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Author Topic: 'Skills' - Alternative to Traits  (Read 2905 times)

Conker

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'Skills' - Alternative to Traits
« on: February 02, 2008, 06:09 »

I think we need something to increase the importance of player tactics (I'm not referring to the 'tab' tactics thing). At the moment, the early game is a test of attrition rather than skill - you get lucky as to whether you open a door on a caco/Hell Knight/Former sarge, and there's little variance in tactics a player will typically take in subsequent games (e.g., unlike Nethack, Angband, etc, I can't say 'Okay, I died trying to simply attack the bad guy from a distance last time, this time I'll try disable it somehow before attacking'). It gets a little better later on, as the variety of weapons and the amount of traits allows for some level of tactics, but it's not enough, in my opinion. Too much of the game is luck-based rather than decision-based.

So I'm suggesting we add something in that goes alongside Traits, but works differently. Perhaps something akin to a 'magic' system - except it won't be 'magic' but rather things such as 'Aimed Shot' (Next shot has 99% accuracy), 'Increased Perception' (to temporarily increase sight range), 'War Cry' (brings monsters coming to your position).

To those who will say 'Oh no, it's outside the scope of Doom': I'm sorry, but the scope of Doom, as it is, doesn't translate all that well to Roguelikes. There's no (in any useful degree) ability to nimbly dodge an imp's fireballs by strafing, no ability to shoot furiously while backing away from an oncoming demon.

To those who say 'But it's a coffeebreak Roguelike!' : If you're going to use that as an excuse, what's the point in continuing to improve it at all past its original release? If you're going to do something, it's worth doing it well.
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Potman

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Re: 'Skills' - Alternative to Traits
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2008, 11:16 »

It's a nice idea, though I get the feeling that DoomRL already has more than enough features.

Edit: Also I reckon you should get some traits before using them: No Aimed Shot without Eagle Eye, for instance.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2008, 14:41 by Potman »
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Rola

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Re: 'Skills' - Alternative to Traits
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2008, 15:55 »

Remember X-Com series? How about those extra Aimed Shots, which get bonus to acc., but double the firing time?
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tisiphone

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Re: 'Skills' - Alternative to Traits
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2008, 06:39 »

I think something that could fill the role of what you are looking for is actually more tactics (in the ‘tab’ sense). You could have your “Aimed Shot” and “Increased Perception” idea as an alternative to the run tactic (although, it would be nice if they had better names, no offence). The problems then is: how do you add new tactics without cluttering the interface or making it frustrating to use?

Quote from: Potman
Edit: Also I reckon you should get some traits before using them: No Aimed Shot without Eagle Eye, for instance.
That sort of defies the point of this idea. If you have to have some trait to use a tactic then you will not be able to use it early game – hence you still won’t have many tactical options early game.
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I want my games for entertainment and escapism, not ethics education, thank you very much.

Daqin

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Re: 'Skills' - Alternative to Traits
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2008, 05:53 »

I also thought the game missing something like this. It would give player more choice and tactics.
Possible solution that comes to my mind is from experience playing World Of Warcraft. There is rather unique ability system which I didn't see in any other game. Together with talents (or here traits) you unlock some abilities which are not passive and you can actually use them at will. Except one thing: they have cooldown, which means you can use them every some time (in roguelike it could be turns). For example having maxed eagly eye you could unlock Sniper Shot ability. You could use it at any moment for very high accuracy, but after using you would have to wait some turns for cooldown to erase (something similar was in Dungean Crawl when playing draconian- you could use your breath weapon, but then you had to wait some time and it was indicated on side screen by colored *breath*).
Other example can be Rapid Shot (bonus attack), Cold Blood (attack is critical hit) etc. Generaly something you can hold in reserve for difficult situations, and cooldown may be different.
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