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Unit "skills"
A way to make infantry army clashes more epic could be to have % chance based procs that could be upgraded/added via upgrades/veterancy
adds a little bit of randomness to a fight where a smaller but lucky/skilled force can defeat a larger unluckier/less skilled force.
examples of units:
all infantry when hit (if they survive) play hit recovery animation for .2 seconds
melee warrior with a sword and shield has:HEALTH:20
-attack: swings weapon does 12-24 damage at melee range .9 second attack animation
-Block (40% melee 70% ranged) chance to block incoming attack with sheild -> stop attack -> goto block animation take .3 seconds to recover from blocking enemy takes .4 seconds to recover being blocked
-parry (20% melee only) chance to block incoming melee attack with weapon -> goto parry animation take .1 seconds to recover from parrying enemy takes .3 seconds to recover from being parried.
-Barricade (ACTIVATED ABILITY) slows movement speed (or imobilizes) and increase range block to 90% and melee block to 70%. attack speed reduced by 30%
(good defenses good vs ranged units weaker against dedicated melee)
melee two handed warrior has:
HEALTH: 20
-Attack: swings weapon at melee range for 15-30 damage 1.2 second attack animation
-parry (20% melee only) chance to block incoming melee attack with weapon -> goto parry animation take .1 seconds to recover from parrying enemy takes .3 seconds to recover from being parried.
-Charge (passive) when enemy is within 10 meters unit gain +30% movement speed and first strike on enemy target does 20% more damage
-Cleave (passive) when attacking 20% chance to defeat enemy block (not parry)
(strong in melee has no ranged defense)
Ranged Long gunner (from concept)-HEALTH:16
-Shoot: fires a musket ball at a target for 19-22 damage 85% accuracy small spread 2.9 second fire rate.
-Rifle butt: does 4-6 damage in melee
-parry (15% melee only) chance to block incoming melee attack with weapon -> goto parry animation take .1 seconds to recover from parrying enemy takes .3 seconds to recover from being parried.
-penetrator rounds (UPGRADE passive) 20% chance to ignore target's block when using shoot.
(good ranged unit slow attack. can be upgraded to pierce enemy armor)
when "recovering" from being hit, blocking or parrying or having your attack be blocked or parried units cannot attack or block/parry.
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Unit Roles
I've been wanting to see an RTS treat infantry for the fodder they are for a long time now. some have tried to squad method and it does convey a sense that each individual soldier isn't worth much but i dont like squad based controls at all. i prefer to be able to tell an individual unit to move and have him immediately follow my command not have a delayed formational move out from the whole army.
what i'd really like to see is infantry able to be produced en mass, be cheap and relatively weak individually. i want to see big battles where armies clash and casualties immediately start piling up as soldiers die in bloody messes.
i'd also like to see medium sized units or magical/mythical beasts be able to be taken down by a lucky/skilled soldier. lets say if a unit gains veterancy it gains a very small (1-10% based on veterancy) to play out a special instakill animation on a creature similar to how a quick time event might play out in god of war. and maybe also awarding special "hero" bonuses to infantry who manage to slay a beast (+% dmg to beasts, plus %to dodge beast attacks that sort of thing)
a good balance formula is T1 infantry/small units > T2 cavalry/creatures/medium units >T1.5 specialty infantry/T3 large units/creatures/siege weapons(ballista) >T1 infantry (en mass)
of course there are exception units to keep things interesting like an anti T3 medium unit (Heavy Mounted Knight?) or an anti infantry T3 siege weapon (machine gun or flamethrower like) and things of that nature.
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Wounded Soldiers
Have units that have taken damage but not died slow down in everything they do by 30% or something. have some kind of field medic/priest healer unit be able to heal units that are out of combat. just adds a logistics/supply element to combat. maybe have a T2 supply wagon be trainable and have it be able to mass heal infantry after battles.
kind of protects your veteran troops.
also adds a target during raids. if you can kill the enemy healers/supply units first their units will be slower/ weaker and wont be able to be healed after fights.
adds another element to combat other than my army is bigger than yours.
also makes retreats a bit more interesting as wounded units wouldn't be able to run away as fast slowing the chasing army by distracting them
hell you could even have healers/supply units passively give a small movement speed bonus. killing enemy supply would = slower troops.
man i wish i was making this game with you chris...|||These ideas are complex and awesome. But a T1 'luckily' taking down a T2? That seems odd im my eyes as 10% is a rather big percentage, and all T1 units attacking said T2 will have this 10%. Increases chances dramaticly.|||i meant something like 1% at at +1 veterancy and then as the unit gains veterancy the percentage would increase.
i just wanted to see one of my little soldiers come up and jump on the back of an ogre and stab it in the neck as it collapses to the ground holding its bleeding neck. and the soldier lifts up his sword and your other soldiers cheer as he gains 3 veterancy levels
then gets shot in the back by a stray arrow cause veterancy shouldn't make you have more HP
BUT ANYWAYS i was just thinking about it as since according to my suggestion infantry are paper and would probably get @nally r@ped by and anti infanty creature unit. getting a tiny chance that your veteran units can kill it or even have units that kill big units becom "heroes" with bonuses vs other big units.
idk im just ranting now cause its canada day and i've had a few too many already|||Off Topic: Happy Canada Day!
On Topic: Maybe instead of it luckily killing it, have something like dawn of war. When the unit is near death any unit attacking it has a chance to pull off an epic finishing move. (LOTR Cave Troll killed by Legolas, Dragon Age killing the dragon), things like that.|||too complex, needs special animations, scripting, and then debugging, etc. But its a nice system, i just don't think its feasible with current accessible gaming hardware.
a % based block system means a your greenhorn unit could survive a ballista bolt shot from a super-elite ballista unit. Or survive a legendary unit attacking it, keeping the legendary tied up for a few seconds while it takes damage.
If anyone knows Homeworld, not to mention the balance between ship classes, you'll better understand what this idea means better than people who don't. All this is done *WITHOUT* the use of armour types.
Infantry:
swordsman - high quality infantry with expensive metal sword and shield
good all-rounder. average rate of attack, average damage, good hp.
archer - high quality infantry armed with a shortsword and longbow
best infantry ranged. low rate of attack, high damage, low hp.
ranger - scout archer with shortbow and shortsword
cheap ranged & scout. high rate of attack, low damage, good hp.
Skirmisher - medium quality infantry with a javelin attack and sword
best anti-infantry. high rate of attack, low damage, high hp.
pikeman - medium quality infantry armed with a pike/pole/spear used to combat
best anti-cavalry. low rate of attack, high damage, good hp.
Cavalry:
Scout cavalry -light armour, spear, but is the fastest cavalry
scout & harassement. medium rate of attack, low damage, low hp.
Light cavalry - medium armour + longsword
good all-rounder. medium rate of attack. medium damage. medium hp.
Mongol (archer) cavalry
Best cavalry ranged. medium rate of attack. high damage, low hp.
Heavy cavalry (knight/cataphract) - heavy armour, expensive longsword
Best cavalry for price. low rate of attack. high damage. high hp.
the rate of attack and damage they deal is *CRUCIAL* to this kind of balance. A high damage low rate of attack unit such as the heavy cavalry will overkill most infantry by a factor of 2. so while it is stupidly powerful, its inefficient against infantry, but great against other cavalry and bigger targets.
Similarly, your swordsman may be a good al-rounder, but it will die easily to skirmishers who can easily knock off half of a soldier's hit points with said javelin which has a long reload time. knocking off the rest of the swordsmen hitpoints would be easy with their average attack and high hitpoints. They are decent against cavalry due to their javelins, but as the reload time is so high a group of scout cavalry can be cannon fodder for the javelins while the meds close in and finish the skirmishers off.
Pikemen, though, with their high damage low attack speed, and good hitpoints would be moderately effective against other infantry, but best suited against cavalry due to their high damage attacks, which could remove a heavy knight from a the battle in 3-4 attacks. that one knight would only be able to kill one pikeman in that time, so even if you loose two pikemen, they will win.
Nowhere do i mention armour types. This is all dynamic balance based around how much damage and how often units can attack.|||well thats why you would have the ballista have this ability:
80% chance to penetrate enemy block/armor
makes the ballista an anti armor unit.
theres no end to abilityies based on % that units can have and while if the 60% ranged block procs on a green horn shield unit and the 80% doesn't proc hes one lucky SOB and think of it like he defelected the bolt instead of taking it head on. and anyways that is what the unit would be disgned for. to make walls out of shields and control the shape of the battle field and protect other units from ranged attacks.
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