Feedback on this pseudo-ATB

[kerbonklin]

(Copy and pasted from Features Feedback thread because it's dead I guess...)

Hello peoples. i'm just curious on what others would say about my pseudo-ATB system that I have implemented into my current project. I find it pretty cool myself and i'm confident with it.

In my system, one actor/enemy performs their turn at a time. Depending on battler Speed the orders are different. The way it works is that upon Actor-Command appearing, a 10 second timer pops up on the screen. This timer goes away either when time is up, or when a command is entered. (after targeting an enemy, thus completing your turn) If the command is inputted before 5 seconds, you get to keep a cumulative combo bonus that increases your damage. Between 5 through 10 seconds you lose the combo bonus that you have going on. If the timer expires for the full 10 seconds, you get a speed debuff that lingers onto their next turn.

The concept is to make the player think fast to take their turn, and players just spamming Attack or something random without thinking (to maintain the combo) will be punished by my tough enemies. To swiftly defeat enemies/bosses, the combo bonus will be more necessary as you progress through the game. Enemies will have special (and dangerous) skills where the player must carefully disable them in time using certain skills or certain conditions.

Here's a visual sample from my work so far: (Skip to 2:00)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yses8z-0ecI

(Note: I fixed the timer so that it pauses/resumes during evented texts)

Questions/Comments/Opinions are welcome.

 

[senpoRiot]

in what i can imagine, it's a pretty cool system though it's hard for some gamers who like to analyze their tactics.

i like to watch the video though it's prohibited in school. hehe

I've got a question. Is the battle system also implemented to monsters also? like if their timer is up, will their turn end?

 

[kerbonklin]

Enemies are just enemies, they use their normal Ace action-decision making (or any other custom AI scripting), which processes in a split second anyways lol. The timer gimmick only applies to the player.

 

[Zechnophobe]

You'd get major points from me if you had certain abilities that required a certain combo value, or some abilities that were a bit weaker but increased the combo counter. Maybe even characters that are 'fast' or 'slow' and so they get slightly longer or shorter reaction times? (A fast character gets more than 10 seconds to do there action in because they are a quick thinker).

As for the kinematics of the system, I think the complexity here is balancing the fun of 'real time ish' combat with the subtlety of difficult enemies. Time is a big pressure for a player, especially when pausing isn't an option (which I assume it isn't). If you can't pause, and have a fight last 30 minutes, it can be rather burdensome!

 

[Aner-Dyfan]

This style of combat is great fun. I've played fast turn games of various 4x games with friends, the tension is incredible and can allow for other tactics to be employed. Feints and bluffs work a lot better if you don't have time to examine the bigger picture, which seems to tie in nicely with your plans of implementing dangerous skills that require countering.

The downside to this though, it can be extremely punishing to players not familiar with the game. Very clear skill names are important, with only a few seconds on the clock you need to quickly and effectively select the right skill. Maybe even to the extent of the names being the effect, so in place of "Disruptor" just have "Stop Charge" or such. With only a few skills it's not so much of a problem but once you're up to about a dozen different ones players will begin to forget what does what thus having to read the descriptions during combat, breaking their combo.

 

[senpoRiot]

Enemies are just enemies, they use their normal Ace action-decision making (or any other custom AI scripting), which processes in a split second anyways lol. The timer gimmick only applies to the player.

it might be more tougher if you add some gimmicks exclusive for the enemies only. though it will just make it more difficult for the players but more challenging.

 

[Dude Awesome]

Hi, I think your idea sounds fun to help keep players engaged.  Although I agree with another poster about taking time to formulate tactics sometimes.  I think the best of both worlds could be had with a regular ATB in areas like the map, then more challenging battles in dungeons.  Because sometimes I just want to relax lol 

I also liked how it was asked if the enemies mess up sometimes too.  That'd be sweet if they did randomly on occasion to make it feel more like fighting equals instead of cold calculating killing machines lol

Anyway, I think it sounds cool.