Combat system flawed?

Dan · Post by **Dan** » Mon Nov 25, 2002 3:08 am

As far as I'm concerd the combat system in Arcanum is flawed and unbalanced.
The combat in Arcanum is pretty boring and I blame the real time option.

The real time combat implementation weakens the overall combat.
When playing with the turn based mode you just don't have the same tactical feeling as you had in Fallout.
You don't count your AP's and think of the best way to spend them, it's more like attacking as much as you can in your turn then waiting for your next one.

The game would have been better without the real time mode, it made the turn base into a slow moving real time, which is bad.

Now, I don't think the system is terriable, but it leaves a lot to be desired.

Doyle · Post by **Doyle** » Mon Nov 25, 2002 3:44 am

Yeah, it could be better.

Ezechial_Rage · Post by **Ezechial_Rage** » Mon Nov 25, 2002 8:25 am

I agree with you completely on that one. I played the whole game through in turn base because I despise realtime rpgs. The thing that bothered me the most is that no matter what, you got to attack first in turn base. There was no roll to see who was more perceptive or anything like that. The monster runs up to you (switch into turn base) you get to attack first..... I found that annoying.

Forty-six & Two · Post by **Forty-six & Two** » Mon Nov 25, 2002 9:46 pm

One thing that I found anoying about the combat system was that everything moves so goddamn fast! Now I usually play RT, but I dont despsie TB. RT can be fun if you still have time to think, but not time for a small nap while your 30 enemies move around. Dont get me wrong here, when I play a game I dont care about spending alot of time, I just dont find it that exiciting if I dont have to think fast at least now and then.

MF · Post by MF » Tue Nov 26, 2002 6:24 am

Excitement is not the game's forte.

Chess is not exciting, but it sure as hell keeps me in suspense while playing it.

Forty-six & Two · Post by **Forty-six & Two** » Tue Nov 26, 2002 7:02 am

MF wrote:Excitement is not the game's forte.

Chess is not exciting, but it sure as hell keeps me in suspense while playing it.

Heh, usually I only kill monsters in because it gives XP. And XP means char development, and the opportunity to move on in the game so I can "read" the story.

axelgreese · Post by **axelgreese** » Tue Nov 26, 2002 7:53 am

And nobody likes spending a few hours just to level up...

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Tue Nov 26, 2002 7:24 pm

Ezechial_Rage wrote:I agree with you completely on that one. I played the whole game through in turn base because I despise realtime rpgs. The thing that bothered me the most is that no matter what, you got to attack first in turn base. There was no roll to see who was more perceptive or anything like that. The monster runs up to you (switch into turn base) you get to attack first..... I found that annoying.

That's true. That "feature" unfortunately made it easy to whore some difficult parts in the game, e.g. I went inside a building, started combat mode, casted half a dozen harms on some nasty hellspawn and returned outside with the few action points I had left. 1 hour of sleep and the same thing again until the monster dies. Hurray.

I felt like I didn't receive enough combat feedback anyway. It would've been nice to see the amount of damage done etc. like in Fallout. Overall the combat was very simple, which made the battles rather boring, especially in places like BMC mines and city sewers that were pretty much nothing but hack'n'slash. I don't think it was because of real-time, but because there was way too much combat and it didn't offer much options. Fallout had nifty stuff like targeted shots that made the battles a bit more interesting.