Another writing to myself log. But this one could help anyone else who's making a similar type of game.
RPGs were born out of board games, tabletop games. They were meant to be ultra-simple, to keep calculations to an absolute minimum and with a big sheet full of information that one can get at a glance.
Computer games are quite the opposite. They can look at only one bit of data at a time, not a page full of them. They can calculate a long formula in less than half a second, compared to a human, who'd take a few minutes to determine the Attack Bonus of a character with armor, dexterity, and keeping track of all the spell bonuses.
The concept of Attack and Defense is greatly outdated. Hit Points is also outdated [sic]. 80% of the work I've spent on this project is in finding a new way to do it.
Attack
Good attacking skills does not make a good warrior. Good defense does. Ask any martial artist. Training will make you hit faster and harder, but it's really the defense and counter-attacking skills that make them heroes.
The attack roll is quite misguided. With it, you could miss an armored person sleeping. Attacks are based on two things: distance and time. A person who has 2 seconds to aim his sword will do better than someone quickly taking advantage of an opening. And for any ranged weapons, there are attack rolls.
I find defense check to be a better system. The opponent is the attacker, the better his skill, the harder it is to block. Then the defender rolls his defense. It seems like the same thing, but here, the player will focus on building up his defense, with the attack being something that he has to take care of. Instead of the other way around.
To conclude:
1. The attacker tries to hit a spot.
2. The defender tries not to be at that spot.
Hit Points
The concept of hit points is quite ridiculous, frankly. If a person has killed a thousand orcs, it doesn't mean that a mace to the head in his sleep will only scratch him. Neither does it make healing spells less effective. A true fighter survives on loosening his body, much like a person trying to punch a piece of paper. He takes less damage from blows by instinctively avoiding them. The concept of hit points abstracts this, but it's got lots of flaws, especially when some forms of attacks are supposed to deal more damage.
Unfortunately, it's a delicate system to mess with. Nobody likes being insta-killed because of a single bad check. It has to have resistance to bad luck, perhaps by requiring two checks or something (like the new D&D critical hit checks). Hit points will always work, but it's just not fun in itself.
I want to make something where it's hard to hit, but when it does, the player will be jumping. Kinda like scoring a goal in a football game.
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