[Poll] Friendly Fire

[Frostorm]

Curious what people think. Would you prefer a game where friendly fire is enabled, or not? For example, an AoE spell deals dmg to w/e is in its AoE regardless of ally or enemy. This probably wouldn't make sense in a default battle system though...idk.

 

[TheoAllen]

Yes for tactical battle system.

 

[dopan]

depends if the AOE is magical or not..
i think magic should work without ff.
but if its a grenade/bomb it should make ff.
your example was on spells, so i voted for "no"

 

[Frostorm]

That gave me an idea! Maybe I could create a passive for casters so that their spells would have friendly-fire disabled. Think of it like a noob mage wouldn't have the experience or skill to "mould" their spell in such a way as to avoid damaging allies. Once they learn the passive skill, it represents they are skilled/experienced enough to avoid hitting allies.

 

[Celestrium]

In a tactical game, there is so much you can do with friendly fire though! You can have skills where if you cast a spell on an ally, they amplify (fellow wizard), reflect to make them go farther or heal hurts undead sort of thing. There is also environmental things to consider! (Implementing all that would be a challenge though)

@Frostorm I like the idea of "at first" that you mentioned and strongly suggest you go with it!

 

[ShadowDragon]

there are games, that disable friendly fire on easy/normal mode (or manually enable it)
in hard++ mode, it is automatically enabled and cannot be disabled.

in a real war, you cannot disable friendly fire, so it's also more dynamic and strategy
how to use certain spells wisely.

 

[Frostorm]

I personally like friendly-fire, but I wonder if there are people who actively dislike it though... And yea there's a lot you can do w/ friendly-fire enabled in a tactical game. I just hope people don't QQ cuz they damaged their own unit lol.

Edit: For those that voted "No" to the poll, what's the reasoning for your choice?

 

[Punamaagi]

I agree with other posters in that friendly fire is okay in tactical games, but I don't personally like it. It tends to frustrate me more than anything else, particularly if it has elements that are difficult to predict or calculate (such as 'chain lightning' type spells in some games). Story-wise I like the idea of an experienced caster learning to avoid friendly fire, though.

Ironically, my own project used to have RNG-esque friendly fire, at least in a way: if the party's wizard was struck while casting, there was a small chance that he lost control of his spell and dealt damage to the party instead of the enemies. I soon realized that it wasn't a fun system, given that it made taking hits suck twice as much and almost forced the player to shield the wizard every time he was casting.

 

[Tiamat-86]

the "option" of friendly fire i dont mind.
sleep/confuse are usually cured by damage should be able to have weakest character attack your own team to cure them.
freeze cure by fire, electrocuted cured by earth magic same thing.

as for just normal AoE targeting enemies but hitting allies,
some spells like a self destruct or an uncontrollable twister sure can hit allies accidently.

but most cases wouldnt have them hit both ally/enemy at same time,
unless the game is using something like AoE rings/cones/lines for targeting and there is a few ways to move where you and the enemy is standing.
turning it more into a strategy game then just a regular old turn based or action based

 

[ShadowDragon]

I would suggest (or as feedback the following)

if you make difficulty levels (easy, normal, hard, veteran, extreme etc),
turn friendly fire OFF on easy/normal), but be able to turn it ON if they wish too.
otherwise, turn it on (prevent it from disabling it)

if you have 1 difficulty (normal/balanced experience), let them choose.
either from start, else from option (or 1 choice per saveslot?)

but if the choice are rather in your sight, and the game purpose if it fit or not.
if a party throw a power bom (target everyone (include allies), than be it.
but to use it wisely, it is best use if he is the only one alive (unless he get dmg as well).

it's your game, so you decide suggestions/feedback/recommendations are just their
eye/point of view, but you can add or not if it's doable or fitable in your game

 

[BK-tdm]

For tactical system, its needed/added to add some of the "tactical" part (positioning your units) although i have a big gripe on it as enemies seem to never friendly fire themselves, since tactical is pretty much RPG-chess the AI awareness shows, so it feels more like a player handicap if you dont pay attention to the unit positioning which the AI will always take into account for its moves.

For default system, not much use unless you need to hit a partner to snap them out of confusion/stun/attract-like and yet my gripe with this is how sometimes your own party cant whitstand one hit from a normal character and you have to waste your squishy wizard/healer turn weakstaff-smacking the afflicted one (bonus points for no cleanse/dispells and you are forced to staffwhack) and sometimes its your only weakstaff user the one afflicted, which, being the squishiest will force you to either gamble the hit to "snap it out" or wait it out (extra bonus: effect is permanent until hit!)

 

[Finnuval]

I prefer the option to switch it on or off myself but if thats not possible my vote is yes.

As an added point : i like it when friendly fire also includes positives like an aoe heal that also heals the enemy if in the same area and not Just damage daling stuff xD

 

[Testtubebaby]

It really depends on the context in which the friendly fire is happening.

Personally, I feel friendly fire is acceptable if it is something within the player's control, or if a condition justifies it. In other words, it's something that can be strategized around and understood. If it is based off of random chance and outside of the player's control (in other words, unpredictable), it irritates me.

I always found it silly when a mage casts, for example, a large explosion in the middle of a mixed group of allies and enemies and only the enemies get damaged. Sure, a mage may eventually learn to have more refined control over how the magic acts, but some things are not so manipulatable, in my opinion.

I've always enjoyed having the opportunity to use ally targeting and reflection magic in my toolkit when playing any kind of game.

 

[Frostorm]

Cool, I'm 99% sure I'm gonna keep friend fire enabled for my game. This would include positive effects like healing as @Finnuval mentioned. The scope/AoE of the skill/spell is also user controlled so its definitely not random. The player will be able strategize beforehand where to land said skill/spell.

 

[Kupotepo]

Yes and hello for a tactical game. But please do not be like Xcom game lol. I play XCOM II by the way.

Spoiler

 

[Frostorm]

That's cuz XCOM is an RNG-fest, which is just...eww... Chance mechanics hinder strategic play in general. I believe there was an entire thread on the topic of chance/RNG.

 

[Aldu]

It's difficult to answer your question on friendly fire because we don't have any context to the game design. In other words, your game should be designed to include friendly fire. You shouldn't add a feature for the sake of having more features if it doesn't get used.
In regards to friendly fire on the default battle system, here's a list of ideas I can think of:

• Recovering from status effects
• Instead of being resistant to a certain element, it heals instead so you can use an elemental attack on a party member to heal them
• Reflect damage to the enemy
• A skill used by a tank in your party that "charges its attack" based on how much damage they take
• Killing a low HP party member that has an auto revive to make them full health again
• Allow you to change the affection between your party members for romancing/friendship
• A system where you have to sacrifice a party member to "transform" into an ultimate form

I think friendly fire in a "hard mode" makes it unfair for the player and discourages them from using AOE skills, especially since the gameplay is optimized for normal difficulty. In my opinion, that's not good game design.

 

[Frostorm]

In other words, your game should be designed to include friendly fire.

It currently does, in fact, having friendly fire enabled is the default for the battle system I use. I made this thread mainly to gauge how much of the population dislikes friendly fire. I am relieved to see that most people are fine w/ having friendly fire enabled. I probably won't even include an option to disable it, since there are so many ways that friendly fire can be used strategically or in otherwise unorthodox ways.

 

[Aesica]

This really, really depends on the battle system. Like obviously for standard issue RPG battles, it makes little sense. In an MMO-wannabe action rpg, it also would be more of a hindrance than anything else. But in FFT-style tactical battle systems, the battle system actually feels inferior without it.

 

[AllenYu1984]

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