Posted October 06, 2022 by Vertigames
#game design
So I've been poking at my turn system after capturing a ton of footage over the last month. There are a few stalls in the game (by design) when you play, specifically as the game resolves projectiles and such. That sort of turn resolution is pretty common in tactics games, it lets you see the results of your attack (or attacks against you) and process the result before moving on. I originally set the system up that way because "that's what these games do".
However, the frequent halting during my drivin' and skiddin' started to bug the crap out of me during my heavy play as I was assembling footage and trailer material, especially when there are a lot of enemies nearby. I don't pause the player's movement when action occurs offscreen, but if it's happening onscreen the game would halt a lot to resolve attacks, especially in the arena where enemies were attacking each other.
So, to the experiments! I decided to try:
Keep in mind that this is still 100% turn-based. The only thing that has changed is how turn results are represented.
You can specifically see the lack of a delay when the player fires machineguns and rockets.
The result needs some work:
However, in all it did improve the overall feel of driving and smoothness. This was a worthwhile experiment and I'm all in on making sure the game feels great and yet still has a clear turn-based combat resolution. Not sure where this will lead, and I know that a certain segment of the audience will want to be crystal clear on what's going on in combat, in the same way that another segment will want to cut loose and skid around fluidly. Possibly I'll leave a toggle for the roguelike turn resolution if the player wants that (should be possible).
More to come as the game continues to evolve.