Feedback please - Devs come and brutalise my idea if you have time

[Lv99Wizard]

I had an idea back in the IE games which would have spiced up tactics during combat. It involved certain bonuses to magic damage (for example) based on where the caster was standing. So, if they were in the Vale of Shadows and the mage casts a necromancy spell in a room it would do X damage. But, if they cast that same spell from/near the sacrificial altar in that room, the spell would do X+Y damage.

 

To generalise and integrate this with the little lore we know so far - what if the soul energy collected/pooled in certain areas of the map I will refer to as "soul fonts". This would make them more tactically valuable and incentivise the player to try to reach that point before casting. Of course, they may be well defended so that tactical choice would be important. And they could be occupied by an enemy caster (or the caster could be racing towards the "font" which would make them massively more of a threat).

 

I envision a spell or ability which would give the player a "heat map" type overlay to show which areas are good for casters and which are not. This information would not be visible until the activity is used.

 

This could be extended to other classes - for example a fighter would rather engage on solid ground rather than knee deep water - although that could be too tedious to implement.

 

This mechanic opens up many possibilities and could be implemented in various ways. The distribution of soul energy could be pre-defined or random, static or dynamic, or even a mixture of these depending on the environment. It would require strong planning skills, scouting and would add variety to encounters. So, even though you managed to take out those 10 lizardmen + Shaman in the last room, these 10 lizardmen + Shaman are sitting on a soul font. How do you propose to deal with it?

 

I'd appreciate some feedback. (What I mean is, I want to hear from anyone who agrees :3)

[MReed]

At the map level (e.g. the effect applies to all battles within the map) this could work fairly well.

 

However, as described, the bonus areas would be (effectively) X,Y co-ordinates within a map, and I don't think that's a good idea at all. Battles in cRPGs should occur within a small portion of the map (one or two "rooms", effectively), and adding bonus locations like this would create strong incentives for the player to lure monsters from one end of the map to the other. In fact, this would likely be the only way to get monsters to leave the bonus locations that they started on, unless you added further mechanics to allow a player to "push" a monster away from where it was.

 

In short, this isn't a strategic wargame, and features from these sorts of game are an awkward fit in standard cRPG games.

[Lv99Wizard]

At the map level (e.g. the effect applies to all battles within the map) this could work fairly well.

 

However, as described, the bonus areas would be (effectively) X,Y co-ordinates within a map, and I don't think that's a good idea at all. Battles in cRPGs should occur within a small portion of the map (one or two "rooms", effectively), and adding bonus locations like this would create strong incentives for the player to lure monsters from one end of the map to the other. In fact, this would likely be the only way to get monsters to leave the bonus locations that they started on, unless you added further mechanics to allow a player to "push" a monster away from where it was.

 

In short, this isn't a strategic wargame, and features from these sorts of game are an awkward fit in standard cRPG games.

 

What about archers? Or a spell which temporarily dampens the effect in the vicinity? Or sneaking in with the thief first? Or, of course, luring monsters back a room. I envisage the bonus to be in different locations in every room so there shouldn't be a great need to back track too far.

 

This is similar to engaging monsters on a bridge except it also applies to spell casters. You raise some interesting points but I think they could be easily overcome with the right balancing.

[MReed]

Archer's wouldn't address the problem (a monster on a "point of power" who is getting shot with archers has no reason to move -- he'll get shot no matter where he goes, and he is more powerful where he is).

 

Sneaking in with the thief would only help if the location was unoccupied by default (unlikely, but possible) -- even then, the thief would be left in a highly vulnerable situation once the combat began and should be highly unlikely to survive the expected hoard of enemies that would attack him after the rest of the party entered the room (to point out the obvious: Any form of stealth should be broken if someone actually runs into you trying to occupy the spot that you are standing on).

 

In regards to luring (in general): In most cases, monsters are positioned where they are to guard a door (or, perhaps, a point of power in this scenario). Why should they leave a secure position to chase the party? The answer is that they really shouldn't (but do due to weak AI), and therefore I oppose luring monsters to another room on general principal.

[Rabain]

Perhaps luring should be allowed in specific circumstance or require some stat roll to alllow or disallow. For example the monster positioned to guard a door is either intelligent or under strict rules. It is perfectly valid to assume if it was a human guard he might consider pursuing you out of the room in order to keep combat pressure on you instead of leaving you to do anything in the rest of the building or even just prepare a stronger return to the room (buffed, throwing a fireball ahead of you etc).

 

Setting a fixed rule of no luring limits the players options and is as bad as an AI that always makes an enemy follow you. There should be some happy medium we can find.

 

For example imagine that guard in the room, as you retreat a roll is made based on the Int of the last character to attack him vs his own Int, he loses the roll and pursues the party (lure succeeds), he wins the role he stays put (lure failed). It doesn't have to be Int or even stat based but the ability for two different responses should be possible.

[rjshae]

Coming from a NWN2 toolset background, I wouldn't expect that it would be difficult to implement an area effect that improves magical ability and a detect effect that allows you to see it. It would just be two of many effects that they are likely to need to cover spells and special abilities. I'd speculate that the uneven heat overlay would probably be the most difficult part to implement, since the area may be non-symmetric.

[Osvir]

The only issue I've got with this is if there is too many "Visible" effects on the screen it can feel very mechanical (i.e remove the immersion and feel of the game). It could get cluttered with "found trap" markings all over the map. On/Off button if implemented.

[Lv99Wizard]

The only issue I've got with this is if there is too many "Visible" effects on the screen it can feel very mechanical (i.e remove the immersion and feel of the game). It could get cluttered with "found trap" markings all over the map. On/Off button if implemented.

 

Yeah that was also my main concern with this but I'm sure the artists et al at Obsidian could come up with a solution. Maybe just simply map the Tab key to put the overlay on/off. Very much like how the map works in D3. You get all the information at a glance, queue up party orders, remove the overlay and then concentrate on the action.