The initial thought behind this is that in most RPGs there are Melee defense, melee attack, ranged, and support classes. Of those classes 3 are more or less not practical to use in a action system... A defensive melee character should be blocking attacks going after the mage and range which means they really shouldn't be out in front like a lot of people like to play. Ranged should always be in the back and acting as a stop gap on attacks aimed at the attacking melee fighters. Support classes/mages are always in the back and don't do much beyond casting spells... it's not a very fun class to play outside of selecting those spells when something is needed, but I don't care about the mundane healing and such. So what I was thinking is take this and use it to the advantage of the system... You won't directly control these types of characters, but rather they will react based on a set of rules and you can give them commands for specific events, but they act relatively on their own. You can switch freely between the melee attackers. The defensive melee maintain a line that if any mob comes near it will be attacked. The ranged will stay behind the line and aim at enemies not targeted by the melee attackers so that the attackers won't get interrupted. The mages will heal and cast spells figuring our what works best, and if you want them to do something you can open a menu that will give them the command and they will decide which one will do it if there more than one that can. Also you don't have to wait for them to charge it while you keep going... Of course this idea is based around more than average party members which I hate about most RPGs I play which is I can't use all my members in my party even though they are traveling with me... Anyways, think this would work?

Hi, I think that it will work, but it will look weird.

I think it is better to have each character to have a mix of melee, ranged, and magical abilities. Each characters can still be dominant in one mode of fighting, but if the fight is in close range, a character that is not good at melee should be able to block a few times. It might not be able to attack, but it should be able to block (not indefinitely), so that it buys time for the other characters to do the attack.

From the perspective of the monster, on one hand it wants to attack the weaker melee character because it is weaker, on the other hand it does not want to turn away from the stronger melee character because it would expose its vulnerable side.

So the monster would confront the stronger melee character, while repositioning itself to avoid the weaker character's attack, and wait for an opportunity to kill the weaker character if it ever gets close. If it is 2 on 1, then one monster might chase after the weaker character. In that case, perhaps the weaker character is helping the stronger character by drawing one monster away.

Suppose a monster is chasing A, and B is chasing the monster. Suppose A is defenseless against the monster and B could not catch up. Then the monster has no reason to fight B. In that situations, A must either run back to B so that B could catch up, or that B just have ranged attack so that monster priorities B as the threat. Suppose B does have ranged attack, then the Monster would chase A as long as B cannot use that ranged attack.

For example, B is busy with monster M1, so monster M2 is chasing A. Once M1 got killed, M2 realizes that its back is facing B, which makes it vulnerable to B. So it must face B, although A is in fact the stronger ranged attacker. So it turns into a situation where M2 needs to back off to a position where both A and B are in front, preferably with B in front so that A cannot shoot through B.


Example dynamics:

Swordsman: Able to defend himself in melee fight against one monster, can kill a monster when the monster is not facing him
Archer: Able to kill shoot and kill any monster that is not facing him
Mage: Able to fix a monster at its current position for a short time. The monster can still attack and turn to face other directions.

Monster: Invulnerable to anyone attacking it front on. Can melee kill anyone other than a swordsman defending against it.

The scenario: two monsters appear from the East. What would the group do to kill them? What would the monsters do?

[Edited by - Wai on April 3, 2009 4:58:31 PM]