Help with battle system.

[YummyDrumsticks]

Sorry, I don't know any German, but I really needed help. The person designing the battles for me just vanished and now I have to take it on myself to get this done. To be honest, I didn't really like his original battle system because it was too complicated.

This is his original design for reference:

URL: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...Ao/edit?hl=en#

The game is a Hetalia fangame for territories and it is re-enacting the French-Indian War and the American Revolution in its own weird way.

My problem with the original design: It's too complicated. I wanted something very simple, quick-paced but fun. I had the ideas of classes up, and it plays very, very similarly to Final Fantasy 4 Heroes of Light: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/23/fi...-explained-in/

There are abilities you can equip with each classes and these abilities take up AP. In battle, you have your basic weapon and your individual musket which can be leveled up for money at a weapons store [like Suikoden 2's weapon]. Muskets can be used in battle for high damage, but it takes a few turns to reload a musket.

There are terrain effects - these are all historically based on the battle field.

In the past, the idea was there were three columns you would place your troops in, and then you would face off against the enemy lines.



This would be called a [CONFLICT] where there is a goal you must satisfy. Sometimes to just wipe out all the enemies, sometimes just to survive X turns. They would be historically based. If it was a loss for the ally side, you would just have to survive X turns.

You would have a lot of troops that you can recruit for money and there would be the classes you could assign for them. I was thinking I may have to simplify this into one column where you line up characters in units of three in a row and face off against the other.

There would be "skirmishes" [regular battle] between the front row. The front row would continue until they die and the next row would be up. EXP would be disperse throughout the entire "army" to make it fair.

This is a mock up of what it looks like - but I've changed the gui since then. Also I know the flag is wrong. I fixed that, too. X_X But just an idea.




UPDATE:

New Outline for battles: http://pastebin.com/qNnfvGt2

[Cornix]

I couldnt clearly understand what kind of help you are looking for exactly.

Do you need somebody for the scripting part as your comrade left the project?

Or do you need help to balance the battle system to make it more appealing and fun?

Or do you look for ideas of alternative battle systems since you ran into a couple of flaws with yours?

If you could clear this up a little i am sure there will be somebody around to help you out.

[YummyDrumsticks]

Oh dear. Sorry haha. I just needed some concept advise - not a scripter or anything. I posted a new version up that is more simplified. I guess I am not too familiar with designing battles. It isn't too detailed yet, but it is a general outline.

[Corti]

So you like to avoid the possibility of having weird combinations and tactics that are vastly superior to the way it is intended to be played. What i'd like to know is how it is intended to be played. May you describe that step by step as an example for a few turns like...

• Player commands X to do Y. Using 2 AP, 3 AP left. Unit Z takes 34 damage.

Next thing is: the central point of gameplay is that there is at least one core mechanic that the player can master. The thing the player gets better at while proceeding in the game, what he "learns" doing. What do you want the player do think and optimize?

[Cornix]

As far as i understood your major problem with your current battlesystem is that a player with a highleveled powerful troop in the front row couldnt be beaten by the enemies who stream in one by one because they cannot fully make use of their quantity over the players quality.

It lays at hand, that you need a way to make units who are constantly attacked will eventually die or get knocked out.
One possibility would be to remove the medics, could make the battle system a little more boring perhaps?
Or you might limit the amount of hitpoints those medics can heal. for example they can only heal a percentage of the units current hitpoints.
In example: a unit which is only hit once and not really damaged can easily be healed up to its full max hitpoints, in contrast a lethaly wounded unit with only very little hitpoints left couldnt really be healed by medics. it would need constant healing of multiple medics to bring the unit back to a decent amount of hitpoints, most probably this wouldnt succeed because of ongoing enemy attacks.

Another possibility might be that your units in the front rows lose stamina while in battle and once their stamina drops under a certain amount they need to slip back into the back rows to regenerate. now the former back rows will go on with the fighting.
To enforce this you might give penalties if units lose all their stamina, like a temporary attribute loss or even a stun.

These possibilitys could help to put the focus on a mass of average units instead of a small amount of high quality units which can solo big amounts of enemys.
There might of course be other ideas of the same kind or combinations of those which will work out as well.

[YummyDrumsticks]

Hmm ... Updated with a new battle system. Something that is simple and eloquent, but interesting. It is still in the works:

Specifications: http://pastebin.com/dwE0G2g3



A few things to note is that instead of an entire party replacing the row, when one member dies, a person takes their place. Also, there is a limit of items you can equip, so this results in more "man down" so you will need your back up units. There are story sequences inbetween these major conflicts, and you will have your main characters for those.