Time Unit Based Combat System

[uranderson]

Apologies if it's obnoxious to start a new topic on this. I saw some similar ideas posted but I wasn't sure if I should put this on the end of an old thread or not.

 

This system is, I believe, similar to the one used in Final Fantasy Tactics but it's a been years since I played that so I could be wrong. It works like this:

 

Each actor (enemies and characters) has an initial TU value (initiative basically) that is determined by dex and armor etc. So for example:

 

PC A: 10 TUs

Enemy A: 15

PC B: 20

Enemy B: 25

 

Combat starts by ticking up from 0 until we reach the lowest TU value actor. So PC A will go first after 10 ticks at which point the other actors will have 5, 10 and 15 TUs respectively.

 

PC A can do one standard action and one move action when it is his turn and every thing he does will cost TUs. Attacking will cost more or less TUs, similar to how it is handled with the real time combat (weapon type, armor, dex mod). Moving will cost more or less dependant upon armor, abilities and how far the character moved. When the actor is done, all his actions are added up and that becomes his new TU value.

 

So say he does 25 TUs worth of action and movement, then PC A will be at the end of the queue:

 

Enemy A: 5

PC B: 10

Enemy B: 15

PC A: 25

 

And so then the TU will tick up from 0 and after 5 ticks Enemy A will get his turn and 5 TUs will be subtracted from every other actors' balance.

 

That's it in a nutshell. I think this is the most easy way to translate the real time combat into turn based without having to rebalance a ton of abilities and attributes. It's just a matter of translating seconds into TUs for most spells and abilities from the RTwP combat that are time based.

 

Just off the top of my head something like 5 TUs for every second would be a good starting point.

 

So for DoT or HoT spells/abilities they would have their effects pulse every 10 TUs if they would have pulsed every 2 seconds in the RTwP. And they would last 50 TUs if they would normally have lasted 10 seconds. Duration in TUs is modified by intelligence as usual.

 

As for movement I think 1 TU per meter is a decent baseline to start with. And you could have a max amount (like 10 meters or whatever as a baseline) that you can move each turn. Of course this is modified by dexterity and abilities. So a high dex actor with no armor has a 20% positive modifier, it would only cost him .8 to move 1 meter and he could move 12m in one turn.

 

Attacks and recovery would have their TU cost modified by the type of weapon, the dexterity of the actor and the armor just like in RTwP. It could be a little complicated to translate it but not too bad I don't think.

 

I think that about covers it. To my mind translating the abilities and spells of the RTwP to this kind of system would be a lot easier than trying to shoehorn it into a traditional round based combat like in the beta.

 

Oh and I almost forgot, you should be able to "wait", this is essential for strategy, so you can bypass your turn by adding just a small amount to your TU balance, (like 5 or 10) so that you can coordinate with your teammates who are buffing or wait for enemies to get closer etc..

 

Also just hitting end turn without doing anything would be the same as waiting and should cost a small amount of TU.

[Korica]

Is there any games which currently use this system? It's hard for me to picture in my head.

[Jon of the Wired]

Yeah, this idea has been discussed several times on the board already. I agree with you that's it's probably the ideal way of implementing turn-based combat for Deadfire (certainly better than the existing system, and I think also better than an action point based system). It's actually so ideal that when I heard they were doing a turn-based mode I just assumed that's how they would do it, and was pretty surprised when it wasn't.

In any event, the next big patch is probably going to be out in a few days, and I expect that will include any major changes they're going to make to the turn-based mode, so we'll soon see if that's the direction they've chosen to go.

 

Korica, it's the system used in all of the Final Fantasy Tactics games (the original, Advance, and A2), and in Final Fantasy X. I think other people have mentioned a similar system was also used in the Heroes of Might and Magic games, and it's probably turned up in other places as well.