Enhancing Combat Design: Strategies for Engaging Player Experiences

2. Creating Satisfying Combat Experiences At Games

3. The Designer’s Dream • “drop in and play” enemy behavior • Less scripting and environment authoring • Less predictability, more procedural surprise moments for the player

4. The Reality Sadly, “drop in and play” is: • Chaotic • Incomprehensible • Frustrating

5. 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

6. How did Insomniac Games arrive at these concepts?

7. RCF: TOD and Resistance 2 • Tightly directed by Insomniac veterans • Design staff experienced in the franchises • R2 had very linear spaces

8. RCF: A Crack In Time • Departures and promotions • Design staff noobs to the franchise • Less linear spaces

9. Back to the basics …

10. RCF: ACIT and Resistance 3 • Immediate and dramatic improvements • Solid core combat means fewer changes • More effort can be put into dramatics

11. Hill 609 by Fletcher Martin

12. 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

13. Enemy front? No Man’s Land? Player front? Example of a poorly established front

14. A well-established front

15. Layered Setups • = 2 distinct setups both requiring enemies to be present at the start • Keep layers clearly separated (combat distance) • Use vertical space

16. 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

17. All on same level Needs Layering Tons of enemies No separation

18. Well Layered

19. 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

20. 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

21. Exit off screen Intros from too far Enemies too spread out Poor Combat Focus Player’s FOV

22. Better Combat Focus

23. 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

24. 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

25. Poor cover placement Combat focus? Front lines? Initial combat pos? Player choice?

26. Better cover placement

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. Waves - Intros • Long intro paths, perpendicular to LOS • Stagger enemy spawns – temporally and spatially • Dropships – intro through combat focus and loop around battlefield

31. 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

32. Poorly done waves Waves from afar? Toughest enemy first? Grunts in every wave?

33. Improved waves

34. 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)

35. 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

36. Bad Flanking Flank from afar? Front lines? Clear flanking pos?

37. Better Flanking

38. 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

39. 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

40. Needs redirecting Now what?

41. Front Redirected

42. 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

43. Muddled priority Just another in the mix

44. Improved Priority

45. 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

46. Can clump up Can wander off Looks dumb Poor tight environment work

47. Good tight environment work

48. 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

49. 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

50. Poor ally usage Allies muddying the front Player ahead of allies Action off-screen