Combat in Driftmoon

28.08.2009

Although Driftmoon will not be a purely action oriented RPG, there will be many battles in it. This is an area I've given a lot of time, by prototyping and play testing. In many roleplaying games the combat is purely cosmetic, it's actually there just to fill your time in between dialogue or looting. You click an enemy and the combat begins, and you can either continue with combat or flee.

Combat in Driftmoon will be real time, with a very simple interface. You can click on any enemy to hit them. If you have a melee weapon your character goes on to hit them, and if you have a bow, your character fires from where you are. The part where things get interesting are the various enemy types that have different attack patterns. This is true especially in the later stages of the game. I'm also hoping to have various combat usable terrain, such that you could for example hinder your enemies by moving a rock in front of them, or by placing traps.

Any wild ideas for combat? Explosive powder kegs or paralyzing darts?