Hey everyone,
Thanks for following Summoners Fate and welcome to Part 4 of our Guide to Summoners Fate. Today, we talk about our Turn-Based Tactical Combat system and some of the ways we've made the turn-based genre more fast, fun and accessible without sacrificing deep strategy.
The core gameplay mechanics of Summoners Fate Adventures:
- Exploration
- Strategic Resource Management
- Tactical Turn Based Tactics <- You are here
- Team and Deck Building
Turn-Based Combat
On your turn, you are able to issue one command to each of your characters on the board and play as many cards as you have available. Each of these actions can be performed in any order that you wish.
Cora the Ice Queen freezes an enemy.
Accessible Depth
We believe the appeal of turn-based tactics games are deep mechanics that enable a wide array of creative strategies and solutions to achieve victory. But, what good is depth if the game is too complex and overwhelming to learn? To solve this, we took the tried-and-tested combat system of our first game, Hero Mages, and worked collaboratively with our players to evolve it. Through player driven development, we designed intuitive mechanics that make combat easy to pick-up and play without sacrificing the desired deep strategy.
Single Gesture Commands
To accelerate the pace of combat and make commanding characters intuitive and fun, each character’s movement and action are combined into a single gesture. At the start of your turn, each of your characters looks up at you (literally!) indicating they are ready for your orders.
To issue a command, drag a path from your character to your target. As soon as the dragging starts, all possible targets for the character are highlighted on screen. When you release, your command is executed and your character moves and attacks.
Command your units to move and attack with a single gesture.
The single gesture mechanic replaces the traditional “two action point” system used in most turn based games. It also seamlessly merges a third action step of choosing your character's facing, as the directional aspect of the gesture automatically assigns the facing of your character to align with its movement path.
Now, this may sound like we’ve lost some depth by condensing choices into a single command. However, in practice, and verified over the past few years of playtesting with turn-based fans, we’ve discovered that this actually enhances gameplay by empowering a natural flow of command and eliminating cognitive overload. For many players, the vastly higher number of permutations presented in the two-step action system creates an “analysis paralysis” effect where you’re often second guessing yourself over insubstational gains in the consideration of move move attack, or attack move attack type assessments. The end result of this? The game pace is dramatical slower. We’ve observed play patterns where players would stare for 45+ seconds before even attempting a move. This behavior fatigues the brain and denies time that could otherwise be spent enjoying the outcome of your creative strategies.
By contrast, the one-gesture mechanic system, working in tandem with our other accessible mechanics, results in a state of “flow” where your strategy is driven intuitively. Your time spent in the game is laser-focused to satisfying moments of your carefully planned positioning and combos paying off in a glorious spectacle of sequential animations.
Fluid Response (No Waiting for Animations)
Further contributing to the flow-state of our one gesture commands is our fluid response mechanic. In some games, you’re forced to wait for the character’s animation to resolve before you can issue a new command. This delay builds friction that slows the pace of gameplay and prevents you from playing as fast as your mind is thinking.
In Summoners Fate, we’ve taught our animation system to prioritize player response over animations. Not only can you rapidly command a series of units in parallel (and observe their simultaneous moves and attacks) you can intuitively skip ahead by issuing the next order. For example, you can chain together multiple unit orders or drag and drop cards in succession without having to wait for the first card to resolve. As needed, the game will detect dependent animations and skip ahead to catch up. Likewise, the AI will do the same - detecting dependencies where needed to show you important event chains (like a surprise effect being triggered) and running non-dependent animations (like a series of moves and attacks) in parallel. You also have the freedom to skip enemy turn animations all together.
Summoners Fate is responsive to your commands. Unleash your ankle-biter squirrels on the skeletal legion!
Undo and Tactile Learning
For those who’ve played games with intricate stack chains (like Magic the Gathering) where a series of effects can trigger a complex series of additional effects, you can recognize when your opponent has got something sneaky planned when they start asking to look at all of your cards on the table and read their abilities aloud. Indeed, a lot of the fun of deep strategy games comes from cascade effects creating a surprising outcome. But, it’s not very fun to brain-crunch your way through all the variables when all you really want to know is “Will playing this card give the result I intended?”
Summoners Fate provides the “Undo” button as a way to learn through tactile response. Not sure exactly how a gravity blast is going to affect all the units on the board? Drop the card down and find out. Don’t like the results? Want to try a different target? Undo and try again. All that mental energy spent calculating is handled by the game, and what’s left is the pure joy of your action yielding your intended response.
No Submenus - Actions are Context Based
There are no submenus or ability buttons in Summoners Fate. Instead, characters automatically perform the appropriate action for the target you select. For example, Paladins have a melee attack and a healing ability. If you want to attack, drag to an enemy unit. If you want to heal, drag to an injured ally.
Cleric can attack the Skeleton Breaker or heal the injured Fighter Mage. She heals her injured ally.
Intuitive Casting: Drag and Drop
Casting spells, equipping items, and summoning characters are also intuitive: just take the card you want to play and drag it from your hand onto the battlefield.
Want to blast enemies with a fireball? Just drag and drop your card onto the battlefield.
Cards follow a few rules:
- You need mana to play a card equal to the number shown on the card.
- Cards range in cost from 0-5 mana.
- You generate 3 mana each turn and can store up to 5 mana.
- If you are awarded first turn, you generate 2 mana on your first turn instead of 3.
- You hold three cards in your hand and draw new cards at the end of your turn until you have three cards.
Coming Up Next
Today, we covered the basics of how turn-based combat works in Summoners Fate and outlined how we bring accessibility to the genre without sacrificing deep strategy. We have much more tactics to share: combos, backstabbing, blocking and more! We'll cover these in the future, but for next time, we'll conclude our discussion of the core gameplay mechanics with Team and Deckbuilding.
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