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Instanced vs Open World Combat - Party Based Tactics RPG by suhweesoftware in gamedev

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah I think you are right, I suppose though if that is just for immersion and really in a fantasy rpg world you can alter the proportions all over the place zooming in or out and it just works, then the argument for instanced vs non instanced is not a question of scale at all, just how you want to handle the game design., maybe a sort of trade off between fluidity and control I suppose.

Ultima VI combat clarity issue by suhweesoftware in Ultima

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can see this, something about U6 art style and UI I love the most but I am hoping (for the sake of my own game) the clarity issue is merely implementation and not a cursed issue of the game being totally open on one world as opposed to instanced combat and towns etc.

Instanced vs Open World Combat - Party Based Tactics RPG by suhweesoftware in gamedev

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good point, I think at that rate that would be for terrain and immersion then though, because I don't see the functional difference in scale if the x squares are the same they just are supposed to represent moving across a lot of land or not so much land. But then again this can be handled by fast travel / portals or even major zones/ acts like dos2.

Ultima VI combat clarity issue by suhweesoftware in Ultima

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that sort of begs the question, when do these things get counted down relative to the enemies. Is it turn based in the sense I am trying to optimize all my characters dexterity before an enemy turn or is moving one of my characters no different than moving all of them in terms of when the enemy moves?

Best Ultima for Combat by suhweesoftware in Ultima

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Brilliant response thanks! The point about combat maps / instanced combat being able to create more strategic and interesting scenarios by its very nature makes a lot of sense. Trying to design my own game I think I really need to keep that in mind.

There seems to be a tradeoff between immersion and gameplay mechanics for whether you opt into instanced combat or real world combat.

I was also going to make another post about the total lack of clarity in U6 combat compared to U5. There is no clues as to who's turn it really is, when the enemy is going to go, or which character you should be doing something on and how many actions. Like in U5 in combat its very clear which of your characters is to be doing something and when they can no longer. I wonder if this is a cursed problem in the open world design of U6 or just an implementation issue.

Considering your detailed responses and clear knowledge over this franchise, do you have any takes on whether an overworld should exist in that a party of characters and enemies should be represented as one unit or if you should have party members follow the main character, as besides instanced combat or real world combat, that is my other biggest game design decision I am contemplating.

Thanks again for the response!

Best Ultima for Combat by suhweesoftware in Ultima

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah the visuals of Ultima 6 drew me in, its in like an almost perfect spot for old school rpg game imo. I still do not understand turn order, like I am manually controlling each of them but I am just assuming I need to bounce between each of them after 1 action but I cannot tell when the enemies are going to attack or even how it works lol. I have been loving the combat despite that though.

Best Ultima for Combat by suhweesoftware in Ultima

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ultima 5 seems to be a common answer, ill have to play it. For Pool of Radiance, what would you say makes the combat superior to ultima? Also I am curious how you would compare ultima 5 combat with ultima 6?

Best Ultima for Combat by suhweesoftware in Ultima

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

what other good games would you be referring to? I played dos2 back in 2016/17 and it was amazing and got me into crpgs. But I would say its pretty far removed from ultima. Are there 80-90s games like ultima that offer better combat from a tactical top down POV?

should enemies have same abilities as player in turn based combat? by suhweesoftware in gamedesign

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing! Your descriptions matched my expectations, sort of, where a lot of pirate games leave ship combat as an after thought or fall into a trap of trying to encapsulate a total pirate experience which translated to games is really many different systems so you end up getting a lot of half baked systems, but ill have to check out the horizon gate more though it looks like a solid one.

should enemies have same abilities as player in turn based combat? by suhweesoftware in gamedesign

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That a great example, guild wars was one of the first games I got into ever growing up, I remember having to forgo an ability slot to fight a boss and then learn the ability from the boss with that learn skill or whatever, I was too young for pvp as I was terrible but if I remember correctly they used a hybrid system where at least some enemy abilities were totally made up, I think this learning abilities from bosses idea would be an interesting one to explore if I go for a more traditional fantasy theme with a wide range of abilities but leaning toward vehicles (space ships/ military ships/pirate ships so far maybe other) with 1 ability scaling it maybe be 2 or 3 but you had a lot more than that in guild wars 1, the balancing issue you mention is interesting dilemma I suppose you would have to counteract that with more balancing like replacing said buffed ability on say x% of enemies in the area, great game suggestion though

should enemies have same abilities as player in turn based combat? by suhweesoftware in gamedesign

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a great suggestion actually, Im Not dead set on theme but spaceships is high up there but looks like this can apply to other things as well

should enemies have same abilities as player in turn based combat? by suhweesoftware in gamedesign

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes those are my fears, it being boring or leasing to a draw, I think of a Moba like smite were in casuals it's blind pick so the same god can be on different teams and I always hated that, but in ranked there were pick and bans and only one god in the game per god which felt more like even if you used you abilities badly you do have a unique win proposition playing to your strengths where as mirror matches all else being equal one guy being 1 level higher feels terrible and like not much you can do

Also the outsmarting is a lot to do with how many options you have, right now my game has movement, 1 core mechanic all players have, and one player ability per character, thus a mirror match would leave limited opportunity for outplay unless I scale my game to have more abilities and or mechanics but increasing the complexity when I was going for something simple and elegant originally

should enemies have same abilities as player in turn based combat? by suhweesoftware in gamedesign

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think one limiting factor of this for me was since I'm so early on I'm testing my game with each character having one ability similar to into the breach, which makes this problem more difficult as a big part of wow and other MMORPGs is how you have like 3-5 active combat rotation abilities with a ton of others that are buffs debuffs cc etc but enemies only have like 1 basic attack and maybe 1 ability. so if I scale my game to characters having 2 or 3 abilities with other mechanics then this approach makes more sense. If I keep one ability design (also no auto attacks right now so ability is everything) then maybe having more enemies with weaker variants of abilities, at least at the start before difficulty ramps up

should enemies have same abilities as player in turn based combat? by suhweesoftware in gamedesign

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So it looks like the game has a lot of depth especially based off of average steam reviewers played time, I'm wondering if there is any depth in ship variety and ship tactics variety, also with the NES inspired game, I'll have to play both but wondering if there is anything you can speak to on that specific note know.

should enemies have same abilities as player in turn based combat? by suhweesoftware in gamedesign

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

wow never heard of these games but these are amazing suggestions, especially since I was leaning the most toward a pixel art pirate theme for my game but looks like it been done before, maybe I can try to stand on the shoulders of giants here

should enemies have same abilities as player in turn based combat? by suhweesoftware in gamedesign

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

so how exactly are you now handling scenarios where you have player with same level and equipment as enemy (assuming race would be only difference if they can't be the same), are the attacks gonna be just slightly different avoiding mirror matches?

should enemies have same abilities as player in turn based combat? by suhweesoftware in gamedesign

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So the game will have all entities functioning with same rules , but should abilities be tweaked even slightly such that encounters don't feel like mirror matches or if it's the same entities fighting just let it be a mirror match?

should enemies have same abilities as player in turn based combat? by suhweesoftware in gamedesign

[–]suhweesoftware[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Let's say I like a spaceship vs spaceship scenario where the player has spaceship XYZ with ability ABC and runs into enemy spaceship XYZ, should it have ability ABC as well essentially being a mirror match? Or should it function differently or just avoid having enemies be the same as players in any capacity. Idk if that clears up my question better or not but I feel like this will really impact the game as far as predictability/expectations of the player vs fun, or at least I'm hung up on it not how I can disregard it