combat engine - missed opportunity

[ferrety]

any of you with PS3s, please check out Valkyria Chronicles. Wow.

Imagine well done first person turn based action.

It's fantastic.

To oversimplify:

In combat, you get a certain number of 'action points' for movement. In gameplay videos this will look like a timer, but in actuality it's usually a step counter, unless you're under enemy fire.

You can fire once per turn, at any point. (Note, for FO3, they could roll up movement and fire points to get the 'classic' fallout effect. This would allow you to fire multiple times, etc.

Targeting is (relatively) stat based - you see a targeting circle that gives the range of your bullet spread, so you can estimate what your odds are of hitting (if the circle covers the torse, you know you'll hit, but only half covers the head, you know you might miss).

Reaction fire! If you're out in the open, enemies will fire at you during your turn. Likewise, you, them.

The game is squad based, and for FO they would have needed to make a few changes... but... wow.

What MIGHT have been. Check it out if you can, it's well worth it.

Modders - here's something to try out when designing a new FO3 modded system.

 

[Ausdoerrt]

Dam, another reason to start saving money for a PS3/

 

[Bloody William]

I really think turn-based action from a first-person perspective like you're talking about would feel horribly artificial. The point of the first-person perspective is to give you a more realistic sense of the action, to feel like you're in the middle of it. The entire turn-by-turn mechanic would rip you out of that feeling whenever you move and enemies don't, or whenever enemies move and you're frozen. Reaction fire as you describe it would certainly help, but it would still feel very jerky at best.

 

[Ausdoerrt]

*sigh* Not another "TB is untrealistic therefore bad" argument, BW

 

[ferrety]

I really think turn-based action from a first-person perspective like you're talking about would feel horribly artificial. The point of the first-person perspective is to give you a more realistic sense of the action, to feel like you're in the middle of it. The entire turn-by-turn mechanic would rip you out of that feeling whenever you move and enemies don't, or whenever enemies move and you're frozen. Reaction fire as you describe it would certainly help, but it would still feel very jerky at best.

Yet I've actually played this system.

It's so far superior to Fallout 3's combat system, it's sick. It's honestly along the lines of what FO3 should have been.

Roll up movement and action points, allow for 'aimed' shots, only enter combat mode when enemies are near (normal movement at all other times).

Yea, I can honestly say if FO3 had VC's combat system (tweaked out to be a bit more Fallout, as already stated) I think it would be a complete and total win.

Of course, we still have inane dialog and other bugs to deal with, but hey, it's a start.

 

[Eon]

Roll up movement and action points, allow for 'aimed' shots, only enter combat mode when enemies are near (normal movement at all other times

I'm with you on this one. That would have been great.