Post by Falling Ash Games in Strife: The Expanse comments

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It was definitely a big source of inspiration, although I really disliked how swingy the RNG was in practice (kinda had to be though since it was table top).

XCOM as well as a few other strat games were also something's I pulled from.

I got a few other units in mind for the game that are all partway through development but it's just finding the time to put out updates.

If you are gonna try the concept yourself I'd suggest building a strong framework for multiple gamemodes. While my workflow for new characters is great, new gamemodes especially with my AI is somewhat cludgy as scope creep happened a bit. If you want to take it to the next level let players design their maps and save them, add props, etc. Was way beyond my level to make that so I went with procedural generation.

GamerBoyAdvanced2 years ago

Thanks for the lengthy reply!
I'd like to hear more about your process honestly, if you want, message me on discord here - Vad3rInHale#6030

GamerBoyAdvanced2 years ago

What did you mean here when you said the RNG has to be swingy since it's a table top game?

Falling Ash Games2 years ago(+1)

On a table top game, (ex DnD) you can only roll 1,2,3,4...20. This simplifies the math so that players can keep track of numbers. Furthermore math needs to be simple (addition, subtraction, MAAAYBEEE multiplication) because you don't know the players education.

In a digital format you the developer/game can do all the book keeping. So instead of integer breakpoints for damage (skulls-shields in heroscape) you can instead make a complex damage formula based on stats and have it be as random (or not random) as you want. Square roots, 1/x type functions, exponentials, etc are all on the table.

I settled on removing randomness. You may find your game needs something different. The idea is tabletop games have the inherent flaw that the rules need to be based on simple results from a die. A computer game does not need to follow the same rules.

Examples of where poor tabletop rng can make for unpleasant experiences are low level DnD campaigns (easy to get one shot if an enemy rolls a 20 vs a 19, or in simple rules of heroscape where you roll no shields with the robot guys and your opponent rolls one skull).

Hopefully that helps.

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