Dinonykos, are you going to offer the option at every combat? Or will you do something at the beginning asking the player which she prefers (storing value in quest or something)?
I think asking in the beginning would be more difficult to handle (although possible, as you stated).
I have now again made progress with "The Sect", the first FRUA/DC design I have played for more than 12 hours! (But I would have played some other designs as long if they weren't so short, like the contest contributions
which I liked very much.) When playing this design, I enjoyed a lot of combats (even some I lost...
), but I would really have liked to skip others. Therefore, I will give both options any time when the party faces a group of enemies. The player will be warned in the beginning that he will not have much influence on the event-based combat, but that the classic combat only allows a limited number of outcomes.
Additionally, I will probably do part I of Helmetlands (The Helmet Menace) still in DC 0.914 (I assume that the next DC release will probably still need some months), and since there are some bugs in the combat system of 0.914, the player can use the event-based combat to avoid problems. I assume, if the next official release comes earlier then I expect, I can still switch to the newer version, right?
What else will you find in Helmetlands?
Challenges: Sometimes, NPCs will ask single party members for a duell. In that case, the classic combat will not be available. However, the player will have the following options:
- All party members attack challenger - easy win, but reputation loss and sometimes further consequences in some story arcs...
- Accept challenge: The party member will fight the challenger alone. The outcome will be calculated similarly to the event-based combat, but the player is not allowed to decide how the party member fights. Depending on outcome, the party member will gain experience or other rewards, and further story parts will unfold.
- Reject challenge: May have consequences like reputation loss.
Magic: In Helmet Menace, Magic will only play a limited role (e.g., you may find NPCs capable of healing spells). This makes sense, since the party will consist of Martens only, which are incapable of doing magic, as well as most of the other characters you will meet (at least in part I). However, depending on when DC 1.0 is completed, the following parts will have a lot of magic, and part III will allow to create Magic Users and Priests.
Specialities: These will probably be handled in a similar way as in "Friedrich's Revenge", but probably include disemboweling of dead animals, scenting, seducing, seeing ultraviolet, scanning a level and more.
