07-24-2006, 08:34 PM
Quote: Yep, while I would like to see that type of game as well, there's a couple of problems I've seen that sort of plagues the genre to the point of becoming an almost standard cliches'. A pretty bad set of cliches'.
That scenario with the drake (I'll assume you mean the dragon like type creature vs a fire breathing mallard.) would be pretty awesome. Unfortunately if it follows some of the usual cliches, it would pretty much screw any melee characters like you said. I've heard the usual excuse of 'well it follows reality that melee combat is inferior to missile combat due to range'. Why is it that 'realism' gets thrown in melee is mentioned, yet I don't hear it as much when something outlandish like a ranged attack eg: a bow chance to hit is equal no matter what the distance or the size of the target. Instead I can bet I'll hear 'oh well because we're not making a simulation here, we're balancing and striving for fun in a fantasy game'. I don't want a SCA simulator either, but it would be nice to have some sort of internal consistency, even for a fictional universe.
Right. Well there are a couple of issues to this. I don't think there is any reason why a character should need to be just melee or just ranged. Obviously you want classes with different strengths and weaknesses, but that doesn't mean they have to be extreme to the point of making every battle the same. Maybe that warrior will have the choice, pull out his bow/gun/whatever and start shooting, take his chance at some magical wand that may blow up in his face since he doesn't really know what he's doing with it, or use the trees, rocks, etc. as cover... either to safely advance out of the area or lure the flying enemy into a close encounter. Maybe in some cases he could sneak up from behind on the flying enemy while it is resting without being seen or heard. Maybe he could more easily reach a low-flying enemy with a pike that would otherwise be inferior to his sword.
By the same token, magic users and other powerful ranged attackers should face similar dilemmas. Maybe you get into a cramped cave or face fast-moving melee attackers and you have to fight in close combat. Maybe if you summon a fireball or meteor shower on an enemy 2 inches in front of your face, you will get burnt to a crisp yourself. Maybe a lightning or meteor strike won't actually work if you don't have open sky to draw from. Maybe your arrows goes in a straight line instead of chasing the target sideways, around corners, through doors, and into the pond. Maybe fire doesn't work so well underwater, and maybe electricity works a little too well...
Maybe we have large staircases that only the larger enemies are able to climb up. Maybe we have buckets of tar or grenade type weapons that require an elevation advantage to be most useful. Maybe a stealthy character can sneak up to a door and gain a choke point for melee (or open the door, lob in a fireball/explosive/etc, close door, run) where another character may have those enemies pour into the giant hallway out front.
Grinding stops being grinding if you can A) randomize the combat encounters significantly, andB)give the random encounters enough variety so that players have to approach them with a wide variety of tactics. Of course, this is true even in a 2D game. But if you are going to spend half of your budget making a fancy 3D engine with fancy 3D graphics, then why not explore the gameplay possibilities that can come along with it?