Spider Stomper
Posts: 233
Joined: Monday, 20th December 2010, 20:58
Martial Manuvers, Stances and Special Attacks.
The main reason for the request is that I feel non-casting play should be more interesting. At this time it is just hit arrow key, hit arrow key, hit arrow key... In addition this new mechanic can be used to fill several holes that exist in non-casting play, and can be used to balance some skills by making higher levels viable.
Making non-casting play more interesting: I have read the proposal on the wiki, and one of the things it stresses is that special attacks should be automatic. This is simply a mistake. Random occurrences do not improve the game experience. More opportunities to make meaningful decisions improves game experience. Any addition should give the player the control over when things happen otherwise it is just a waste of time.
Filling holes in non-casting playstyles: Currently non-casters have no consistent, persistent form of escape. Crawl more then any other roguelike is about escaping from danger. The fact that you need to become a spellcaster to get persistent froms of escape is a problem. Casting spells should not be mandatory for optimal play. Neither should non-casters be at the mercy of the RNG to find a persistent form of escape. Non-casters also have a complete lack of ways to deal with mobs. This does not really make them less powerful, but it does make them considerably more tedious to play. Some form of "mass" damage for martial characters should be achievable.
Balancing: Some skills just don't do enough to justify spending experience on them in latter levels. Adding abilities that are only unlocked at higher levels and tying abilities to skill level will give incentives for players to advance weapon skills past the "max speed" breakpoint.
The Basic System:
As characters advance in the weapon skills they "unlock" certain abilities. These abilities are accessible through the "a" menu. Using these abilities causes the character to gain a temporary status (lets say they lose their balance). Characters can only use these abilities when they have their balance. So for example lets say that one of the abilities is charge. Charge lets you take some number of free moves (based on skill level) followed by melee attack. The character would activate the ability using the "a" key. It would give the player a targeting interface. And then carry out the action. The character would become unbalanced, but other then that would be able to continue on as normal until he regained his balance after a random period. There would be basic skills that are shared by most/all of the weapon skills along with some skills that are unique to individual weapon skills. Some of the general skills could also be unlocked at differing levels depending on which skill is being advanced. In other words "power attack" might become available at level 5 for maces, level 10 for axes, level 15 for long blades, etc, etc.
Some ideas for abilities:
Charge: see above
Power attack: Deal extra damage. Possible to hit penalty.
Cleave: Attack multiple adjacent targets.
Hobble: Slow target temporarily.
Swap: Switch positions with target.
There are for too many for me to give a comprehensive list, but this hopefully will get the ball rolling.