I''m looking for thoughts on the presentation of my combat system. This is for a text RPG. The focus of the game will be more on non-combative character interactions. Conversation is in real time, and because combat plays a subservient role to conversation, combat will also be presented in real-time (the combat engine is really just a subsystem of the conversation engine) so as to not disrupt conversation. Most scenes will contain multiple NPCs, and they will be able to react verbally to combat, such as egging other characters on or trying to break up the fight, if not actually joining in the fight. Despite the real-time presentation, combat will be turn-based in the sense that the outcome is based on the player''s character''s skills rather than the player''s skills. The player chooses the course of action for the PC and the PC will continue on that course until ordered otherwise. My question is how to best present combat results. Heres an idea of what conversation looks like on the screen: Player (to Fred) ______That Phil is a real jerk-ass. Fred (to Player) ______Phil''s my brother! Have at you! This is in real time because the spoken words (not the who''s speaking to who part) are printed to the screen with a small delay between each character. That''s a side point for my question, I just want to give an idea of what I''m trying to fit the combat output into. During the course of combat, the player can still try to apologize (just to again emphasize the point that combat is integrated into conversation). Rather than using rounds or turns, each combatant attacks every x seconds based on skill +- a random modifier. How should the results of each attack best be presented, keeping in mind that combat information has to share the screen with conversation? Would it be good enough to display them like another spoken sentence, something like: Player (strikes Fred) ______[Bumped him good on the noggin.] (Of course all actions would be written to the screen instantly rather than with the delayed character effect, to simulate an quick action) Would it be better for every action to displayed in a pop-up window, temporarily halting all spoken output while the player absorbs the action information? Any other thoughts? Hope I was clear enough, and thanks for reading, Sean

nah, just let it scroll by... assuming this is a console app, the player has at least 25 lines to scroll before they lose the information...
if you are worried about it "interfering" with the "spoken" text, highlight it a different color, or mark it off with some characters (such as a few asterisks or putting it in brackets or something).

You could section of the screen so that in one part you have dialouge and in another you have emoting, and roll them all off in realtime. Though, take it easy with the real time aspect. Yeah, its a good idea, however, I remember the days of CircleMud where a battle would be done in real time and just manage to fill your screen with garbage about the fight and leave you with your thumb up ... well. You get the idea.

-> Will Bubel
-> Machine wash cold, tumble dry.

divide each second up into 10 portions.

During each portion, prompt the characters for combat rolls and actions and what not.

Of course, you''d have to decrease the number of attacks per ''turn'', because having characters attack 10+ times a turn is just insane.

Then you''d output only when something significant happened.

Consider how much time it would take for an actual attack/strike in real life, then slow it down by a factor of 3-5 - because people have to type.