Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Ahead of the curve

This slightly relates back to yesterdays horribly long post. Only it won't be long and it's less ranting and more about Combat Project.

So currently initiative in combat project is based on taking X dice from your initial pool. Or none at all for a zero.As it stands I've found it quite useful in these testing runs to put nothing in the initiative and put that die in attack or defense. This seems cheap as right now the  AI always puts a die in the initiative pool making you effectively have one more die in exchange for always going second.

The first idea is to force the player to put a die in the pool. This seemingly goes against my idea of how much control you have. If you rolls were too high and want to go second you're left hoping the AI put a higher die in the pool. The second idea is expanding on the edge system. Having a "first strike" attack that allows the person to get a bonus of some sort on the target, what yet I'm not sure either damage or bonus to hit which can easily translate into damage. This is probably going in one way or another as it is a risk move for the player too. They could pay for this and put in their greatest die or dice to guaranty going first at the expense of attack pool or defense pool. This adds a bit of risk reward in setting it up as it took some edge and now it takes you hoping to get a first hit. Third is, multi attacks.

Yesterday I discussed the main sins of multi attacks and am very weary about putting it in system. Namely just how much should an extra action cost and if a character will just pay that and nova with it and other edge abilities. Allowing more than one attack a turn also opens another can of worms here, as the attack bonus has already been set so either nothing new happens or more damage is inflicted. This said the basic idea was that if you have twice the initiative of the opponent you would go on your regular initiative and then once again at the end of the round for another regular attack. This does once again attempt to force you to put a die in the initiative pool but it is giving you a choice. A poor solution possibly but it does allow you to put a lot of initive in the pool for hopes of achieving the double attack result. It may even be a good edge idea but for now I'm going to think on it.

3 comments:

  1. I think double or triple attacks are a good idea, if say, you find yourself against an opponent that you know you can beat easy and don't want to waste too much time on, or if s**t starts hitting the fan and you need to try and get the enemy down quick before they just stand on you.

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  3. I posted without finishing the thought so here is the full thought.

    I think removing the chance to defend or possibly being able to set a defense/counter (or parry and thrust if you will) is preferable to multiple attacks in a single turn. It feels more fair.

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