PP Combat
Combat: true-turn-based, on stages, using a HUD-style system similar in appearance to Earthbound.
Contents
Basic Combat
Characters have 3 options: Attack, Hide, and Use Item. In the case of Area, Attack is replaced by Magic as long as she has spell-points.
Attack
Raymond attacks with Melee, Jaime with Ranged, and Aria with Magic. Melee does the most damage, ranged gets to attack 3 times per round, and magic has a spell list and limited spell points to draw from.
To-Hit
For calculating melee and ranged attacks, we will use a simplified d20 system. A random function will pick a number between 1 and 20, then add the character's To-Hit bonus. If the resulting number is greater than 10 the attack is a success and damage is calculated.
Base To-Hit
- Raymond - 3
- Jaime - 1
Damage Calculation
Base Damage: Damage weights are calculated by character and appropriate stat.
- Raymond - 0.75 STR
- Jaime - 0.45 ACC
(All numbers rounded to the nearest whole)
Variable Damage: A weapon has a variable number(such as 2-8) for damage, this is calculated on each attack.
Final Damage: Final damage is Base Damage + Variable Damage - 90% of the target enemy’s Armor Class.
Magic
Magic does not use To-Hit(all spells automatically hit) nor does it use AC. Magic damage is a variable specific to the chosen spell and always does that much damage.
Magic Stat
Aria gets 3.5x her stat in Magic as Maximum SP(spell-points), thus magic-boosting items give her additional spell points.
If an item with a bonus to magic were to be un-equipped while Aria has full SP, she looses the difference in spell-points. If it is then re-equipped, she does not gain those spell points back.
Hide
If the player selects 'hide' the character will make a hide-attempt which works similarly to an attack role. Each character has a base Hide-score, the game then does a random 1-10 roll and adds the player's hide-value. If the result is greater than 10, they have made a successful hide-attempt.
On successful hide, the player's to-hit goes from minimum 10 to minimum 15 and they gain a 50% bonus to AC until the next round.
Hide Scores
- Raymond - 3
- Jaime - 5
- Aria - 7
Use Item
Only potions and wands can be used in combat, but all players can use them. There will be three types of potions: SP potions, MP potions, and potion-weapons, basically weak grenades.
Stats
Stats: Strength, Accuracy, and Magic. Obviously the relevant stat is used when making such an attack.
Weapons and Items
Each item has the potential to add bonuses to all stats. Each item has 8 properties associated with it, a + to each stat, and then AC, then Damage depending on whether or not it is a weapon, and a property for weapon-type. The last property is item-type, determining where it gets equipped(weapon slot, shield slot, etc).
- Name
- +STR
- +ACC
- +MGC
- +AC
- DMG
- Attack-type
- Item-Type
Examples:
- Longsword
- +0
- +0
- +0
- +0
- 1d8
- Melee
- Weapon
Stats are always expressed in the order Strength, Accuracy,
- Chainmail of Strength
- +4
- +0
- +0
- +6
- 0
- NA
- Armor
An item will not necessarily bestow stat bonuses but still has that property, thus making the +0. The reason for giving each item each value is to make it easier from a coding standpoint.
Only weapons have damage. The base damage is determined by a random function and there can also be a + attached. For example a +1 Longsword does 2-8+1 damage. Other items will use that slot for the To-Hit bonus.
Thoughts: it might be interesting if we could add a random loot-generator to produce items for us based on a simple formulae. We’ll determine this in coding.
Equip Slots
Each character has 5 equip slots: Main Hand, Shield, Armor, Helm, and Jewelry.
Player Damage
The player characters take damage differently in one key way: for the players, 100% of AC is subtracted from Final Damage, allowing the players to become potentially invulnerable.
Enemies and AI
Mobs will only have 4 actual values associated with them: Type, To-Hit, AC, and Damage. Mobs do not have stats nor full character sheets.
Example:
- Trusty Troubadour
- Type: Melee
- To-Hit: 2
- AC: 7
- Damage 1-10
According to the extant combat system, a player character with an AC of 10 or more would be completely immune to the Trusty Trubador.
In the case of magic-using enemies, they do not have Mana Points and only use a single spell.
The AI needs to be smart enough to choose who to attack based on AC. In the example above, the AI needs to know to go after the Ranger instead of the Knight if the Knight has more than 9 AC.
Thoughts: Potential balance issues: If we make the AI base it’s decisions entirely on AC, then after a point it will be attacking only the weaker, lesser Aced characters like the mage. But if we use something like damage, the mage will also always be targeted because the spells have much higher damage levels. This is something we’ll have to work on.
Display
Each time a character attacks, their avatar will appear on the side of the screen(left for good guys, right for badguys) The attacker will make some sort of comment and the target will reply with how much damage they were dealt. Additionally, a damage number will appear over or in front of the enemy displayed on the combat screen.
AOE
Whenever AOE(Area of Effect) damage occurs, the display will select one person from each side to show up on the sides and make their comments, while the rest of the representations will just have damage numbers appear in front or above them.
AOE is an all-or-nothing effect, either it hits all enemies or none, same with the party.
Death
When a player character dies, the party must go to some special location(shrine, temple, rest shrine, whatever we decide to call it) to be resurrected. When the entire party is dead, they wake up back at the starting town with no money. However, items and XP remain.
Random Variables
All random variables required can be expressed in the form of dice roles. For example, the Trusty Troubadour has damage of 1-10, or 1d10(a ten-sided dice) A +1 Trusty Troubadour would have damage 2-11, or 1+1d10.
