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Chronology's Battle System: A Second Look

What's going on, guys? Last week I talked a little about Chronology's battle system. I wanted to give you guys a look at what really makes an RPG tick behind the face, it's mechanics and how you rumble. This week I'm going into a few extra stuff I have going on for the battle system to edge out the experience. There's more to come, but this time I just wanted to get into the incidentals. Let's check 'em out.



Introducing Excessions. Inspired partly by the Overkill system in FFX, the player can produce Excessions by defeating an enemy with a killing blow of over 20% of their Max HP. An enemy defeated via Excession will drop 20% more gold, and a 30% chance to drop an additional item. I opted for money and items as a reward as opposed to experience, because that would stack the odds in favor of offensively minded characters.

As I mentioned before, this is partly inspired by FFX, but the fighting game flames in me run deep, and it was also inspired by the extra point/rank boost finishing an enemy with a Special Move/Critical Art/etc that fighting games usually grant you.



Fucked up? Accidentally brought a flame sword to tackle that Fire Breathing Dragon? You have a lifeline! A party member can change their equipment once per battle. I set a limit on this, because there are plenty of ways for a player to abuse this as the game goes on if it was infinite. But the player does have a lifeline. Use carefully!



Not all damage is created equal. Certain equipment (usually braces and gloves) can allow you to block 50% of incoming damage. Different gloves/bracers have different rates, but you also have to balance that with other defensive bonuses that those pieces of equipment give. Is it worth it to equipment that gauntlet with the 35% block rate in favor of that glove with the 15% block rate but halves fire damage? You make the call.



REALLY fucked up? Dead? The retry functionality allows you to, well, retry when you get dead.

My battle system is challenging, but not frustrating or hard, but still, I want the player feel as if they can 'safely' lose without being punished by having to see a cutscene over again, or if a random battle got the better of them, and they just want a do-over in the middle of a dungeon. Try not to die, but if you do, here's a little insurance.

That's what I got this week! Keep checkin' in for more updates!

Posts

Pages: 1
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
In my head, those bahamut lagoon soldiers are the only enemy in your game. Please make a game entirely about fighting those soldiers.
They're the poor, despaired workers of the gameplay demonstration industry. They're thinking of unionizing for better pay and treatment.
dragonheartman
Developer, Starless Umbra / Heroes of Umbra
2966
I really like FFX's overkill system. The first time I played through I didn't realize it awarded extra goodies. Just the satisfaction of seeing the message next to a large number (often accompanied by the crit sound) made me feel really good. I'd suggest playing with death animations or sound effects when you overkill (if you don't already) to stimulate that same sort of feedback.

Retry is also a welcome addition. Although if items aren't returned and I invested heavily into a battle I'd probably still use the quit button. Awesome stuff.
I feel like the red for "Retry?" is a little too harsh on the eyes with the message background and black border. Maybe try something a little light/less saturated or yellow/orange?
author=dragon
I really like FFX's overkill system. The first time I played through I didn't realize it awarded extra goodies. Just the satisfaction of seeing the message next to a large number (often accompanied by the crit sound) made me feel really good. I'd suggest playing with death animations or sound effects when you overkill (if you don't already) to stimulate that same sort of feedback.

Retry is also a welcome addition. Although if items aren't returned and I invested heavily into a battle I'd probably still use the quit button. Awesome stuff.


I liked Overkill too. A system in a lot of genres that rewards you crushing an enemy with overwhelming force 'feels' cathartic. I'm still refining it, so perhaps!

The Retry system completely resets that battle entirely, so yeah, you get your items back.

author=Pizza
I feel like the red for "Retry?" is a little too harsh on the eyes with the message background and black border. Maybe try something a little light/less saturated or yellow/orange?


Yeah, I agree, I'm working on that angle too.
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