Creating Satisfying Combat Experiences
advertisement
Creating Satisfying Combat Experiences At Games The Designer’s Dream “drop in and play” enemy behavior Less scripting and environment authoring Less predictability, more procedural surprise moments for the player The Reality Sadly, “drop in and play” is: Chaotic Incomprehensible Frustrating Solutions Establish a Front Create Layered Setups Understand Combat Focus Functional Cover Placement Attack in Waves Good Flanking Practices Know When to Re-Direct the Front Use High Priority Targets Good Ally Usage How did Insomniac Games arrive at these concepts? RCF: TOD and Resistance 2 Tightly directed by Insomniac veterans Design staff experienced in the franchises R2 had very linear spaces RCF: A Crack In Time Departures and promotions Design staff noobs to the franchise Less linear spaces Back to the basics … RCF: ACIT and Resistance 3 Immediate and dramatic improvements Solid core combat means fewer changes More effort can be put into dramatics Hill 609 by Fletcher Martin Establishing a Front Establish two distinct fronts Use the architecture to help define fronts Use cover placement to define fronts Front lines determine flanking opportunities Enemy front? No Man’s Land? Player front? Example of a poorly established front A well-established front Layered Setups = 2 distinct setups both requiring enemies to be present at the start Keep layers clearly separated (combat distance) Use vertical space Layered Setups Player only truly engages the first layer – second layer is spectacle On the last 1-2 foreground enemies, pull them back, move allies up, then allow second layer to engage Player rushes the second combat-area = engage All on same level Needs Layering Tons of enemies No separation Well Layered Combat Focus = where the player’s attention is – the anchor of the setup It’s narrower than you think Keep distinct – associate with geometry Can have 2 – keep distinct – separate geographically Combat Focus Keep cover positions pretty tight Intro enemies into a tight “home” and keep them there Intros route new enemies behind the combat focus Player exit/goal behind the combat focus Exit off screen Intros from too far Enemies too spread out Poor Combat Focus Player’s FOV Better Combat Focus Cover Placement Defining each setup should BEGIN with your cover placement Use cover to define the front lines and combat focus Be conscious of facing and shape of cover Use cover to lure the player into their initial combat position Use multiple cover positions to create player choice Cover Placement Resist the urge to randomly scatter cover for realism Ideal Combat Distance between player and enemy cover Flanking cover = 1-2 pieces of good cover (rarely more) 2+ cover positions for each shooter Poor cover placement Combat focus? Front lines? Initial combat pos? Player choice? Better cover placement Waves - Composition Enemies over time is key – waves are the way to do this First wave is the “gimmee” – it’s the second and subsequent waves that are the real combat Each wave is *about* a single – and different – class of enemy Waves - Composition Filler enemies OK – but NOT a homogenous mixture Keep melee enemies and projectile enemies in separate waves Pacing across waves – build up to a crescendo Waves - Intros On last 1-2 enemies in current wave Or on <40% health of single tougher enemy Intro new waves through the current combat focus – then fan out Waves - Intros Long intro paths, perpendicular to LOS Stagger enemy spawns – temporally and spatially Dropships – intro through combat focus and loop around battlefield Waves – pausing between ONLY when there is a story reason to do so Exposition should happen here As well as your allies repositioning themselves This is usually a rare moment, that precedes a new enemy intro or significant story event Poorly done waves Waves from afar? Toughest enemy first? Grunts in every wave? Improved waves Flanking A solid combat focus and front lines allow for a flank 1-2 good pieces of cover and a single path define a flank (more = messy) Let the player get anchored before flanking (8s delay) Flanking Must flank through the combat focus Must call out the flanking maneuver really well Dialog/foley First shot miss behavior Additional wave makes a good flank, BUT this is really Redirecting The Front Bad Flanking Flank from afar? Front lines? Clear flanking pos? Better Flanking Re-directing a front You must establish a new front and combat focus Do on new wave entry Retreat remaining enemies to their new front Re-directing a front Move allies up into their new front Call out with dialog or significant event Use the new combat focus to attract player to setup exit Needs redirecting Now what? Front Redirected High Priority Targets Usually tougher enemies Take prominent positions Use the geography to highlight them Separate physical space from filler enemies Wave is “about” this high priority target Muddled priority Just another in the mix Improved Priority Tight environments Hand script each enemy Enemies generally take a single position and stick to it Sometimes fine to just let the enemies run wild example: coming upon two easy enemies in a room with no cover these are usually quick surprise moments Can clump up Can wander off Looks dumb Poor tight environment work Good tight environment work Allies hand scripted go to specific cover points every time in small encounters, stick to that cover point indefinitely in larger encounters, can have a small home area Allies keep allies and enemies separated allies will define the front line and the player’s initial position allies should run ahead of the player to the front line Poor ally usage Allies muddying the front Player ahead of allies Action off-screen Better ally usage How it all comes together … Finally… “no surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader” Do something unexpected Surprise yourself Surprise your leads Surprise the player
