Maybe, though I'd have to figure out exactly how that'd work. Maybe explaining the core ideas I'm trying to bring out in the game would make my position more clear, as well as trying to explain the way hitting somebody works. Right now the rules description is very granular and compartmentalized so it might be hard to see it as a coherent whole.
The basic idea right now is sort of similar to
Flash Duel, a game made by the same guy who made the totally rad Yomi which I think is on steam now. In that game you have a linear map like the one we have (look at the mockup UI for a visual depiction of what I mean, characters are placed on a line of dots and move back and forth across it) and you draw a hand of numbered cards and move by playing them. If you move onto an enemy's space then he has to either block by matching your cards or retreat by playing different cards. If you can't retreat and you can't block then you lose. The goal is to maneuver for position until you can make an attack the enemy has no response to.
This is more complicated of course but I tried to replicate the idea of space as a sort of currency. Let me try to explain it.
The various you can take in the game, offensively and defensively, are based on a spectrum of risk. At the top you've got some very risky moves like the
"Karmic strike," swinging at the same moment your opponent does and betting your life that you're quicker on the draw. On the other side of things space as currency comes into play. Most dangerous situations can be avoided with very little danger by retreating. By retreating you're effectively "spending" space in exchange for safety. Of course if all you do is retreat then you'll eventually be pushed out of the arena and disqualified (Or in some matches pushed against the wall and mercilessly killed). You have to balance risk and safety; the cost of retreat is only worthwhile if you can leverage it into an advantage. For example, if you think you'll win the next initiative you could retreat from an opponent's attack and bank on being able to lunge and strike back before he can bear down on you again. Then he has to decide if he wants to give up space for safety (thus negating his winnings from the last exchange) or take a risk and try to drive his advantage home.
This is the core game flow as I'm currently envisioning it. I'm wondering right now if the grid actually serves this vision.
So the way the grid works is you basically draw a line across it and that determines where you strike. If the opponent wants to parry then he draws a line that intersects yours; if he wants to karmic strike he draws one that doesn't intersect. As it stands currently there's no missing attacks; either the enemy actively negates your attack by parrying, dodging, or killing you, or it hits. Instead of a miss chance the enemy tests his resilience attribute to roll with the blow and reduce it to a minor wound which basically does nothing aside from some token bleeding, though it does count in a first-blood match.
So since the head is the weakest point and there's no missing, there's no reason not to just swing for the head every time. So now I'm trying to figure out how to fix that and one of the higher points on my list is to just remove the grid entirely and figure out a new means of doing it. It's fun and it gives the game a sort of tactile feel like you're really swinging the sword, but I dunno if it's worth it. It may influence your vote if I mentioned that as it currently stands the enemy's position isn't simulated. It's not like you can take an opportunity to slice B1-B3 when you see the enemy raise his sword for an A2-C2 chop; that would just be a karmic strike and probably the riskiest attack in the game.
Quick shot in the dark alternative. Borrowing again from Sirlin, this time Yomi with its rock-paper-scissors gameplay flow, what about a collection of various stances that themselves open up different options. Stance A might allow for attacks A, B, and C, and parries X, Y, and Z. So each player selects a stance and that dictates what moves they can make, then they pick a move and the game compares the choices they made to determine what happens.
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Topic: En Garde! ASCII Swordfighting Game -- Heating up the Forges (Read 3585 times)