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Original post by gaf studio
Along the idea of making them "pay" for getting too close, we've been thinking of a way to reward you (and the computer) for staying away from those backline fighters. There are a few different approaches we've come up with, some good ideas, some not so good.
One way is to give the player the ability to set the role of each character (front line, mid line, back line, etc). The front line fighters would lead the way and any mid and back liners behind them would get bonuses to their attack and defense stats. I think this could offer a unique element to a SRPG battle system - the others dont' agree with me :) The biggest issue they have is the player setting the roles of their characters - makes sense, but I'm sure there's other ways to handle it. It could probably be made to be class dependant.
Getting a bonus just because you have another ally in front of you seems a bit odd to me. Maybe I'm misunderstanding this, but it seems like it gives even more incentives for the enemy to completely ignore your tanks and rush your back line so the front lines will not be in front of them anymore giving bonus.
Something that could be done is give tanks area control abilities. Something like a reactive ability that puts the tank in defensive mode. If an enemy enters or leaves the zone around the tank, then the tank gets a free shot and debuffs the enemy unit somehow. It could get snared, bleeding or setup for a big attack from back-line classes. You create a situation where the enemy must either attack your tank with a penalty because he's in defensive mode or rush past him and try to take out the damage dealers while risking getting pummeled. That should create some interesting tactics. It's also fairly realistic. A swordsman would not sit idle while enemies rush past him. He'd anticipate their movement to flank them as they ran by while keeping his defenses up.
