Tactical combat ... from what I've seen.. it needs some serious improvement to make it really enjoyable, and to have some "Tactical" depth and interest.
To do that, Tactical combat needs to function in a way that's easy to understand but also provides further depth, and genuine fun.
Step 1. Every unit should have two basic types of actions.
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- Move action. The distance a unit can move is based upon their movement speed.
- Standard Action. This is used to attack, use equipment, cast spells etcetera.
Step 2. Movement is an obvious one. But you should also be able to move through friendly units if an unoccupied space is available within the range of the units total move.
Step 3. Types of Attack Actions. All use a Standard action to fuel them.
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- Standard Attack - A units normal attack for their type, melee, ranged or spell. They can do this before or After a move action.
- Ready Attack - You ready a unit to attack an opponent who comes within range of that unit. (Melee when a target is adjacent. Ranged if further away.) But this is where Unit Combat Speed should come into play for melee. The unit with the higher initiative (err combat speed), gets to resolve their attack first in case an opponent charged or when the enemy unit became adjacent.
- Charge Attack - The unit makes a melee attack immediately as part movement. The advantage to charging is + to hit and damage.
- Counter Charge Attack - Your unit can designate the ability to charge an enemy if they move within range. (This can result in two units "Charging" each other and the unit with the higher combat speed, gets their attack off first.)
These ideas are just basic, but add a depth to the Tactical combat that, would really make it jump leaps and bounds across the board. And they aren't just specific to any one game. They are normal for many fantasy rpg tactical battles.
Turn based doesn't have to mean one entire side goes, then the other side goes, ad naseum till blood pours out our eyes. Make it interesting. Add a real initiative rating. And then a random dice roll to see how many movement points they rolled up. Which they then spend that initiative points to move units, one at a time, until all their points are out for their turn. Then the enemy takes a turn moving their rolled initiative points to move units. And then... at the end of that round, if the battle is still going on. Then initiative is rolled again. And this way sometimes if luck favored you, you get to move more units and other times your only able to move the minimum.
I'm just saying, I think people will have a hard time enjoying the tactical battles if they function still as they currently do. But add in a little depth that makes them think, give them a random dice roll to determine the number of units they can move, and which ones to do so can be engaging. It'll then become a case of using interesting factors, determine when to move a unit, when to charge, and when to ready an attack. And so on and so on, and so on.
I do realize that were just doing the beta version of this Tactical Battles. And they seem to be going to run the way they currently are. But as with all aspects of this game, if we can help provide some interesting and compelling ideas.. they can look it over and find ways to implement them. To fix it as it were. I mean let's be honest here, the game already has move and attack built in. The rest of it is just clarifying it with words, and easy to determine functions, and a few minor things like Ready Attack, and Charge, and Counter Charge. And charge could be just simply a movement combined with an attack as part of it for the computer to figure out.
