jimcrowley

Late to this game, despite being a backer. Same problem; what ever I do, the combat cycle will not stop. Have tried luring spiders north but that does not help. Have tried from different directions with the same result. Has basically stopped the game dead.

I think my poor wording has exagerated the importance I was placing on permanent damage. No, it should absolutely not be random and should only be a rare occurence , however produced. I was more trying to indicate my dissatisfaction with over-simplistic combat mechanisms which add nothing to the narrative flow of the game nor to the decision process of the player. I want to know, for instance, that my principle fighter has been hit in the leg; that the resutant damage threatens to slow his movement rate in the current combat and that I need to keep that in mind in directing his next actions. I do not want read: my fighter has taken 5 hit points and has 25 hit points left, whereby the only real choice I have is to fight or not to fight. Some good ideas around the question of damage and healing have been raised in this thread, particularly from Wirdjos. Very much the sort of thing I had in mind. Also, in replying to Althernai, my understanding is that the 'party' can consist of up to six or seven members; that is not the total number available potential companions. I certainly hope not! That would be hugely limiting.

That's a great pun But, surely that's the point. Characters damaged, low hit points; take potions , cast spells, use healing kit. Characters damaged, rinse repeat. Character who you have forced to fight to the last hit point/massively damaged now unable to move as fast permanantly. Maybe you will be a bit more circumspect with combat. Or just play Zelda.

Of course any 'game' is a balance between realism and playability and too much realism can mire a game. However, RPGs are essentially stories and if I read, in a fantasy novel, that the hero has hit the villain for "2 hitpoints of damage" my immersion in that story is going to be pretty much gone. So why should I be happy with that in the context of a PC game? To my mind the best combat system I have come across has been in Temple of Elemental Evil but, good as it was, there was no true damage system. Basically every character, NPC and monster fought equally well, with all or almost none of its' hit points, until, at zero points it became unconscious and, I think, at minus 10 HP it died. There was no variation to this, so after a while combat could become rather mechanical. Fortunately it was spiced up with other elements which went someway to keeping things interesting; for instance, taking potions in combat could provoke opporunity attacks from nearby enemies. Damage recieved or given in combat combat is, or should be, as a result of getting something wrong or right. So if combat , in a 'mature' PC game is going to have any real meaning, it need sto have potentially bad consequences. Some damage should not be able, in every circumstance, to be fully healed. And, while in combat, damage taken should have possible negative effects, even if only for the short term of that actual combat, irrespective of spells potions or kits (which, from a realism perspective should really only be applied post-combat). Without some form of damage system will a modern, gritty, mature fantasy RPG be any much different from playing Zelda?

This project sounds fantastic but...... please tell me that combat - in what will be a 2014 PC game - is going to more than: "I hit you for 10 HP, you hit me for 12 HP, I hit you for 20 HP and now you are dead." Please let there be some sort of, at least, primitive damage model similar, say, to Runequest, with the possibilty of persistant or permanent damage. So a heavy blow to a leg may reduce the targets mobility and a blow to an arm may disarm an opponent and so on. Very heavy damage may not be completely healable and thus a companion may have to be 'retired'. Combat should be fun and exciting and full of options and choices but it should also be dangerous and carry potential long term risks. The combat system in D&D, which seems to be the basis for the majority of computer -based fantasy RPG's, was, and still is, a great pen and paper game but the combat system on a PC should allow far more options, permutations and, dare I say it, reality.