Combat System

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As you know if you've been watching our site for a while, I am very big on Combat Systems using what I call "cinematic" rules.

When you watch Lord of the Rings or Starwars, the fights are memerable. The fights are memerable because it isn't just pressing A and going AFK, or pressing 1 3 5 6 on your keyboard to cycle through a handful of combat abilities. There is strategy, there is use of suroundings, there is fast thinking. This is, sadly, missing from most computer games in general and from massively multiplayer games in particular.

Note

(from Eiji) yeah.. it would lend itself to the extreme combat we want to replicate... and from what I have seen of those movies.. the heroes have to face at least two of what I call the "3 outs" (out-matched, out-moded, and out-numbered).

*Part 1: Character Equipment and Skills

Character Equipment is the primary determiner as to what abilities are available. Character Skills are the primary determiner as to what equipment is available. Character skills do not directly influence game systems such as to hit, avoidance, etc. instead they make available equipment or feats. The game's focus is on equipment and feats. The reason for this focus is simple game balance.

It needs to be possible to change from character type A to character type B. If you are short a support class, you shouldn't have to wait for a support class to become available. Games such as Final Fantasy XI and Matrix Online have shown that it is possible to support a character "changing jobs" in a controlled manner. We are continuing this pattern; in town, you can set up equipment (based on your available skills). You can save favorites, and switch between them in certain areas, at no cost and at no penalty. You aren't bound by a class decision, and if we are forced to nerf a piece of equipment, you can easily change just that skill, versus having to abandon your entire character class.

*Part 2: Rock, Scissors and Paper

The combat system is designed in a triad, so that adding strength against one form of attack adds weakness to another form of attack. You can never be completely immune to any attack mechanism, and you can never be completely immune to all attack mechanisms. To defend against a hacker, you need hacker equipment, for example. Nothing else will protect you from a hacker.

Similarly, scouts can obtain gear that reduces their presence -- on radar, visibly, thermally -- but they can't easily get all forms of stealth, to all forms of sensors simultaneously. Again, there are different themes of scouts -- you could be a hack-based scout, bending the VR's rules to hide, or you could be a tech-based scout. Again, it all depends on what you are trying to hide from. Similarly, scouts can opt to take detection equipment -- they can be the eyes and ears of the unit.

Is there a point in melee combat? Sure -- there's plenty of point in it, just ask the military why they train pilots in hand to hand. When you are in a confined space, when you are in a city scenario or a base scenario, you cannot easily use ranged weapons without risking collatoral damage. In a wide open space, a ranged weapon has a real advantage. In a more confined scenario, melee is more valuable. No, you can't just run straight at someone trying to blast away at you and expect to survive, but a player using ninja style tactics might benefit strongly from melee skills.

*Part 3: Basic Core System

The basic core system is a contested roll. In actuality, to avoid the typical problems with the random number generator cycles, the game uses a virtual deck of cards with a few of each value in it; this prevents cycles in the random number generator from being an issue. Each card is numbered between 1 and 20, so effectively a 20 sided die. A number of cards is drawn based on the equipment involved, and a comparison to a target is done. The results are ranked A, B, C, D or F. Typically, an A result is a 20, a B result is 18-19, a C result is 15-17, and a D result is 11 to 14, and anything lower is an F.

For the contested check, the code adds 8 points for each A, 4 points for each B, 2 points for each C and 1 point for each D. The code then compares the total for the attacker to the defender, and the higher "roll" wins. This system is a cross between something like white wolf and something like Gamma World or Marvel.

Two checks are made. One check is made for hit/miss, and then a second check is made for mitigation (armor). In general, adding mitigation lowers avoidance, and adding avoidance lowers mitigation. There are multiple flavors of mitigation and avoidance, and again, it set up so that adding one flavor of mitigation or avoidance will lower other forms.

When appropriate, the game uses cinematic interlocks. Cinematic interlocks are used to preserve the anime feel -- there wouldn't be an anime feel if the master sensei didn't just tilt his head and avoid the bullet, or if a solid hit didn't send someone flying into a wall, leaving a dent. There would be no anime feel at all if these sorts of things didn't happen. To allow them to happen, there have to be cinematics that are coreographed for certain moves.

There are two options for this -- one option would be to go to a Matrix style interlock. In the Matrix interlock mode, characters not interlocked behave normally -- they get their normal shots, they get their normal abilities, etc. Players that are interlocked follow a new rule. Each player or NPC in the interlock makes a roll, and the highest roll gets to perform an attack from their style on their chosen target. Other characters that are in interlock mode have to wait until they roll high enough to act.

Originally, I wanted to use this same system because I felt it would be necessary for Ranma, Seiya or Starwars style fights to have the appropriate feel. However, I believe now the interlock is only required in certain exceptional cases. For example, the defender rolls over 20 points higher than the attacker, then you probably want to cue a custom animation (the head tilt deal) as an indication that the particular form of attack chosen may not be the best choice.

*Part 4: Cinematic Style Fighting

What makes the fights in movies memorable is how unpredictable they are. By having a system that requires thought, and where there are actual strategies and where taking any strength reveals some weakness, some of this comes along automatically. But not enough.

Rich, interactive environments add to the cinematic feal of any game -- and the best way to get a rich, interactive environment is to use a tile-based engine. If you look at games that are highly interactive, they are almost always tile based -- and you won't usually notice that fact while playing. That is the point of being interactive.

Introducing fighting styles and equipment specialized to interact with certain tiles makes life more interesting, to be sure, and can greatly expand the available gameplay options.

There are some simple cases. For example, a water specialist fighting near a river might be at a distinct advantage, not in terms of bonuses to rolls, or in terms of increased power, but in terms of increased options. They might be able to use the water, due to a combination of its presence in the zone and their specialization, to perform additional feats that would not be possible in other areas.

There are some less simple cases. For example, a grappling hook fired up a building and latched on top, slowly pulling up a suit so that it can move to higher ground. Such a feat requires some mechanism to tell the engine where it is allowed; a tile engine makes that trivial.

Note that pathing and sighting for NPCs is considerably easier in a tiled environment -- you don't need pathing nodes. It is easier to compute cover and similar issues as well.

Note

the tiles are square. This is because the computer has to store what is in each tile, and the compute is best at processing square tiles. The storage mechanisms for other shapes of tiles can be much more complicated, as can be line of sight, etc.

(from Eiji) I totally agree with the idea of using tiles rather than pathing points... especially in the case of a dungeon-style mission setting... we wouldnt need to put pathing nodes in a room if the room in question is made of these tiles..and thus, such nodes are totally superflous and unneeded..