I want to discuss combat, more particularly in my entry for the HotOHR contest. One of the main criticisms of my entry was that the combat was boring, repetitive, and perhaps too simple. I would first like to explain my thoughts behind Bale's current combat system and then offer some solutions and ideas. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated and welcomed.
Combat in Bale is of course simple, but it did have some thought go into it. Basic attacks target the closest enemy, dealing damage using the standard formula for attack and defence, as well as accuracy. Most projectile spells have no such targeting restriction, but a limited amount of uses based on FF1-style MP. While a basic system, I believe there was plenty of room for complexity but it was not apparent given the extremely limited variations in enemy encounters in my first dungeon.
For example, you are facing off against a spellcaster + several minions. The spellcaster is situated further back, meaning your basic attacks can only target the melee-focused minions in front. Do you spam basic attacks to maximise your damage output? Or do you throw down some spells early on to take out the spellcaster, who may be healing or buffing his friends? Perhaps you want to spend a couple of rounds buffing, with the caveat that you accrue damage or allow the enemy to buff themselves. Your strategy will be based on your knowledge of the enemies you are facing as well as the resources at your disposal (ie mana, health, items).
I am looking to add some additional complexity to this system to make it more interesting and less generic/boring. I'm going to spitball some of these ideas and hope that I can get some feedback and discussion going:
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*In addition to attack/defence, there is a stat called POISE
*Most physical based attacks deal standard atk/defence based damage, but then have a chance to chain to a 2nd command
*This 2nd command deals additional damage based on POISE as both the attacking and defending stat
*POISE decays after use of basic attacks & certain skills. Riskier/more damaging skills will deplete POISE faster
*An invisible, untargetable enemy will restore some POISE (perhaps 10 or 20% of maximum) after every round or 2nd round
*Elemental resistances will be used to affect the amount of POISE restored between rounds
Of course, it is going to take a balancing act to make this work effectively. Damage from poise should be significant and difference-making, while not completely overshadowing damage from more traditional sources. I also want to ensure that thought is required, rather than the best option being to just spam damage and healing.
What pitfalls can you see with this system? Does it sound interesting, fun, convoluted, redundant or ... ? What changes would you make? Do you have any other interesting ideas or thoughts?
Many thanks for reading.