trinian
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The Combat Overhaul - Stage One: Solicitation
🕑 Added 2021-12-10 13:36:28 +0000 UTC
Happy Friday everyone. I always enjoy them as it's an entire day I get to spend making uninterrupted progress on the game. I'm hoping to be able to start showing you some previews of its fruits soon.
Those of you following the F95 thread might have seen that there's been some discussion there over the last day or so about the combat system. For anyone that hasn't, the short version is this: combat is the area of this game I'm least interested in, and it shows. However, with this update containing yet more wrestling, and the third Jess fight also on the horizon, it's something I need to get locked down pretty fast.
The common themes of the discussion so far have been:
- The Poppy and Jess 2 fights are too hard (with also a few complaints about the 3x bad girl fight in Down with the Bad Girls.)
- RNG is too great a factor in combat
- The best tactic is a cheesy grapple/guard-spam with little skill required
- The harder fights create the need to grind for items, which is not something I want players to have to do.
I have tried to lean into some of these shortcomings in the wrestling fights, where the goal is to land a grapple then rip your opponent's clothes, creating a clear two-step process for winning. I personally think it works better, though I've not really heard anyone else's opinion either way.
So, now the question becomes do I change the schoolyard fights to make them more like the wrestling matches, giving Missy the ability to do something special when grappling, or keep some clear water between the two and instead tweak the schoolyard fights to make them less dependent on a random roll?
Perhaps the answer is to make grappling more expensive in terms of TP but near-guaranteed to land, or even to reduce its scope, perhaps taking away some of the poison damage? Maybe some of the other skills just need to be a little stronger to bring them up to its level? Perhaps the solution is something else entirely.
If you have thoughts on this, please do share them with me, here or on Discord, but for now, the first step is gauging your opinion on where we are now. Please vote for as many of the below options as you feel are relevant, and feel free to elaborate on your choices in the comments.
Please note that choosing to make school fights more like wrestling matches will not necessarily result in gaining the ability to rip your opponent's clothes off. I'm not saying never, but that isn't currently the plan. I'm asking if you like the mechanics of the two-step system.
Have a great weekend!
Trinian
Comments
Trisk
I would definitely cut down on the randomness in combat. Loosing because the RNG went against you is just frustrating. I don't think this game really needs challenging combat. Players are only sometimes even trying to win. It's probably ideal to be able to reliably win with a relatively straightforward strategy if that's what the player is going for. In terms of how to make the combat more fun/interesting, I think it would go a long way to have more visual representations of what's happening, like the stripping in the wrestling fights. Such as having a different pose to show that a girl is currently grappled.
Sandrea
For such an early version, "The combat system is fine as it is" is my vote but I admit that fighting is kinda boring. Not enough variety, be it attacks or type of enemy.
Name11
I think there's some merit to decreasing the impact RNG has on combat. Most of the gameplay is about making decisions based on the outcome the player wants to see. If the player is told that their dice roll was bad so they don't get to see the outcome they want, they won't accept that. As for any complaints about battles requiring little skill, I think that's coming from the wrong place. Are players who expect demanding battle systems with high skill ceilings part of your target demographic? I don't think they are, and I think that fact is represented very well in the game's early narration. As long as there's a strategy that works reliably for winning, I think that's all that matters. Even if that strategy isn't flexing players' VERY big brains.
Stephan Keller
You could also make a option, where de player can decide the outcome of the fight. (if you want to play dominant without fighting) Or just a special attack that automatically wins the fight like surrender loses the fight. Those who like can still fight and those who like to lose/win have an option.
Eleon Silent
The slight difference is, people might want to go the combat option to "see" the different combat results, without having to put the effort into looking up the best click method to beat the fight. I know it might seem counter intuitive, but some people want to play the fight story without the clicking "fight" aspects.
Trinian
Exactly why I didn't make a game where there's loads of fights that grind you up to be able to take on a boss. Every fight in the game is optional, there's always another way to progress without it.
Eleon Silent
I personally think there should be an "auto combat" option, for those that just want to play the story and do not want to have to do the save scum to beat a fight. The fights are not all that interesting, as they are just clicking the same keys in the same ways each time. You might as well put an "auto" on it to speed it up and get back to the story.
