Defining the Combat System (DevBlog)

For the past 3 days I've been focused on my RPG's combat system.

The most basic and fundamental mechanics were already implemented and are nothing special. You move the melee weapon (such as a sword) and if it lands on someone, that someone looses some health. If it blocks, then that someone won't lose health. Similarly if you throw an arrow to someone with a bow, that someone will loose some health. This can be fun, but alone it's too basic. It needs some more spice to make it more interesting and fun. Thus I decided to do a small research and see what kind of action RPG games players think have good combat systems, and then have a look at the combat systems of these games. Checking out a number of different games that people on the internet seem to agree that they have good combat systems, I've noticed some common elements in all these games. And these elements seemed reasonable and straight-forward once I noticed them. I noted those elements down and made a list. Then I examined the list carefully to see what of these would fit the style and flavor of the game I'm making. Once I had decided on which of these fit well in what I'm planning for my yet unnamed action RPG to become, I started working on these features. Here are some of them:

1) Attack stuns. When someone is being stabbed by a sword or hit by a club, that someone will get stunned for a little while before continuing fighting. It makes sense. Games where characters are stunned for a little while when they get hit and can't attack back until they are OK get praised for having a good combat system. People write on forums about these games that they have "solid combat", also that "weapons have weight", etc, and on the other hand for the few games where characters keep fighting or doing whatever it was they were doing once they get hit, without stopping for a moment, they say that their combat is "floaty" and "weightless". Because it just makes sense if I hit you with a club on your head to be stunned for a moment. So yeah, I decided to add this mechanic on my game, as it makes absolute sense.

2) Damage / Size / Speed Analogy. Another small detail that makes a RPG combat system feel solid and weighted has to do with the analogy of the damage a weapon does with its size and attack speed. So basically leaving the attack speed of every weapon the same, and having the size of the weapon only matter for its effective range, is not the best thing to do. Instead the speed with which you can spam an attack with a certain weapon has to have an analogy with the size of the thing, always taking in to consideration the damage it does. Larger, heavier weapons will take longer to maneuver and thus their attack rates should be slower than those of smaller and lighter weapons. And you have to keep the D/s* ratio of each weapon in mind while deciding on the attack speed of each weapon, to make sure you keep some balance in the game. So I decided to do this, and carefully make it so each weapon has a different attack speed, depending its size and attack damage, to make sure weapons respond the way the player would expect and make sense.

3) Power attacks. This is quite simple to do, and adds enough to the gameplay formula to deserve inclusion. In many games you are given the option to charge your attack for a few moments. So if you hold down the attack key or button for a while and then let it, you do an attack more powerful than the ordinary attack. This gives the player choice. To decide if he prefers a quick attack which deals average damage, or a slow one that deals more damage. There may be occasions that one of the two is more preferable than the other one, so I decided to add power attacks.

4) Critical hits. Critical hits are something that players don't think much about, often they are forgotten or overlooked, but when a critical hit happens it sure brings happy smiles to player's faces! So critical hits are something that won't be noticed if it isn't there, but will bring smiles if it is and makes an appearance. So there is a random chance that one of your attacks will do more damage to the enemy than it usually does, yay! Plus, it's one more reason to rise your Luck attribute, which is often overlooked. Oh, by the way, the game is going to have a Luck attribute! I didn't tell you before, did I ? :) 

These are the mechanics I've been implementing the last 3 days. They are functional right now, but testing is required to fine-tune them, clear out any bugs, and make sure they are kind of balanced. So tomorrow I will do some testing on them, and perhaps clean up my code a bit, something I have postponed for some time now.

* D/s: Damage per second