Barkeep
Posts: 3890
Joined: Wednesday, 14th August 2013, 23:25
Location: USA
Thursday, 24th October 2013, 02:30
Proposal: Better / more streamlined use of Beogh allies
This could potentially be extended to other perma-allies, or maybe not. Trying out with Beogh would be a start, though.
There have been improvements implemented, and more are being talked about, for eliminating annoying problems and awkward interface with perma-allies. Beyond this, I had some ideas for setting general parameters for ally behavior. According to dpeg, this is something that has been talked about before and the dev team is pretty open to it, but nothing workable has yet been agreed upon and implemented. I have some experience using Beogh but I'm sure I could use feedback on this, so I came to post it in Tavern. My hope is that this thread can lead to a concrete proposal to put on the development wiki.
What I imagine here is something along the lines of the sacrifice behavior you can set on the Nemelex screen. The aim would be to set some basic parameters for the tactics employed by your orc allies. Any command given in combat (with "t") would overrule these settings for an appropriate period. For instance, if you use "t" to command everyone to attack something, that overrules the tactics you set, until the thing you commanded them to attack is killed (or teleports away or whatever), then their behavior goes back to what you set on the god screen. The default settings would be what ally behavior is like now.
Major design goals: Very clear and simple tactics, nothing extremely complicated, and easy to communicate to player. No micromanaging. Intent here is to actually streamline ally combat by pre-setting certain behaviors, in order to avoid having to use "t" so much in combat—but doing so should very much be optional. You can ignore the ally tactics screen entirely and still get good use out of your orcish troops (as now).
So here's a draft of a concrete proposal, I'm hoping people with more experience playing Beogh can point out things that should be added or taken away.
The idea is that, from Beogh's god screen (accessed via ^), you hit ! (as with Nemelex) to get to the detailed description screen where you can set some global tactics for your orcs. Interface would be something like below—default behavior is double asterisked **, each of the options in one section is mutually exclusive to the others, and as with skills the currently set tactic would be indicated with a + as opposed to - (which means non-activated):
Beogh the Brigand
[Detailed description]
_____________________________________
Set your allies' battlefield tactics below.
[Perhaps also a sentence here noting that any command given in combat will overrule the tactics set here.]
_____________________________________
How would you command your army?
"In battle, focus your attacks on...
[a] + Whatever is closest." **
[b] - The mightiest foe in your vicinity." [just going based on HD would probably work fine as definition of "mightiest"]
[c] - Magic users first."
"When you are injured in combat... [ally is < 25% health]
[d] + Fight to the death!" **
[e] - Fall back to my position and stay by my side."
[f] - Run, you fool! Save yourself so that you can continue to serve me." [ally enters "fleeing" mode]
"When your great leader, chosen of Beogh, is injured in combat... [player is < 50% health]
[g] + Press on with the attack, undeterred!" **
[h] - Destroy whatever is attacking me." [allies try to surround and attack enemies that have damaged player in the last X turns]
[i] - Fall back to my position and cover me." [allies attempt to surround the squares adjacent to player in preparation of covering player's retreat]
There have been improvements implemented, and more are being talked about, for eliminating annoying problems and awkward interface with perma-allies. Beyond this, I had some ideas for setting general parameters for ally behavior. According to dpeg, this is something that has been talked about before and the dev team is pretty open to it, but nothing workable has yet been agreed upon and implemented. I have some experience using Beogh but I'm sure I could use feedback on this, so I came to post it in Tavern. My hope is that this thread can lead to a concrete proposal to put on the development wiki.
What I imagine here is something along the lines of the sacrifice behavior you can set on the Nemelex screen. The aim would be to set some basic parameters for the tactics employed by your orc allies. Any command given in combat (with "t") would overrule these settings for an appropriate period. For instance, if you use "t" to command everyone to attack something, that overrules the tactics you set, until the thing you commanded them to attack is killed (or teleports away or whatever), then their behavior goes back to what you set on the god screen. The default settings would be what ally behavior is like now.
Major design goals: Very clear and simple tactics, nothing extremely complicated, and easy to communicate to player. No micromanaging. Intent here is to actually streamline ally combat by pre-setting certain behaviors, in order to avoid having to use "t" so much in combat—but doing so should very much be optional. You can ignore the ally tactics screen entirely and still get good use out of your orcish troops (as now).
So here's a draft of a concrete proposal, I'm hoping people with more experience playing Beogh can point out things that should be added or taken away.
The idea is that, from Beogh's god screen (accessed via ^), you hit ! (as with Nemelex) to get to the detailed description screen where you can set some global tactics for your orcs. Interface would be something like below—default behavior is double asterisked **, each of the options in one section is mutually exclusive to the others, and as with skills the currently set tactic would be indicated with a + as opposed to - (which means non-activated):
Beogh the Brigand
[Detailed description]
_____________________________________
Set your allies' battlefield tactics below.
[Perhaps also a sentence here noting that any command given in combat will overrule the tactics set here.]
_____________________________________
How would you command your army?
"In battle, focus your attacks on...
[a] + Whatever is closest." **
[b] - The mightiest foe in your vicinity." [just going based on HD would probably work fine as definition of "mightiest"]
[c] - Magic users first."
"When you are injured in combat... [ally is < 25% health]
[d] + Fight to the death!" **
[e] - Fall back to my position and stay by my side."
[f] - Run, you fool! Save yourself so that you can continue to serve me." [ally enters "fleeing" mode]
"When your great leader, chosen of Beogh, is injured in combat... [player is < 50% health]
[g] + Press on with the attack, undeterred!" **
[h] - Destroy whatever is attacking me." [allies try to surround and attack enemies that have damaged player in the last X turns]
[i] - Fall back to my position and cover me." [allies attempt to surround the squares adjacent to player in preparation of covering player's retreat]
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- earLOBe, minstrel, pratamawirya, rebthor