Quick poll for Carnage & Aether!
Hello! I'm currently working on the unique combat behavior rules for Elite encounters in Carnage & Aether. Elites are the bosses of the game, and you must defeat a number of them before you can progress to the next arena Rank. In order to make fights more interesting, I'm adding a series of unique behaviors that every Elite encounter can have, and these have two components:
A trigger, randomly determined from a list. This is stuff like "suffers X amount of damage", or "a player uses a potion", etc.
An effect, also random, which takes place when the trigger conditions are met. These are stuff like "they heal themselves", or "they deal more damage but are more vulnerable".
So my question for you today is: what is more fun, to determine both trigger and effect at the start of a match, or just the trigger, letting the effect roll only take place once the trigger condition has been met? Both options have their advantages and disadvantages:
If we determine both the trigger and effect before a match starts, you know what to expect, and can plan accordingly. This is more interesting if you want a more tactical match.
If we determine only the trigger at the start of the match, and the effect later, this makes the combat feel more fresh and surprising, forcing you to adapt quickly to a new circumstance.
So what do you guys think will be more fun, to be surprised, or to be able to know what's coming so you can attempt to prevent it?
Pleas comment below with your reasoning!
Comments (5)
The idea is very cool! I have voted for both trigger and effect to be random. This reminds me of Elite fights in Diablo where they had a random “power boost” that was very fun!
Thanks for voting! And yeah, that sort of thing is what I was thinking of!
but only provide 2-3 options for each elite, giving you a general sense of what their abilities are, but not with so many options you can’t prepare. So you know the berserker elite will either get immunity to status effects or increased damage when he hits 50% hp, instead of rolling for one of 10-20 options that would make things feel totally random.
This Trigger and Effect mechanic is actually just a minor element in a fight, precisely to add more randomness. Each Elite encounter already has the sort of stuff you mention, so you will know what to expect from a fight against this or that Elite. I just wanted to have this little extra detail to add a bit more of unpredictability to fights!
Great question! There are already so many points of randomness in each combat exchange—whether or not your attack roll is successful, whether the enemy’s defense roll is successful, who has the higher roll if you’re both successful—that it’s important to be able to enter a boss fight with some sense of how to approach things and allocate resources. Two suggestions. 1) maybe having random response to hitting the threshold could be something that could be something only some elite enemies do, like with a special “tactician” or “chaotic” trait. 2) have the reaction be a surprise,