10-24-2012, 09:01 AM
I believe I understand what you're saying Slamz, but wouldn't that go back to the whole concept of "the randomness is there to obscure the shallowness of the combat system?".
Currently in games we have:
While there isn't anything "wrong" with these, it's quite lacking in what you can do as far as interactions of abilities with one another.
I like to think back to various movies where you have spellcasters fighting and they do more than simply shoot a beam at each other trying to overpower the other. Instead they are summon various constructs (for lack of a better word) which are then strengthened further by their next spell(s), weakened by their opponent(s) spells, or counter by another construct ... heck, in some the construct is strengthened by a mistake by that wizard's adversary.
To give an example of what my crazy brain has always desired, let's take two spellcasters, Bob and Eve, and say both are something like an Elementalist (use fire, water, wind, and earth spells).
Obviously, you'd need to apply some resource system here such as mana, cooldowns, etc. but here you have several more options, in my opinion.
One thought for resources I think could be interesting is have a separate "resource" for each of the elements.
If anyone has played Magicka before, the idea of weaving together different types of magic probably seems a bit more familiar, but I think something much deeper than that system could be accomplished and I think once it's mapped out it actually wouldn't require much cpu power to implement the code for it ... the initial mapping would be the most difficult.
Furthermore, without the "random" numbers, while developing/tweaking/etc. the system, a nice QA program could be made that goes through the options players have and could even be tweaked to see how things differ when you have a difference in APM between players.
Currently in games we have:
- Direct Damage versus Damage Mitigation
- Curse vs Cure
- Generic Crowd Control (snare, root, interrupt, stun)
While there isn't anything "wrong" with these, it's quite lacking in what you can do as far as interactions of abilities with one another.
I like to think back to various movies where you have spellcasters fighting and they do more than simply shoot a beam at each other trying to overpower the other. Instead they are summon various constructs (for lack of a better word) which are then strengthened further by their next spell(s), weakened by their opponent(s) spells, or counter by another construct ... heck, in some the construct is strengthened by a mistake by that wizard's adversary.
To give an example of what my crazy brain has always desired, let's take two spellcasters, Bob and Eve, and say both are something like an Elementalist (use fire, water, wind, and earth spells).
- Bob starts the fight by summoning a Wall of Earth that blocks X projectile hits (not spells, but hits).
- Eve now has a few options:
- Eve can somewhat ignore the Wall of Earth and adjust her options based on its existence in the fight ... lob attacks over (if able), hit Bob when he's briefly in LoS, etc.
- Eve can try to outmaneuver Bob to get the Wall of Earth out from in between them ... using basic movement, teleporting, and/or enhancing her movement speed
- Eve can destroy the wall using various projectiles ... the faster the rate of fire the better (since need X hits to destroy it).
- Fire projectiles will set the wall on fire, dry it if it is "wet", and thaw it if it is "frozen".
- Water projectiles will make the wall "wet"
- Air projectiles will freeze the wall if it is "wet" ... setting it up for a single earth projectile to shatter it.
- Earth projectiles will simply hit it ... rock hits rock ... but if it "shatters" a frozen earth wall, then it will create a sort of "ice shards" attack that hits enemies on the opposite side of the wall from Eve (who shattered the wall) or if it was on fire then perhaps a sort of AOE burning applied for anyone close to the wall.
- Fire projectiles will set the wall on fire, dry it if it is "wet", and thaw it if it is "frozen".
- Eve can try to move Bob to get the Wall of Earth out from between them.
- Eve can somewhat ignore the Wall of Earth and adjust her options based on its existence in the fight ... lob attacks over (if able), hit Bob when he's briefly in LoS, etc.
- Let's say Eve decides to destroy the Wall of Earth by freezing it and (water + air) and then shattering it with earth projectiles. Bob can ignore these efforts, work with them, or work against them.
- Ignore: Bob simply weaves in/out of LoS of Eve, throwing his own projectiles and dodging back behind the wall before Eve's can hit him
- Work With: Bob can "wait" until Eve has frozen the wall and gotten it weak enough to shatter but then Bob shatters it at Eve before Eve can shatter it towards Bob.
- Work Against: Bob can attempt to strengthen the wall, repairing some damage by Eve
- Ignore: Bob simply weaves in/out of LoS of Eve, throwing his own projectiles and dodging back behind the wall before Eve's can hit him
- Let's assume Bob just learned of how he can "Work With" and is too focused on "waiting" to do anything else ... but he is successful at shattering the wall at Eve
- Eve can put up a "wall" of her own to block the shards
- A wall of fire would destroy the projectiles since they are "ice" ... removing them from play but itself staying in play
- A wall of air would push the projectiles back at Bob
- A wall of water (ice) would block the projectiles but be broken in the process ... removing both from play
- A wall of earth would block the projectiles ... removing them from play but making the wall of earth "wet" ... possibly setting it up for a quick freeze and shatter.
- A wall of fire would destroy the projectiles since they are "ice" ... removing them from play but itself staying in play
- Eve can use an air projectile to reflect the projectiles ... keeping the projectiles in play.
- Eve can put up a "wall" of her own to block the shards
Obviously, you'd need to apply some resource system here such as mana, cooldowns, etc. but here you have several more options, in my opinion.
One thought for resources I think could be interesting is have a separate "resource" for each of the elements.
If anyone has played Magicka before, the idea of weaving together different types of magic probably seems a bit more familiar, but I think something much deeper than that system could be accomplished and I think once it's mapped out it actually wouldn't require much cpu power to implement the code for it ... the initial mapping would be the most difficult.
Furthermore, without the "random" numbers, while developing/tweaking/etc. the system, a nice QA program could be made that goes through the options players have and could even be tweaked to see how things differ when you have a difference in APM between players.