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