Balance aspects aside, historical analogies and comparisons are rather futile when the discussions pertains to a game with spellcasters. In a real-life battle, if there was an unarmored fella within reach standing about tossing fireballs at people (possible analogy: someone pressing a detonate button repeatedly, or firing away with heavy artillery), and hurting or killing several enemies with each attack, I can ensure you that most combatants within their right minds (to account for berserks, the shellshocked, and the persistently mad, of which there probably are quite a lot in most wars, but they would probably attack completely at random, if translated into a game mechanism, not just the guy in the plate armor,) would go for him, rather than the slow-moving, heavily armoured fella, who can only engage one enemy at a time, and does a comparably rather shoddy job of harming anyone. Let's just be satisfied with the explanation that the "attack the character with the most armour" mechanism exist SOLELY for the purpose of balance and mechanics. Any attempts to give it any form of real world context will be faulty at best. Surprisingly random and out of context, and on the verge of being reported for advertising.
I agree and disagree. There is ,conceptually, much more going on behind the scenes with respect to fantasy world "heros" and mechanics. You have a wizard with the power to conjure fire at his hands and hurl it at you. Probably one shot of that would melt anyone in full plate armor. Who needs to wear armor when I can fling fire at you. I can climb to the top of a tree while you and your heavy plate mail try to chop it down and I burn you to a crisp. So, in context, none of this makes sense in real life. Why can't a rook move diagonally in chess? In real life it could. Oh wait, there are rules! We have to follow the rules and work within them to win the game. Every "rpg" is a clone of chess. Atificial rules to add complexity. Complexity to nerds = fun.
Oh, and found a bug. Only happened once and in the area. Sheppard, being the wuss that he is, was up against the edge of the screen avoiding combat and then started to attack something off screen. Sheppard's life wasn't dropping, so I moved him between the witch and healer to not get hurt. Nothing from off screen where he was attacking came on screen and once I killed the last visible enemy on screen, well, my party just started to chill, read the paper, complain about the last episode of lost as no more monsters decided to come on. Just us, pointing up into the stands taunting everyone until we fled out of boredom.
Ofc spellcasting throws curve ball in the works, but hey that's fictional fantasy like I said before, until the seemingly weak person makes a move - you have no idea of their threat. When it does happen, it is too late already. Other units could mount an attack after, but that is not the point. Only experience and intel can point to counter measures. its precisely why commanders are key. Both sides understand basic weak points and will protect, cover and distract whenever possible. Nice one mentioning chess - I had not thought of that. I do muay Thai, so I made an analogy with street fights. King is the weakest yet most important piece on the board. Everyone is aware of this. With this knowledge mean you can disregard all other pieces and charge him, oblivious to all around? Most games you require to outwit your opponent - removing all his strongest pieces with less casualties.
A pawn is the 2nd weakest unit in chess. Typically underestimated the most yet are key to winning majority of battles. Would you go out of your way to move to kill pawns cause they are easy kill or rather go for queen rook knight?
"If you're wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts... (la-la-la), Just repeat to yourself, "It's just a show, I should really just relax..."" From the opening theme for Mystery Science Theater 3000
So will there be any character creating contests soon? Cause I'd honestly love to take a crack at this one!
The contest is over, and I won. I'm designing all of the characters now! Joking aside, it's great to see the enthusiasm from you guys. I've got enough ideas already (both my own and user submitted) to keep me busy for quite some time though.
My favorite TV show about Joe Don Baker! But to get back on topic: really, I would like to know what the attack rates of the characters are, so I can better figure out DPS, choose items, etc. Thanks!
@deadclown - Here are the under-the-hood attack speeds for those who are interested in nerding it up big-time. Only funky thing to note is that the barbarians actually attack twice when their timer elapses, but for half damage, so it's pretty much the same thing as a single strike from anyone else. Monk - 0.9 sec Rogue - 0.9 sec Knight - 1.1 sec Barbarian - 1.15 sec Wizard - 1.5 sec Witch - 1.6 sec Cleric Heal - 1.75 sec
2.8 sec, with a 3 or 4 second duration on the buff. Basically its "always on." Also, here's a little preview of the upcoming Ranger class.
