NetCog Member Posts: 149 From: Registered: 06-15-2006 |
RPG or FPS or Fighter-Sim (ultimately the lines are blurring anyways) What resources (books, websites) would anyone suggest for learning how to create the combat systems - balance and the like? I was planning on getting on sourceforge and downloading a few rpgs to see if I could find where their combat calculations are to see what they do. The system I have in mind is getting pretty complicated so I'd need to learn how to use factors or base factors or base calculations prior to the actual combat. Things like racial and affiliation bonuses (+/-), eventual buffs or mod items, etc. |
HanClinto Administrator Posts: 1828 From: Indiana Registered: 10-11-2004 |
Here's a link I found today about Slippery Slope vs. Perpetual Comeback game balancing types. Basically, do the strong get stronger, or do the losers have a certain kind of advantage? Some easy examples of perpetual comeback are found in racing games where the players in the back get stat boosts (such as better accelleration), or even just better drops from powerups (Mario Kart at least did the second one). For another genre, fighting games can give special combos available to players only when they're low on health (a kind of "desperation attack"). It's not hard numbers, but it's some abstract theory that you might find interesting to think about as you try to determine the feel of your combat and seek to balance it (especially for letting players of varying skill level have a good game). Cheers! --clint [This message has been edited by HanClinto (edited November 17, 2006).] |
ArchAngel Member Posts: 3450 From: SV, CA, USA Registered: 01-29-2002 |
here's an article written by a developer who worked on such games as WarCraft, StarCraft and Guild Wars. (I bow before him) http://www.arena.net/news/articles/patarticle022102.html
he does, however, admit that the loser's benefit can be abused by tricky players, but in the long run, it makes the gameplay better. ------------------ |
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NetCog Member Posts: 149 From: Registered: 06-15-2006 |
Those two links were very helpful, but my initial question was more along th elines of combat formulas. I figure the formulas are something along these lines: Potential_Damage = Char(Str)*Weapons_Base_Damage I figure that would be basics then adjust %s and factors based on whatever else you wanted such as bonuses or penalties. |
Lazarus Member Posts: 1668 From: USA Registered: 06-06-2006 |
Yeah, there are usually a lot of factors in games, depending on the type. Like with some I've played, it could be Terrain - Time of Day - Skill level of opponent - etc that determine whether you hit them each time you attack. |
dartsman Member Posts: 484 From: Queensland, Australia Registered: 03-16-2006 |
for FPS and flight-sim you normally want to check if you hit them first. And then delve into where you hit them. Such things as a head shot in a FPS will pretty much kill the enemy, where as a leg or arm shot will only decrease their health by a little bit. Flight-sim is pretty much the same, if you shoot the left wing of an enemy plane then it could set the wing on fire, or blow up if it hit say a fuel tank. Those are however pure combat orientated games. For RPG, it gets a lot trickier. A simple way is to have set attacks, which will drain your 'mana' or whatever you have, for each 'use'. Say a fireball attack could take -5 mana, and hurt an enemy by 50 hit points only 25% of the time. You could use a random number (making sure it's seeded, unless you want the same values each time you run the app), 1-4, and on say 4 it will take 50 HP away from the enemy. Most of the RPG forumlas are just made up by the designer. You should just look at what attacks you have, and setup some rules for them. Making sure there isn't too powerful or not powerful enough attacks which could throw the balance off. ------------------ |