Tactics Game Online

The fun never stops here at TGO.  As I have been working on the army creation section of Tactics Game Online, the thought occurred to me that it would be great to offer you a way to suggest unit names that can be randomly chosen for new character units users are adding to their armies.  How cool is that!  So, expect a fun AJAX character name form here soon that will allow you to add names to use in the game.

After describing so much of the intricacies of developing a fun and balanced multiplayer tactics game, I decided it was time to dive into seeing what it would take to build one.  Fortunately, I have a great starting point from the project I last worked on, Legendary Kingdom Tactics.  LKT for short, this game was my first game I have developed.  It has much of the same elements as this one, with one key difference, this one will be much simpler.

Unity 3d IDE

I forgot how much fun it is using Unity 3d.  If you have never heard of it, go to their website and check it out.  The first order of business was to tear out everything that LKT used that Ball Tactics will never need.  That has been quite a chore, and I am sure there is more that will be removed later.  With that completed over the weekend, I was able to begin working on a login and registration process.  LKT never had an integrated registration, something I wanted to change for Ball Tactics.  Well, as of this morning, both are working.  As you can see from the screenshot (kind of hard to read I know), I was able to successfully create an account in the game and log in to it.  Next up, developing the army builder section, which will allow you to build your armies that you will wage war with other players through.  I will keep you updated on how that is progressing this week, and also place a working version of the game online after that is finished.  There is no point putting it up for you now, since all we have is a working registration and login.  There are other account management screens I know it needs too at some point, like a “forgot my password” button and an “View/edit account settings” page.  Those will come eventually.  Lets get something working that is fun for you to play with first before we do the boring stuff like that.

Over the past couple of days I have had some wild and crazy ideas about the characters and what each of their roles is.  Here is a working list of some of the starting characters with general information about each one.  These guys are for the most part balls that that have weapons and attack each other, a lot like Worms, if you have played or heard of any of those games.  Another great thing about Worms is the humorous spin they put on their characters, something that would be great to incorporate here.

Basher – melee

• high strength
• mid defense
• mid speed

Knight – melee

• high defense
• mid strength
• mid speed
• detection
• protection

Ninja – melee

• high speed
• mid strength
• mid defense
• camouflage
• double attack

Archer – ranged

• high range
• mid strength
• mid speed
• low defense
• low splash

Bomber – ranged

• high splash
• mid strength
• mid range
• low defense
• low speed

Frosty – ranged

• high splash
• mid strength
• mid range
• low defense
• low speed
• slow

Healer – support

• high strength
• mid range
• mid speed
• low defense
• low splash
• heal
• cure

Grouch – support

• high range
• mid strength
• mid speed
• low defense
• low splash
• weaken
• poison
• sleep
• curse
• slow
• blind

Health Points

To keep it simple, and very intuitive, every character will have a fixed, unchangeable health point value of 100.  This value cannot be increased or decreased in any way by the players.  Each characters health value may be influenced by only one factor, whether the total army value exceeds the allowable amount.

Strength

This value refers to the amount of damage a character will inflict on another character.

Defense

When being attacked by melee or ranged characters, the defense value refers to the percentage of damage this character will absorb.  For example, a character with a defense value of 50 will take half damage, rounded up, from melee and ranged attacks.

Speed

The amount of movement points this character has available to move each turn.

Range

The number of spaces away this character can be from its target to attack.

Splash

The number of spaces away from the target square that are affected by an attack.

Lets say for a moment that we are on the right track with our characters, battle system, and battle field approaches.  At this point, we can put some of our decisions to the test by seeing how they interweave with each other through the creation of some of the characters, on a conceptual level of course.  Well, lets cement down some basic building blocks of that they all have in common.  As proposed previously, their essential traits are: health points, strength, speed, range, and splash.  After some deliberation, two additional traits that will create a paper, rock, scissors strategy are defense and resistance, which allow characters to absorb damage from physical and magical sources.

Since we are planning on adopting a point-based approach to army creation, it is important to begin thinking about whether we want every character in the game to have the same point allocation needed for all traits, or if there should exist different character types that have varying levels of point cost for their traits.  If you think about some of the different character types, like melee, ranged, and magic, then it leads to a quick conclusion that each type should have different point allocation.

Now is a good time to discuss game balance.  Game balance is essential in the creation of a good game, but how do you develop characters that are different, yet balanced with each other equally?  Ultimately, we want to give players a fair chance at winning against other players no matter what strategy they incorporate in the building of their armies.  Establishing a perfectly balanced game when you are dealing with different characters with different strengths and weaknesses is impossible to do, but if we consider the elements we need to analyze success of players utilizing different characters, we can adjust and balance the game over time relatively efficiently.  I met another game developer who was preparing to release a game with huge off balance characters and abilities.  When I asked him why he wasn’t spending more time on the game balancing, he stated proudly that he was so confident in his game balancing formulas based on data collected over time, that he had no worries about releasing an unbalanced game at launch.  I was amazed, and am now a high believer in incorporating the right data collection formulas to ensure effective balancing over time.   This is especially helpful if you plan on releasing new content for a game, after its launch.

Getting back on track, lets take a look at what the trait point costs would be for some of the character types we mentioned above: melee, ranged, and magic.  Before we can do this, however, the trait ranges should be decided on:

Now that we have some concrete numbers to use, we can decide how each character type will prioritize these traits.

Melee

Ranged

Magic

Character Costs

Army Points

Based on the above data, we can start with a total army point value of 1,000 points.

LKT - My previous game project

The battlefield is half the fun in a grid-based tactics game.  It largely impacts strategy, and variety of gameplay.  I am sure you have seen many a maps in your tactics adventures, and so have I.  So what are the factors that must be considered when designing the perfect battlefield for our tactics game?  Well, I am glad you asked!  One obvious one is whether there can be difference in elevation.  Here are some things to consider with elevation changes:

• If elevation is drastic enough, units may not be able to attack each other even if they are in squares that are horizontally next to each other, due to an elevation difference
• An additional character trait, height, must be added to the game
• Another possible character trait, jump, may need to be considered as well
• Rules need to be determined for unit adjacency, unit climb ability, and line-of-sight determination
• Splash area abilities just got a whole lot more complicated

As you can see, elevation adds a lot of complexity to a grid-based game.  So what are the advantages?  Well, the maps get a lot more interesting.  Character units could climb to higher ground, gain offensive and defensive advantages, and limit movement capabilities.  Some nice advantages, but are they worth it? Perhaps there is a compromise that gives us the best of both worlds: have maps have a maximum elevation change of 2 that allows for height advantages without affecting or creating the need for additional rules.  Unit height and climb capability would not be required for such a small elevation change, if units are considered to have a minimum height of 3.  Maps could then have small hills, and water could be a bottom elevation (0) with the rest of the ground being on elevation 1 or 2.  Line-of-sight checks would not be needed, since the units would be higher in height then the most drastic of elevation change of 2.  Plus, obstacles such as building and trees could still be used to break up the battlefield even further, adding more interesting elevation changes while minimizing rule complexity.

The terrain itself can impact strategy as well.  Traveling on a street or pathway can be faster for units than traveling across sand, swamp, and snow.  These factors are easy to incorporate, with each terrain type costing a varied amount of movement points to cross.  Movement points can be derived directly from unit speed.  Climbing up to a higher elevation could also cost additional movement points.

Its difficult to discuss the character design without consideration of the battle system.  The battle system describes the interaction between the characters, and fulfills the purpose for every character trait chosen.  Since the emphasis on this tactics system is to keep things as simple as possible, so new players can pick it up quickly, the battle system must incorporate the most intuitive rules possible.

Some important elements that must be considered in a turn-based tactical battle system are:

• When each character gets to take it’s turn (character sequence)
• If temporary states-of-being (status effects) are implemented
• If each unit can execute more than one type of action each turn

Character Interaction

Lets start with character sequence.  There are several ways to determine character turn order.  One of the most simplest is to chose the character order randomly at the beginning of the battle.  This queue then repeats itself each game turn.  Another approach is to incorporate a character trait dedicated to determining it’s turn order.  I call this character trait initiative.  Since we are going for simplicity and this trait has the possibility of being avoided my vote is to do just that, avoid it.  Yet another approach is to allow each player to set his unit queue during army creation/modification.  This empowers players to determine unit turn order.  The final and perhaps most attractive approach gives players complete control over when each gets to take its turn in battle.  This approach operates simply, players alternate turns: one player moves all of his units in whatever order he chooses, then his turn ends, and the next player takes his turn with all his units, in whatever order he chooses.  This approach gives players the most strategic empowerment, and may be one of the most simplest methods available.  In addition to all of these variations for unit turn order, a final question arises as to whether players should alternate turns on an individual basis or a complete army basis.  If one player starts with more units then another, it is obvious that some of his units will get to act consecutively once-in-a-while.

Getting back to the major areas of the battle system, the second topic is that of status effects.  These are temporary changes to a character.  Examples of status effects are being stunned, poisoned, strengthened, or weakened.  The purpose of status effects are to expand the opportunities for unique interactions between characters.  They open the door for characters to invoke special qualities to others, and enhance character uniqueness.  One of the greatest pitfalls of status effects are their potential to also increase game complexity.  Does this large pitfall outweigh their advantages?

Finally, when looking at the battle system, the question must be asked as to whether characters have multiple options at their disposal then performing their action each turn.  This dramatically affects the depth of each character, and in turn influences its importance to the players army as a whole.  Logically, this in turn sets the relative size of player armies in their entirety.  Ultimately, we want to allow players to be able to have armies that have a variety of options at their disposal, and strengths and weaknesses.  This goal can be reached by giving each unit more options, or by limiting each unit to one option and increasing the army size appropriately.  One of these options allows us to minimize character traits, which elevates it above the other when trying to meet our simplicity goal.  Can you guess which?  If you guessed limiting options to one choice on a unit basis, you are correct.  Giving units only one type of action to perform makes skill/stamina points unnecessary.  It also allows range and splash to be on a unit basis, and not on a unit action basis.  This greatly simplifies unit complexity.  By increasing army population, we can relieve the drawback of this approach.

Character Attributes

Rather than bury you in a sea of questions regarding every aspect of this tactical, turn-based game development, I thought it would be a good idea to share of the thoughts I have been having regarding details of the characters.  I have always been a point-based character fan (refer to yesterday’s post for details).  It creates an even playing field for entry players as well as veterans, who have been playing for a while.  Everyone has a fair chance, using the same amount of points as everyone else to build their army.  One of the questions to ponder is the genre of this game, but that has no effect on the core character elements.  I am more of a fantasy medieval genre lover, so these thoughts encompass this kind of environment.

First, lets discuss some goals of the characters in this tactical online game.  The characters need to be:

• Easy to understand
• Quick to customize
• Extensible, offering variations and more options over time

Game characters are the sum of their attributes.  To meet the need of quick and easy to understand, we should minimize the number of attributes needed to describe each character, while also allowing for unique qualities to be given to characters that make each unique.  With these thoughts in mind, here are some of the attributes I propose:

• Health Points – The amount of damage a character can sustain before death
• Strength – Determines the amount of damage this character inflicts with attacks
• Speed – How far this unit can travel each turn
• Range – Distance from potential targets this character can attack
• Splash Area – All characters within this distance from the target are affected

Some optional attributes that may also be incorporated are:

• Initiative – How quickly this character acts, which determines when it gets its turn
• Defense – How much damage this character absorbs from attacks before health points are drained

In addition to attributes, each character can have a type associated with it:

• Fighter – These units use close-range weapons to attack enemies
• Archer – These units use long-range weapons to attack enemies
• Mage – These units use long-range magic to attack enemies
• Clerics – These units use healing magic to restore allies

Finally, each character can have 2 to 4 ability slots, giving them special powers, limited by the type it is.  For instance, the fighter would have abilities available to it that relate to enhancing fighter-type attacks, and defense too, of course.

So, there are a variety of choices the players would make for each character they add to their army:

• Character type
• Each attributes value – raising these costs points / reducing them gains points
• Abilities – adding these costs points

Tactics Game Characters

One of the most pivotal areas of tactical, turn-based games, that largely influences the general gameplay and player involvement, is the characters themselves.  Take Final Fantasy Tactics, for example.  In this game, players begin with a couple of characters, starting out weak, and developing these characters as the game progresses.  This approach to character development is what I call experience-based character development.  After each battle, the characters gain levels, and in turn unlock more powerful skills and abilities.  They also find treasure as they progress, giving them more useful equipment, items, and weapons.  You could also call a game like Final Fantasy Tactics an RPG, or role playing game, in which the characters go through a story and develop and grow as they travel around in an epic adventure.

The alternative to allowing characters to develop by acquiring experience is to use a point based system.  In this approach, each character, as well as each skill and equipment and benefit characters can receive, are assigned a point value.  Players assemble their armies by spending a set amount of points to create evenly balanced armies.  Tactics 100 is such a game that implements this type of system.

There are advantages to each, as you may surmise.  Experience-based approaches allow players to invest more time and effort into developing their perfect army.  Every battle makes their army stronger, and levels up their characters.  An obvious disadvantage to this approach is that it does not guarantee fair battles.  A more leveled up army has an obvious advantage over a lower level army.  Point-based systems overcomes this challenge, at the cost of never allowing the characters to get stronger over time.  One way to avoid this pitfall is to allow the unlocking of certain customizable features, allowing players more choices over time that don’t necessarily give them an edge over other players, simply more options to choose from.

Now that you have an idea what these two approaches entail, which would you prefer.  Submit your vote using the poll on the right to let the rest of us know your opinion.  Feel free to share your thoughts via comments here too.

The building blocks

Here are some of the essential elements that will make this game fun and enjoyable of us tactics game lovers:

• Turn-based gameplay – Each unit in the battle will take turns moving and attacking
• Multiplayer focus – Every battle is between two or more players.  This is not a solo game, but focused on player interaction
• Grid battle field – Battles will take place on a grid board, that may or may not have elevation to it.  There are variations to the type of grid layout we go with.  The options are square, hex, or even a 3d layout that incorporates height.
• Customizable units – Battles take place between small squads of units.  Players assemble this small squads and challenge other players to a duel.
• Free to play – As states yesterday, there is no hidden agenda here.  Lets make a free game for all of us to play!
• Expandable format – Lets design this game so that we can add to it over time.  New units, maps, weapons, armor, items, etc.

So there you have it, the essentials of the game.  There are many questions to answer that we all need to tackle together, and these questions need to be handled in a systematic and logical order as we develop the game.  Your feedback is crucial to the success of the development of the game.