[crossfire] Project: Slow down combat

[Yann Chachkoff]

Some short comments about all this...

> I'm concerned no one replied already, but well...
>
My brain is slow, and needs time to formalize thoughts :)

Shortly summarized (so that those who do not like to read a lot don't need 
to): I am not convinced at all that you can isolate the combat system from 
the rest of the gaming system. I'm also not convinced that tweaking the 
current system a bit can provide a very good answer to the current issues 
perceived by players.

Now, for the less impatient ones, I'll provide a little more details on why I 
think so.

First, there is a problem of content. All the current maps were designed with 
the base idea that "combats are fast and furious" in mind. It means large 
rooms full of monsters in which the player runs and "harvest". Slowing down 
combat would dramatically change this, and involve the complete redesign of 
most - if not all - maps in which combat happens. This is probably the most 
important issue in making combat pace changes, especially given that there 
are not a lot of map-makers out there.

Second, there is the problem of other combat skills - basically, spells. Those 
were too designed with the idea of large-scale battles, with a single players 
fighting lots of monsters at the same time. Cone spells, as well as 
the "explosive" spells (like fireball) were obviously made with the idea of 
damaging a lot of opponents in a single cast. If the combat pace is slowed 
down, then it means the player will, on average, face less monsters at a 
given time, and thus this will reduce the effectiveness of those combat 
spells. The result will be that magic will get harder to use - and given that 
it *already* is hard (try to play a spellcaster in the context of a 
permadeath server if you don't believe it ! :) ), it would ultimately mean 
changes in the magic system as well.

Third, archetypes will need massive changes - if the combat pace changes, so 
does the game balance; and thus, the monsters and weapons characteristics. 
Although some of such adaptations can be performed automatically by scripts, 
I believe that "handwriting" will also be required to balance the result in 
an appropriate way.

Finally, the whole mechanism of combat needs to be rethought, and not only its 
pace, IMHO. Currently, melee combat is nothing more than "run into a 
monster". There is no combat visuals, little tactics, and no real variations 
between "melee techniques" - whatever the weapon or the melee skill used, it 
is just a matter of "running into monsters". As a fighter, I'd like to have 
to choose between various techniques, to have special hits, or simply to 
enjoy seeing my character swinging its poleaxe all around orcs :).

Overall, I tend to agree with Kevin R. Bulgrien's point of view: I don't think 
designing things piece by piece is a good idea. But given that the boss 
already expressed lack of interest on that point, I'll not extend furthermore 
on this.

Just my 2 eurocents.
(Now, Ryo, you have one more reply - and before the rewrite was finished. :) )