Ah, redesigning and recoding my combat system is proving to be every bit as frustrating as I expected.
There will be many, many changes from Memoirs. Here are some unfiltered (well, some bad words have been removed) thoughts about combat in Vampire Syndicate.
System BasicsMemoirs' combat system is essentially me squishing JRPG mechanics with DnD and some other vague ideas.
The idea is that video games should not be bound by the limitations of a pen n' paper game, especially in QoL features.
But, I believe that pnp design has a lot of upsides, especially in the "tightness" of its systems. So I'll be making the combat system one that you can theoretically play on a table.
There are things about JRPGs I like, but not the high numbers. Vampire Syndicate will be more grounded.
Another big change I'll be making is to how hit chance works. I dislike high probability of missing, especially how RNG it can feel at times. So I'm thinking of setting flat rates of 10% miss chance for melee and 20% for ranged attacks. Something you can simulate with a d20. These numbers can also be reduced via the skill tree or cybernetic augments (and there'll be "aimed" attacks) that generally don't miss.
To simulate preternatural vampire reflexes and Sandevistan-type bullettime, there will also be evasion skills. And there will be hyperspeed attacks that hit through evasion.
Expect fights between vampires (or over-threshold cyborgs) to be lightning-fast duels between superhumans.
Speaking of which, Action Points (AP) will be capped depending on a number of things. Since they determine the number of actions you can take per turn/how fast you are, normal unaugmented humans can only go so high. Cyber augments let you stack AP, but so do becoming a vampire. These two paths won't be mutually exclusive, but there will be a point where you choose one or the other.
AttributesMost of the basic combat system is done. The heavy lifting of breaking down the engine's hard-coded formulas is more or less complete.
It's a system that most of you will be very familiar with, although it does have a few surprises at high levels.
Damage scaling will be primarily off Attributes:
But there will be other ways to increase damage output.
The Attributes are (names WIP):
Physicality (PHY)
Perception (PER)
Willpower (WIL)
Intellect (INT)
Sangunity (SAN)
Sanguinity is the Vampire stat and will be locked unless/until you choose to turn.
I'm thinking of capping Attributes at 20. 5 is the baseline/average for humans in all stats. 10 is about the limit for regular humans, going over 10 is beyond what regular, unaugmented humans are capable of.
That should give you an idea of what the late game encounters are going to be like.
Primary combat resources will be basics like HP, AP and a unified resource pool that I'm simply calling Reserve Points for now.
I originally planned for cooldowns, but I think that's an inelegant/clumsy solution so I'll be removing them.
Social System with NPCsAttributes here translate fairly smoothly to social interactions:
Physicality = Intimidate
Perception = Investigate
Intellect = Reason
Willpower = Charm
Sanguinity = Command
There are a bunch of uses for attributes outside of combat. For now I've planned three primary ones:
1. Traditional skill checks
2. Social interactions with NPCs
3. How your captains behave
The first is pretty self-explanatory.
The second comes up when you meet with NPCs like rival/allied gangsters or whatever. Each NPC in the game has a hidden rating across all five attributes that they're more susceptible to. For example, someone who is bad liar will be more susceptible to the Investigate option governed by Perception. This allows players a social way to engage with NPCs in friendly/hostile/neutral ways outside of just combat. And also encourages hybrid builds instead of dnd style Single Ability Score Dependent (SAD) powerbuilds.
You can go through the game guns a blazin', but just like in real life, it's often more beneficial not to immediately resort to violence. The vampire criminal network is a tangled web of alliances, animosity and sometimes even iron-clad magic promises. I think it'll be fun for the player to navigate. And the social element essentially forces the player to learn the NPCs, their strengths and weaknesses.
NPCs include your companions too. Who you can eventually (if you get far enough into the vampire hierarchy) promote into Captains with their own crews. You'll be able to send them to do stuff or run rackets of their own. How they go about it (and their chances of success) will depend on their own attributes. They also might betray you. Who knew you can't trust a bunch of low-life, criminal scum?
Everything will be governed by a hand-scripted AI that takes your actions into account.
AmmoCurrently I'm finalizing ammo use in combat. Guns use ammo and some tech/magic melee weapons use charges. Reloading either will take action points.
Different weapons have different magazine/storage sizes. The code for this is kind of fucked up but I'm planning on allowing extended magazines/drums. Generally, nobody serious in real life uses these, but in a cyberpunk setting they might be more reliable and see common use.
There will be different selective fire modes (and whatever the melee equivalent is called). For example, Aimed Fire, 3rnd Burst, and Full Auto.
I'm thinking that since aimed fire is a single round (single dice damage) it should 100% hit on normal enemies.
I dunno, will take experimentation.
Combat's already shaping up to be fun, if somewhat overly simple right now. Animations are janky but in a somewhat charming way.
I don't want to make too many promises or heap too much on my plate, since this is rapidly edging towards "best arpeegee evah" territory, but I think I know how to make it work, and not have to spend 10 years of my life on it.
I really hope it works. I'll keep cracking at it.
