Weakness Mechanics - Discussion

Black Pagan · Jul 5, 2020

I would like to hear your unique ideas about Weakness Mechanics in Battles. I know the most common things that come to your mind when anyone says "Weakness" would be Elemental Weakness. But this is not what I'm talking about. What i mean is something different.

Here is an idea I have - A Mechanic where a Character's Skill plays an Animation on different positions of Enemy's body. If it strikes the upper body, it does different things. If it strikes anywhere else it does different things. I would like to hear about Mechanics such as this. Where the Skill strikes your Enemies would be based on your "Hit-Rate" Stat. So now, This would open up a lot more possibilities like Crit Strikes only when Skill deals damage to Upper Body, Stuns only when you deal damage to Lower Body etc.

Do you have a Unique Idea on ways to exploit an Enemy's weakness in Battle ? If so, Kindly share

gstv87 · Jul 5, 2020

funny..... just today I was thinking about adding a scene to the story, where a character actually gains the skill that effects the *weakness* onto the target.
I have an archer that has advantage against armor, but their arrows are countered by enemy shields. So, the idea was to have the blacksmith character witness another character stabbing an enemy with a rapier (which, to him would be a completely alien weapon) and getting the idea of making super thin arrows, that pierce armor.
the question now is, whether to make it a usable item tied to the crafting system, or a skill, tied to the battle system (MP usage and whatnot)

Frostorm · Jul 5, 2020

Yea, I was toying with a similar idea for my Archer tree. Basically Blind if it hits the eyes, Silence if it hits the throat, Stun if it hits lower torse (or groin lol), and so on. I call it Anatomical Aim. I couldn't think of a way to implement it seamlessly tho...

TheoAllen · Jul 5, 2020

I once had an idea of a skill named "Headshot". The damage increased significantly when the enemy has a head (by adding <head> tag into their notebox>. And dropped significantly when they don't (like Slime, ghost, etc). Ultimately, the skill was just really situational, and determining the tag to all enemies just add the work that if I just scrap the skill altogether, I didn't miss anything.

Wavelength · Jul 5, 2020

Somewhat intriguing idea, but I don't like the aspect of tying "where it hits" to Hit Rate. Because who's to say whether a Stun or a Critical Hit is better? If the developer assumes incorrectly, then improving Hit Rate will actually work against the player, which would feel awful.

As a designer I would probably only play with this kind of idea in a battle system where you could physically direct where your attack is aimed - either with an FPS-like scope, or something simpler like "quickly click on one of the dots that appears on the enemy". Then it could be a really nifty mechanic. In a simple menu-based combat system... I don't think the juice would quite be worth the squeeze on this mechanic.

CraneSoft · Jul 5, 2020

Just to give an idea, I once played a game where in addition to standard elemental weaknesses, enemies are divided into multiple body parts you can target manually, naturally, there is only one specific point that is "most vulnerable" to attacks and others are neutral at best or immune to attacks at worst. The weakness is not always directly targetable either - enemies are not stupid and will dodge attacks aimed directly at its head/weakness unless it is preparing an attack or you manage to cripple it with some other method, and I think that's a pretty neat system. It is however, made entirely for a 1 VS 1 combat where the player had no access to AoE attacks, so I can't imagine it will work at all with multiple actors and enemies without compromising the pace of a battle.

Rayhaku808 · Jul 7, 2020

Before I answer your main question, I'm going to address the exact topic I personally have stopped caring for in turn based RPGs; Weaknesses.

I'll do my best to explain why. This peeve of mine started surfacing after playing every iteration of Pokemon up until Pokemon X and Y. I started feeling that all I have to do is know what the weaknesses are, press a button and I do extra damage. I know there are ways around to increase your defenses against exploits but it burns down to not requiring skill(for lack of a better word) for a greater reward. Obtaining knowledge can be a skill but acting upon it is simple in most turn based games.

I feel like a good example of being active with exploiting weaknesses is Paper Mario. The enemies not only had weaknesses in turn based fashion, but timing button inputs offered greater rewards for exploiting such weaknesses.

My main point is knowledge regarding an enemy's weakness alone is not enough for me to feel that exploiting it gratifies me in a way that more interactive, real-time and action games do.

Black Pagan said:
Do you have a Unique Idea on ways to exploit an Enemy's weakness in Battle ? If so, Kindly share

Minor build-up for an even smaller answer. I like your idea of targeting parts if you have a way of making the player require a modicum of active or reactive skill.

Edit: Wow I look like a Nintendo fanboy, not intentional. Just easily accessible examples.

Weakness Mechanics - Discussion

Black Pagan

Veteran

gstv87

Veteran

Frostorm

[]D[][]V[][]D aka "Staf00"

TheoAllen

Self-proclaimed jack of all trades

Wavelength

MSD Strong

CraneSoft

Filthy Degenerate

Rayhaku808

Chubbizard

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