Battle System!

Hi,

Over the years I have played many games with different battle systems. Some of have a battle system where you run around with the arrow keys hitting f1 to attack from afar whereas other games like Pokémon have a battle system where its turn based, you take your move the enemy takes theirs.

My game is going to have a battle system and I need to know which one gamers (like yourselves) prefer. So if you could please tell me what sort of battle system you prefer I would be very grateful.

In my opinion the public is the most important thing in a game, so without your help my game can't even come close to Good. I can't make my game without your help...

Thanks :)

- Miffy6000.

Being a person who loves to play games, one of the most enjoyable traits of playing games, is having so many different kinds of games to play. So, I don't love one single battle system. There are so many that are fantastic. Even your standard turn based battle systems can be the most enjoyable. To me, battle systems are only bad when there is no challenge and I have to mash buttons as if it's blocking me from the actual game or if the system is too convoluted and takes too many steps to understand and use it.

Having something never seen before does not always reap benefits if it is difficult to understand and the difficulty is presented by not being able to figure out what to do. Challenge must be done through fairness, not by blindsiding players. When you select a battle system you have to understand that is now a mechanic of your game, and once understood, you can use that mechanic to create the intricacy of your battles. When the player understands the mechanic; well, the fun can begin. While Pokemon games can be too simple, looking at the competitive play, you can see they really understand how to use the core mechanics of a turn based system.

I love turn base, ATB, tactical, action, ect. The key is understanding and using the mechanic. Games should not have a system out of necessity, but rather create depth out of the basic functions, from whatever they choose. So many could potentially work for your game and I think as long as you create some depth and difficulty (no mashing A button on attack command to clear boss battles) that the players will have a rewarding game experience. 

Ms Littlefish,

That was awesome! Thank you so very much for those words, they're going to go a long way to helping me create my battle system.

:D

Thanks.

CTB fan and ATB hater here. ;D

I find it silly that I have to wait everytime for that bar to load if I want to choose my action, and if a character has slow Speed than the bar takes even more time to load, oh God but why? I don't want to wait.

I prefer CTB because it allows you to plan in advance the next steps, you can view the order of actions without being worried about what to do next.

With ATB I feel like someone casted the Haste spell on me (even in Standby mode...yes), "if the characters have high Speed" It's more fast paced but usually messy and I always feel uncomfortable with it, plus if I play on PC I can't multitask very well.

The only game I liked with ATB is Final Fantasy VI, that game is too awesome to care about that.

Thanks Dalph :)

Everything you say is helping me out.

I hate to say it (because my best friend's game has this, too... and his game looks really good!  If you're reading this brother, I'm sorry! T___T) but I am not really a fan of the ATB.  I personally think it's kinda ridiculous how an enemy attacks you and attacks you while you're FORCED to stand there during "their turn" ANYWAY!

"Well they're faste--"

NO.

But alas... Even then you can make it easier on the players by making your monsters easier overall or your players stronger. And maaaaaybe I'm willing to give the ATB another chance... Maybe...

MIND YOU these are my personal preferences. And while it's a VERY good thing to want to make your public happy, you'e also got to make YOURSELF happy Miffs.  If YOU'RE not happy then your public will also suffer. What kinda battle system do YOU like?  (My personal favorite is "live action" like Zelda... buuuuut... that's kinda hard for me as I have zero scripting knowledge)

Thanks Croc, you are the Man!!!

Thanks for giving me and this wonderful community such a brilliant response :)

I'm very happy with whatever anyone chooses, in fact I am thinking about ways to give everyone what they want - more on that later though... ;)

Thanks for your reply.

I like ATB because I had play a game that utilizing a strategic ATB system, some secret boss has a 1 hit killer party move or some nasty skill that if launched will definetely make me watch a Game Over scene. The only way to win the battle is, don't let him got a single moves. To do that the game utilize a system called ATB breaker, a skill/or an attack that will break the atb gauge of the target. But another hard thing is, some boss is not alone, they usually had some minion that has some nasty skill too, moreover they often a regenerating. This will need a lot of strategic way to win. What enemy must be killed first, what action that is the best to do, and etc. The reality is, many ATB system usually not utilizing a mechanism like this game, they just a plain ATB and it's not challenging.

I also like, Turn Based Battle system, but not exactly like the default VXAce used. I like a List Turn Based Battle System, or what is the correct name I don't know. It is like this, every turn an action order queue will be listed(based on agility, or speed), then when the battle phase started, each battler will do it's action one by one, means it's an actor turn, mean you input his/her command, then he/she will straigthly launch the action, then go to the next queue, if it's enemy, then it will launch it's action, and so on until the last battler. After all is done, a new turn is begin, and the action order queue will be recalculated based on the current agility each battler has. If at the previous turn some battler agility is changed due to a skill that changing agility, or item or something like that, means the current turn action order will get changed.  Another thing is, if in the battle phase  a battler that get stunned/paralyzed/dead, or you name it, then his/her queue is come, he will lose his/her turn, but if he/she is recovered from those state before his/her turn in the list come, he/she will get his/her action saved and can do action.

Next is, for a sleep/dead actor, will be moved to the bottom list of the queue, and if by any chance he/she is revived or awaken by an attack or item, he will get his/her action again, but at the very last of queue.

But the one that I love most is(I don't know the battle system name). I'm sorry but if you know Grandia in PSX, then you know what I mean. It's the most greatest battle system for me.

Awesome! :)

Thank you so very much for that. Its helping so much.