'Missing' - Elemental Tactical Combat issues

from Stardock Forums

Because of the way the offense/defense system works in this game, you can have a lot of rounds of (extremely boring) 'Miss, Miss, Miss, Miss' going back and forth once unit defense levels start getting high.

This has two problems, the first is a UI issue: the floating 'Miss' text dies not explain properly what is going on. This is exacerbated by the fact that even some spells can 'miss'. This needs a clearer explanation. Even floating text that says 'No Damage' and shows the result of the attack/defense rolls would be more informative.

The second issue isn't UI, but more critically, simply fun: Playing out a lengthy tactical battle where you spend 50%+ of your turns 'missing' is BORING. There are many ways this can be addressed, but I really think it should, either by having more combat 'rolls' per attack/counterattack, or by adjusting the mechanics.

You should never be wasting minutes of your life on 'miss miss miss miss'.

elemental
2,015 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Yup, it could do with better reporting. Also a more consistent labelling of the spells and abilities which ignore defence. I believe hurl boulder explicitly states this, it also looks like the dragon's breath abilities do the same thing, but they refer to "true damage".

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Agreed about the "not fun" part of constant missing. There's a bunch of ideas to fix that, such as splitting hit and damage rolls into two things, and having a minimum damage if you manage to connect. You won't be able to one shot that guy in heavy armor, but you also just won't do nothing most of the time either.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I think I'd like to see them tune the combat in such a way that each action matters more, so you have quicker tactical combat resolution - but almost any change would be an improvement over 'miss miss miss' (particularly since the game lacks a combat speed slider right now, I find the tac combat really painful because of the slow movement/combat animations, the 'missing' just exacerbates the problem)

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I haven't had the pleasure of exploring tactical battles as much as I'd like to:

 

I'm curious -

 

Is there any bonus to attacking from behind, flanking an enemy unit? Can cavalry charge?