Swords, Shields, & Sorcery | Combat Design

Contents:

This article covers some deeper design details on the combat portion of my Swords, Shields, & Sorcery mobile game concept.

1. Combat Mechanics
2. Game Flow
3. Player Controls
4. AI
5. User Interface
6. Victory/Defeat
7. Art
8. Audio
9. Tunables

1. Combat Mechanics:

Once in combat, the attack choices are simple, but the mechanics under the hood are a little less so. The options available are thus: Sword, Shield, and Sorcery. Sword beats Sorcery, Shield beats Sword, and Sorcery beats Shield. Each weapon type can easily be compared to the components of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

After both the Player and the Enemy have selected their attack, the game will compare the choices and determine the winner. There are 9 possible outcomes:

Player will draw with the Enemy if:

Sword vs Sword

Shield vs Shield

Sorcery vs Sorcery

Player will win if:

Sword vs Sorcery

Shield vs Sword

Sorcery vs Shield

Player will lose if:

Sword vs Shield

Shield vs Sorcery

Sorcery vs Sword

Once a winner is determined, damage calculation will begin. The losing party will have their health reduced by the amount of damage the winner's weapon deals.

Example: The Enemy's Sorcery attack loses to the Player's Sword attack. The Player's sword deals 3 damage, so the Enemy's health will be reduced by 3.


The amount of damage taken can be reduced by equipping damage mitigating armor. Damage mitigation will only function for the type of attack that particular item defends against.

Example: The Enemy's Sorcery attack wins against the Player's Shield attack. The Enemy's Sorcery attack normally deals 4 damage, but the Player is wearing a piece of armor that mitigates Sorcery damage by 1. The resulting damage to the Player is 3, instead of 4.


The Player and the Enemy will continue this duel until one of the combatants health is reduced to 0.

2. Game Flow:

Similar to classic Japanese Role Playing Games, Swords, Shields, & Sorcery will have the game map and the combat screen separate. While traversing the game map, a random battle with a randomly selected enemy from the area will appear, which immediately transitions the player to the combat screen. Once in combat, the battle flow will function similar to the below outline.

2.1 - Combat Flow:

1. Enter Combat
2. Display Intro Animations for Player and Enemy
3. Provide Player Control Options (Sword, Shield, Sorcery, Run Away)
4. If Run Away is selected, combat ends and the player returns to the map.
5. If an attack option is selected, the Player's choice is compared to the Enemy's choice while attack animations play.
6. If Player's health or Enemy's health has not reached zero, return to step 3.
7. If the Player's health has reached 0, the Player is returned to the map.
8. If the Enemy's health has reached 0, the Player receives rewards, such as experience and currency.
9. The Player is now returned to the map.
10. If the enemy was a mandatory fight on the map and not a random encounter, they are now able to progress forward.

3. Player Controls:

As outlined above in the Game Flow section, when the game is accepting input during combat, players will have the a selection of choices.

3.1 - Players can:

• Attack with their equipped close-combat weapon with the 'Sword' button.
• Defend with their equipped defensive weapon with the 'Shield' button.
• Cast the equipped spell or ability using the 'Sorcery' button.
• Escape the current encounter with the 'Run Away' button.

Running away from a random encounter does not result in any penalty, but can hinder the player's ability to level up and prepare for future challenges. Running away during a mandatory encounter (one specifically presented on the map) will result in a small penalty (penalty is TBD, but could be as small as a minor reduction in the player's currency).

4. AI:

Enemy AI consists of three main choices, which are identical to the choices provided to the player, with the exclusion of running away (this may be available to select enemies depending on development time).

4.1 - Enemies can:

• Attack in close-combat range with 'Sword' attacks
• Defend themselves with 'Shield' attacks
• Cast spells and other special abilities with 'Sorcery' attacks.

Each enemy's choice is weighted manually by the designer, who will determine the percent chance an enemy will use each type of attack. Weightings should be based on the appearance and equipment of each enemy.

Example:
 A Prickly Slime has sharp spikes, and has been assigned a higher chance to use Sword attacks. 

• Sword Chance: 60%
• Shield Chance: 30%
• Sorcery Chance: 10%

Late game enemies and most boss enemies should have additional AI weighting to compensate for player actions. If the player uses their Shield attack three times in a row, a smart enemy should have a much higher chance of using their Sorcery to counter the player. This additional AI can help prevent combat from becoming too easy or stale.

5. User Interface:

The combat UI should be somewhat minimalist and as out of the way as possible. The goal is to only display necessary information, and keep the game field clear of clutter.

5.1 - UI Elements to always display:

1. Player Name
2. Player Level
3. Player Health
4. Enemy Name
5. Enemy Level
6. Enemy Health

5.2 - UI Elements to display when input is accepted:

1. Escape Button
2. Sword Button
3. Shield Button
4. Sorcery Button

Note: Sword, Shield and Sorcery Button icons should use the icon for the currently equipped item for each slot. This should allow for an easier association between the player visual, and the action choice to be made.

Additional considerations for UI include flipping from horizontal to vertical display. To provide the best user-experience possible, both formats should be supported.

5.3 - Additional overlays and screens:

• Victory/Defeat overlays
• Loot distribution overlay
• Level up overlay

6. Victory/Defeat:

When the Player wins a fight, they will be notified with much fanfare, and a tally of collected experience and loot. Once the Player selects to continue, they will be returned to the map screen. A list of potential rewards include:

• Experience Points
• Currency
• Rare chance for item and equipment drops.
• Even more rare chance for two items to drop.

Should a Player gain enough experience during a battle to level up, they will be presented a special Level Up overlay after confirming their victory. This overlay will visually show what new reward the player has access to at this level, in addition to their Level Number. This overlay will also need Player input confirmation before closing and returning the player to the map.

If the Player should be defeated, they may be forced to relinquish some of their currency. This only applies to mandatory fights that can be seen on the map screen. After confirming their defeat, the player will return to the map screen at the same location node they were last in before battle commenced.

7. Art:

The combat screen is the most important screen in the game for showing off the environment and the characters. While the map should capture the look and feel of the area from a high level, the combat screen takes the player front row-center into the detail. The player character, also seen on the map and inventory screen is shown in its largest size here. In addition to the player sprites and animations, which will be fully captured in the future Player Design article, there are many other pieces of art and animation needed to make the combat screen look its best.

7.1 - Background/Foreground Elements:
This is the set dressing for the combat. Each map area has its own unique combat screen set dressing. Eg. A desert area would have a desert motif for the combat screen. Set assets required:

• Backdrop
• Foreground
• Animated objects (such as flowers blowing in the breeze, and clouds in the sky).
• Additional VFX as required.

7.2 - Enemy Sprites and Animation:

Each new enemy will need custom sprites and animations to be created. A total of 12 new animations should be made for each non-humanoid enemy. Humanoid enemies can borrow player animations to cut down on development time. Enemy assets include:

• Custom sprites per new enemy.
• 12 new animations per new non-humanoid enemy.
• 3x win, 3x lose, 3x draw, 1x intro, 1x defeat, 1x victory
• Additional VFX as required.

Note: Enemies that appear similar in shape and mannerisms can recycle already made animations to lower development costs.

7.3 - User Interface:

As mentioned in the above User Interface section, UI art assets will need to be created for the combat screen. UI assets required:

• Hearts to indicate player/enemy health.
• EXP bar.
• Button images, and their associated item icons.
• Victory, Loss, Level Up and Loot overlays.

Time permitting, the UI elements could be subtly changed for each type of environment.

8. Audio:

Most of the audio played during combat will be dependent on the Player's equipment and what the Enemy is. All of these sound effect files will be pre-determined in the Player or Enemy's code before the fight begins. The following audio assets will be needed for combat:

• Battle Music
• Victory/Defeat Fanfare
• Level Up Fanfare
• Button Selection SFX
• Currency and Item collection SFX

The Battle Music that is played will be dependent on the map area combat takes place in. As each map area will have its own theme, so too will that area's combat. Each area's combat music should be a more energetic version of the map theme.

9. Tunables:

This is a list of tunable values that the designers should be able to modify in order to balance the combat difficulty.

9.1 - Enemy Tunables:

• Enemy health.
• Enemy Sword, Shield, and Sorcery choice weighting.
• Enemy 'Sword', 'Shield', and 'Sorcery' item.
• Enemy Sword, Shield and Sorcery damage values.
• Enemy Sword, Shield and Sorcery mitigation values.

9.2 - Player Tunables:

• The player will have similar tunables to the enemy, but can be manually done so in the player's inventory screen (accessible on the map). Further details on player tunables will be found in the future Player Design article.

© Scott Balmer - Game Design - 2014