant to serve as an attrition threat against.
When you do have trash combat that operates as a resource attrition threat, however, it is possible to do more interesting things with these kinds of combat encounters where you reward people for better play with more options.
Trash combat as resource attrition threat is really only effective when it actually inflicts resource attrition. In Dragon Age: Origins, for instance, enemies drop tons of health potions and everyone has free out of combat regen to heal everyone to full. The consequence of this is that a trash fight serves no attrition purpose at all. That's a bit extreme, but in many other games you still have free resting (or a positive feedback loop where the grind reward more than covers the cost of using an inn/whatever to fully heal the party) or enemies that drop the very resources (health & mana potions) that trash combat is meant to serve as an attrition threat against.
When you do have trash combat that operates as a resource attrition threat, however, it is possible to do more interesting things with these kinds of combat encounters where you reward people for better play with more options.
