I think this was already suggested and I'm not fully againts it.
My goal is to make combat in general less dependant on player skill and more dependant on the character skill. I can't go this way completely, since that would mean turning the game into auto-battler, which is not entirely fun.
I would like to rework the combat system in the future and depending on how it goes, I might add something like what you are suggesting.
have you considered that perhaps both player and character skill could enhance eachother?
lets say that once you level up a weapon skill enough, you can learn special skills to use in battle and in the overworld. so combat options become more expanded.
say if i were to level up one of my gun skills, i'd become proficient enough to shoot from a range at the overworld. or if i was to level up my sword skill i could make a disarming attack to reduce enemy attack. or level up my shield skill and learn to stun enemies with a shield bash.
basically the more character skill you have, the more options you have and the more player skill can have an effect.
I did think of this but as I said, I want to limit player skill as much as possible in that regard.
This a personal pet peeve of mine, but I always found the way most action RPGs work weird. you start the game as nobody and if you, the player, know the game, then you can pretty much negate the personality and skill of the in-game character by achieving things that shouldn't be possible. Soul level 1 runs in dark souls are a good example of that.
In Sinathir, the player is supposed to be something of an "advisor" to the main character. You tell her what to do and she tries to do it. If she fails and succeeds is entirely up to her skill, not to the player skill.
As I said before, having no player input is boring so I can't really go all out on that design philosophy, but I want to get as close as possible.
Try playing the old "Princess Maker 2" game. This game is heavily inspired by it and it will show you what kind of feel I'm going after to some degree.
well what i was sort of going for is that with low character skill, player skill can't effect much (limited options in combat). basically player skill is sort of "capped" by character skill, so a skilled player is in charge of making strategic decisions to use what the character has trained and learned to its full potential, but no more than that.
i guess when i said player skill i meant more like the players strategic ability. the player can decide how they use the characters capabilities. the more the character knows and learns, the more tactical options and advantages the player has access to.
in a battle you still are telling her what to do in the same way you would tell her to attack or use an item, but with a higher character skill level you're telling her to use the special techniques she learned over the course of the game.
and for the last thing... i don't have enough money :(
Exactly. The battles are pretty much already when I want them to be regarding the player control. It's the overworld activities that I will need to think more about, since things like stealth also fit into that category.
And there is an abandonware dos version of princess maker 2. The steam version and dos versions are pretty much identical content wise. It's just graphics and music that are different. You can get the dos version for free on the internet and you can get dosbox to play it on modern operating systems. Sites like abandonwaredos.com, or gamesnostalgia.com should have it.
ah, i was a bit confused since as of now i don't see very many skills that the character can use in combat.
but for overworld stuff, i think they should have an influence on fights but unless theres a high power imbalance not beat them entirely.
say you were to have an overworld skill that let you make a charge attack with your weapon in the overworld. if you manage to hit it you start the combat with an extra first attack. though if the enemy was very significantly weaker than you (like you would one shot them anyways) then it could be an instant kill.
shooting an enemy on the overworld could have a similar effect. if it doesn't one shot them then it would simply weaken them for when you fight them.
basically, stuff that gives an advantage in a proper battle, but won't win it altogether unless you would have already won easily anyways.
I played few games with system like that. Stick of thruth or persona 3 comes to mind. I was thinking about doing some kind of system to make weak enemies run away from you, or they instantly lose the battle when you touch them to cut down the number of simple fights. Having some skills to help with that might be nice. Maybe even skills that give you first strike or something like that. Having those skill usable in the overworld is possible also possible, but I will have to think about that.
I second their suggestion. That would make hunting feel more like hunting and less like...going over and punching a bunch of wild pigs until they give up their meat.
It would also favor using bows and crossbows, as guns would be noisy and alert the rest of the animals around about your presence and go over to fight you, thus making the player try to use a larger variety of weapons regardless of wether they choose to stick with a main weapon they level up a lot for or not.
You are right that the combat feels off and "old school" in a sence where enemies just chase you and they initiate combat sequence when they touch you.
Being able to press a button and shoot to initiate combat from affar would look nice, but would pose a lot of chalenges to get it right.
And these are just things I came up with on the spot. Sure, solution to most of these can be quite simple if you compromise, but I want to come up with creative solutions to simple problems like these if possible.
I'm experimenting with top down grid combat system that I found somewhere on the internet, which would solve this entire problem, but I have no idea when that's going to get implemented, if at all..
