Pet combat change (Randomness through dice)
Dec 30, 2022 0:04:39 GMT -6
Post by Alma on Dec 30, 2022 0:04:39 GMT -6
I think pet combat should be changed to be closer to player combat. This would hopefully encourage more engagement in tournaments. I don't believe this particular suggestion was made before.
2. Randomizing pet damage outputs a reasonable amount encourages players to participate in tournaments and battles, as they will still have a chance to win if they are lucky and put in some work. As it is currently, one or two players will clearly outclass the rest before the tournament begins, and interest is quickly lost in even training for a tournament.
3. Moves would gain/lose strength based on the stats of the one using it, encouraging a wider selection of moves and abilities between different creatures.
DICE-BASED DAMAGE AND HEALTH SYSTEM Option
This option takes the most work, but would certainly make battles more interesting.
1. Using the health system removes the common 'Whoever hits first and hardest, wins"2. Randomizing pet damage outputs a reasonable amount encourages players to participate in tournaments and battles, as they will still have a chance to win if they are lucky and put in some work. As it is currently, one or two players will clearly outclass the rest before the tournament begins, and interest is quickly lost in even training for a tournament.
3. Moves would gain/lose strength based on the stats of the one using it, encouraging a wider selection of moves and abilities between different creatures.
So, you have Nibble<Nip<Bite<Crunch. These are all the same action in which a creature attempts to close its mouth on something to damage it. We could instead remove all but the move Bite, and have the beast roll a (Str)d4 to determine the physical damage done with the move. So, a beast like a sarane can do 7-28 with a single bite, and something like a faeron can do 1-4, and an average person could do 3-12. The increase in damage output means the health battle would not simply drag on as they tend to with the lower damage-output moves should the 10xStam system be used for beasts, and allow an easier match up between player characters and beasts.
Then we have something like Flame Bite. It could have the same general build, dealing (Str)d4 physical damage with a single bite that can be resisted by base stat resistance, and then a 1d4 extra fire damage on top of it that cannot. Breathe Fire could go from the flattening 10 NRS damage to a fire damage of 5d10 that still bypasses normal resistance, still capable of flattening weaker foes if the user is lucky and catches it directly in the center of the stream but no longer a guaranteed one turn win.
So, let's say you have two tier one drakes to be entered. Both have 70 hp, and can do up to 28 damage with a single bite on their opponent. Maybe one has an ability that lets it dodge all damage on its first turn, maybe it can breath fire and deal a whopping 5d10 fire damage. And the second only has moves like bite and shred. The latter still feels like there is a reason to join the tournament, to participate in it regardless of the theoretical strength of the first, because there is a chance.
Then we have something like Flame Bite. It could have the same general build, dealing (Str)d4 physical damage with a single bite that can be resisted by base stat resistance, and then a 1d4 extra fire damage on top of it that cannot. Breathe Fire could go from the flattening 10 NRS damage to a fire damage of 5d10 that still bypasses normal resistance, still capable of flattening weaker foes if the user is lucky and catches it directly in the center of the stream but no longer a guaranteed one turn win.
So, let's say you have two tier one drakes to be entered. Both have 70 hp, and can do up to 28 damage with a single bite on their opponent. Maybe one has an ability that lets it dodge all damage on its first turn, maybe it can breath fire and deal a whopping 5d10 fire damage. And the second only has moves like bite and shred. The latter still feels like there is a reason to join the tournament, to participate in it regardless of the theoretical strength of the first, because there is a chance.
HIT/DODGE DEX Option
The second option has similar benefits in terms of encouraging folks to fight without the great deal of work the above requires.
1. The increased odds of missing does still encourage one-shot moves. But now they have less than a 90% chance to hit and end the battle on turn one. And, if they are too big of an issue, later changes could be made to lessen their accuracy or damage.
2. Players would be encouraged to enter because there would always be a chance. Sure, the one-shot haver with danger sense will have better odds, but the underdog will not feel so powerless.
3. It would encourage the use of different moves and abilities. Things that up stats, that might be weak and have a charge period but have 100% accuracy, things that deal damage over time, and so on could suddenly be just as useful as a one-shot move. As it is currently, there is rarely a reason to use them when you likely will die in one turn.
Alternatively, instead of uprooting all of the moves and abilities and stamina system, and causing a nightmare of issues in regards to existing base stats, we could implement the HIT/DODGE mechanics of player combat. The current system has it set so a creature hits if 1d10 + creature_dex > foe_dex. This could be altered to be creature_dex is the amount of d10 rolled and compared to a roll for foe_dex d10s rolled. Yes, this ought to mean more misses in combat. It also encourages folks to enter despite not having the best possible build as they have a chance, still means that folks who put the work in will have an easier time, keeps stamina at the same low amount to prevent battles from being too long with misses, and adds a degree of randomness that will keep tournaments interesting.
So, let's go back to our two drakes again. Our danger sensing fire-breather misses his attack due to a roll of 28 v 32, and the biter misses too due to the ability. The fiery fellow might one-shot the biter the next turn, or perhaps he'll opt to fly to gain additional dex rather than risk the miss. Rolling 9d10 versus 4d10 grants him much better odds of a hit, but the biter might get lucky and deal a bite or two if the fire-breather takes too long. And if the fire-breather refuses to relent with his one shot, he might get hit with a shred and lose a precious dice that could let him hit/dodge in a later turn.
So, let's go back to our two drakes again. Our danger sensing fire-breather misses his attack due to a roll of 28 v 32, and the biter misses too due to the ability. The fiery fellow might one-shot the biter the next turn, or perhaps he'll opt to fly to gain additional dex rather than risk the miss. Rolling 9d10 versus 4d10 grants him much better odds of a hit, but the biter might get lucky and deal a bite or two if the fire-breather takes too long. And if the fire-breather refuses to relent with his one shot, he might get hit with a shred and lose a precious dice that could let him hit/dodge in a later turn.
Ignoring the monstrous amount of work the first option would take (of which I did start going down the physical moves and quickly realized how long such a thing would take even for a rough draft of changes), I would like to address one last time the issue of 'lessening' the value of the work done by those seeking and having won the champion status through a great deal of hard work.
1. In both cases, said hard work still will reward the trainer and beast in fights. A beast with danger sense is still guaranteed a turn without damage (short of a sound move), a beast with hardy is still protected from a stat-drain(and long-term damage over time), and a beast with breath of winter, breathe fire, or any other 'one-shot' will then only need one turn to score that hit and win in the latter option.
2. They can't be a tournament champion without other players. Unless some form of watered down NPC tournament was implemented to grant champion status and those lovely extra pit points, all the work and credits spent in the world will not populate a tournament if other players do not see a point in entering. And giving them a chance to win, even if that chance is a 4d10 against a 6d10(13d10 if rudder-tailed and flying) drake is a better incentive than a handful of points for their character popping in and knowing it is just to watch their creature die.
3. Yes, in general, this does mean someone who trained their beast an insane amount could have a streak of bad luck and lose. But, with more folks interested in tournaments and trying to play in them, that means there will be more tournaments, and more chances to win.
4. Yes, this does mean a creature who was not heavily trained can win due to luck. However, with how little free time folks have to spend in general, this would let them feel more comfortable entering rather than worry they cannot spend enough time training to compete and ending up not entering at all.
I might be a bit biased here and suggesting something I personally would like, but I really do think this would entice more folks to enter into tournaments. I welcome opinions and corrections.