Card Based Combat Systems

Ok, I have to ask, whose idea was it to have people running around in full 3D environments throwing cards at each other?

At base, the premise of most card based battle systems is quite rediculous. Lost Kingdoms claims that those with runestones (as in you the player) can use the cards of power to do incredible things, giving them divine properties. Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories states that each card is a memory and using it allows you to remember how to use the technique, ok for magic but do I really have to remember how to swing my sword? Baten Kaitos explains that you can carry a lot more with you if you store all your items in Magnus (cards). These explinations help, but it is still odd to picture yourself charging into a fight with a deck of cards in your hand.

But here's the thing, I like these systems, for the most part at least. And others must too, because they keep making new games with this type of combat. But again, why? Usually, these systems are incredibly unforgiving. Lost Kingdoms gives you 30 cards, and when you run out, that's it; you done. After awhile, they give you cards to restore used one but still a careful eye must be kept on your deck at all times. Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories requires you to spend time focusing to get your cards back. This takes longer for each time you do it. Also, each card is numbered and you must beat the number on an enemy's card or you just lose it. It moves too fast for me personally, I'm  terrible at this game. Baten Kaitos is possibly my favorite card system, though it is notoriously complex. Lining up numbers for combos is hard and must be done quickly, but at least with the turn based system, it's easier than Chain of Memories. You are not trying to dodge enemies and pick out a higher number at the same time. You also go until you cannot draw a full hand, at which point you lose a turn "Shuffling the Deck...". All this makes me practically cry when I miss with a card.

So, why do I like this? For one, I enjoy a challenge. I get annoyed when I'm presented with something truly impossible, but that is not what happens here. Here I can always see the way forward or realize that I've used my cards irresponsibly. But there's an under lying key point here. Card based games are still fairly rare, and so it's a new and innovative play style for most. There's still lots of unexplored potential in card systems.

I'm becoming increasingly aware of innovative gameplay and have begun to seek it out. This is because it has become my focus and a key idea that I am presenting to Grad schools as a research area. Too many games are recycled versions of old ideas in new settings, or just with new stories. It's not until you try something truly new that you get attention and make a game that leaves a lasting impression.

So give an innovative card based (or any new and innovative idea) game a try today!

Anyone have any of their own ideas/examples for new and interesting gameplay?

P.S. On a related note, don't be afraid to post comments you know!

Sorry, Robot Man, but I don't care if you're cool, because I've got a freaking dragon!... on a playing card.

Magic and Elements

A common theme in RPGs is to have magic in some capacity. Frequently, attack magic comes in multiple forms. The three I'm going to use and an example as they are fairly common are fire, ice, and lightning.

Why do we need multiple spells? Well, besides giving the player multiple spells to watch, each deals a different type of damage. All are magic based, but fire does fire type damage, ice does ice type, etc. Then of course, why do we need different damage types? The basic answer is, to add strategy. Fire deals double damage to ice enemies, and half to lightning enemies. Ice deals double to lightning, half to fire. I think you can guess where lightning fits in the circle. So, as long as you know what enemies you're going up against and plan properly, you should be fine right? Usually the answer is yes, but sometimes the system can be exploited.

Let's take an example from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. This uses the element triangle I explain above except that instead of half damage to strong elements, the elements deal no damage to enemies of the same type. I play an "Aggressive Mage" and high elf with the apprentice birth sign, meaning I am very powerful but I have a 175% permanent weakness to all types of magic. So I have to dodge casters like crazy, cause their spells will deal 175% more damage to me. However, using my own great magical aptitude I created a spell that I call Apocalypse Ray. It deals 100 damage of each type to my target. It looks like a lightning bolt but does do each damage type. So, with this I can deal 300 damage to whatever poor creature crosses my path, assuming I can hit it, and with how much mana it costs I better hit it. Then I came across a fire element creature. I hit it with the ray and received a message informing me that the damage was resisted. As I read this I also noticed the creature exploding into little bits. It had resisted the fire damage completely, but took double damage from the lightning, meaning it still got hit for the full three hundred. No matter what, that spell will always hit for 300. Now all I need is another 250 maxium mana so that I can add another effect to lower the target's maximum hp by another 100, so I can effectively do 400 damage to everything.

That one works to the players advantage. But what about when an enemy absorbs damage done by a weak element, or the same element? By absorb, I mean they are healed for the amount of damage they would have taken. In these games, a player quickly learns what element his foes are or they get crushed. Sometimes this leads to great angst for companion NPCs. Caster companions in games with absorption can be your bane as they usually do not respect the element rings very well, often keeping your opponent alive while you hack away at it. Most of the time now you can customize your companions actions, but being able to do this mid combat is still a rarity. And even then, you can't always customize exact spells instead of just magic in general.

I finish this with an amusing elemental twist from Kingdom Hearts 2 that I ran into the other day. Demyx, this nobody boss fights the player using water and this is his element to control. However, Kingdom Hearts uses the example triangle. Where does water fit into this? It doesn't, but it is most closely related to ice. I am replaying the game on proud mode specialzing in magic, so I need to use the elements. It was rather odd to see me mutilate the gyser spewing boss by running in and hitting him with fire.

This spell gives a whole new meaning to "Taste the Rainbow".

MMO - Time Management

This topic was inspired by the reason I didn't get this out last night: I was stuck playing Vanguard.

Me (a Disciple) and a new friend (a Dread Knight) were unable to tackle the quest we were trying. We were out matched and since we couldn't find anyone else to join us we switched locations. We invaded a dungeon called Hilsbury Manor, which was still a challenge but we could take it without fear of death every fight. We located a hidden NPC via the one quest we found outside and he gave us three quests. These were to go to the library and find pages 1 through 3 for three different books, one for each quest. We fought our way over to the library. This is where things started to go wrong.

The room is full of enemies that respawn. There is one named that spawned every two minutes or so. There are books that spawn on the floor and you can use to loot a single page from it. They spawn VERY slowly, several times we stood in the cleared room waiting for them to spawn. When you loot one, a mob spawns and attacks you. Then there's what you looted, you get a random one of the pages, including ones you already have. There also seems to be a tendency for the book that started with a V to loot more often, I have 8 page 1's from it. Sometimes, just to insult you, you might loot a severed arm... or leg... I was rewarded with a head once. Don't sound too bad yet? Between the two of us, we spent 2 hours in that room alone... and he didn't even get his last page. I got all of mine... somehow. My bags were full... all 158 slots of space I have. We got that much loot, and both of us got two levels in there. Two levels... when each level takes 337467 or so xp to get and each mob rewards 800 or so xp. The part that is most annoying? Only one of the rewards was good, but at least it's REALLY good.

So, why does this happen? MMOs are all notorious for their various time sinks. Why do they all have them? Because MMOs are different from regular games. Regular games you buy them, and that's the main thing developers care about. They've gotten your money, they might eek a bit more out from DLC but that's it. MMOs want you to keep playing so that they get your monthly subscription. Basicallly, you need to play and keep playing. Regular game developers just need you to be happy enough to buy the sequel. MMOs want you to come and stay. So they eat up your time. They have massive grinds so that you waste away and keep playing just to get to the next level, or purchase that next reward.

That takes a rather greedy view towards grinds, but it is probably true in most cases to some degree. There is another side to it; if we're here to stay, we want something to do. In my example here, this is to increase the ride time to the level cap. But what to do when you reach that cap? That's when you can rest from the grand level grind and then begins every other grind that you've been putting aside until now (or at least that's how I roll). While they may be largely bait to keep you playing and paying, they also provide us the player with the goals and accomplishments to make continuing playing worth it.

MMO Genie says, "Get the hell off and eat some FOOD!"

Neverwinter Nights 2 Gold Edition: A Review

This update comes early because I'm heading back to Tahoe starting tomorrow and might not be able to update from the hotel. So I'll do it now.

This time I'm going to try my hand at a review. Let's see if I can get my points across with solid reasoning behind them. Since I started aiming for Game Design I have made a serious effort to not only decide if I like a game or not, but why, and what I would do to fix it. (See last post)

Neverwinter Nights 2: Gold Edition (NWN2) is a game that has received reviews across the board. One review will give it a 9/10 immediatly followed by one that gives it 0/10 and curses it as the worst game they ever played. I really enjoyed the first NWN, but I've pretty much played it for all it's worth as a single player game. So I decided to take the plunge and get 2 as a way to try and get more. One major point of note is that NWN was developed by Bioware and then publisher Atari said, "Very good, well done guys." and gave NWN2 to Obsidian Entertainment to design and develop. Many of the problems I have with NWN2 seem to me to be attempts by Obsidian to put their own mark on the game.

Let's get the big one out of the way first: the camera. To be honest and blunt... the camera is horrible. Thanks to the camera, I was annoyed at NWN2 within the first five seconds of playing. Moving the mouse to the edge of the screen makes the camera rotate that way... REALLY fast! I have to barely touch the edge and quickly pull the mouse away if I want to rotate the camera any less than 180 degrees. Same is true for up and down movment, not just side to side. So, I tried a different camera mode. That was exploration, so what about strategic mode? Well, that's a top down view where you can steer your char (which is impossible to do well as it is often hard to determine which way you are facing) or click them to move, which you can do in any mode. But it makes sense to use it in this mode. However, the camera still flies off when you touch the edge of the screen. I tried the last mode, character mode and have stuck with it. It is locked behind the character, so you look where the character does. Up and down tilt have the usual problems though. Side to side has a new problem. In addition to how it was, it snaps back the second you pull away from the edge. Ok perhaps... if I wasn't trying desperatly to target something on the edge of my character's vision. To do this, I must turn my character, who sometimes can be as bad or worse than the mouse rotation is. It's hard to enjoy the game when I can't see what's going on. Sometimes, the camera will randomly jump and turn my character 90 degrees or so. Not idea why, but it usually does it while I am trying to run into position away from the enemies, not toward. NWN had a perfect camera without any of these problems.

It is a good thing that I am playing a Warlock, who can just stand back and spam Eldritch Blast. I've tried a fighter, but the close combat is difficult. You do not automatically attack something attacking you (making you flatfooted (more vulnerable)) unless you have Cleave and just killed something. Many things also tend to get clustered and it can be very hard to pick a specific target for melee, though this could ocassionally happen in NWN as well. I can't say how well magic works, as I havn't made a true caster yet. Seemed to be ok for the tutorial on it.

One thing that I think is an effect of Obsidian trying to make its mark, drop down menus. NWN had redial based menus that worked very well. Now, they're drop down. Why change something that worked well? Why reinvent the wheel instead of the car? Worst of all, why break something that is good. The drop down menus are poorly organized and take much longer to navigate. Also using them frequently screws with your target (making you target the stack of potions in your pocket rather than the zombie munching on you) which means you will then attempt to attack your pocket rather than the zombie next round, unless you quickly switch back to the zombie. I avoid the menus at all costs.

Last thing, which may be the basis for my next post, is misleading the player. This was really bad in my mind. Having just left my home town, I met a dwarf. He likes to punch people, and wants to go to Neverwinter to train as a Monk which is an unarmed warrior. He is currently a Fighter. Ok fine, he's amusing and tough. I am squishy. So I recruit him to my party trying to surround myself with as many friends as possible. However, I seem to be having a real hard time. Most encounters I barely survive and I died several times attempting others. I even picked up a rogue (she and the dwarf don't get along) but still, having a hell of a time. What's going on? Difficulty is set to normal. Then, I got in a fight. Me and the rogue died. The party system allows you to control anyone you want. So, I switched to the dwarf to watch myself lose the fight. I tried to pull through by having him use some of the healing potions. As the fight went on I noticed something, a large number of "Attack of Opportunity"s floating about the fight. That's when it hit me, this guy didn't have the "Improved Unarmed Strike" feat! For those of you not versed in D&D that means that each enemy around him gets a free attack (Attack of Opportunity) against him each time he attacks, Monks get this for free. No wonder he died so fast. I won that fight by 1 hit point (no joke) and proptly gave him a tower shield and longsword. I have had no problems since.

With all that bad out of the way, let's discuss the good. First, the party system. The members interact with each other and you. I have grabbed everyone I can, which has led to me being called a circus. You want to try and keep them all as happy as possible, but that is very hard, as it would be in real life. You can also switch and control whichever member you want directly. You have a great level of customization for how they act when you are not controlling them. You can even turn off the AI and issue every order yourself, which I would find redicilious myself. Full inventory control (which itself has a nice organize button). It is the most expanisve and detailed party system I have used in a long time. One downside is that my rogue has a habit of walking slowly across the room to disarm a trap or pick a lock, but that could happen in NWN too. An interesting part is that if they pick up a nearby enemy, try and get to it, but find it blocked by a door, they will run back to you and tell you that there is something on the other side of the door. Better than NWN, when they would open the door and pull the whole building at once.

Another thing is the combat modes. In NWN you had to use the menu or hotbar the different modes like parry and defensive casting. But if you manually moved the mode would cancel. Here, it toggles and doesn't go off until you toggle it back off. Makes playing a caster type much easier, I discovered this right after my dwarf's punching problem.

Last good thing of note, this uses the same engine as NWN. This means that the core gameplay remains largely unchanged. The addition of several new base and presitge classes make for a whole new set of character builds. New feats also allow new takes on old favorites. I have a fighter spec-ed out for dual wielding Scythes... Scythes for God's sake!

In conslusion, I do recommend NWN2 actually, but on one condition: You played and liked NWN and are looking for more. That's where I'm coming from and I am enjoying it. I'm taking it slowly, doing all side quests I find and after about ten hours I finally find myself in Neverwinter itself. The goodness of NWN is there, it just hidden behind some muck.

Thanks, Dad. You're an asshole, and my uncle is a delinquint. Our family sucks.

A Design Exercise

This time, I'm going to ask you guys to try a little exercise along with me. After I give the assignment, I'll provide you with my own work. Yes, I do my own assignments, unlike many teachers it seems. Note that while I will always cite using an MMORPG for this, and will use one myself, you really can apply this to any video game. Let's begin.

Pick an MMO that you have not played before. They almost always have some form of free trial for a week or two, download it and make your account. Once you've got it, play it. Forget that you have an assignment and have fun with it, or try to at least. Spend a few quality hours with your new game, maybe even a whole day or two. After you've gotten over the initial rush, take a step back and do the following....

You have just been named Executive Producer of the game you just tried, effective tomorrow. From this position, you are able to affect basically any change you desire upon the game. Think carefully about your experience and what you think could have been done better, bugs that should be fixed, or things that are outright misleading. Remember that your experience with a game starts from the moment you click download. Installation is part of the process too. Having done that, write down the changes you intend to make to the game and WHY. The why is the important part here.

Start first by stating if you even liked the game, you might not have.

What are your initial impressions of the game? Is it solid as is? Or are you glad you can clean this crap up?

Now list your changes and the reasoning behind them. Try to make your argument sound. And these can be any changes from class balance, to remorking the user interface. Hit up whatever you think needs work.

And now, for my example. I used Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO) for mine.

It took me a long time, a month, to decide that I do enjoy DDO. This was possible because the trial is unlimited in play and expanse, you can go anywhere. However, you are more limited and it takes more effort to do things than those who pay, but much less than most trials. DDO is good as a casual game, lots can be done in a relatively short amount of time. I did eventually sign up for DDO full time. Despite all this however, there is a reason they have a unlimited FREE trial....

My changes begin outside the game itself, with the installer. It makes nothing in the start menu, no desktop shortcut, and no quicklaunch. I have to turn it on by going through the Windows Explorer and Program Files. It leaves an icon in the system tray from which I can launch it(finally). Their tiered download, downloads it in smaller pieces, fixes the desktop shortcut and start menu problems but has its own issues. It takes as long to download the first chunk as the entire game via the regular download. And then, you only have about two hours worth of content avaliable. It will take ANOTHER four hour download to grab the rest. Part of the download is due to their servers I'm sure, but the installer needs cleaning up. It had me annoyed before I got to play the first time. Also, after you close the game, it leaves a window open that is not displayed. Clicking on the window in the Windows Bar brings up a graphic of a rolling d20... for three seconds. Then it closes and brings up the launcher. I don't understand the purpose of this, there is still the icon in the system tray, I find this pointless and annoying, so I would remove it. The installer would have to offer shortcuts on the desktop and start menu. Lastly before I get to the game, the launcher is quite ugly and uninformative. As it completes the log in steps, it blinks and flashes with each step. I would give it a makeover, and redo the process so that the window is not redrawn with each step.

Once you've made your character and are actually playing, we get to the fun stuff. Player movement feels stiff at first, and strafing left and right are mapped to f and g by default, defying an industry standard. I would remap those defaults. The movement would get smoother if the character didn't stop dead still the second you stopped pushing a direction, and the turning left and right feels awkward because they prefer to turn slowly in place and very quickly while moving. Takes some getting used to. The running animation could also be less jerky to improve this as well.

Next up is the user interface. The UI as a whole is ok, but there are some specific issues. The chat window seems to be fixed in size. I wouldn't mind that too much if it were bigger. You can only see three lines of text, which is a problem when the games Dungeon Master spits out 7 lines worth of explination every minute or so. Also, "(General) Soandso: Lvl 2 Monk lfg" alone would take up a full line. Add to that, that general chat works even when you are out of town or in an instance, and your chat log will fly by so fast you can't read any of it. But that's ok, they put in an extra tab for group only chat, guild chat, and combat text. However, not only does that mean you silence all other forms of communcation, though you can talk to them but not hear them, but the window is no narrow that half of the fourth tab's name is cut off, "General, Party, Guild, Com". This just looks sloppy. Make it bigger by default, at least enough to fit all your tabs on it, and let the player resize it.

Next in UI is the character sheet. This handy window combines your character sheet, feat list, spell list (even if you don't cast spells), autobiography, enhancements, and skills. There are so many tabs, it takes a good five minutes to find what you want each time. Split it up guys. Now that I've mentioned the feats list, let me tell you about filtering. You can filter to have only active, passive, or both types of feats shown. Fine. You can also show class specific feats, on or off. Fine. But why can I turn on feats... that I don't have? I can see this being useful when leveling up, as you can check the prereques for a feat to make sure you are going to be able to get it. But why can I do that when I'm standing around picking my nose? More importantly, why is that set to On by default? And finally, why do you flash "Please Wait..." for a second and redraw the window EVERY time I turn it off? The same is true when you're looking at your enchancements. I'd want that fixed so it doesn't make me wait, and that "Unavaliable Feats" are off by default.

Lastly, where are druids? Why are they left out? Did one pee in the Lead Designers corn flakes this morning? If they're going to include classes which are not in the standard Player's Handbook list (Favored Souls in this case) then they should first include all the ones that are there. This game is set in the Eberron campaign setting, which I am unfamilar with and may not include druids. However, this seems unlikely given that ranger ARE present in the game.

I could go on, but I think that's enough for you to swallow for now. You've all got your homework now, get to it!

Please see me after class....