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Game difficulty mechanics - brain storming
author=IrogI haven't coded any of the stats yet, there's no healing, no criticals and no percentages of any kind, yet.....author=hedge1Indeed, if you've built your game with a healing feature and abandon it later, you'll have to rebalance your whole game. If you start without healing, the game is actually easier to balance (no need to choose the amount of HP healed, the range of the healing spells or the cost of potions).
Abandoning healing will make your game significantly harder to balance
Healing is a tool in the player's hand to fight against bad odds of the RNG. The smaller the impact of the RND, the easier the player can predict the outcome of an attack and know how many hits a unit can withstand. I built a small strategy game where there is no healing but also no RNG so the player never gets a frustrating unlucky roll that ruins his/her plan. If your game features critical hits that inflict 3 times normal damage at 2% rate, you need the healing feature. If the random factor increases or decrease damage by 20% maximum, you can forget healing. The actual "amount of randomness" that is best for your game will come out of testing.
My work in progress battle system currently has support for moving characters around on a grid (with a path finding system so you can select where to move to but it only allows possible moves), and an attack function that lets you select an enemy you're next to and attack them; currently anyone who's attacked instantly dies - a placeholder action until I script HP and attack stats etc...
I'm provisionally planning on having QTEs instead of most RNG - so RNG screw won't be a massive thing, but bad reaction screw could be... I'm unsure on critical hits I probably wasn't going to have them or at least not as a massive factor, certainly not Fire Emblems 3 times damage - as I was intending a lot of characters to go down in 2-3 hits, a triple damage critical would be crazy (the provisional idea is to use numbers and movement and choke points so you don't get an individual hit many times)
Game difficulty mechanics - brain storming
author=hedge1What if it was something you can learn about in advance, e.g. a specific enemy unit type that always prioritises injured targets - some kind of blood hound or something that the enemy uses.
Please don't make blood thirsty monsters that ignore winning moves just to perma-death your characters. It's fine if they kill someone if there are no other targets, but it's stupid if someone suicides just to screw over the player.
Idle thought - in general having different AI settings for different enemy unit types could be very interesting... ARRRRGH I always get way too far ahead of myself with ideas verses actual script written...
Screenshot Survival 20XX
@xenomic: some of the shadows around the edges in the above look wrong, look along the top edges of some of the cliffs.
Here's a little gif showing that my combat system is starting to take shape, in case it's not obvious, the map is a placeholder:
(note the graphics used are not my own, the sprites are open source made with a sprite generator that's GPL licensed, see http://gaurav.munjal.us/, the tiles which I note I have not even tried to use correctly are from http://www.lorestrome.com/pixel_archive/forest.htm and copyright with a "you can use if you credit and don't make a profit" clause)
Here's a little gif showing that my combat system is starting to take shape, in case it's not obvious, the map is a placeholder:
(note the graphics used are not my own, the sprites are open source made with a sprite generator that's GPL licensed, see http://gaurav.munjal.us/, the tiles which I note I have not even tried to use correctly are from http://www.lorestrome.com/pixel_archive/forest.htm and copyright with a "you can use if you credit and don't make a profit" clause)
Game difficulty mechanics - brain storming
author=zeelloWhat if some of the enemy are blood thirsty monsters that enjoy killing and have an AI that makes them act as such?
I'd first have to know whether AI units will intentionally try to kill the unconscious unit. But then again why would they bother? After all it's not like you would intentionally go after their unconscious units since if you win then they all die anyway.
Meanwhile other enemies could be more tactical. (I may be getting beyond myself here I haven't written a single line of AI code yet)
Game difficulty mechanics - brain storming
Thank you for all the comments so far, lots of good ideas here to get me thinking - I don't agree with all of the suggestions but I'll think more carefully about certain points than I would have done without the above input.
I'm still interested in any further comments; also I have a thought, what if a unit on getting below a certain HP value lets say 5 for now would be rendered unconscious being unconscious would mean they cannot move or act for the rest of the current fight AND they will be unavailable for a certain period of time after the fight missing one or more subsequent fights. BUT if they're hit again whilst unconscious they will then die and never return.
This would give a potentially interesting dual mechanic, someone is down can you protect them whilst completing the objective? (even though you're not going to have them available in the next fight) Do you sacrifice them permanently (which won't impact your next fight but may impact the one after) to complete the current mission more easily.
Is that kind of long term thinking interesting? It feels interesting to me but I'm the kind of odd individual who enjoys looking at spreadsheets and sums...
I'm still interested in any further comments; also I have a thought, what if a unit on getting below a certain HP value lets say 5 for now would be rendered unconscious being unconscious would mean they cannot move or act for the rest of the current fight AND they will be unavailable for a certain period of time after the fight missing one or more subsequent fights. BUT if they're hit again whilst unconscious they will then die and never return.
This would give a potentially interesting dual mechanic, someone is down can you protect them whilst completing the objective? (even though you're not going to have them available in the next fight) Do you sacrifice them permanently (which won't impact your next fight but may impact the one after) to complete the current mission more easily.
Is that kind of long term thinking interesting? It feels interesting to me but I'm the kind of odd individual who enjoys looking at spreadsheets and sums...
Game difficulty mechanics - brain storming
Thanks for the comments PentagonBuddy. In particular thank you for the XCOM comparison, it's not a game I've played but I've just started taking a look at it and it seems to have a lot in common with the sort of game I've been thinking of making, so will likely provide useful insights in other areas too.
Game difficulty mechanics - brain storming
It's been a while since I've made a topic here, but I'm currently brain storming a few game mechanic ideas and would like other views on them.
The proposed game would be a role playing turn based strategy similar in some ways to fire emblem. I'm looking for thoughts and opinions on the below ideas as gameplay elements; all comments appreciated.
Mechanics I'm currently thinking about:
1. Perma-Death
A hallmark of fire emblem for a long time - BUT in fire emblem many people play with this as if it were a "game over if anyone dies" mechanic; I've been trying to think how I could implement perma-death without it just being a reset inducing feature. One idea I've had is that your army would be comprised of two seperate types of unit:
- characters: these would have a story and would level up and you would put effort into improving them etc.
- troops: these units would not have any significant story
The game would try and force you to sacrifice some units to complete most maps, the idea being that you'd probably sacrifice your troops, not your characters. Problem - would perma-death as a feature not be that relevant with these troops? How could it still feel like an actual cost?
2. Long term injuries
If a unit takes major injuries in one battle they should not be available for a certain period of time which may include the next battle. This would add a minor edge of realism and an extra point of strategy - "I can clear the map by doing X but it may mean I don't get my best unit for the next battle".
3. Kamikaze techniques
Powerful abilities that inflict either long term injury (see above) or perma-death on the unit who uses them in exchange for doing something incredible to the current map state possibly killing multiple enemies. For storyline reasons I'd like the game I've been working on to have special attacks of this sort but I cannot think of any good way to balance them. Can anyone think of any time when a mechanic like this has been good?
4. No healing
I'm looking to strongly discourage attempting to complete missions only with your best units and instead encourage players to use their entire army, so what about having no healing items of any kind with the only healing being between missions.
The proposed game would be a role playing turn based strategy similar in some ways to fire emblem. I'm looking for thoughts and opinions on the below ideas as gameplay elements; all comments appreciated.
Mechanics I'm currently thinking about:
1. Perma-Death
A hallmark of fire emblem for a long time - BUT in fire emblem many people play with this as if it were a "game over if anyone dies" mechanic; I've been trying to think how I could implement perma-death without it just being a reset inducing feature. One idea I've had is that your army would be comprised of two seperate types of unit:
- characters: these would have a story and would level up and you would put effort into improving them etc.
- troops: these units would not have any significant story
The game would try and force you to sacrifice some units to complete most maps, the idea being that you'd probably sacrifice your troops, not your characters. Problem - would perma-death as a feature not be that relevant with these troops? How could it still feel like an actual cost?
2. Long term injuries
If a unit takes major injuries in one battle they should not be available for a certain period of time which may include the next battle. This would add a minor edge of realism and an extra point of strategy - "I can clear the map by doing X but it may mean I don't get my best unit for the next battle".
3. Kamikaze techniques
Powerful abilities that inflict either long term injury (see above) or perma-death on the unit who uses them in exchange for doing something incredible to the current map state possibly killing multiple enemies. For storyline reasons I'd like the game I've been working on to have special attacks of this sort but I cannot think of any good way to balance them. Can anyone think of any time when a mechanic like this has been good?
4. No healing
I'm looking to strongly discourage attempting to complete missions only with your best units and instead encourage players to use their entire army, so what about having no healing items of any kind with the only healing being between missions.
Whatchu Workin' On? Tell us!
Popping back in after a work driven hiatus from these things.
Spent some time today making a pathfinding system (my project is a turn based strategy game)
Currently from whatever spot is selected it shows where a unit could move based on a movement stat + not being able to move through people or water + different terrains having different movement costs (in the picture it's a cost of 1 for the path and 2 for the grass)
The next step will be adding a feature to select someone and instruct them to move... The code for moving them is written, just not the ability to select them and give them the instruction.
Edit: I've now got people moving around, you can select a person, then it draws the diamond showing where they can move to, you then move your pointer around that diamond and it draws a line to the spot you've selected, then press enter and the person starts moving, I'm not sure what to implement next, attack handling or the combat menu or the turn system; I've built the graphics handling for attacks (which shows itself off by having characters randomly kill each other on the title screen) but no interface for it at the moment, also there are no stats yet, my people simply have sprites, names and coordinates/movement details.
(note the graphics used are not my own, the sprites are open source made with a sprite generator that's GPL licensed, see http://gaurav.munjal.us/, the tiles which I note I have not even tried to use correctly are from http://www.lorestrome.com/pixel_archive/forest.htm and copyright with a "you can use if you credit and don't make a profit" clause)
Spent some time today making a pathfinding system (my project is a turn based strategy game)
Currently from whatever spot is selected it shows where a unit could move based on a movement stat + not being able to move through people or water + different terrains having different movement costs (in the picture it's a cost of 1 for the path and 2 for the grass)
The next step will be adding a feature to select someone and instruct them to move... The code for moving them is written, just not the ability to select them and give them the instruction.
Edit: I've now got people moving around, you can select a person, then it draws the diamond showing where they can move to, you then move your pointer around that diamond and it draws a line to the spot you've selected, then press enter and the person starts moving, I'm not sure what to implement next, attack handling or the combat menu or the turn system; I've built the graphics handling for attacks (which shows itself off by having characters randomly kill each other on the title screen) but no interface for it at the moment, also there are no stats yet, my people simply have sprites, names and coordinates/movement details.
(note the graphics used are not my own, the sprites are open source made with a sprite generator that's GPL licensed, see http://gaurav.munjal.us/, the tiles which I note I have not even tried to use correctly are from http://www.lorestrome.com/pixel_archive/forest.htm and copyright with a "you can use if you credit and don't make a profit" clause)
Whatchu Workin' On? Tell us!
author=Jakoo56
Currently trying to find a way to add colissions into theolized battle system for RPG maker vx ACE. I have no idea where to start :P!
Edit: Nope... all my attemps were failed.
author=Jakoo56Depending what the system is this could be quite hard or quite easy...
Currently trying to find a way to add colissions into theolized battle system for RPG maker vx ACE. I have no idea where to start :P!
Edit: Nope... all my attemps were failed.
I don't know Ruby at all but here's a suggestion of what it wculd look like in javascript to show the logic:
function collided_at(x,y)
{
for (var i = 0; i<actors.length;++i)
{
if((actors[i].x <= x && actors[i].width+actors[i].x >= x) &&
(actors[i].y <= y && actors[i].height+actors[i].y >= y))
{
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
You'd then call that function before moving someone to a location to see if it would be collided - note it assumes you have your characters in as an array of objects called actors and each one has x, y, width and height properties.
This obviously only works for checking collisions with other characters, if you need to check collisions with objects as well you'd need to loop through them too.
Whatchu Workin' On? Tell us!
I've been trying to design a pathfinding mechanism for my planned SRPG battle system but I can't work out what I need.
The idea is that a player will be able to select a character and instantly see all the locations they can move to (think Fire Emblem) - but it needs to allow for blocked tiles and tiles that cost more to cross them so it's not simply a case of drawing their total movement in each direction. Also, on selecting any of those available tiles I want it to have them move there via the shortest possible route - so will need to have stored the shortest routes to each option.
I haven't done pathfinding in a while so I'm a little lost, I hope I get there eventually...
The idea is that a player will be able to select a character and instantly see all the locations they can move to (think Fire Emblem) - but it needs to allow for blocked tiles and tiles that cost more to cross them so it's not simply a case of drawing their total movement in each direction. Also, on selecting any of those available tiles I want it to have them move there via the shortest possible route - so will need to have stored the shortest routes to each option.
I haven't done pathfinding in a while so I'm a little lost, I hope I get there eventually...
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