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Author Topic: Suggestions for combat  (Read 1145 times)

NRDL

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Suggestions for combat
« on: June 14, 2011, 10:14:45 am »

I don't really have a problem with the current form of combat, but I believe that it's lacking a bit when it comes to strategy and other stuff like that.  The turn-based combat is nice, but it's weird that you can only command one squad at a time.  Why not have several?  You can make one of your agile liberals into some sort of scout, probing the enemy base, and then run away when he encounters resistance.  After pulling your scout back, you can then send in the main squad, which contains your heavy hitters.  This is just one idea, I'm hoping you guys have more.  Also, if a thread like this was already posted, sorry.  I'm really hoping Mr. Fox will at least consider some changes to the combat system. 
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GOD DAMN IT NRDL.
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Svirfneblim

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Re: Suggestions for combat
« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2011, 01:13:23 pm »

An option to split the squad on-site and have some people wait while others go infiltrate or whatever would be very good.
Also, it would be useful to have interface show the current stealthiness or disguise efficiency for the squad or part of it.

I also have an idea for a rather more sophisticated combat improvement. Every character could be either 'in cover' or 'in open'. People in cover would be vastly harder to hit than those in open, going with the assumption that in a real firefight it's indeed cover that keeps you alive. Dodge would be much less effective in cover and thus be a skill for people who, for some reason, find themselves in open.

Characters would go into cover automatically when combat begins. However, if they'd not expect to be attacked(like NPC's who don't see weapons on the players), they'd only have a small chance to find cover in time before the shooting starts.

Attacking in melee would automatically put you in open, but melee attacks would also ignore cover. Thus melee fighters going against shooters would need to kill them all in one turn or be in big trouble, unless they're also dodge monsters. On other hand, really good melee fighters would this way be able to kill weak opponents faster. You'd also have the option to 'rush out' with a firearm - losing cover for the next turn but also denying cover to the enemy you're rushing out(unless they got great dodge, then they have a chance to foil you!)

Finally, the game would keep track on how much noise(shots) you make on a site after the alarm has been raised. The more shots you fired overall and the more shots you fired recently would contribute to the chance of enemies encountered starting in cover or, in rare situations, even getting a first shot. This would be counteracted by stealth.

I imagine shooting against proper enemies being in cover would be a much more drawn-out affair than normal, which in turn would mean you're alerting everyone else, giving police time to respond and using up ammo. On other hand, rushing out out of cover would be very risky unless you are confident the final attack will disable all enemies. You could make drawn-out fights in some situations actually automatically attract extra enemies, automatically starting in cover(or even getting a free shot), making finishing the fight fast even more important.
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Kay12

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Re: Suggestions for combat
« Reply #2 on: June 14, 2011, 02:22:03 pm »

LCS combat is based on ancient dungeon hacking games, for better and for worse. A wild idea I and some others have been tossing around is making the site contain finite amount of NPCs. Personally, I'm in favor of reducing the role of combat, so raids wouldn't be just about sitting near the front door capping heads and [tails], but combat and stealth would both be the means of reaching the actual good stuff. Jon made a good suggestion recently, about reducing the political impact of killing minor Conservative mooks.
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Aerogen

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Re: Suggestions for combat
« Reply #3 on: June 15, 2011, 12:12:29 pm »

I think it would be cool if you could choose which enemies you attack at every turn.
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Kay12

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Re: Suggestions for combat
« Reply #4 on: June 15, 2011, 02:27:16 pm »

UI presents a challenge there - sure, there could be a screen querying which target you'd like, but it'd become a bit boring to always specify which one of the cops you'd like to shoot this time. However, the game, I think, tries to aim for the most dangerous targets first, making the system at least a bit intelligent.

The UI issue, by the way, is one of those that would be almost too easy to streamline with a more mainstream GUI - just click on your target of choice. I'm not hellbent on getting rid of the charming Curses UI though.
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LCS in SourceForge - LCS Wiki - Forum thread for 4.04