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Suggestions / Weapon attack actions & AP costs

« on: April 24, 2013, 04:00:01 pm »

I've seen this game compared to the original Fallout game - which I never played but must have a look at now! However from my perspective the use of AP and turn based combat makes me think of the classic UFO games.

With that in mind I was wondering about various fire modes that UFO had - Aimed, snap and burst. Burst I have seen in the game for automatic weapons so that's fine. Snap I assume is the standard single normal shot for weapons but aimed appears as a guaranteed critical feat only inc a cooldown period. I think aimed shot should be a non-feat  fire mode with higher AP cost and accuracy but with a normal critical chance. Anyone should be able to take a bit more time to aim to get a better hit chance. Keep the feat in as something like "Headshot" to give a guaranteed ciritcal on hit. This extra aimed mode would give increased strategy options (do you risk mising with a snap shot but have more shot attempts or have an aimed shot for better chances but less shots)

I also wondered whether there would be stances being introduced - stand, crouch, prone - for varying evasion/dodge and chance to hit?

Finally I think AP costs need looking at, particularly for crossbows. It looks like you can fire a pistol 3 times and a crossbow 2 times per comabt turn (roughly), however crossbows should be a lot slower IMO. I reckon you could easily fire off an entire clip from an automatic in the time it would take to fire a and reload a crossbow - the amount of effort required to pull the string back is significant and tme consuming. This would kind of make the crosbow a bit pointless unless it had mode stealth applications but i thought I'd mention it anyway!

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Suggestions / Durability/item uses + PSI points

« on: April 23, 2013, 11:36:52 pm »

Love the game so far, even in the alpha state!

I played the demo loads and loved it. Bought the 'full' alpha the other day and the biggest difference i noticed was the addition of durability and limited use items.

Whilst I'm all for having the need for repair the usual duarability implementations bug me as they seem to be more limiting than realistic. Same goes for number of times an item can be used. I'm sure these will evolve in this game too but I wanted to get in there early!

So for durability of weapons; I think for firearms you need to include cleaning into the mix. A gun will last much longer if it is regularly cleaned, and a cleaning kit itself should be useable many many times. If you don't keep your gun clean then you will start to cause permanent damage the cleaning cannot fix. At this point you have to start considering new parts for it - it would be great if you had to buy the specific parts too rather than simply a repair kit.

For crossbows I would guess that the most commonly damaged part would be the string (or cable or whatever!). This would naturally degrade over time but re-stringing the bow should be a relatively simple procedure, possibly with longer term natural degradation to the bulk of the weapon.

Seems like I'm saying that each weapon needs two types of durability - a more frequent but cheaper cleaning/fix to keep the weapon going and a longer term natural degradation through continual use. Some might think this is overkill but it feels more realistic to me.

As for items like lockpicks and electronic hack devices (and other tools): lockpicks don't break after one use, they can be used multiple times. Perhaps a failed lockpick could break one? The electronic hacker should, theoretically be able to draw power from the device it's hacking but I guess it being battery powered isn't so bad. I do think that power should be available back at friendly locations though, simply plug in and charge your gear up! Even recharge some batteries.

Finally... I saw another post talking about PSI point regeneration. So I may as well add my thoughts! I see PSI points very much like stamina, you concentrate and use up some energy leaving you feeling out of breath but you slowly recover afterwards. Like a runner in training you would start out with low stamina and low recovery but as you improve soo would the amount and speed of regeneration. I also think sleeping should be included as a way of regeneration. In fact I could argue that real time PSI points aren't needed at all as, if the stamina analogy holds, then they could be included in the combat turn as an equivalent of action or movement points.

Anyway there's a few thoughts! (and a lot of waffle!)