Post by Leonard on Apr 30, 2016 22:20:18 GMT
The meat of many RPGs is combat, and I'm not going to pretend that it won't be a major part of RtI. Combat being crucial in the Warriors setting, it's worth giving it a look, and try to figure out what I'm trying to achieve in it.
Feel
One of the major directives I had when designing the game, was giving a strong and consistent feeling, and have player understand the situation, with mechanics backing up that feeling. With player starting up as an unexperienced kittypet, it puts them at the very bottom of the food chain. At the start, pretty much everything is a threat - rogues are vicious, apprentices have a good idea how to fight, and warriors can easily cut through the apprentices. That not to mention other creatures out there, that can be even more dangerous - such as dogs and foxes, which should only be approached by a group of an experienced warriors. I wanted all those proportions in power to be relatively maintained - it's hard to build up a dramatic tension of a group of badgers attacking the camp, when player has already killed three dozens of them.
Encounters in the demo demonstrated this fairly well, I think. The big, scary cat that forces Snowpaw out of twolegplace really is big and strong. Pretty much all apprentices are better trained than Snowpaw, and the finishing battle with Fox made it seem like a formidable opponent - and have player be grateful for the advantage in numbers, as well as having a prodigious apprentice on his side. And even with all that, the player is likely to be forced to retreat - showing that the danger was too great, yet still giving a feeling of victory.
That being said, it also had its downsides. Setting player in a weak starting position does give a proper perspective to how strong he is, but it also make player character seem meaningless. Every other character seems much stronger, and thus, player's actions don't seem to have much influence. I think it is a worthwhile trade-off. It ties down with another theme that I'm trying to emphasize, the growth of the character. While the player starts off weak, it won't last forever (or long, for that matter). Snowpaw is going to catch up with his training soon, and with better stats, new moves and new teammates, he is going to defeat enemies that felt unbeatable not long ago. I think that nothing shows how far the player have gone like easily defeating what was once a major challenge. But to have that feeling, player does have to suffer a bit of a starting weakness.
Interest
Feel is one thing, but RtI is an RPG, not a visual novel, so it won't suffice alone. Having the encounters being interesting is of utmost importance. The difficult question, of course, is what makes an encounter interesting? It's easier to say what makes them boring - too repeatable, too often, too long, too difficult, too easy. It's hard to address all these issues at once, but thinking about what I didn't want, made one decision very simple.
The game is not going to feature random encounters. I think that, while done right, they may not be so bad, but they are fundamentally uninteresting. Having player beat up tons of trash mobs, because they either have to grind or just can run away is easy way to add up content time, but that's not very fun content time. I don't want players to spend time grinding xp by fighting the same enemies over and over again. I think that having fewer, but more deliberate encounters will make for a better experience. Not having enemies repeat often will likewise make the game feel more fresh.
Challenge
Challenge is another of points that may generate interest in some players, but balancing it is relatively hard. But let's start from different angle. Do all encounters need to be challenging? The answer is a definite no! There are numerous reasons why encounter should be "easy". For one, to keep up with the feel. If the player keeps encountering enemies at his level, he will never feel like he has grown. Throwing in some breather fights will let player notice how stronger his character has gotten, and this is very enticing fantasy. The other reason, is to allow player to try different tactics and combinations. The boss fights are a test of skill of player's understanding of mechanics and his ability to make reasonable choices. But to get a good understanding usually requires some experimentation. Giving easier fights lets player try different combinations, and play with the new toys (skills, characters, items) that they have received. The player needs to have time to achieve a good understanding of mechanics before his skill gets tested.
The other important question is - who to balance the challenge for? Many of people who are interested in Warrior Cats games are not exactly invested gamers. For many veterans, who played countless RPGs, the threats I throw at them will turn out to be fairly simple, yet to people new to the genre getting basic grasp of mechanics may be challenge enough - figuring out the optimal strategy being much harder than that.
I've already ran through problems of this nature after sending early versions of demo for tests. The first testers I've send it to, found encounters challenging (to a different degree, depending on the person), yet beatable. I thought that was the perfect balance, and was overall satisfied with myself, until I send it to the second wave of testers, with much less experience in the genre. They found themselves completely crushed. And let's be honest - constant loss is no fun thing, and having to endlessly reload to try and beat the boss is just tedious. Ultimately, I decided to lean on the easier side of things. It's fun to sometimes meet a challenge and have to solve the puzzle named "how to beat this boss", but I'm worried that many of the players are not particularly interested in challenges of this sort, and this could seriously ruin flow of the game.
Though, I do intend to do something special for more ambitious players, who will likely find the core game too easy. A few bonus bosses will certainly spice things up, as will alternate, more difficult variations of encounters (as already happened in the demo, with the Fox battle).
No screenshots this time, I'm afraid. But I hope I'll manage to prepare something special for the next month.
Feel
One of the major directives I had when designing the game, was giving a strong and consistent feeling, and have player understand the situation, with mechanics backing up that feeling. With player starting up as an unexperienced kittypet, it puts them at the very bottom of the food chain. At the start, pretty much everything is a threat - rogues are vicious, apprentices have a good idea how to fight, and warriors can easily cut through the apprentices. That not to mention other creatures out there, that can be even more dangerous - such as dogs and foxes, which should only be approached by a group of an experienced warriors. I wanted all those proportions in power to be relatively maintained - it's hard to build up a dramatic tension of a group of badgers attacking the camp, when player has already killed three dozens of them.
Encounters in the demo demonstrated this fairly well, I think. The big, scary cat that forces Snowpaw out of twolegplace really is big and strong. Pretty much all apprentices are better trained than Snowpaw, and the finishing battle with Fox made it seem like a formidable opponent - and have player be grateful for the advantage in numbers, as well as having a prodigious apprentice on his side. And even with all that, the player is likely to be forced to retreat - showing that the danger was too great, yet still giving a feeling of victory.
That being said, it also had its downsides. Setting player in a weak starting position does give a proper perspective to how strong he is, but it also make player character seem meaningless. Every other character seems much stronger, and thus, player's actions don't seem to have much influence. I think it is a worthwhile trade-off. It ties down with another theme that I'm trying to emphasize, the growth of the character. While the player starts off weak, it won't last forever (or long, for that matter). Snowpaw is going to catch up with his training soon, and with better stats, new moves and new teammates, he is going to defeat enemies that felt unbeatable not long ago. I think that nothing shows how far the player have gone like easily defeating what was once a major challenge. But to have that feeling, player does have to suffer a bit of a starting weakness.
Interest
Feel is one thing, but RtI is an RPG, not a visual novel, so it won't suffice alone. Having the encounters being interesting is of utmost importance. The difficult question, of course, is what makes an encounter interesting? It's easier to say what makes them boring - too repeatable, too often, too long, too difficult, too easy. It's hard to address all these issues at once, but thinking about what I didn't want, made one decision very simple.
The game is not going to feature random encounters. I think that, while done right, they may not be so bad, but they are fundamentally uninteresting. Having player beat up tons of trash mobs, because they either have to grind or just can run away is easy way to add up content time, but that's not very fun content time. I don't want players to spend time grinding xp by fighting the same enemies over and over again. I think that having fewer, but more deliberate encounters will make for a better experience. Not having enemies repeat often will likewise make the game feel more fresh.
Challenge
Challenge is another of points that may generate interest in some players, but balancing it is relatively hard. But let's start from different angle. Do all encounters need to be challenging? The answer is a definite no! There are numerous reasons why encounter should be "easy". For one, to keep up with the feel. If the player keeps encountering enemies at his level, he will never feel like he has grown. Throwing in some breather fights will let player notice how stronger his character has gotten, and this is very enticing fantasy. The other reason, is to allow player to try different tactics and combinations. The boss fights are a test of skill of player's understanding of mechanics and his ability to make reasonable choices. But to get a good understanding usually requires some experimentation. Giving easier fights lets player try different combinations, and play with the new toys (skills, characters, items) that they have received. The player needs to have time to achieve a good understanding of mechanics before his skill gets tested.
The other important question is - who to balance the challenge for? Many of people who are interested in Warrior Cats games are not exactly invested gamers. For many veterans, who played countless RPGs, the threats I throw at them will turn out to be fairly simple, yet to people new to the genre getting basic grasp of mechanics may be challenge enough - figuring out the optimal strategy being much harder than that.
I've already ran through problems of this nature after sending early versions of demo for tests. The first testers I've send it to, found encounters challenging (to a different degree, depending on the person), yet beatable. I thought that was the perfect balance, and was overall satisfied with myself, until I send it to the second wave of testers, with much less experience in the genre. They found themselves completely crushed. And let's be honest - constant loss is no fun thing, and having to endlessly reload to try and beat the boss is just tedious. Ultimately, I decided to lean on the easier side of things. It's fun to sometimes meet a challenge and have to solve the puzzle named "how to beat this boss", but I'm worried that many of the players are not particularly interested in challenges of this sort, and this could seriously ruin flow of the game.
Though, I do intend to do something special for more ambitious players, who will likely find the core game too easy. A few bonus bosses will certainly spice things up, as will alternate, more difficult variations of encounters (as already happened in the demo, with the Fox battle).
No screenshots this time, I'm afraid. But I hope I'll manage to prepare something special for the next month.