My Battle System Concept

[Drighton]

This concept is, for the most part, finished and I have one last thing to decide how/whether to include. But here is what I have:

Health
This bar represents the character's overall health and well-being. When the health bar is depleted, is does not necesarrily mean the character is dead, but rather the character can no longer function with his/her injuries and slips into a state of unconsciousness. Health naturally regenerates, the rate of which is determined by the character's Strength, but ceases to do so in battle. Health can also be regenerated using simple healing methods and herbal remedies fabricated by other players.

Endurance, Fatigue, and Exhaustion
Endurance is the character's physical and mental stress limit, which is measured by the fatigue meter. Each maneuver executed by the character raises his/her level of fatigue. Should the character reach a critical level of fatigue, he/she will become exhausted. Exhaustion is simulated by a temporary reduction of attributes, which can only be cured by time. The endurnace limit and regeneration rate of fatigue is determined by the character's Strength.

Stances
A stance is a style of combat. A player is able to learn a maximum of three stances. These stances can only be learned from a mentor who accepts the player as an apprentice. The mentor will look at certain factors such as attributes, actions, weapon use, etc before accepting an apprentice. Since the player is only allowed to learn three stances, it is important to deduce which stances would best suit the player's style of gameplay.

Maneuvers
Each stance is accompanied by a collection of unique maneuvers, special actions that can be performed/executed during battle, all varying in tactical benefit. Strategy is needed to weigh the benefit with the consequence, which takes its form in the setup and recovery periods, in selecting the appropriate maneuver to perform in each scenario.

-Setup
Certain maneuvers require time to prepare before they can be properly executed. For example, an Archer performing a sniper attack will require time to set the arrow, draw the bow, aim, and steady the shot before releasing. These preparations take place during the Setup period, graphically represented by the powerup animation. This means that when a hotkey is pressed, the animation must complete before the action is to be executed. The speed of setup is determined by the character's Dexterity.

-Recovery
All maneuvers will exert the character, represented by a spike the the character's fatigue. For example, a warrior is performing a heavy damaging maneuver, which would take a lot of strength to execute. Before the maneuver may be performed again, the warrior must recover from the fatigue. This takes place during the Recovery period, represented by the shrinking fatigue bar. However, while the warrior recovers from one maneuver, he/she may perform different maneuvers.

Battle
During battle, it is up to the perception of the player as to their position. In a defensive position, the player will need to parry or block the advances of the aggressor. In an offensive position, the player will need to enact a strategy for maneuver selection and timing while maintaining a low fatigue level.

-Block, Parry, and Riposte
Blocking is an effective way to avoid heavy damaging attacks and take a percentage of the damage and fatigue. Parrying is the most effective defense maneuver, since no damage is taken at all if an attack is successfully parried. Certain attacks cannot be parried however, and if blocking is unavailable, the player must take the full damage to his/her health. It is a good idea to have armor equipped to dampen the blow. Immediately following a parry, the player may attack, or riposte, to regain the offensive position. A good exchange of parries, ripostes, and counterparries (the parry of a riposte) will occur between seasoned players.

-Deadlocks
A deadlock, where both characters lock weapons in a grapple for position, is a critical part of battle which will turn the battle in the favor of the victor. A deadlock is initiated when both players attack at the same time. In a deadlock, both positions will be met with a random assortment of arrows, the player required to follow on the numpad successfully to win. The loser of a deadlock will be momentarily stunned, allowing the winner to take the offensive position. If both players continue the deadlock without error for a set period of time both players will be considered to have lost, each being stunned.

-Victory and Experience
The victor of the battle will gain all the spoils of the defeated, however experience is not gained like normal RPGs. Since a single battle can be long and challenging, progression is gained through the use of skills, selection of weapons, or other actions related to the three attributes. For example, swinging a heavy sword will increase strength, shooting a bow will increase dexterity, and frabricating items will increase intelligence.

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There you go. Copy and pasted directly from my brainstorming document. Ask me questions if you don't understand something. Tell me if it sounds too complicated. Any kind of feedback appreciated. Definately let me know if I've overlooked something.

[Linkizcool]

Thats a very comprehensive system. Good luck with it. :d

[Zai Manui]

My brain hurts. Can read all of it. But what I DID read it sounds good.

[Drighton]

In another forum someone pointed out Deadlock resolution as a potential for no-fun/irritation. Any Ideas on how I can resolve a deadlock without resorting to button mashing, like any wresting game or Dynasty Warriors does?

[Linkizcool]

Well, you could always make the deadlock into a competition of who can press a randomly chosen key on a keyboard first, and have a 3-5 second time limit (depending on the strenght and dextirity) to press the key before it goes into that equal loss,

[Drighton]

I think the easiest way to do this is punish both for attacking at the same time. No grappling for position. If they both attack at the same time, they both get stunned.

thats actually easier.

[SaiKar]

It's a cool system for a fighting-type game. In an RPG with multiple heroes and hundreds of battles, I could see the complexity turning into tedium very quickly.

[Drighton]

I guess, then , this is where my game starts to stray from the typical RPG. Lets hope it do well

[Linkizcool]

I think it will do very well as a battle system, but I sugest not making them both get stunned if they attack at the same time, because that will happen often and will get irritating. You could always just make it so that the one with the higher strengh and lower fatigue get stunned or something like that.

[Drighton]

Fatigue!!1 Brilliant Link!

I love you (amicably) Link!

Thats why I love this board.