Realistic combat without RNG?

[jonthefox]

Is this possible?  I'd like to give the player the sense that both he and the enemy have the ability to dodge and parry attacks, until someone finally land a decisive blow or gets tired....without making the outcome reliant on RNG.  It's kind of a contradiction, since what makes realistic combat so heated is the unpredictability of it, and having to adapt to unpredictable situations.  Would love to hear people's thoughts and ideas.

 

[EternalShadow]

You could have parrying and dodging tied to buttons, and have that element as quicktime sequences basically, and make it harder to dodge/parry tougher enemies?

 

[jonthefox]

I want to keep it turn-based and decision-making...don't want to introduce anything that puts demands on the player other than the choices he makes.

and I also want enemies to have the ability to dodge/parry (but probably much lower than that of the player).

 

[Iavra]

The you would probably need to create specific block/evasion skills that work like "block the next physical attack". Those work best with the default combat system where everyone plans their action before they all execute based on speed.

 

[Warpmind]

I suppose some variant on Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock could work? Enemies fight in predetermined patterns, and once you know which sequence of moves work against them, you simply implement and win?

 

[Eschaton]

If you are going to build a combat mechanic around reacting to/predicting your enemies actions, you should come up with a way for enemies to telegraph their actions.

 

[Wavelength]

I don't necessarily like the idea, to be honest - having several turns without numbers flying and gauges falling has the potential to bore the player.

This kind of thing might be more interesting in a Pen and Paper RPG where you have dialogue and storytelling to go along with the (admittedly strategic) slog of opening up an enemy's vulnerabilities, but in a JRPG combat system where you're fighting dozens of enemies in each dungeon?  I'm not so sure it's wise.

But if I were to make such a system, I'd probably have different "parry" gauges (maybe head, torso, legs or however you want to divide it into categories) and different skills would increase your own parry gauges or decrease that of the enemy.  If you drain it to zero, your attack connects and you do damage (hopefully a LOT of damage).

 

[jonthefox]

@wavelength:  it's not a given that my project is going to be a traditional jrpg (it's already non-traditional in many ways) where each dungeon has dozens of monsters etc., so because battles are going to be more infrequent than in most games, I want them to be more meaningful -- not in a way that makes them overly complex, just something more interesting and immersive than numbers flying every turn.

 

[AwesomeCool]

you could have a guard, break, attack system.

Break beats guard, guard beats attack, attack beats break.

You will just have to spice it up (like being able to use skills to foreshadow certain attack types)

 

[Lowell]

you could have a guard, break, attack system.

Break beats guard, guard beats attack, attack beats break.

You will just have to spice it up (like being able to use skills to foreshadow certain attack types)

Sounds like the mechanics in the Fate/Extra games, while they're pretty decent, I can't say I'm a fan of how battles play out.