A new combat experiment is available on the "next" beta channel (guide for setup here)! This update (v0.20.0-beta.3) changes and tweaks multiple parts of signatures to improve pacing. I wanted to rethink how signatures work, add some more counter-play, and address some of the following issues:

• Signatures take a lot of work to gain, but can be "lost" easily by missing
• Only counter is "avoidance", causing boring gameplay when one player has a signature and the other doesn't
• No benefit to playing "close" to someone with a signature, makes avoidance the only option
• Simple to execute but hard to read and counter

Heat Management & Cost

Since the beginning of Double Turn, signatures always cost all of your heat you've built up when using the signature. This experiment changes this "heat cost" to punish missed signatures less and also allow for more comebacks. Signatures

• Successful signatures still cost all built up heat
• A missed signature drops heat to 75% of the max

When signatured by someone else you will:

• Drop to 50% heat when full
• Drop to 50% + 1/2 of remaining heat when >= 50%
• Keep all gained heat if < 50%

The amount of heat you keep after a fall is admittedly a little odd now. The main point is to not punish players who are behind, but also simultaneously encourage action when in a stalemate when both players have a full signature. I'll probably tweak these numbers more but right now I think it makes for a less frustrating experience when missing and also retaining some heat you built up after getting signatured.

Signature Speed

To add a bit more counter-play and make signatures a bit more skill-based I made a few more tweaks to them:

• Increase startup time (~33% longer)
• Shorter distance travelled (~40% shorter distance)
• Faster dash speed (~30% faster)

The result is that the opponent has a slightly longer time to react to the move. Plus since it is faster and travels a shorter distance, you have to be a bit more accurate to hit the opponent, and less likely to accidentally hit them by chance since it was really easy to just spam it in the general direction of the opponent before. The signature is still hard to read, although the increase startup time helped, so I plan to add some further visual effects to this to make it more clear. I want to improve the VFX for the signature as well as the dodge. Sorry no GIFs this time around, all the changes are numbers rebalancing, but I will make sure to include juicy GIFs on the next one! As mentioned in the last post, these are experiments I may roll back and will very likely make major changes to even if I do keep them! They are also done with quick-and-dirty effects and art tweaks so there's some lacking animations and VFX while I experiment.

[ 2020-08-27 12:47:42 CET ] [ Original post ]