Creating Satisfying Combat Experiences
At Games
The Designer’s Dream
“drop in and play” enemy behavior
Less scripting and environment authoring
Less predictability, more procedural surprise moments for the player
The Reality
Sadly, “drop in and play” is:
Chaotic
Incomprehensible
Frustrating
Solutions Establish a Front Create Layered Setups Understand Combat Focus Functional Cover Placement Attack in Waves Good Flanking Practices Know When to Re-Direct the Front Use High Priority Targets Good Ally Usage
How did Insomniac Games arrive at these concepts?
RCF: TOD and Resistance 2
Tightly directed by Insomniac veterans
Design staff experienced in the franchises
R2 had very linear spaces
RCF: A Crack In Time
Departures and promotions
Design staff noobs to the franchise
Less linear spaces
Back to the basics …
RCF: ACIT and Resistance 3
Immediate and dramatic improvements
Solid core combat means fewer changes
More effort can be put into dramatics
Hill 609 by Fletcher Martin
Establishing a Front
Establish two distinct fronts
Use the architecture to help define fronts
Use cover placement to define fronts
Front lines determine flanking opportunities
Example of a poorly established front
Player front?
Enemy front?
No Man’s Land?
A well-established front
Layered Setups
= 2 distinct setups both requiring enemies to be present at the start
Keep layers clearly separated (combat distance)
Use vertical space
Layered Setups
Player only truly engages the first layer – second layer is spectacle
On the last 1-2 foreground enemies, pull them back, move allies up, then allow second layer to engage
Player rushes the second combat-area = engage
Needs Layering
Tons of enemies
No separation
All on same level
Well Layered
Combat Focus = where the player’s attention is – the anchor of the
setup
It’s narrower than you think
Keep distinct – associate with geometry
Can have 2 – keep distinct – separate geographically
Combat Focus
Keep cover positions pretty tight
Intro enemies into a tight “home” and keep them there
Intros route new enemies behind the combat focus
Player exit/goal behind the combat focus
Poor Combat Focus
Enemies too spread out
Intros from too far
Player’s FOV
Exit off screen
Better Combat Focus
Cover Placement Defining each setup should BEGIN with your cover
placement
Use cover to define the front lines and combat focus Be conscious of facing and shape of cover
Use cover to lure the player into their initial combat position
Use multiple cover positions to create player choice
Cover Placement
Resist the urge to randomly scatter cover for realism
Ideal Combat Distance between player and enemy cover
Flanking cover = 1-2 pieces of good cover (rarely more)
2+ cover positions for each shooter
Poor cover placement
Front lines?
Combat focus?
Initial combat pos?Player choice?
Better cover placement
Waves - Composition
Enemies over time is key – waves are the way to do this
First wave is the “gimmee” – it’s the second and subsequent waves that are the real combat
Each wave is *about* a single – and different – class of enemy
Waves - Composition
Filler enemies OK – but NOT a homogenous mixture
Keep melee enemies and projectile enemies in separate waves
Pacing across waves – build up to a crescendo
Waves - Intros
On last 1-2 enemies in current wave
Or on <40% health of single tougher enemy
Intro new waves through the current combat focus – then fan out
Waves - Intros
Long intro paths, perpendicular to LOS
Stagger enemy spawns – temporally and spatially
Dropships – intro through combat focus and loop around battlefield
Waves – pausing between
ONLY when there is a story reason to do so
Exposition should happen here
As well as your allies repositioning themselves
This is usually a rare moment, that precedes a new enemy intro or significant story event
Poorly done waves
Toughest enemy first?
Waves from afar?
Grunts in every wave?
Improved waves
Flanking
A solid combat focus and front lines allow for a flank
1-2 good pieces of cover and a single path define a flank (more = messy)
Let the player get anchored before flanking (8s delay)
Flanking
Must flank through the combat focus
Must call out the flanking maneuver really well Dialog/foley First shot miss behavior
Additional wave makes a good flank, BUT this is really Redirecting The Front
Bad Flanking
Front lines?
Flank from afar?
Clear flanking pos?
Better Flanking
Re-directing a front
You must establish a new front and combat focus
Do on new wave entry
Retreat remaining enemies to their new front
Re-directing a front
Move allies up into their new front
Call out with dialog or significant event
Use the new combat focus to attract player to setup exit
Needs redirecting Now what?
Front Redirected
High Priority Targets
Usually tougher enemies
Take prominent positions Use the geography to highlight them Separate physical space from filler enemies
Wave is “about” this high priority target
Muddled priority
Just another in the mix
Improved Priority
Tight environments
Hand script each enemy
Enemies generally take a single position and stick to it
Sometimes fine to just let the enemies run wild example: coming upon two easy enemies in a room with no cover
these are usually quick surprise moments
Poor tight environment work
Can wander off
Can clump up
Looks dumb
Good tight environment work
Allies
hand scripted
go to specific cover points every time
in small encounters, stick to that cover point indefinitely
in larger encounters, can have a small home area
Allies
keep allies and enemies separated
allies will define the front line and the player’s initial position
allies should run ahead of the player to the front line
Poor ally usage
Allies muddying the front
Player ahead of allies
Action off-screen
Better ally usage
How it all comes together …
Finally… “no surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader”
Do something unexpected
Surprise yourself
Surprise your leads
Surprise the player
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