Ranged combat is bugging me

10.02.2010

The title says it all, ranged combat is bugging me. To be more precise, backing up bugs me. You see, in Notrium and the current Driftmoon the most efficient way to fight your enemies is to fire at them while running away. That's a surefire strategy, if your enemy doesn't have a ranged weapon he can never get to you, and even if he does he's going to get killed chasing you. In Notrium I didn't see this as a problem, it fit into the atmosphere of running away from alien hordes. But in Driftmoon it just doesn't feel right.

In first person shooters you can always back away and shoot, but it's not a problem there. You move slower backwards and you can't see behind you, so you'll eventually bump into something. In Driftmoon I'm not sure if I can make the player move slower backwards - backwards doesn't really exist since you're looking at the game top-down. I could make the player move slower whenever he starts ranged combat, but moving slower is usually very frustrating in games, and I'd like to avoid it if possible.

One option I can think of is reducing aim when moving, or possibly disallowing reloading when moving. Using a bow or a crossbow you'd have to reload after every shot, so that would count to a lot. What do you think? How can I turn the running away strategy into something that's fun to play?