A Discussion on Combat - How will 2.0 be Different?

Hey there!  Happy June!  It's been...a bit of a crazy month for me.  Just busy life stuff, you know how it is.

This post is going to be a lengthy discussion on the topic of Project Red's combat.  Both the mechanics and systems related to battles.  Looking first at how we ended up with the system currently playable (1.0 Demo and onwards), examining the problems with that system, and then showcasing what combat is going to be like in 2.0/the final release.

Do keep in mind that all new systems and mechanics shown here are NOT going to be available in a demo any time soon.  These are still early work in progress builds without finalized assets nor is it fully tested. The reason the next demo is so far off is because of how intensive a process this is, as I'm sure you'll come to understand by the end of this post.  But with the disclaimer out of the way lets talk about where it began and how we got to the flawed 1.0 builds.

Pre 1.0 Combat

In order to explain why 1.0 was the way it was, I think it's important to recap what combat was like prior to 1.0.  The very first builds of Project Red used the tried and true ATB system.  If you've played something like Final Fantasy 7, you'll understand how that works.  But effectively every combatant would have a gauge that would fill depending on how fast they were.  When that gauge was then full, you'd be able to pick an action for that combatant to perform.

This allowed both the player and the enemy to perform actions independent of a strict turn order.  The longer you take deciding what to do, the more actions your enemy can do.  The quicker you fire out your moves the quicker you stack up your whole party's actions.  Personally I'm a big fan of this system.  The problem was that it was simply a poor fit for Project Red.  That's because Project Red is not a party based game. 

So talking FF7 again.  Let's say you're fighting a boss with Cloud, Tifa and Yuffie.   At any given time you are managing all 3 characters, and reacting to what the boss is doing.  Is Cloud low on HP?  Have someone heal.  While Tifa is casting a healing spell, you aren't just sitting there watching, but your still actively deciding what your other party members will be doing as their ATB gauges fill during the animation process.  In fact using casting animations is a great way to take your time and select your next move as once an ATB bar is full that character will not charge their ATB bar until they have completed their action.  That means the boss also cant act until Tifa is done.  And so the player has much less down time waiting for things to happen as they can be setting up moves in advance.

But in Project Red, Red is the only playable character for most of the game.  That means that these benefits don't actually exist.  You pick your move, you wait for Red to do it.  Then you wait for her ATB gauge to charge.  Then you repeat.  There is nothing to be done while Red is performing her actions.  The game might as well have been a basic turn based system where you and your enemy took turns attacking each other.  Ultimately when using this system with a single character it kind of amplifies the amount of waiting you end up doing.  And while FF7 has plenty of moments where you only control one character these are not the main gameplay focus, and so they are novel interactions as opposed to tedious ones that begin to wear thin on your patience.  Especially when you consider times when you are waiting for your ATB to fill and the enemy is also waiting for their ATB to fill.  And so literally nothing is happening.

In short, good system.  But terrible for the type of game that Project Red was designed to be. So with that attempt deemed a failure I spent a lot of time thinking about other turn based RPGs I had played.  Comparing various systems to find something that I felt would compliment a single party member experience.

1.0 Combat, and why it didn't work

After a lot of thinking, the conclusion I eventually came to, was to create a system where the player would be at a disadvantage.  BUT to also give them the tools to abuse that system.  And I would do that by drawing inspiration from another of my favorite JRPG's, this time using Persona's once more gimmick.  Normally Red would have one turn, then her enemies would all take their turns attacking her, maybe twice, maybe three times, in some cases even four times.  It sounds borderline unfair.  BUT with once more, Red could get multiple moves in every single turn as long as you the player knew what that enemy was weak to.

In this way battles became focused on knowledge, and experimentation.  As the developer it's been interesting to watch and see two different camps emerge when it comes to feedback on this version of the games combat. One side telling me that combat is very difficult. The other that it was too easy. But why is there such a divide? And ultimately, which side is correct? 

The short answer is, both are correct.  If you fight a brand new enemy with no information.  You are playing a guessing game that can feel very unfair and difficult if you repeatedly guess wrong.  If you guess correctly however you can win without the enemy ever taking a turn making the game feel easy.  But that second half wins out since once you've beaten an enemy once, you know EXACTLY how to beat them. Every. Single.  Time.  And that is the core issue with 1.0 combat.  But to be overly specific let's look at this with a more clear example.

So if we take a standard combat encounter, for example, a Shroom type enemy. The first time you fight one of these things it can be difficult to figure out what your strategy SHOULD be. You could attack the main body, or any of the three tentacles. Should you disable the limbs to prevent it from attacking? Or are you going to take too much damage doing that? Further more what skills are each limb weak to? Do you HAVE access to those skills?  Red can't use magic innately and requires a magic ring.  Are you wearing the one that the enemy is actually weak to?

Those are the sorts of questions that combat asks of you. Ultimately however, once you KNOW a solution, the battle will always devolve into using that solution, with the only exception being when you're low on MP or ST...except there lies the most crucial problem with combat. Healing items generally do not cost a turn.   So why does healing come for free?

This is a result of the Persona system itself also simply not being the best fit for a single party member.  See in my inspiration I thought it would be cool to give Red a super move that would automatically be used whenever every enemy weakness was exploited in a single turn.  The problem is that doing so immediately ended Red's turn.  If you needed to heal you could not.  And as bosses became more difficult, it became essentially impossible to get by on one or two exploits followed by a single heal.  As well the healing skills quickly got out paced as the enemies hit harder.

In short I made healing spells and items GENERALLY not count as an action because the more ambitious I got with enemy encounters the more the game became largely unwinnable.  Sure common enemies were balanced well enough, but super bosses like Quiberon would REQUIRE you to spend actions on healing.  But there's no way to heal and guard, or heal and use your super move.  That made fights drag on or impossible if the enemy was able to out damage what you could heal by even 1 hp.  I tried compensating with buffs to the healing or reducing its costs, but ultimately I had to realize that this system was again, not going to work.  But there's more to it than just healing.

See the game had other unique ideas that also didn't seem to agree with this combat loop of exploiting weaknesses.

The Tarot Card mechanic was designed to be a unique gameplay element, but since cards were finite by design the game had to be designed to be winnable without ever requiring the player to use them. As a result however, the value of the cards dropped considerably. Not being in total control of what position they were drawn in also seemed to make players hesitant to use them. 

There was also the Act command which let you engage with the enemy in 3 different non lethal ways.  But as that system would count as your one and only turn it was impossible to ever really engage with it or experiment with it.  Doing so would more often than not just get you killed. And so we now had a bunch of pre 1.0 systems and mechanics that clashed with each other in the new format.  Rather than the intention of having multiple ways to engage with combat, I ended up with a bunch of options that were all equally worthless....but the problems unfortunately did not stop there.

See, early into 1.0's lifespan and with the desire to add voice acting I decided to expand small sections of the game that originally featured uncontrolled additional party members, and instead make certain dungeons where Red would have a guest star join the party and be fully playable.  But a system that was so intrinsically designed around ONE playable character being able to generate additional turns, quickly falls apart once the player is in control of two characters. Battles here often played out with the enemy not even getting a single turn unless the support character was specifically given low agility to always act last.

These were ultimately the core issues I had with the experience. Tarot cards felt underpowered and rarely did I ever even consider using them. Healing items and skills having no turn cost lead to the ability to spam heals every turn and become practically invincible. Figuring out an optimal strategy in combat led to boring and repetitive combat loops. The mechanics of Bloody Rondo encouraged the player to stick to one strategy for maximum damage at minimal costs.

Now that's not to say that there was no fun to be had. And I'm sure plenty of people liked this enough as it was.  But as someone who loves games myself, I want to develop a game that I personally will enjoy playing. Combat for me, is a major part of why I love games. Whether its Final Fantasy 8, Persona 5, Fear and Hunger, Devil May Cry or Lies of P. The combat loop and my enjoyment of it is a central part of why I love these games. And while sure, they can feel like a grind to get through at times, they never feel boring to me.

Project Red however, DOES feel boring though. And that is something that I am NOT satisfied with.

So with my reasons laid out, whether you agree with them or not, much like the games entire visual design was scrapped and completely replaced. It's time for the combat loop to face the same fate, and evolve into something new.

Something familiar, but different. Something that keeps all of the ideas that made up 1.0 combat, but refines them into a cohesive set of systems that actually work together. Something that gives value to every angle and approach to combat. Something that will keep combat fresh for multiple new game runs. Something that can not be easily broken just by giving Red a party member.

What does 2.0 look like? - The Missing Piece

Now while I COULD jump straight into the new combat mechanics I'd like to take a step back and examine how the game has changed in more of a chronological order. To begin we'll look at a brand new sequence that occurs once Red exits the Witch's domain.  Also just a heads up, from here on out you will be seeing TONS and TONS of WIP (work in progress) content, as I've been completely redoing all of my UI and menus.  Most of what you see here is not finalized and some of it is using placeholders.

Upon taking the first steps on your Journey Red will now awaken the soul of the Fool. This will be your first introduction to the new Arcana system. But what exactly does that mean?

Well we can first head over to our Equipment tab. Here we can see that Red's options have been changed. In 1.0 builds Red had 3 Accessory slots. In 2.0 Red will only have 2 Accessory slots. That third slot is now taken up by the Arcana slot. Here you can pick any available Soul you've awoken and equip it, granting Red the abilities of that soul. If you've played any game that used a class or job change system then you should have a good idea of where this is going and how it will work.

Each Arcana will drastically alter the way that you play the game. They each have their own stats, unlockable skills, weaknesses, and even effect what weapons and armor Red will be able to equip. This is to me, the missing piece of Project Red. 

A new item has also been added to Red's inventory. You'll  find the Arcana Mirror in your Key Items section. This item will allow you to view and adjust any unlocked Arcana Souls on the fly. Essentially as long as you can access the menu, you'll be able to swap out your class and skills as you see fit. See a Shroom enemy in the distance? Set yourself up to have a Soul with Fire based skills. Is that an Imp? Better make sure you switch off that Soul that has a weakness to Wind damage.

This variability adds some much needed depth to combat. As in 1.0 with Red only having one default class, the options for weaknesses was pretty much impossible to manage. If for example I made her weak to fire I'd have to be VERY careful about any fire attacks enemies could use to maintain balance. Or else create items that negate her weakness and borderline become necessary. Now though the wide array of elements and damage types that Red can exploit are just as usable against her, with each Soul specializing in different areas and having built in weaknesses that different enemies can engage with to keep combat fresh and interesting.

When using the Arcana Mirror you'll be taken to the screen seen here. This is still in an early WIP stage but it gets the idea across. All 22 cards will be laid out, and any souls you've awakened will be turned over and visible. Simply select the Soul you'd like to edit to be brought to its upgrade screen. The Fool will be your default starting class, so let's focus on that one.

The Arcana screen displays your Rank and available skills. The Fool is a versatile class that covers all your bases and will generally be reliable at any stage of the game. At max Rank you'll have access to Wind magic, Healing magic, Buffs and Debuffs and a powerful Slashing attack that's always guaranteed to land a Critical Hit. Each class also comes with a built in Passive Skill that is always active. The Fool comes with the "EXP Rate Up" passive that generates more EXP in battle. At Rank 1 you'll also have access to the Skills Gale and Remedy. Gale is your basic weak Wind spell. And Remedy is your basic weak healing spell. But at Rank 1 you can only choose to equip one of these skills at a time. As you Rank up to higher Ranks you wont just learn new Skills, you'll also increase the number of skills you can have active at once, with a maximum of 4 active skills of the total 8.

The amount of options for player expression have now increased exponentially with just this one system. Due note however that Arcana skills can ONLY be accessed while Red is the corresponding class. You'll still need to progress on the Goddess skill trees if you want Skills that Red will always have access to. But with all this talk about Ranking up your class, I think it's about time we talk about how that functions.

Simply select the "Rank Up" button to see what it'll cost to reach your next rank, as well as your current materials on hand. To reach rank 2 you'll need 4 copies of the corresponding Arcana card, the Fool. These are indeed the cards you collect for defeating monsters.

However they aren't the SAME cards you're used to. I'm well aware that most players in 1.0 didn't engage with using these items. The randomness associated with them put people off, and the benefits being largely unnecessary left them to collect dust. Don't think that means you can easily rank up though. Each card has been MASSIVELY buffed to make the choice of spending them in battle, or hoarding them for future rank ups one to consider at all times.

Focusing on the Fool once more, lets compare the 1.0 and 2.0 versions of the item. In 1.0 when Upright this card would give Red minor buffs to her Attack, Evasion and Crit for 3 turns. In Reverse it would give minor buffs to her Counter and Reflection chances.

In 2.0 Upright will give Red a MASSIVE one turn boost to her Luck and Crit Rate, virtually guaranteeing you get a critical hit on your next strike.  And in Reverse likewise you'll practically guarantee a Counter or Reflection on the enemies turn. Each option can easily turn the tide in a losing battle. But will it be worth it to use them? Or should you spend them on permanent increases to your fighting power by ranking up the related Class? The choice is yours. Oh yeah, just, one more thing. Tarot cards, and indeed, EVERYTHING. Now costs an action. There are no more items or skills that can be done for free. But that doesn't mean your turn will end if you need to heal.

Behold the new structure of Combat! Turn Counters! The crystals are currently a placeholder (I needed SOMETHING better than boring flat colored circles for this showcase lol) but effectively each Crystal you see in combat correlates to one "action." Every "team" in combat will always have at minimum 2 actions per turn. With these increasing for each combatant currently present. Have Scarecrow in your party? Then your team gets 3 actions. Fighting a Vile Shroom? Then the enemy gets 5 actions. Take out 2 tentacles?  Then the Shroom only has 3 actions. But the exploit system still remains intact.

In this image you can see that Red still has 2 action crystals, but one is now broken in half. Exploiting Weaknesses, or dealing a Critical Hit will not cost a full action, but instead only count as half an action. Meaning Red can at maximum have 4 actions per turn as a reward for skillful and smart play. But keep in mind enemies will get the same rewards. There's also a risk factor now. Missing or striking an enemy resistance will cost 2 actions instead of 1. Again this goes for both you and your enemies adding a lot more variety to build types and skill usage. Build a Red that focuses on evasion or counters to quickly end enemy turns. Or try to turn your 2 actions into 4 and beat down the enemy as effectively as you can.

All of the systems you're used to from 1.0 have been carried over into 2.0. Exploits to generate extra actions, tarot cards with a variety of effects, reversal of fates, Evocation skills that can be activated when certain conditions are met, Single and Multi Limb enemies, etc etc. They aren't always 1 to 1 but they are present. And most importantly player expression and choice now has far more meaning.

Combat no longer devolves into having the right magic ring to beat an enemy, but opting in to specific strategies and builds that come with risk and reward systems built in. Everything has been refocused around the games central, sole playable character without breaking the game when adding additional party members. Tarot cards are now a constant a choice, and with no idea what class you'll unlock next or when, theh temptation to use those powerful effects will continue to grow.  As you do new game plus runs however, you keep your Rank progress and eventually you'll reach a point where you can just spend the cards for fun as you hunt for the 26 different endings. The act command no longer immediately ends your turn, giving you room to experiment with its options and see what effects each choice has in combat.  You can use the Act command to talk and potentially still get 2 actions out of your turn if you know at least one weakness.  And this is just scratching the surface.

There's still so much I'm working on behind the scenes to elevate these systems even further. But I hope you've enjoyed this first taste of 2.0 combat. I hope to share more with you soon. Until then, thank you so much for your continued support. And I can not wait to share the full experience with you later this year.