Musings on a small change to enhance combat

from Elemental Forums

I think by introducing two new stats - fatigue and recovery, many of the combat systems issues could be mitigated.

 For example,

 Equipment that is fitted to a unit contributes to its fatigue stat.

 This stat is applied every time the unit performs an offensive action.

 Fatigue accumulates to a maximum of 100 - which represents a percentage reduction in the armour rating of the unit.

 Once fatigue reaches 100, the unit passes out (making it extremely vulnerable to attack) and must recover below 100 to begin operating again.

 The unit would reduce its accumulated fatigue each round according to their recovery stat.

 Weapons would have a fatigue rating, therefore larger weapons, whilst hitting for more damage, increase the fatigue of the unit faster.

Heavier armours would have a higher fatigue rating than light armours; therefore, lightly armoured units could perform longer with out incurring the costs that heavier armoured/kitted units would.

The inclusion of fatigue and recovery would open up new spell possibilities i.e. 'Burden', which would stack fatigue on a unit, or,

'Relief' which would remove a portion of a units fatigue, or perhaps boost its recovery stat.

Magical weapons and armours would have less fatigue costs than mundane equipment.

These two additions would do much to transform the strategy behind unit creation - Do you go for lightly armoured units that don't tire out? or heavy units that take a beating but eventually collapse if the combat goes for a while.

Similarly, magic strategies, such as going after a heavy fitted army with Burden casting mages and quick nimble troops to whittle them down could be employed.

Not a new idea, but it really works well and would suit Elemental combat to a T.

elemental
6,106 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Not to border to much on pimping my own mod, but I think that the first step really should be to make the combat simply have more than 1 dimension. As it is currently, a standard unit has two choices, fight or move. Fighting itself may have various stat differences which allow the player to make a decision on which units to fight and where to move, but you are still left with only these two options. Now, this is the case only with standard units, as specialty units, like the sov, champions, and summons, all have more options to combat. For instance, the sov has an array of different tactical spells to cast on top of his fighting and moving. When one brings a fire giant to a battle, they find themselves with a unit that is not only battle worthy, but has various alternative abilities to direct the flow of combat. Giving the player various options opens up the door to a variety of strategic possibility beyond simply moving and fight or even just number crunching. For instance, in my mod, maces and hammers all have defense debuffs which they can use just like a spider gets tangling web, or spears get defense buffs to make them more capable of taking abuse. In this way, combined arms and strategic thinking become far more important, as both sides buff and debuff, and use specialty strikes and knockbacks on top of your normal move and fight.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Not to border to much on pimping my own mod, but I think that the first step really should be to make the combat simply have more than 1 dimension. As it is currently, a standard unit has two choices, fight or move. Fighting itself may have various stat differences which allow the player to make a decision on which units to fight and where to move, but you are still left with only these two options. Now, this is the case only with standard units, as specialty units, like the sov, champions, and summons, all have more options to combat. For instance, the sov has an array of different tactical spells to cast on top of his fighting and moving. When one brings a fire giant to a battle, they find themselves with a unit that is not only battle worthy, but has various alternative abilities to direct the flow of combat. Giving the player various options opens up the door to a variety of strategic possibility beyond simply moving and fight or even just number crunching. For instance, in my mod, maces and hammers all have defense debuffs which they can use just like a spider gets tangling web, or spears get defense buffs to make them more capable of taking abuse. In this way, combined arms and strategic thinking become far more important, as both sides buff and debuff, and use specialty strikes and knockbacks on top of your normal move and fight.
End of quote

 

Every thing you say above is great. What I’m angling for is a mechanic that seeks to deal with the way in which combat and particularly, the equipment fitted, effects the units involved.

The situation at present is slap on the best of what is available. What I would like to see is consequences for choices made, which inturn promotes a more thoughtful and purposeful consideration to how one builds their units.

Heavy armour should be heavy – it should yes, provide more protection, but it should have a cost. That cost in my mind should be fatigue.

You can have heavy plate on a unit, but after a bit of melee, your (wo)man is going to be puffed out and susceptible to a decrease in performance.

Light armour may not have the initial protection level as heavy, but the unit wearing it will be able to go longer and suffer less of a performance hit as a consequence.

That heavy plated big hammer wielding trooper is going to get a couple of super shots in but soon enough he is going to be tired. If he hasn’t dispatched his lighter armoured, dual knife wielding foe quick smart, he may find himself in a bit of trouble.

There needs to be a way to differentiate and distinguish the choices made when fitting out your soldiers – fatigue begins to address that, because now there is a cost to contend with.

At present there is not one.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I love how the only two inspirations for how to deal with combat issues both seem to stem from existing wargame mechanics: either D&D, a Chainmail descendant; or the Dominions system.

Wouldn't creating a new system which is made for the existing setting and mechanics make more sense - and be more fun?

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Aranneas, reply 3
I love how the only two inspirations for how to deal with combat issues both seem to stem from existing wargame mechanics: either D&D, a Chainmail descendant; or the Dominions system.

Wouldn't creating a new system which is made for the existing setting and mechanics make more sense - and be more fun?
End of Aranneas's quote

While this is true and all, why not go with something that is proven to work? Elemental thus far has chosen to strike out in the new direction and seems to have hit a brick wall. You can't honestly say you are happy with what we have at present? The system is already heavily influenced by other games - why not integrate proven mechanics of those other games? Innovation is iterative - we don't need rounder wheels...

My blatant pilfering of the Dominions fatigue system is put forward because it is bloody genius. The process you have to go through as you kit up your thugs/sc's really makes you take into account fatigue managment. It does a tremendous job of making you 'not' just slap on the best gear, but carefully consider the role your unit is to play.

Right now becasue there are no penalties to offset the boni of fitting out with the heaviest kit, there is not strategy involved with unit creation and  Elemental is the lesser for it.