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Combat: Infinite special abilities using a comparing system

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larienna
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Joined: 07/28/2008

I think I finally found the solution to my problems. It's for a civilization like game. The problem is that I need a lot of special abilities, including the combat system, while there is really few things on the board. In fact, a battle is the resolution of a conflict between 2 pawns. The only other things on the board which influence battles are are indicating unit types you have available, but it does not tell you how many you have of each unit.

Which mean I need a combat system that simply does not care about how many casualties you get and that need to implement a lot of special abilities to add variety and replay value to the game. I came up with something which is pretty simple and seems to do the job.

The basic idea is that all special abilities do the same thing. For example, add a die to your roll. Since I don't care about casualties, the only thing I want to know is "are you more powerful than your opponent". So for each special ability you have, you compare with your opponent. If you both have the ability, then nobody has the advantage over the other player. If ones of the player has the ability but not both, that player gains the benefit: For example add 1D to the roll.

So for example: I have cavalry but you don't so I add 1 die. But you have flying units and I don't so you add a die. Now there would also be some variations. Some special ability has the ability to negate other abilities. For example, fortifications could have the negate cavalry ability but it does not give cavalry in it self. It just prevent your opponent from getting the bonus. Another variant is to give automatic sucess, but with a low dice roll. Ex: add 1 dice roll of 2 instead of add 1D.

If your whole army has the ability then you gain the triple of the value. If you are playing the draconians, all their unit flies, so you get 3D. If your opponent has some flying units, he only cancel 1 die so you roll 2D.

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For my game,, I was thinking about using a dice roll of type:

Roll X D, keep all dices <= Y and add Z to each dice kept. The player with the highest total wins.

So each ability you have will add to the X value. Sinze Y must be between 1-5, it is the tactitian of the battle ( an hero) that will determine this value. Z will be a bonus that would almost work as X.

Each special ability for the Z value will either add +1 to your roll or -1 to your opponent's roll. But there is no match up to do. So if you have flame blade and I have bessing, we each get out +1 which in a certain way cancel out each other.

What do you think?

coco
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Joined: 07/27/2008
I don't think it works

I don't think it works in its basic form.

No matter what habilities each player has, the difference on the number of dice each player rolls equals the diference of the number of habilities.

Example:

Let's define the habilities as h1,h2,h3,...,hn

player 1: h1,h2,h3,h4,h5
player 2: h1,h2,h6,h7

Player 1 has 5 and player 2 has 4. So they share 2 habilities

h1-h1
h2-h2

Player 1 rolls 3 dice and player 2 rolls 2 dice. 3-2=1 which equals 5-4=1

So the player that has MORE habilities has a higher chance of winning. Not the player that has the BETTER habilities or the BETTER combined habilities. So habilities are reduced to strengh points.

What could make the system work are the 'variations', as they alter the calculations. So maybe you should focus on this, but be careful with possible 'paradoxes'.

Example:

Player 1: If your opponent rolls 2 dice more than you, then add 1 dice to your roll.
Player 2: If your opponent rolls 1 dice less than you, then add 1 dice to your roll.

I hope this helps.

larienna
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Joined: 07/28/2008
Other clarification

Quote:

Player 1 rolls 3 dice and player 2 rolls 2 dice. 3-2=1 which equals 5-4=1

I don't intend to cacultate the difference of dice. In that case, player 1 roll 3 dice and player 2 roll 2 dice. The highest total win.

Of course, the more abilities you have the better you are. But there is something else to consider. What makes an ability stronger than another is also the occurence of an ability in a game.

For example, flying is a pretty common ability that could get aquired in various ways. But let say that the halflings have the lucky ability. It's possible that very few other elements in the game will give you this ability. So it will never be matched and you will always be advantaged. In that case, since it is a racial ability all units has it so it's 3D. So the scarcity of abilities make some of them harder to match which makes them indirectly more powerful.

Of course variants helps to promote variety instead of always adding 1 die. it's just that there are not that much variant possibilities so far.

coco
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Joined: 07/27/2008
I see

Oh! I see.

I thought ALL the habilities add 1D to the roll.

;-)

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