Castle Paradox

[Onlyoneinall]

As I've already mentioned before, Bloodlust has a level down system which has been discussed. Last night while playing Boundless Ocean, I was casting Shield when suddenly I thought of a (possibly) nifty addition I could make to my game and it's battle system to give it a little more spark.

So I went and gave my character a little more punch. He currently has basic skills - he can strengthen his next hit, prepare for an oncoming blow and block, focus for his next hit, or get ready to dodge the next attack. This is relatively simple, but it gives the battles a little more life as opposed to slash, shoot, heal, run.

Depending on which skill you use, you lose a little bit of HP for losing stamina from the concentration. For example, getting prepared to evade makes you lose some health, because obviously you can't dodge attacks forever without getting tired.

The system works this way. For strengthening your next hit or focus, it will increase that particular stat for the next hit, and after you make a move, the stat returns to normal. So if you were say, fighting an enemy that skitters about too fast for you to hit, you'd want to use your focus skill and then hit the enemy - kinda like real life I guess. Is it making sense?

When you defend or prepare to evade, your character's speed bar is halted as your character waits for the enemy's next blow. Once the enemy makes its move, your character's speed bar is moving again as you prepare for the next plan of action. This is good if you know an enemy is about to do something drastic. You can defend or get ready to dodge as the foe prepares to unleash its move. Since the defending or dodging isn't done until the enemy does attack, this prevents you from suddenly stopping doing so after a certain time and then getting hit.

While this is not currently necessary for my game as it is now, I'm thinking of tweaking it so once in a while, you will need to clench that chunk of wood a little tighter or anticipate the swing of the deadly sickle. It won't be a necessity, but it will help make battles a little more real and a little more interesting.

Anything to say about the idea?
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http://www.castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=750 Bloodlust Demo 1.00

[Devi Ant]

I guess this kind of level/battle system adds some new dimensions to the side of 'tactical fighting'.

It also adds the realism to the game, so that you won't find yourself doing complex swordfighting techniques 10 hours in a row, yet looking like, nothing ever happened.

Definietly adds depth to the game.
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My Art

[Moogle1]

Yes: it sounds pretty awful. Why would I ever want to spend HP to avoid an attack? The point of avoiding attacks is to preserve HP. It's only useful in fights where the enemy visibly charges before a powerful attack, where you might as well just display a message saying "Dodge now!" Given the math on avoiding attacks, though, you might just go with something more sure like hitting the enemy.

Are you using your MP stat for anything? You could use that for stamina instead, with a rest command that restores stamina in battle (a la Defend in SoJ, even though that was pretty useless).
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[TwinHamster]

This sounds a little like the system used in Middle Earth Online, where the health bar was broken into two parts: Pure Health and Endurance. Basically, endurance is for blocking, dodging, parrying, etc. But once your endurance runs out, you're unable to dodge anymore and the foe is capable of actually hitting you now, depleting your pure health.
I suppose using the system would be a bit like gambling a little bit of your health to save a bunch.

[Onlyoneinall]

[Moogle1]

Okay, as an alternative, you could reduce other stats as a result of stamina loss: attack power and accuracy would be good picks (the "strengthen next hit" ability should be changed into a delayed power attack if you want to do this). The Wait command would reset them to full.

The bottom line, though, is that the battles should be fun, not realistic. Don't let realism get in the way of making a good game. Meanwhile, just because it's different doesn't mean it's good. Make sure you playtest your game and if you don't like the battles, redo them, no matter how much it pains you to do so.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[Onlyoneinall]

Thanks for the tip Mog, I'll see what I can do to make the system a little more interesting and still keep it worthy of fighting. Fun doesn't seem the best word though for what I'm going for... realistic is what I am going for, but not so that it is boring, but I guess so you are entertained?
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http://www.castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=750 Bloodlust Demo 1.00

[Moogle1]

Yeah, I know what you mean. It's a horror game, so it shouldn't exactly be "fun," but it should be captivating and definitely not annoying.

Good luck with this. I hope you come up with something that matches the feel of your game.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[Camdog]

I think a system of apparently extreme disincentives in battle would work really well in a horror game, since the goal of a horror game is to make the player feel one step ahead of death at all times, and to actually fear enemy encounters. The trick is to make sure the game is not actually too hard, as constantly getting your ass beat is just no fun. I'd say a good metric for this idea would be to balance so that most everybody can beat it on the first few playthroughs, but they still come away with a sense of, "Phew! I just barely got through that!" (I suppose this could be applied to games in general, not just horror games...)