Techs saving the day! (from a boring battle system)

Hi

I think techs are great. Right now, sure they're kinda limited or potentially broken (looking at you, targeted blink), but I think that the potential they have is phenomenal. And by potential, I mean the fact that we can code things in LUA and how versatile they can be.

For those of you that have been following Starbound for awhile, you know that it draws some of its inspiration from games like Metroid and Castlevania (particularly SOTN if I recall correctly).

In the beginning of the game to me, I found combat to be pretty boring. All we do is look at the stats on a weapon, what type it is, and then swing away. If you have a gun, you stay away and back away as you shoot. However, once you get techs such as the Energy Dash, this changes. Once you unlock the dash, you'll quickly realize how effective a dashing-slash attack is for closing down the distance, or an aerial dash particularly for retreat.

The targeted blink emphasizes this even greater, as you can start the slash mid-blink, so that when you blink in, the slash is completing and the enemy is already hit before they realize you're there.

So we have a few techs that can be used for offensive capabilities, but the real potential for combat in this game lies within what sort of techs are possible. The techs provided to us in beta show us what's possible:

- the dash shows that we can perform certain actions using input that's timed (the double-tap must be quick)
- the blink shows us that we can perform certain actions in the direction of the mouse cursor
- the mech shows us that we can transform the player
- the rocket jump shows us that a combination of buttons can perform certain actions (up+jump must be pressed while grounded)

Using this knowledge, imagine a blink that lets off a shockwave pushing back any enemies near you when you warp in. Or imagine performing a special technique based on a chain of inputs (Down, Down+forward, Forward+attack = hadouken or something)

Castlevania Symphony of the Night has a very large amount of weapons with hidden moves, even the character being able to perform special actions with unique inputs.

Skip to 2:24 to see a unique attack

^ I'd love to see that warp forwards slash in-game as either a unique weapon or tech item.


Granted, I feel this only covers half the battle: right now all monsters feel essentially the same- you get close to see if they bum rush you to determine if they're hostile or not. Essentially, regardless of the enemy the attack strategy doesn't change at all.
TLDR: The way techs work will allow more variance with melee weapons, and battle in general.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Even skills from games like Borderlands 2 could be cool. Having a tech that makes your character invisible for a short period of time, but you deal double damage and warp out of invisibility on attacking (eg. Zer0) or throwing a sentry out (Axton) or even phaselocking an enemy (with some technobabble as an excuse as to why it's possible) like Maya.

 

IMO more work needs to be done on the core swinging animations for combat to feel "solid" as opposed to relying on techs to spice things up. I think the techs are implemented well enough, but what really separates starbound from stuff like SOTN for me is the fact that the weapon movesets are extremely limited in themselves (don't even have, or I can't find, a jumping downward strike like in Sotn, which makes gently sloping hills a nightmare for some weapon movesets, especially on high level planets). Heck, spears feel absolutely worthless to me the way they currently are. I feel like they could do a bit more with two handers as well, since both Lclick and Rclick do the same thing atm. Sure, the game has a ton of potential for expanding the higher combat into strategic teleporting particle effect madness, but I feel it would almost be a moot point if the core system remains the same. Kind of like modding skyrim's combat, y'know?

OTOH I'm not that worried about the fact that most trash mobs are exactly the same, it allows for some strategic planning when you're way in over head. Plus, it's interesting enough with the charging ground mobs and element spewing birds, especially coupled with some rough terrain. I can't really think of any other generic movesets to add to trash mobs that would work well with procedural generation, though I'm sure modders will prove me wrong. I feel most of the engaging pve combat will really be with the predesigned enemies; throw in a miniboss here with it's own special set of patterns, a boss there with a unique mechanic, etc, in order to make it a challenge. I played space invaders with the first penguin boss, which was pretty unique and entertaining, and I'm confident the melee combat bosses will be up to par.

 

I see where you're coming from. You're right about the lack of weapon movesets, which I think an expansion would be nice. Maybe I'll just make a mod with extended combat, as I think while I could beat enemies by simply slashing at them or shooting at them, part of the fun (at least for me) is having a plethora of ways of unleashing damage on enemies. For instance, Devil May Cry 3 (and yea I know this is a stretch for a game comparison) has a ton of weapons with different attacks and movesets. You could beat the game with only using the beginning weapons, but I think having a wider arsenal just makes it more fun in general. I respect that you feel differently though