Made some quick tweaks to the code and am trying a simplified version where being panicked just reduces your AP that turn. It resets it to zero and then you gain whatever you normally gain that turn. I wonder if should disable the ap regeneration that turn too. This would be a bit like when wizards roll a miscast or whatever it was called in Warhammer Quest. Just instead of being random for the Winds of Magic, it would be caused by poor strategy.
Hey guys, just wanted to say I'm still testing this out but not having much time to post on the thread. I'm taking a new course so besides studying it's hard to keep up with all the activity here I will post when I have enough info and apologies if it's a bit sporadic, I will be reading the posts here more often though to stay on top of things!
Too bad - but very understandable - about Gun Frenzy, that looked like a good game for when I only have a few minutes here or there. In case you get around to republishing it, I'll definitely grab it. I can't remember right away which ones correspond to battle crashes. I'll try to reproduce it again tomorrow, and send you a crash report then. I like your new approach about Pinning. Panic & Courage sound good as new names for the abilities. As long as it doesn't backfire for the Melee types, all should be good. If you want to be nasty, disable AP regen when a squishy type is panicked. Just setting current AP to 0 shouldn't bother much anymore in later stages. I have 30-40 AP/round max. recovery on all my girls. So most likely I won't even notice that I had 0AP before the regen kicked in. Plotline end: I vote for "The party of heroes finally gets annoyed by the Dwarven King bossing them around. It's not like the Dwarves can get anything done on their own anyways. So they march into the throne room with their new pet (the giant boss Dragon from last stage) on a short leash and take over the country. Everyone lived happily everafter..." As much as I like my Drow, guess you'll need to go for something else than Spiderkissers. At least if you want to avoid a potential lawsuit, that is.
I just tried a quick update version with the new rules and disabling AP regeneration on panicked units. It works great! Absolutely love it actually. When your melee fighters cut through the enemy fighters and start pushing into the squishy mages and archers, it gives this great feeling of having outwitted your opponents and makes mopping up much more satisfying. I also added a cool special effect to units when they become panicked so it looks great. Lots of potential too for adding more morale modifiers. For example: - I could easily reduce the courage value of units that are below half their normal hits. Those on the brink of death could have their courage even further reduced. This would add more benefit to healing spells as they would heal AND improve courage / morale. Seems logical to me. - I can make scary end-bosses really intimidating so even fighters might panic. If they do ... they you need to let them make their attacks and get away from the big boss and put in someone else to plug the gap in your battle line. Also, the big guys like the Steel Golem, Half Giant and so on can have much higher courage values and higher intimidation values. This will also separate the fighter like the Duelist and Assassin who are great at dishing out damage but won't actually be that intimidating to the enemy. The Tree Giant might be far less dangerous in melee but will probably terrify opponents. - I can also have friends benefit from the "Intimidation" value of adjacent friends. So if you are a mage and are fighting right next to the Half Giant, you're going to be braver or at least more likely to pass a panic test. Again, this would just be a few lines of code but add LOTS of tactical depth. Also, having the big guys that can fight from the second rank (like the Tree Giant, for example) is really great because they would still get to attack and passively boost the courage of the front line fighters that are engaged with the enemy. Also ... did you guys see that Demon Hunters got an upcoming Article today? Quite a complimentary article ... what a great day.
I'm thinking I might try and add a specific audio clip to play for each character when they panic. I have those clips available in my audio clip library so shouldn't too hard. Might add more immersion and would help you identify which player panicked with an audio cue rather than just visible.
Sure ... do whenever you need. We're going to be in Playltest through to the end of May at least so no rush.
You are one busy fellow Your new ideas about expanding the Panic system sound really interesting, and should add a lot both gameplay- and flavor-wise. Some thoughts from my side: 1) If I read you right, the new system applies to both player and enemy units? Good stuff... 2) Reduce Courage when wounded: Also great. To make things more complicated: Can you also increase Courage when wounded for certain units? The Samurai and Minotaur are an obvious fit for that. And I can easily see a Ratkin Champion Warrior going on a Berserk rampage when he's close to death, for example. 3) Scary creatures/bosses: Looks good, too. Could even add to the story/flavour. E.g. the whole team needs to make a Panic check the first time they encounter a bunch of Undead, or when a patrol surprises them by warping in suddenly. 4) Friend bonus: Yup, sounds good as well. Are you familiar with, for example, the Space Marine Chaplains in Warhammer 40K? Shouting prayers to the God-Emperor while laying down the hurt sure is a good way to keep your comrades inspired The Dwarf Light Priest you mentioned and the current Stone Priest would work well for that. I'll see if I can find some pictures. In any case, a Dwarven Priest with a huge book in one hand, and an even bigger hammer in the other, smacking enemies left and right while reciting prayers definitely looks good in my head. Going to look for that TA article now...
Aaaand ... image time: https://data.archive.moe/board/tg/image/1335/51/1335513375406.jpg https://thelostandthedamned.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/wfb_dwarfs_runesmith_03.jpg https://chrisjmcleod.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/2013-09-01-14-07-56-e1378041653916.png
Cool ideas for the Light Priest and Earth Priest. I think any Cleric style character would have high courage (and thus a higher courage spillover effect to adjacent units) but a low intimidation value. An interesting dynamic. Also ... I have that dwarf runesmith in my miniature collection. Along with probably close to 80% of all dwarf miniatures ever released by GW.
Yep ... those ideas are all great and most are already in my quick proof of concept I added. A chance to go berserk rather than panic is awesome. Could be done easily enough ... so I would think that if you panic, you would still lose your AP as you don't have the level headed-ness to perform specific abilities or cast spells, however you might gain an extra attack for that turn? Going berserk would be almost impossible for wizards and archers but could certainly happen to some races like Ratmen and guys like Dwarf Berserkers. Could perhaps do +1 attack but -10% hit chance that turn also. Should be an easy change ... just another boolean to track units that are berserk and a couple of lines of code in the existing CheckForPanic function. Also, add a line to show that the unit has gone "Berserk".
Game looks amazing! Would love to be part of the beta test if still possible! Please send a link... Thanks
I would enjoy trying. I have the following: iPad Retina Mini, ME860C/A, iOS8.1 iPhone 5s, ME302C/A,iOS8.1.2 Also Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and it's the 2014 edition, SPEN and etc MacBookPro i7 QuadCore 16GB Ram So if any of those can help let me know! I'm interested in trying. Or I shall wait impatiently! Lol
