Into The Heart of DarknessI actually didn't understand at the time. I didn't take the time to actually look at what was going on and work out why it felt terrible all of a sudden. What was it that had stopped working?
This was when I went to iteration number 4.
This was basically a half-arsed attempt to try anything to make it feel better. I'd convinced myself it was the shooting only in a straight line thing, so I removed that and made it so that you could target anyone with line of sight and in range.
This was terrible.
It kind of worked in that you had to try and get line of sight on the enemy, but at the same time it just undermined the clarity and the planning, which is what I wanted out of the combat, even more. I'd basically turned it into a bad version of “XCOM in The Wild West”. I figured, at least that was a pretty easy sell if I wanted anyone to be interested in the game.
And then, someone else did XCOM in The Wild West a lot better.
THIS IS NOT MY GAME!
Copyright is Creative Forge Games and/or PlayWaySee the article here:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/08/11/hard-west-kickstarter/And then I sort of gave up.
I was on the verge of writing a “this game is dead” post (I actually did write a “maybe this isn't the best idea” post on here) when all of a sudden I was being yelled at by one of my playtesters.
“What have you done to the shooting!?”
I tried to explain that it just wasn't working like I wanted it to to before, and there was no point in working on it now anyway when someone else was already making a better version of what this was probably going to be. I mean, they KNEW what their game was! I was changing mine all the time to try and make it awesome. What kind of idiot iterates on ideas until they work (or don't work as in this case)?
This point of view didn't seem to go down all that well.
I was convinced to actually think this through and have a look at the design of the thing. Just the simple act of breaking it down into the systems and mechanics and why they were in there allowed me to understand where I'd started to go wrong and how I'd managed to make matters worse.
So, where are we now?
The Day TodayShooting patterns! I did three things. Firstly, rather than going back to shooting in a straight line, I introduced shooting patterns (as pictured above). These are the basic patterns in which the different weapon types can target enemies, and these are visible during combat. Because you're no longer shooting just the way you're facing, it makes it easier to work out how many steps you'll have to take to get your shot in. It also allows for a bit more variety between different weapons of the same type in their shooting patterns.
This works a LOT better. It feels like its own game again and it gives you some really interesting tactical choices during the combat.
The second thing I did was a little more drastic. I decided to remove the impact of range.
Now, there is a trade-off here. On the one hand it's pretty unrealistic, but we'll get to that. On the other hand, it makes it a lot easier to work out what sort of a chance you're going to have to make each shot and it allows me to add variety to the weapons in a way that doesn't undermine your ability to work out your chance to hit.
That would be the third thing I did, which also kind of partly solves the issues with range now not impacting on accuracy. The third thing I did was simply introduce different drops in accuracy based on aiming time and weapon. For example, accuracy drops drastically with each step if you're using the rifle, but not much at all with the shotgun. So you can run right up to someone's face and still have a good chance to hit them with the shotgun, despite having no time to aim, whereas if you try that with a rifle then you're pretty much committing suicide.
This has the nice knock-on effect that players use the weapon types as you'd expect, lining up shots with the rifle at range or charging in with the shotgun. As of yet, nobody has noticed the removal of range a having an impact (although this is based on a small sample size).
Simply removing something that I kind of took for granted has added an extra dynamic to the combat, and I'm really happy to say I think I might actually be able to stick at around iteration 5...
...oh, who am I kidding! I'm certain there'll be more changes on the way, but I do feel as though I've really got the fundamentals down now. Something to build on rather than something to replace.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that deep dive into the design of the combat so far in Among The Willows!
Next up I'll be talking through either permanence and replayability, world building and travelling around or characters and the levelling up system.
Let me know your preference and I'll get my typing fingers out.
Thanks for reading!