Good implementations of turn-based combat?

Game Play & Game Design
#1

I’m trying to think how turn-based combat could work in a game I may or may not be going to write (I know that is a bit vague, but I don’t want to make any commitments until I know I have a chance of finishing the thing) and I was wondering if any of you had any good ideas about ways of making turn based combat fun and tactical while remaining easy to understand and hopefully to implement :slight_smile: …

Any good thoughts on stuff you’ve liked in other games with a turn-based element to them also would be welcome, as would any thoughts on stuff you found really annoying…

#2

final fantasy 10 had a nice turn based combat system.

#3

I only played that in passing - what were it’s good and bad points- what made it work well for you as a player?

#4

firstly almost all enemies had a particluar weakness, trying different spells and attacks to find that is rather nice.

secondly enemy attacks usually had a specific patteren adapting your fighting style to compensate for it is nice, like an enemy would
pull of a a special attack that would cause massive damage to your team or shield itself for a bit then attack and then be vunerable for one go after the attack.

thirdly managing your inventory is part of the fun, moving stuff over, casting potions, spells on yourself etc.

animation and music was brillant too :slight_smile:

#5

Pokemon had the best turn based combat that I’ve played, and it was so addictive. There were tactical aspects to which moves you would do: eg do a poison attack early on if you thought the battle would wear on for ages, or weaken the enemy’s accuarcy so that they’d miss.

#6

I agree, Pokemon Battle System is great. It is similiar to most FF games, however much more simple.

A pokemon can only have 4 attacks/moves at once (they can learn new ones, but have to forget an old move). Each has the special attributes (accuracy and power) and some fit to an elemental category as most pokemon themself do. Last ones also have some effects, e.g. the psychic ability ‘synchronize’ may add a status effect (poison, …) to the enemy when being affected. Beside attack moves, some raise stats on the own pokemon (party) or lower them on the other side.

One great thing is, that you can play against an enemy on one screen (gamecube games). Usually this is a problem with those games, because you would see the move the other selectes, but since here it is simply done pressing one of the four D-Pad direction with no graphical menu as in the single player mode.

In the story mode, you, the trainer, can can also use items on one of your pocket monsters or echange them (you can carray up to 6 IIRC) and have a fourth game specific option.

In the GBA games matches are 1-1 and on the gamecube 2 pokemen battle on each site at once.

If it sounds interesting for you, I would recommend to rent a game (and probaly the console/handheld too) from a video store and do an evaluation yourself. But caution, it can be addicting. :wink:

#7

I have a GBA so I may be able to lay hands on a copy for myself, although whether I’ll be able to see it through the horribly scratched screen of my original console is a moot point…

The idea of having several attacks the pokemon can know is interesting- it suggests to me the broadly unrelated concept of having several attacks per turn, so that for example you get two moves in a turn that you could either use for move -> attack, defend->attack and so on. Special attacks may take several turns to use and as characters level up they gain more moves per turn, so that at a high level you could have, for example cast shield on self->move->attack->retreat and so on. Special attacks could take up an extra move, time-slowing effects could give you extra ones and so on. That might be able to give combat a lot of depth.