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Turnbasing
Author
Like freebasing, kind of, only with games, I suppose.
Alright, I think we all know what turn-based combat is, but here''s a definition for posterity: Any game in which there are declared "turns" where one player must make his choice of action before the next player may make his.
There are two real kinds of attacking order in TB games. One is where each side gets the same amount of turns alternating until the combat is over. In the other, each unit has a "speed" which allows it to sometimes go more than once before it''s opponant has a turn.
That being said, there are a great deal of variations in turnbased combat other than the standard move and hack, and I think they are undeservedly passed over. Here are a few, you guys be sure to post if you know anything else...
Move and Hack-
Comes in several variations. Some Move and Hack games insist that you either do all of your move and then hack or hack and then do all of your move. Others allow you to interrupt the movement phase with an attack and then keep moving.
Free attack systems-
The only real place I know of this system is in Dream Pod 9''s series of tabletop RPG/Tactical games.(www.dp9.com) In this system, every unit has JUST a move phase. When that unit is moving, it can be attacked by any other unit which has the opportunity. This system is excellent for firefights as it makes COVER the winning factor, as it should be in any military simulation...
(Turn-based Sword fighting and martial arts conversations please pay attention...)
Move-based initiative-
This one comes out of White Wolf''s tabletop Streetfighter RPG. As bad as it sounds, (and it IS bad) the system is one of the neatest I''ve ever seen. Attack order is NOT determined by initiative, turn or character speed. Instead, each attack in the character''s arsenal has it''s own SPEED, DAMAGE, and MOVEMENT, determined partly by the nature of the move, and partly by the character performing it. The characters secretly select their moves, and then compare speeds. Whoever has the higher speed LETS HIS OPPONANT GO FIRST WITH THE OPTION OF INTERRUPT.
This way, if you win the speed match, you let your opponant close the distance, and then capitalize on his acting first by attacking him, and then move away with your movement phase. However, if you miss or screw up, your opponant still gets his attack. What I''ve said about it here is only a small part of the system, but this is easily the best system for martial arts/close comabt I have ever seen.
Complex tick-system-
Tick systems are interesting because every action takes a certain amount of ticks to perform. These systems are THEORETICALLY realtime, because all actions are occuring at the same time, but thankfully you are given some serious time to ponder your moves. Individual unit speed determines how many ticks an action will take.
So is that all?
Point-based
Each character has a number of points, depending on his stats & equipment.Each move costs a number of points, depending on the move and maybe some stats.
Runemaster now working on Acronia : Secrets of Magic
Add your site to my free-for-all links page !
""""" "'Nazrix is cool' -- Nazrix" --Darkmage --Godfree"-Nazrix" -- runemaster --and now dwarfsoft" -- dwarfsoft --pouya" -- Nazrix" -- Nazrix
"No TV and No Beer makes me close this thread."--MadKeithV
Each character has a number of points, depending on his stats & equipment.Each move costs a number of points, depending on the move and maybe some stats.
Runemaster now working on Acronia : Secrets of Magic
Add your site to my free-for-all links page !
""""" "'Nazrix is cool' -- Nazrix" --Darkmage --Godfree"-Nazrix" -- runemaster --and now dwarfsoft" -- dwarfsoft --pouya" -- Nazrix" -- Nazrix
"No TV and No Beer makes me close this thread."--MadKeithV
quote: Original post by runemaster
Point-based
Each character has a number of points, depending on his stats & equipment.Each move costs a number of points, depending on the move and maybe some stats.
Interesting. Is there anything else factored in? Such as environmental factors? Like a hot-weather-modifier might be bad for a footman, but even worse to someone in full armor...
Author
quote: Original post by runemaster
Point-based
Each character has a number of points, depending on his stats & equipment.Each move costs a number of points, depending on the move and maybe some stats.
Interesting. Is there anything else factored in? Such as environmental factors? Like a hot-weather-modifier might be bad for a footman, but even worse to someone in full armor...
The D&D method provides turns, in which combat happens. However, you can do more than one thing per turn, dependant on the character''s stats, skills, and weight. You can usually move 10 feet and still make a full attack in a turn, which is considered to be 10-15 seconds real-time. This is tabletop- DND of course..
Gameplay D&D has defined turns in it, and your character will only attack so much per turn, etc. Which sometimes leaves the character sitting there doing nothing when it seems he should be able to do something. This is the time when you can move before your attacks. That, however, seems skewed.. so perhaps it should be you get an extra attack if you don''t move.
There''s the fallout-style, with a number of action points, and moving a step costs one action, hitting with a small weapon takes three, and a large weapon takes four. You could make all sorts of variations of this one.. and i believe this one if the best to incorporate movement and attacks into one single turn in a way showing the player how they''re spending the round, allowing the most in-depth strategy.
However, there''s other extrapolations possible.. and combinations of the two. I like the way the D&D comp games allow all people to be moving at the same time, yet still having a "turn". Obivously the combination of turn-based and free-action is going to be the best. See Fallout: Tactics.
J
Gameplay D&D has defined turns in it, and your character will only attack so much per turn, etc. Which sometimes leaves the character sitting there doing nothing when it seems he should be able to do something. This is the time when you can move before your attacks. That, however, seems skewed.. so perhaps it should be you get an extra attack if you don''t move.
There''s the fallout-style, with a number of action points, and moving a step costs one action, hitting with a small weapon takes three, and a large weapon takes four. You could make all sorts of variations of this one.. and i believe this one if the best to incorporate movement and attacks into one single turn in a way showing the player how they''re spending the round, allowing the most in-depth strategy.
However, there''s other extrapolations possible.. and combinations of the two. I like the way the D&D comp games allow all people to be moving at the same time, yet still having a "turn". Obivously the combination of turn-based and free-action is going to be the best. See Fallout: Tactics.
J
Im sort of working on something interesting.
My idea is to basically allow you to have each of your units with a chain of commands to execute.
You can add/change commands in this list any time before they are executed.
The actual results of the commands get determined on a speed based system (i.e. assigns values for each action, then sorts with some extra stuff taken into account)
As each command is finished, the unit moves to the next command in it''s list.
The objective of this of course is to accomidate the player who wants to focus on one character just as well as the player who wants to focus on his whole team.
My idea is to basically allow you to have each of your units with a chain of commands to execute.
You can add/change commands in this list any time before they are executed.
The actual results of the commands get determined on a speed based system (i.e. assigns values for each action, then sorts with some extra stuff taken into account)
As each command is finished, the unit moves to the next command in it''s list.
The objective of this of course is to accomidate the player who wants to focus on one character just as well as the player who wants to focus on his whole team.
Hrm. There''s chess, where each s\ide only moves one unit per turn out of potentially many. And to move is to attack, since all attacks are successful.
quote: Original post by Landfish
There are two real kinds of attacking order in TB games. One is where each side gets the same amount of turns alternating until the combat is over. In the other, each unit has a "speed" which allows it to sometimes go more than once before it''s opponant has a turn.
So is that all?
One other: simultaneous turns. It can be a significant difference in game theory and gameplay to have to make choices not knowing what other players will do rather than alternating turns where there is perfect (or near-perfect) knowledge of what the other players have done.
Only board game I can think of at the moment is Diplomacy. Computer games: various Unix wargames I played, but more recently Shogun: Total War.
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