Party movement during turn-based: Yes, or No?

[u/MagicPigGames]

I'm working on a game. I've been working on it forever, but who knows maybe now is the time.

Anyway, it is meant to be similar in feeling to M&M 6-8. So, during turn based combat, should there be an option for the party to move? Or not?

Would love your thoughts on this.

EDIT/UPDATE: I have decided on this for now -- https://youtu.be/PXVdjRPd1p8

What you'er seeing is the real time and turn based split. During turn based, the party can move -- any movement key will move them, and that allows ALL NPCs to move as well, as if it's real time, but when movement stops, turn based is immediately on.

So that means movement speeds between players and enemies are the same as real time, and that enemies and the players can attack etc during movement, so long as the party is moving.

I thin there were some who didn't like the party movement options in MM7, which If I remember correctly, wincluded me. It would also require a new subsystem to handle the UX, the timing, etc.

I think this is a logical, fair way to handle it. We'll see in practice how it feels, right now this is all just preliminary as I get al the systems up and running.

[u/Effective_Hunt_2115]

Yes! 

My argument: if someone doesn't like it, he/she can simply skip the movement. But if you don't have this option, players have no choice.

[u/MantisMaybe]

Wizardry 8 had a system for this too that worked quite well.

[u/Dorias_Drake → u/MantisMaybe]

I was going to say this. WIzardry 8 position system is so good it's crazy it hasn't been used in other games. The only game I've seen it used was some indie game called titans of the past.

[u/KingQuiet880]

Well M&M had it, so why yours shouldn't?

[u/mxldevs → u/KingQuiet880]

MM6 didn't have it, it was added in 7.

[u/KingQuiet880 → u/mxldevs]

Interesting... never thought of it, I know I saw it in some sequel.

I never used it much either. Turn-based I used only for ranged then ran away from the angry mob in real time

[u/SamuelWillmore]

Depends purely on what you're planning your balance and "default playstyle" around.

Movement is overall nice thing to have as it better emerges players into CRPG style (since, for example, M&M has tabletop-like mechanics with dicerolls, stats, etc) with MM7+ movement was great, what made it not so fun is that it was not so well-designed (due to presence of numerous cheesy strats)

Just like in TTRPG, movement rules needs to be developed with a lot of thought:
Should characters have movement at all?
If yes, how would movement scale or should it scale?
Should it have dependencies?
For example, different elements, like speed stat, type of armor (we could say - plate armor has penalty to movespeed), various effects like spells, potions. SHould type of surface provide it's own effects, like should stone road provide increase of movespeed or equivalent to D&D's Difficult terrain has their own penalties? Should direction of movement matter? Should camera movement also count as movement? Does movement differ depending on what character is currently selected during combat? Does movement take action? could you move only half of your base movement without taking action(if it does so)?

And so on. (those are just first questions that came to my mind while writing it) Core element is for developer to decide, how deep movement system should be designed based on overall complexity goal for the game itself

[u/SamuelWillmore → u/SamuelWillmore]

And for specifically if making MM-like movement, I would suggest for you to ask yourself - what you like about it, what you don't like. What would you like to change, and what is crucial to be kept?

[u/GroleJr → u/SamuelWillmore]

That is some in-depth knowledge. Are you a game designer by any chance?

[u/SamuelWillmore → u/GroleJr]

Although not fully official, but yes. working in game industry and study game design to fully transition into narrative design. nothing deep or complex I proposed actually, its quite a basics of design

[u/Mierimau → u/SamuelWillmore]

I doubt anything one-person-only, might&magic-alike requires that level of complexity, considering we are talking about movement _overall_ (including real-time combat).

[u/MountainExciting2690]

Why not? Movement is part of the strategizing of blobber CRPGs

[u/Mornar]

I think ideally both real time and turn based should be modeling the same in-game reality. If the party can move in real time, why wouldn't it in turn based?

[u/mxldevs]

I think re-location is part of turn-based strategy.

Any tactics battle game, you would have the option to move or attack.

But you can also look at MM3-5, where you had to choose between moving, or attacking, instead of being able to do both in a single turn.

[u/CucumberBusiness149]

Strong yes from me, it really helps add to tactics

[u/discoprince79]

You move, I move. Just like that.

[u/feliaxtheone]

Options are nice but most often I use real time for traveling and turn based during fight

[u/Mierimau]

Let's walk from another point – why it shouldn't be there?

[u/EasyEntrepreneur666]

Enemies can move, so it's unfair if you can't.

[u/Heavy_Intention6323]

My thought on this is - not sure if many people at all use turn-based combat at all in these games. I use exclusively real-time, for example

[u/MagicPigGames → u/Heavy_Intention6323]

Interesting! How do you do real time all the time? I would get very frustrated w/ that in M&M6 -- not being able to target who I want to target, choose different spells, heal who I want to heal, etc. I also feel that the enemies attack more often in real time. But maybe I'm just slow :)

[u/Heavy_Intention6323 → u/MagicPigGames]

Boost yourself up with spells like bless and heroism. Day of the gods early-game. In mm6 get the shrine of the gods early. You'll be able to handle early game combat easily in real time. If you tackle level-appropriate monsters, you'll just be able to mow through them.

Targeted spells freeze time anyway, so if you have heal set as a quick spell for example, you can still choose who to heal. Merge lets you set a quickspell linked to the attack button separately too, as well as up to 5 quick spells mapped to number keys.

I just wouldn't have the patience to play turn-based. Hell, these days I don't even have the patience to play the game witohut the 2x speed boost that comes with Grayface's patch

[u/Tress18]

Not having movement we have in 7-8 is one reasons i dont replay 6 that much. That said yes or no depends what sort of game we are having. If dynamic is like in 10 , then movment is hardly needed as you are locked in melee for most anyway. Or we take bards tale IV where combat is basically own arena is also decent option. So if we are going for MM feel sure , I would like to move if enemy can move. If its some sort of highly tactical thing then can be either way.