New combat options...

[drcode]

In today's snapshot, you should see a "Combat Options" choice in the game menu. There, you can set "Show Hits" to see hit-points lost during combat. And, you can set the Mode to "Space pauses".

With this, hitting the spacebar during combat will suspend/unsuspend it. While suspended, you can right-click on one of your party, then left-click on the enemy you want him to attack.

I'm open to other suggestions to make combat more entertaining. One thought would be a mode where the game automatically suspends at certain events (party member injured, monster dies?). I'm just not sure if that would be fun, or just tedious.

[MV]

Cool, I'll have to try it. It might make it worthwhile to equip everyone with triple crossbows now.

[Zosite]

Good work DrCode!! [:-D)

It´s good to be able to change combat difficult without exiting the game (to make it harder of course: VERY easy with normal mode). "Show hits" feature is interesting and "pause combat" is simply an excellent idea: using it instead of combat modes (they´re actually ungovernable sometimes) adds more strategy to the combat.

Anyway it should be better to work on more annoying combat problems like enemies wandering around like stupids without any orientation, or the limited speed of the party while in combat mode or with enemies around which must be related to Dexterity as in the original.

BTW: "Speed limiter" in Exult 1.1x doesn´t work with guards and other non-hostile NPCs while they´re attacking you (I´ve already submitted a bug report for this)

[drcode]

Yes, I'd like to improve some of the other aspects of combat. The hard thing is that it's difficult to test.

Might be nice to have speed controlled by keystrokes, too.

[Zosite]

[center]Well, here we are to test as far as we can! And to report bugs ...hehehe... [;-))

*Zósite´s preparing a new "onslaught" to the Bug Tracker...[/center]

[RazorBlade]

Great ideas, DrCode!
Makes combat much more interesting!

What about some more on-screen information while in pause mode?
Perhaps a actual HP / Max HP view for all on-screen chars(Player, non-player and monster)? Or a life-bar for all creatures like the status-bar, just being shown directly under or over them?
Or, why not steal some good ideas of good games. Give every PC two sets of weapons, so the player can perhaps change fast between sword/shield and crossbow. Make a Ascension-like quickitem slot for wands, scrolls and potions.

I think a good way to improve combat and advance the use of tactics is simply to raise all hitpoints. Make an ingame slider in the options so all get twice the normal HP or even more. There is more sense in thinking on tactics when combat is not over after 5 seconds.

Hope, you like some of my ideas; I will try the new improvements now(damn, have to switch to 1.1 again .. )

[Meat Shield]

I like the pause idea so you can cast Mass Sleep, then kick them while they're down. }:> "Are you sure that is sporting Avatar?"

I have no good ieads, but I'll toss them out and maybe others will come up with better ideas.

What about a "Heckel" option so party members trash talk after nutralizing a target. "Who's the man?!", "Yup. I know it. I'm bad.", "Victory is mine! We thank they Lord that in thy...", "Look you stupid ba***rd, you've go no arms left!", etc.

If someone gets hurt to around 25%, have them retreat?

Maybe have the people with swords stand in front of the archers and wait till the ememy gets with in a certian range befor atacking. A sort of lose formation holding. So the archers can pelt them. Perhaps combat happens to quickly for that to be useful.

Summon will call the StayPuft Marshmellow Man.

Automaticly have archers give extra arrows to other archers who run out of ammo.

This maybe a bug fixed in 1.1, but with Exult 1.0, my party will attack the wisps (after I get the wisl (sp on purpose ), and leave me to fight a dragon by myself, or something, and it ruins the day because 1, They can't kill the wisp and move on. 2, The dragon pelt the party memebers in the back and they ignore it because they are busy with the wisp. So, how about a option were you can select an entitiy to not be attacked. Instead of "attack that", its "ignore that". You can later override by using "T".

[toad`sMoke]

I don't know if this is possible, but also show what each one of the party members are doing. For example, which monster they are attacking, or if they are retreating, where they are retreating to, also if they are running somewhere, where they are going and what they are going to do when they get there. One thing about Ultima7 is that the combat is too quick so that the players dont have very much involvement. Do you think you could impliment the UO feature where you must have your spellbook in your hands, or have your handsfree to cast a spell? Maybe have a shortkey to arm certain weapons. So that you can quickly equip the spellbook, cast a spell, then equip a sword afterwards. I also think it's kinda silly that only the Avatar can cast spells. Maybe make an option where Iolo or someone can cast a limited amount of spells. Like a few from circle 1 to 3. or something. That would greatly improve the combat system and make the game much more interesting as a whole. I think ultima7 really lacks in the character building part of an rpg.

I dont think it'd be a good idea to show the hitpoints of the enemy. I really like the idea of not knowing how far the monster is to being dead. It makes the game harder and more realistic.

[toad`sMoke]

Okay, I just checked out the new combat system and I think it's great. One improvement: while in combat, if you can also right-click on the portraits as well as the actual character then select the monster. Sometimes not all the party is in the screen and this way you can command your party members no matter where they are.

[Neutronium Dragon]

Requiring one to actively unequip and re-equip the weapon would be nothing but an annoyance. The Avatar is already assumed to be doing that when casting, as evidenced by his graphic during the process.

Neutronium Dragon

[ascendence]

is it possible to make an option for different styles of combat.. ie: turn based, real time, ultima style, whole party gets a turn then monsters get a turn.. etc etc.. some people like one style while others prefer a different style.. making it an option if possible would be able to satisfy both sides. i dont know how much coding it would take but its worth looking into.

[Dominus]

as you can see with the new comabt style it is totally optional. So I'd say you can count on other implementations to be optional as well. If there will be comabt styles like you mention is another topic...

[ascendence]

i would like to see hot keys or a 'belt' style system.. but i think the hot keys would be easier to implement.. wouldnt the belt system take a bit of coding and time to work with the usecode? if its even possible?

[SB-X]

It is in the feature tracker.

[drcode]

The "heckel" idea reminds me of the "call" command in Privateer. If you issued a "friendly" call, you could sometimes talk your way past enemies.

[irinotecanHCL]

And in Wing Commander, there was a heckle call that would cause fleeing kilrathi to turn around and fight you to the death.

[drcode]

Let's face it; the combat in Wing Commander was a whole lot more fun than that in Ultima. Now if only we could combine the two: You'd have a big RPG world (or multiple worlds), but you could also go into space and play in a space-sim. game.

[gruck]

Then you might want to play Space Rogue by Origin Systems. Its a direct combination between ultima 5 and wing commander. And a surprisingly fun game