How to balance Ranged and Melee

from Elemental Forums

A turn based strategy game I play, Pox Nora, has a fairly simple way to balance melee vs archery. Put simply, they give ranged units a dead zone (meaning they can't hit anything closer than one or two tiles away), and they also make it so that if a unit is adjacent to another unit, it takes extra action points to move away.

This allows melee to serve a viable role in combat against ranged units, and is something I think Elemental could benefit from.

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I actually like this idea...forces you to use your archers properly.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

sort of silly to say that an archer can shoot through a square but not at a target in that same square.  shortening the range of bows would be a lot more realistic and just as effective.  (the archers would lose the same number of effective squares)  giving melee units greater mobility would be equally effective.

not that i agree it should be changed, just that it makes more sense.  I like archers as they are, simply because there is no other way to deal with creatures with 150 attack other than using children. 

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting thisisretarded, reply 2
sort of silly to say that an archer can shoot through a square but not at a target in that same square.  shortening the range of bows would be a lot more realistic and just as effective.  (the archers would lose the same number of effective squares)  giving melee units greater mobility would be equally effective.

not that i agree it should be changed, just that it makes more sense.  I like archers as they are, simply because there is no other way to deal with creatures with 150 attack other than using children. 
End of thisisretarded's quote

 

Not exactly, since the power of a bow typically comes from the momentum of the arrow. More than that, it'd be fairly difficult to aim a bow at something that's both moving quickly in-front of you, and preparing to stab you in the face. Regardless of that, however, we aren't talking about -realism-, we're talking about fun.

 

And, I'm sure most people can agree, bows being entirely OPed isn't fun.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I wouldn't really consider bows overpowered when the basic armor tech can render them nearly entirely ineffective.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Ranged weapons are the only counter to the 1-hit-kill glass cannons right now. That said, I feel the entire combat system needs an overhaul badly.

Ceterum autem censeo, 1DN esse delendam

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Archer units need;

1. Opportunity Fire - option to automatically attack first unit that moves into range.

2. 2nd Attack Delay - i.e. archers attack, enemy moves, archers attack again.

3. Crossbows - one attack per turn, Units with crossbows can be trained faster

Defenders need;

Tactical Spell (air) - Wind Wall - Reduces range of all archer units on the map

Tactical Spell (fire) - Smoke - Reduces attack range for targeted units to 1, due to smoke interfering with vision

Battle Formation Order - Shield Wall - +4 Defense Bonus vs Archer Attacks/-1 movement - A unit equipped with shields can be ordered to assume a shield wall.