Wanderer

An episodic 2D adventure game blending cinematic platformer and RPG into a beautiful lo-fi sci-fi universe. · By Red Cloak Games, Cris_R, Fenrir

Add to collection

game Community

Wanderer community » General Discussion

I don't understand the battle system

A topic by Bardsplay created Jun 21, 2017 Views: 525 Replies: 9

Viewing posts 1 to 8

Bardsplay7 years ago

I'm having a ridiculously tough time understanding the battle system. I (think) I understand the outlines and and if I'm supposed to dodge/guard/heavy attack/quick attack but I'm confused on how to actually....do those things. I have no clue what buttons to actually push during combat to take x action. A simple left click seems to activate all of them but I can't reliably choose which actual action I want to take.

Im using a laptop and i'd like to map all the combat commands to actual keys rather than clicking since touch pads are kind of finicky but changing the setting for melee attacks/etc doesn't seem to actually work and clicking still activates everything.

Cheeseness7 years ago (1 edit)

If you press Tab, it'll give you an overlay with key bindings on it (there was a prompt for that during the tutorial fight).

By default, left mouse button is dodge (for heavy attacks) and right mouse button is guard (for light attacks). The rest of the combat options are controlled via WASD.

It looks like bindings can be changed from the Options->Commands from the main menu (you'll need to press Escape, Save & Exit to get back there, and then you can hit Continue to resume your game).

Hope that helps!

Cris_R7 years ago

As mentioned, on keyboard 'Tab' (and on gamepad 'Start') will give you on-screen input hints where applicable, along with info on combat skills when they become available.

The mouse and keyboard control scheme is very preliminary at this point as we've been focused on getting gamepad controls right, but we'll be sure to work on ease of use and customizability in subsequent builds!

Choubugioxkei7 years ago

I didn't see the prompt to press Start/Tab for button prompts at all during my first time fighting the tutorial fight. It's on the upper-right hand part of the screen when all the new HUD stuff you're taking in is in the center.

Similar issue with the very first dialogue option--there's no indication that I can see that you select dialogue options with A/X/Y/B instead of the d-pad. I can figured it out, but y'know, confusing.

Please consider integration with the Steam Controller API. I use a Dualshock 4, and hey buddy, these Xbox button prompts mainly serve to confuse me.

asmodai7 years ago

I got the hang of the melee system fairly quickly. But despite playing a lot of games the timing seems awfully tight. If I have, at times, difficulty reacting in time, I wonder about other people or who due to disability have problems to react quickly. It will be a very frustrating experience for them, whereas the rest of the game might very much delight them.

What confuses me at the moment is ranged combat against me. I see a red/orange/green bar with a slider and I am still unsure if I am supposed to press something in return or if that's the enemy using the ranged combat bar.

Cheeseness7 years ago

That's your dodge window. If you press dodge (right click?) when in the green, then you don't take any damage.

Once I got the hang of it and understood how it worked, I feel like the timing on that at the moment isn't too bad, and might even be a little generous if players' stats make things easier as the game goes on. I don't feel like I should be able to dodge every single ranged attack.

Cris_R7 years ago

The ranged dodge system definitely needs a lot more consideration, it's quite one-dimensional in this version. Originally the execution was the same as melee defense but you could 'shield' instead of dodge to spend shield meter and negate damage. We tried changing it up so that melee attack/defense and ranged attack/defense had alternate mechancs, but the shield was taken out for the moment.

One possible idea for reintroducing it is that having the 'shield' resource stocked will give you a buffer on the right side of the green-zone on the timing bar, allowing you to wait too long and miss and still giving you a freebie success, but shrinking or eliminating the buffer as it depletes through use. We may test something like that out at some point, but like Cheeseness pointed out we're still working on the balancing of how difficult it should be for the player to negate attacks vs. how much room for error there is.

I'm planning on some tests involving increasing starting health numbers considerably and rebalancing risk vs. reward. As it is currently, it's balanced around having to play pretty perfectly, and I can see how that's super stressful and not fun. Perfect timing on attacks and defense should feel like an extra bonus, and not a necessity, so I'll work on making the target timing more lenient but still rewarding, while leaving perfect timing as a bonus option that's more challenging and considerably riskier.

Cheeseness7 years ago

Thinking about risk vs reward with ranged defence, had you considered letting players choose between a low-agility "fortify" stance that gives an easier window for success but guarantees some damage taken or AP deduction and a high-agility "dodge" stance that gives a hard to execute opportunity for avoiding all damage?

It feels like melee combat is primarily geared toward picking the right counter for the enemy state (purple attack for purple stance, red defence for red attack, etc.). So far, it feels like the opportunities for strategy within combat are limited to character position and skill usage. With melee combat feeling reflexive, having a strategic decision to make during ranged combat could make for an interesting combination.

SieurMerlin7 years ago

I struggled a bit at first to master the melee system, but now it's okay. It's not hard to understand but as it was written before, it's really stressful and could get a bit annoying on the long term.

So far, I'm stuck at the fight with the 3 robots (including the big one) at the bay. If your fight is not perfect, it's over in 2 rounds and you have to start it again... it's kind of frustrating ! I have the feeling I spent more time doing the same fights over and over again than exploring the ship ^^

And if anybody can help me on the use of the special skills... I can only get a "miss" at the dash, and I don't see what to do with the red zones when I use it!

Nohvarr7 years ago

Okay, sorry for the delay but I've really only just gotten around to playing this game and I too am stuck at the fight with the three droids (Big, medium and small). Now I think I see what you are doing, but the combat system (Especially how/when to properly use the various skills) could be explained better, as at times I fear I am doing something wrong. I'll admit, once I got the hang of the ranged dodge and the melee dodge/guard I felt confidant about those aspects of the game (At least during the 'rest' period).

I would also argue that you can be a little more forgiving on the PC's melee attacks, perhaps extending the amount of time before and after the flash that the player has to input attacks. Honestly, I would suggest putting in a mode/setting/etc where the user's melee attack always does damage when properly matched against the enemy...it just does significantly more damage when timed properly. I think it would help alleviate the frustration factor if this suggestion was implemented, because, as it stands now, combat is intense but not really fun to me.

Overall you have designed an interesting combat system that demands you pay attention...however I think (this early in the game) it's a spiked too high in the difficulty between what you are asking gamer to learn and do just about on the fly. A gentler ramp up in the difficulty curve with better explanations might make my concerns go away completely.

On the positive side, your narrative system is off to a great start with plenty of options to handle situations and visible impacts on your characters growth based on the choices you've made. I also like your MC character design and intro, and the other characters are are likeable. The world you're building looks very interesting and I loved the opening music choice.

itch.io

Wanderer

I don't understand the battle system