Fun combat that puts guard back into the mix

[Wren 179]

Okay, my current project is trying to put a little strategy back into a simple front view battle system.

 

The premise is that when fighting monsters (non human enemies) the monster hunter classes can us 1 of 6 attacks against the monster.  Each monster type (slime, rat, bat, etc) is weak against 1 of the attack types  and strong against another(shown in the in game codex as well as a short tutorial).

 

If you use an attack that the monster is strong against they not only don't take much damage but they do some sort of special counter attack or ability.

 

Then to put a throttle on how many special attacks you can make I set up all special attacks to take 12 TP and then set up normal attack to provide 0 TP on hits, and set up guard to return 6 TP.

 

So, guard becomes useful again because to set up a special attack you have to guard.

 

All monsters also have a pretty hefty defense rating so you can't just tap attack during every fight and expect to be efficient.

 

So, what I would like to discuss is how to put in a system that works with this but is tailored for human type enemies and another one against ghosts/zombies/skeletons.

 

At first I thought about adding major normal type elemental attacks (fire, ice, earth) effects to a different class called Runic Knights who apply runes to their weapons and armor that adds elemental damage, skills, and resistances.  So the Monster Hunter class is there to take down the monsters, and Runic Knights take down Assassins, soldiers, archers, etc.

 

Then I also have an idea for Runic Monks who are like a combo between clerics and priests.

 

But so far I can't seem to make the Runic Knights and Monks... special.  They are just sorta... bland.

 

Any help would be appreciated! (and a credit for game design included)

[HumanNinja 144]

You may try using a passive skills script for the runes and linking them to equips

 

Also, I'd suggest adding other benefits to blocking like maybe healing a small % of HP and MP

[Wren 179]

Thanks for checking out one of my posts again, HN.

 

Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt adding a small MP gain in on guard, since monster hunters don't use MP at all, but runic monks do (they also use tp for some stuff)

 

Gonna take a look at this more and do some testing to see if I can get a better handle on how to set up each character with Attack [class specific] Guard(that is useful for all classes) and items.

 

I'll update later when I have some observations.

[Toheka 1]

Another thing to think about is did you want guard to be the only way to regain TP. As far as I know in the default battle system if an enemy attacks you gain TP from the damage as well. 

Edited July 15, 2013 by Toheka

[Wren 179]

Based on a convo with morewordsfaster I am thinking of doing this:

 

Each monster is weak vs 2 of the 6 attacks, and does some sort of counter to 2 as well.

 

It is always weak against 1 type but at half as effective as it is now.

It is always strong against 1 type.

It is randomly weak against 1 of the other 4 types at the effectiveness it is now.

It is randomly strong against 1 of  the other 4 types with a different effect.

 

When a hunter uses guard, a message or something will alert the player to the random weak and strong attacks for that turn.

 

I'll lower the TP costs so that you can guess or use the known but weaker weakness...... or guard and take advantage of the full weakness.  Once the random weakness is used then it sets it as a new random one for the next turn.

 

I like the thought of a runic monk having to make the runes for the knight, using mp to create consumable items.

 

The knight uses focus to activate a rune and deliver an attack or party shield.  Knights advance by being able to set up combo rune activations with increasing chain links, so when we first find a knight they do one rune at a time, then they can combine 2 runes (using both up) and either make a lvl 2 rune or hybrid rune (like burn damage as well as paralyze), then 3, and you get the picture.

 

Adding in another character class that has nothing to do with runes or monster hunting, that uses a magic syphon skill to gather mp and then uses the mp to do both attack and healing spells.