ID:791045
 

This is a battle system design I am working on to try to steer the direction of a game away from spreadsheets, and more towards skill. Instead of a creating a bunch of arbitrary numbers to deal with damage for weapons, which is utterly ridiculous, (does it really hurt that much more to be stabbed with a steel blade than an iron one?) I have decided to have a general give and take sort of system, with benefits more to your style and combinations instead of maxing out your stats.

WARNING: COMBAT HEAVILY INSPIRED BY DARK SOULS

To start off, the health stat of the game is measured in hearts, much like a Legend of Zelda game. Players will lose in whole hearts, halves, or fourths, or a combination of them. There will also be a fatigue meter, represented by green orbs, (may change later) which drains on the swing of a weapon, or the successful block of an attack. You regenerate 1 fatigue every 2 seconds.

(Imagine players starting off with 5 hearts 5 fatigue, to be increased later by enchanting/crafting to further fit player’s style.)

(There will be two macros for the hot bar for each hand that activates whatever you’re holding. If you’re holding a two handed weapon the first handed macro is the default. Right hand is 1st, sorry lefties.)

Combative equipment has two attributes, 1 handed and 2 handed. Obviously the digit preceding handed dictates whether the character will be able to hold said equipment piece with one or two hands. One handed weapon types include swords, daggers, staves, shields, maces, and the like. One handed weapons drain 1 fatigue per swing generally, (I say generally because of uniquely crafted weapons) daggers only one half. Two handed weapons will include Great swords, Great hammers, and bows. A swing from a two handed weapon will generally drain 2 fatigue.

The type of weapon it is dictates damage, along with the positioning you hit with, such as back or side hits. An unblocked sword/mace hit will damage ½ heart from the front, 1 from either side of the player, and 1 and ½ from the back. Daggers will damage ½ from the front and sides, but will pack a whopping two heart hit from the back. A blocked attack will still drain fatigue from the attacker, but drain only ½ fatigue from the blocker.

To prevent players from just having a shield stand off until the other attacks, holding the shield up to block will drain ½ fatigue every 2 seconds, requiring a skillful use of the shield. And to help players from just standing in front of each other, pressing space sends your character into a back roll, which will take you back an undetermined amount of pixels, and allowing overall better mobility, but also costs 1 fatigue. The distance back rolled will also be affected by the category of armor being worn, which will be explained later.

Two handed weapons like Great swords/hammers will drain two fatigue per swing, but make up for the exhaustion by the massive damage they dish out. An unblocked attack from either a great sword/hammer will deal two damage from the front, two and a half from the sides, and three damage from the back.

(I’m debating making it so a blocked attack from a two handed weapon will drain two instead of 1 fatigue, because of the greater impact, but I’m not sure how that will play out in balancing, may see later on in testing.)

Bows also require two fatigue to fire, but have the added bonus of cutting the rolling cost of 1 fatigue to only ½ fatigue, to grant greater mobility for bowman.

Staves will not operate like normal weapons, but will serve as a catalyst for magic abilities. You will need a staff equipped to use spells. But you could go for a Gandalf the grey style character and use a staff in one hand and a sword in the other. It still drains 1 fatigue to use a spell because of mental exhaustion.

(Spells not defined yet, so judge system so far by melee)

The non-combative equipment (Armor) has three categories. Unarmored, Light, and Heavy. The effects are simple. Unarmored doubles the damage you take from the above figures, but doubles fatigue regeneration to 1 fatigue/second. Light leaves the values as they are, and Heavy halves the aforementioned damage, but doubles the regeneration to 1 fatigue every 4 seconds.

The aim behind this system is to have battles quick and semi-realistic. I want players to grow into their characters, and use what fits best, by whatever combinations. There will also be smithing/crafting in game, as well as unique items to find, so these values aren’t set in stone, merely baseline.

I’d like to see some feedback, to see if this is sounds like a viable/fun system, see what needs to be tweaked, etc.
tldr tables for everyone else

Making attacks:
Dagger: -1/2 stamina
One handed: -1 stamina.
Two handed: -2 stamina
Bow: -2 stamina.
Shield: 1/2 per 2 seconds.

Damage front/side/back:
Dagger: 1/2, 1/2, 2
One handed: 1/2, 1, 1 1/2
Two handed: 2, 2 1/2, 3
Bow: ??

Blocking:
Dagger: ??
One-handed: 1/2 or 1? stamina
Two-handed: 1, possibly 2 stamina
Bows: ??

Armor Modifiers:
Unarmored: x2 damage, stamina regens 1/s
Light: x1 damage, stamina regens 1/2s
Heavy: x1/2 damage, stamina regens 1/4s

Sorry, this may make it easier for us to figure out what you're going for. So far it sounds good but I'm going to look over it again. Let me know if I got anything wrong.

Comments
What I notice is that holding up a shield is pretty unprofitable. It will always set you back in tempo- a huge barbarian could just wail on you until you're tired, then bash your face with his last bit of energy. Rinse and repeat. I'd consider taking off the per/sec stamina penalty for shield use. If someone wants to stand there and get bashed around, let them.

You could take a note from Skyrim and not let them move well while they're shielding.

It sounds pretty awesome if you can get it functional and easy-to-use.
I didnt think to make tables, that does make it quicker to assess. The tables info all look correct.

The fatigue from blocking a dagger and bow is the same as 1 hand.

Im not sure if I should have different values for position with bow, because the range is already a nice advantage.

As far as the shield, I had more envisioned players having to look carefully and block at just the right time. I used the fatigue drain to push players more to this style because it hastens the battles. You are right, generally holding a shield is unprofitable, but if you put it down before the 2 second time it negates the penalty and you only lose fatigue from the actual blow.