In Defense of the Combat System

I like good turn-based combat. Over the past few years, I've played quite a lot of Jagged Alliance 2 (v1.13), which I consider the pinnacle of TBC, and a fair amount of Temple of Elemental Evil, which I consider to be nearly as good as, and more advanced technologically than, JA2. Of course I've also played plenty of Fallout and other famous turn-based combat cRPGs.

The combat in Arcanum is not as good as the combat in the titles I've mentioned, but it does have some interesting innovations, and I've come to respect some of its good features. I'm speaking of the integrated Fatigue system in particular - far starters, an excellent alternative to "mana" or "spell points" for representing magical power. While those are abstract measures with mere statistical connections to the character, Arcanum's Fatigue system ties the casting of magic to the character's physical well-being. Using magick literally makes the character more tired. This is a very strong innovation that is often overlooked.

Additionally, Arcanum's Fatigue system allows the player to pace himself or to overextend himself. He can run at full speed or attack with exceptional fury, but if he does so repeatedly he will eventually be overcome with exhaustion. The mechanic is extremely simple and integrated organically into the combat; thus, no other saving throws or outside skill checks are needed. It is in fact quite elegant.

Obviously Arcanum's combat is not without numerous flaws; but the more I play it, the more I think some aspects of it compare quite well with the best turn-based combat systems I've seen. Overall there are just enough points good to balance the bad.

 

The fatigue system is cool, not just for roleplaying reasons, but especially since any fatigue-draining weapon effectively becomes an anti-mage weapon as well. Too bad there are no epic magefights.
The combat system as a whole sucks due to lack of full party control, meaningful tactics, proper balancing, etc etc.
Real-time sucks even more with its absurdly fast animations and complete disregard of character speed.

That said, I prefer the pausable real-time combat of Dragon Age. With that, Arcanum would be perfect.

 

Please don't atribute that system to Dragonage. NWN 1 had it too, you know.

 

And Baldur's Gate. And not to make it seem as though I posted jujst for that, I will submit that an important part of combat: spells and how they influence beings with different levels of aptitude of magick and technology differently; is also a strong point in Arcanum's favor.

And I prefer TBC over RTC, with or without pause, as it allows me to make the characters take action as how real persons would fight in their situations.

 

Fire, Fira, Firaga etc?

 

Not that it would have worked in any way for this game, but the CTB turn based system in FFX gets my vote for best turn based RPG combat of any game, ever.

 

FFX had turn based, I preferred the FFVII system.

 

The real-time combat in Arcanum is a waste of code. It's not even worth talking about.

 

Say what you will, I thoroughly enjoyed playing my gathering-enemies-by-running-in-circles-and-Jolt-spamming char in real time.

 

I will say nothing, Sir, since I have done that very thing myself on occasion.

I also remain convinced that it's not worth talking about.

 

If you dislike RTC, you're never gonna get anywhere in MP Arcanum, though it isn't needed, with Vormantown being in A:WIP.

Why can't I get more acronyms in there?

 

I've played in real-time exclusively for years... until now. Turn-based at least lets you be a little tactical. Now I actually get the chance to stop and think about which enemy I want to shoot at, instead of everything happening at all once.

That said, I think all Arcanum really needs is the ability to direct each follower on their turn in combat. If it had that combat would be improved immensely.

In addition to that I agree that the balancing is bad... but that could have been improved with proper development time and play-testing. We need more magical and technological enemies. Enemies actually aren't that bad about utilizing their spells properly as well as technological items like grenades or poison. The problem is magical enemies are rare and if you are a technologist then magical enemies won't even bother to use magick on you.

It's all for naught I suppose, because it's never going to change.

Still, I like to imagine what could have been.

 

I wish it was possible to slow down combat. Did anyone of you ever play the Russian F1/F2 mod, FOnline? I find they did the real-time combat really well. It wasn't too fast, and action points actually meant something - the amount and regeneration rate of them determined how often you could attack.

 

If you've never played Jagged Alliance 2 with the fan-made 1.13 patch, you should definitely give it a try.

Fallout and Arcanum with JA2-style combat would be truly spectacular.

 

You can target specific body parts, period. Most RPG's don't even have that feature.
That and the option to use inventory items via AP cost already add more tactical depth to the fights than a lot of other systems allow for; it definitely works better than using items in real time for a time penalty. It has a damage threshold vs. AC vs. dodge system which is another plus. Fatigue in all its implications is nice too.

I think the combat system could be great if the combat AI of PC's was more sophisticated, but I'm having fun with it regardless.

 

We We can already command each follower separately which enemy to attack or to back off altogether in a given round.

Not as good as directly controlling every single action, item used and spell cast, of course, but on the other hand, that would make the player's team unstoppable. More than it is already, that is.

 

Play Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader and see how well that works.

:evilgrin:

 

Don't. Lionheart is a terrible game. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, honestly.

 

Arcanum's battle control should be like Baldur's Gate 2, you control each character of your party, but with a mix of Arcanum turn-based action... Awesome.