Opinions on Combat: Combination of Rouge Light and Squad Tactics Thread

Please note all the artwork I am using at this point is not original, but placeholder work from google image search.

Hey all, I have been working on a project and I wanted to get some outside opinions and thoughts. My design concept is along the lines of the title, combining elements of a rouge like with squad tactical combat. What I mean by this is a game where you start by creating a team / squad of characters and then see how far you can get before they all perma-die. I plan on having 10 classes to choose from, 5 of which can be taken in any combination, so 5 of all the same class or 1 of 5 different ones, etc. The game is fantasy themed and the goal is to get through an ancient fortress held by demons. The game would play as a series of rooms, each room containing an encounter with a different theme that plays out similar to an X-Com enemy unknown or Final Fantasy Tactics fight. After each room the player is rewarded with an ability point to be used to level up characters, a choice of branching paths to continue through the castle, and possibly some healing. Additional rewards such as items or gear can be found if the player goes out of their way during the fight to try and acquire them.

This is how I see the battle system working. Two key points first that differ from the examples of X-Com and FFT used above. First, I am not using a grid system, but rather free angular movement. You can move the characters in any way or pattern you want up to their maximum amount of movement as long as their path does not collide with an object they can not walk through.

Second is my system for turns. I am not using all player units then all enemy units, nor am I using individual character speeds to determine turn order. My system works with alternating turns, the player and the computer each taking 2 actions then yielding the turn to the other. Each character has 2 actions per round, so this means the player can either use one character twice on his turn, or two characters once. Additionally, the round is turn order is determined by the number of units each team has. If the player has 3 and the enemy 2, the player will have the first and last turn of the round. However, in the case that one team has more than 1 unit over the other, they gain a combat advantage. Instead of simply having this extra unit act at the end of the round, the controlling entity gets the option of taking an action at any point in the round, to include interrupting the other players turn. The below example shows how the goblins who outnumber the player have two tactical advantages (the number of actions the extra unit has remaining) to use until one is slain.

What this system gives me the ability to do with level design is create scenarios with enemies that have interesting attacks and synergy with the environment, but that can be combated through proper tactics. Using the correct combination of unit abilities and using characters in smart ways through out the turn, devastating attacks can be avoided or interrupted. An example idea would be a unit with a very dangerous charge attack, however the attack has a short charge up time so the player can easily move his character out of the way. Say however that the AI only uses it when the enemy gets in range of a unit that has already used both his actions for the turn so he cannot get out of the way, the player would then have to have another character with an ability that can stop a charge, perhaps a knight with a shield wall or a mage that can erect a wall in the enemies path, or conversely be very careful about using both of a characters actions in the round too early. The idea is to encourage play scenarios that require thinking outside of the standard move to nearest enemy and punch in face strategy.

Here is where I would like a lot of opinions. Because of the above mentioned design goal, I foresee the encounters playing out more as an action, counter-action type scenario. But I am not sure this melds well with the traditional style of RPG combat, with defense stats and such. The system I am currently using is outline below, but I am not sure if the amount of random number generator that would be involved for success lends itself to this action counter-action type game play I want. Is it better to know exactly what your move is going to get you down to the damage number, or for there to be some luck involved with your attack getting through the enemy defenses, or saving you from that possibly fatal blow. Is the risk part of the reward if it works? Or is the risk too foreboding when perma-death is on the line for you last remaining character that made it all the way to the final boss?

Current Combat System:

All units have 3 primary defense stats. Block/Parry, Dodge, and Armor. Armor simply reduces the amount of damage that is received when hit. A unit with 10 armor is basically immune to weapons that only deal 9. If a character is hit with a weapon that does more damage than they have armor, they take the remaining damage to their health and their armor value is reduced by 1 for each 3 points of damage they take. Some weapons and class abilities, such as a rouges back-stab, have a special properties that allow a small amount of damage to bypass armor and go straight towards health.

The other defense stats are about avoiding being hit all together. Each character has two arcs as shown above. The green shows their strong point, attacking from within this angle gives an advantage to that unit. The red is their blind spot, attacking from this angle has benefits. These arcs will change in size depending on what equipment is being used, a character with a large shield will have a large green arc, but also may be weighed down by his armor and so have a large blind spot. Block/Parry allows the character to block/parry an incoming attack, a character is blocking if they have a shield and parrying if they do not. Attacks are more easily blocked when the attack is coming from straight on, more difficult when coming in from the side, and impossible when coming from behind. Additionally, ranged attacks can only be blocked, not parried, so characters without a shield will not get this defense chance against them, and will default to his dodge. Dodge on the other hand, is universal. A character nimble on his feet can jump out of the way of attacks no matter where they come from, but the chance to dodge is generally significantly lower than those seen for blocking with a shield.

On the offensive side, melee attacks have a base chance of 100% to hit prior to the defending units defense stats. Ranged attacks however, will have a chance to miss before the character has defend themselves. Some other ideas I have been considering is a melee combat status effect that locks two characters in combat after one has attacked the other, that would have several effects such as half movement if the character wants to break away. Another concept is counter attacks for the defending player unless they are attacked from their blind spot or already in melee combat with another unit. Melee combat often tends to get trumped by range, so I want to ensure melee has some distinct advantages over ranged as it is always more difficult to close the distance with your enemies.

Anyway, that's all I got for you guys for the time being. I am interested to hear your opinions on this. I have been going back and forth on how I want the combat to resolve for some time now, so thanks in advance for your thoughts!

--Allingar

Here is an update that will hopefully clarify what I am currently working towards and if anyone has opinions on how this fits with the style I am going for.

Very rough but as you can see, when you choose an enemy to attack you are given some basic info like how much damage you will do and your chance. When you mouse over the icon you get details on all the factors that are going into that calculation. Additionally you can see that those details and numbers change based on where you attack the enemy from.

Do you think this high number of factors and detail in the combat system will take away from the game by making it less simple, or do you as a player like to know exactly what your getting so you can make the best possible choice. This is a turn based game, but I still want it to be some what stream lined to decrease iteration time of a run. If players are taking half an hour to clear a room because they are agonizing over each move due to information overload, then a single run could end up being like 5 hours. Not a very good iteration time for a rouge light.

What are your guy's thoughts?