Critical Hits

[anubite]

Critical hits come in few varieties.

 

They're either completely worthless and "unfun" (you have a 1% chance to do 1.5x damage, inside a game where it takes at least 10 to 15 hits to kill a normal monster), and just become a way for you to scale your damage (if you get your crit % up to 25 or so, then you're basically doing a lot of work just to get your average damage up 12.5%. In some RPGs, rogues are based around having low base damage, but they crit a lot. It usually results in rogues sucking.

 

Or, in some games, crits are ridiculous and "unfun". (you have a 1% chance to do 2x or more damage, inside a game where it takes less than 2 or 3 hits to kill a normal enemy), and just becomes a way for your character to one-shot things, and even in this instance, a critical hit can become stupid/worthless, because of "overkill", or wasted damage.

 

So basically, the issue is balancing critical hits so

 

A) they're fun

B) they're impactful (a 1 to 5 percent chance of doing an "attack and a half" is stupid, in games where fights can be attrition- based)

C) they aren't frustrating (it's stupid to hope for a critical hit, likewise, it's stupid to find yourself insta-gibbed when a monster gets a "lucky string" of heavy crits)

 

The solution to me, at least, is obvious.

 

Critical hits shouldn't necessarily do extra damage.

 

I mean, that's the issue, right? If they do too much damage, they can trivialize the game. If they do too little damage, they're stupid.

 

Critical hits should just differ from normal hits. They shouldn't do more damage, they should just be useful. They shouldn't be frustrating, you should be able to deal with critical hits as a player.

 

Consider this mock system:

 

Critical hits with edged weapons inflict bleed (damage over time)

Critical hits with blunt weapons inflict stun

Critical hits with piercing weapons inflict armor pierce (reduced armor debuff)

Critical hits with ice damage inflict chill (slow) or freeze (stun)

Critical hits with fire damage inflict burn/ignite (damage over time)

Critical hits with lightning damage inflict stun

Critical hits with nature/wind damage inflict slow poison or knockback or reduce armor

Critical hits with holy/light spells inflict blind

et cetera

 

In the case of bleed/burn/slow poison - the "DoT" is based upon the damage done. If you did 10 physical damage with the critical hit, then a 10 physical damage bleed is applied to the target, and it lasts 5 seconds, let's say. So it's effectively 2x damage taken, but it's over a duration, you can react to duration-based damage much more easily. AND if your enemy gets a lucky string of crits, it just resets the bleed, it doesn't cause all this front-loaded damage to instagib your character. This seems fair. Likewise, you can't trivialize encounters by instagibbing monsters yourself.

 

This is an even better system if we make it about strategy. If you know you're fighting bandits, you'll want your healer to have anti-bleed spells on hand, to remove bleed when it happens. If you're fighting a Lich, you'll know to have anti freeze/chill support spells. Perhaps critical-based debuffs can be removed by other means - if your party member gets frozen, you can thaw them out with a fire spell.

 

If we let critical effects interact, then we have an even interesting strategical combo-system. Perhaps you cause massive burn damage when you critically hit a bleeding enemy? Perhaps lightning damage inflicts armor pierce instead of stunning, letting your mage set up an extra powerful bleed on the enemy for your backstabbing rogue?

 

I also have another idea in mind. It's similar to Fallout. But without the messy vats.

 

What if critical hits inflict injuries, instead of doing bonus damage? A critical hit rolls a number which determines where the hit was scored. Edged weapons inflict blind if they critically hit the eyes. Edged weapons reduce your attack speed if you get critically hit on the arm or hand you're attacking with. This makes critical-based character builds about utility, rather than damage, necessarily (though you could specialize in bleed damage, perhaps). Injuries require resting or a powerful healing spell to negate.

 

Spells would work a little differently. Every spell in the game would have its own unique critical-based effects. Petrify crits? It makes that target petrified and have a vulnerability to shattering, which is instant death. If "raise dead" (necromancy) crits? You get a very strong undead minion, with boosted stats, or maybe the spell is free, and refreshes itself in your spellbook instantly?

 

If we let such mechanics be about utility, and not straight up damage, then we can even implement systems which allow you to have critical hits on demand. Do you really need to inflict bleed on a particular boss? Drink a potion which guarantees critical hits for a few seconds? Or maybe a spell does it? Maybe each one of your party members can do a "furious attack" at a large cost of mana or stamina/energy, guaranteeing that it crits, but draining that party member?

 

Do these ideas sound satisfying, fun, and impactful? Or is it best critical hits just do more damage, and we ask Obsidian find the right balance for it being impactful and fun.

Edited January 8, 2013 by anubite