A turn-based 3D combat-action strategy RPG inspired from Valkyria Chronicles, in an ancient warfare/fantasy combat setting.
Other similar games:
All factions contain specific character classes.
NOTE: Subsections beyond this section needs to be converted/altered a bit to fit Riddle of Steel stat system…but the classes still stand.
(Depreciated in favour of Riddle of Steel)
The attribute system currently is based off the game Divinity: Original Sin, with some slight differences.
Strength:
Dexterity:
Constituiton:
Intelligence:
Speed:
Perception:
(Depreciated in favour of Riddle of Steel)
Some of the skills under these abilities are based off the game Dragon Age: Origins. This is just a rough list.
Completely non-direct assignable skills are marked with asterisk.
(uses best-held weapon’s assigned points for this skill)
(uses best-held firearms’s assigned points for this skill)
(uses best-held weapon’s assigned points for this skill, either Bow or Crossbow)
(uses combined average of best-held weapon skill points and assigned points of this skill itself)
(uses combined average of best-held weapon skill points and assigned points of this skill itself)
These abilities are based off the game Divinity: Original Sin.
These abilities are based off the game Divinity: Original Sin.
Training in the respective weapon abilities will marginally increase the bonus damage of all such weapons being used. Works according to the rules in Divinity: Original Sin game, but goes into actual weapon types rather than Divinity’s generic “1-handed”/“2-handed” abilities, for better roleplaying of class roles.
This is just a rough list.
(All forms of hilted bladed weaponary of short length.)
(All forms of hilted bladed weaponry of medium to long length.)
(All forms of axes consisting of a medium to large blade.)
(All forms of polearms with small-to-medium pointy blades.)
(All bludgeoning weapons. Clubs, hammers, maces, you name it.)
(All blunt/minimal-bladed polearms of relatively light weight.)
These abilities are based off the game Divinity: Original Sin. Currently, they are of no use at the moment unless there’s an actual non-combat storyline/quests to go along with a particular Asharena gamemode.
(Depreciated in favour of Riddle of Steel, though including this in one way of the other might be possible…)
Below are rules that universally applies to all games using the Asharena battle system, which is inspired from BLITZ battle system used in Valkyria Chronicles.
(Depreciated in favor of Riddle of Steel rules). Note that Riddle of Steel mechanics differ from this. This is still kept as a reference for basic Blitz battle system design in general.
Similar to Valkryia Chronicles, with ranged units that can deal interception fire if they are put on some form of overwatch. (or this is done automatically, depending on the nature of the game and whether there’s cost assosiated with firing…).
However, enemy reaction triggers only happen when “real”-time passes while your unit moves. Ie. The clock doesn’t tick continously outside of your control. Thus, this allows you to move about and plan (in auto-paused time) without needing too much twitch action like in the original Valkyria chronicles. Think of it like a RTWP (real-time-with-pause) game, without needing to manually pause, since the game is automatically paused and only automatically progresses forward with your movement, and also incorportating turn-based elements.
Movement controls can be point+click based, or using an actual character controller.
Movement limits is subjected to Movement Points. Movement Points might be combined with action points for certain special actions.. Using certain actions might require limiting movement points available at hand.
Movement points determine the movement region (typical turn-based games like X-Com showing a region of movable areas), or the total distance you are allowed to traverse before you are forced to stop (Valkyria Chronicles style).
During a unit’s turn, the act of moving a unit back and forth indecisively, waiting, or moving through seperate longer routes rather than 1 shortest path towards a given destination.
Approximating mutual 1-to-1 engagements (NOTE: some units have higher aggro by default and can draw multiple engagements against him).
Determining this is based on which opposing units are mutually closest at a given time of exposure.
Every targetter/target pair has a single overwatch targeting state.
Allows a manual “watch” action on a target or focused region, so will consider it as being engaged to the target if the target is activated for movement during the enemy’s turn. For such a situation, it only takes 1 valid exposure to deal fire.
Among those who are eligible to fire within an overwatch exposure, the one chosen to deal fire goes in the priority order of:
Exposure:
Obligation:
Urgency and Opportunity:
Lack of Aggro Response, Need at least One (may not be included)
Arrangement of those in Free Reaction Queue are based off the overwatcher’s carried weapon’s Anti-Reaction rating, in ascending order. This is basically determines “Capacity to Fire”.
The formula is just a rough aggregation to determine what kind of units prefer to react first based on several weapon types, ranging from automatics, semi-autos, loaded bolt/pump action, single-shots etc., and which units would rather react later. Normally, single-shots react last and automatics reacts first.
Number of Rounds Left In Magazine = Total Ammo Available Loaded - 1;
TimeItTakesToExpendEntireClip = Number of Rounds Left In Magazine / AverageRoundsFiredPerSecond
TimeInBetweenshots = ( Total Reload time of Weapon if Only 1 round left to fire) or ( 1 / AverageRoundsFiredPerSecond)
Anti-Reaction rating = CapZeroOrHigher(Total Reload time of Weapon - TimeItTakesToExpendEntireClip) + TimeInBetweenShots + TimeInBetweenShots/0.3
All time units in the formulas are in seconds.
A full step is the diameter of a person footstool, is basically 32 units ingame for a human-sized unit.
A half step is the radius of a person’s footstool, is basically 16 units ingame for a human sized unit.
Grids usually run in half step resolution.
Spot testing is a quick spot-check on a target to determine if he’s currently visible or not. If the current spot on the target being spotted is no longer spottable, a full exposure check is done ( in order of points closest to center of mass). If the target is not spotted yet, only a single spot check ray is done at a random spot. Thus, this is mostly an “early-out” case.
Spot/Exposure testing is done at the global smallest time interval resolution of every 2 half-steps made in regular running speed (which is 0.21333 seconds ) among all watchers, including at the very start of a turn.
Analysing of full exposure percentage for a target (ie. Exposure Testing)… (to be considered for firing or adding to exposure count) is only done among watchers that meet the given requirement of accumulated time met after spotting (reprepsentative of the time to actually aim and aqquire on the target). Otherwise, an early-out Spot Test suffices only.
When a target moves, each exposure test will update the overwatch state of all enemy overwatchers on that target. An exposure test is immediately followed by any enemy reaction fire trigger pulls if the overwatchers passes the “Conditions to pull the trigger on target”.
Analog Pin
(The above doesn’t penalize loitering within a small region. Requires traversing across a certain thresholded distance in order to yield an exposure test. This means a unit can safely loiter about within a approximately half-step torwards full-step sized region, without triggering enemy fire.)
Analog Loiter
(The above means any form of movement or waiting across full-step distance time will trigger an exposure test each time. This penalizes loitering in any form.)
Exposure testing occurs at a resolution of 0.64 seconds. For a guy that is running at regular speed, which is set to a standard 150 units per second, it takes at least 96 units of such movement to yield a single exposure, which is slightly over a 3 feet stride. The number of half- steps required is Math.round(0.64*movementSpeed)/16. At regular speed, it’ll take 6 half-step worth of movements/time to trigger an exposure test.
RUNNING 150 units = 6 half-step = 96 movement units exposure
SPRINTING 240 units ~= 10 half-step ~= 160 movement units = 153 movement units exposure
SLOWWALK 60 units ~= 2 half-steps ~= 32 movement units = 38 movement units exposure
For Grid and Pin, the minimum movement units required in any situation for an exposure test is always capped down to 2 half-steps always (ie. 1 full step). Exposure tests cannot go lower than 2 half steps.
To suffice an exposure count:
A shield being actively raised up also mitigates the exposure. Eg. shield that covers 50% of the body is considered 50% mitigitation exposure regardless.
Any artificial shield being applied also has an innate exposure mitigiation rating.
This means that overwatch will not trigger for the above shielded cases, but suppressive fire will.
Aggro settings can be set on known targets, or on certain target types. Default is 1 for all targets. Aggro determines the amount of priortized aggro engagements allowed on the target. An Aggro of zero means the target will be ignored completely.
Requires conditions:
Who fires within the exposure?
Among non-single-shot weapons, this can result in an escalation of gunfire onto the target as time progresses.
No sustained fire.
Sustained shooters will temporarily stop firing when:
Sustained shooters will stop firing and begin reloading when:
This affects the enemies’ ability to fire by dealing with the cooldown times of the enemy such as reloads, and any personal reaction delays that may exist among enemies in the Free Reaction Queue. The timings are depleted based on the time that has elapsed accordingly. Elapsed time is calculated as:
The 1st option penalises loitering up to a certain amount when it comes to giving the enemy extra time for cooldown. The 2nd option penalises loitering completely when it comes to enemy cooldowns.
There are 3 options which can determine whether/how movement region of the actively targeted unit is depleted due to coming under such suppressive fire. This can force a unit to be pinned down as a result, or fail to reach it’s destination in time.
Both 2nd and 3rd option artificially decreases movement region space, forcing a player to be pinned down and preventing him from reaching his destination at all costs. The 1st option gives the player a choice of deciding whether to continue moving on or not, considering the risks involved and actively deciding to be pinned down rather than artificially being forced to stop.
Only the 3rd option penalises loitering, particularly if you stick within the same spot and don’t move out fast enough before the next enemy trigger.
Suppression/Overwatch fire are all under interception fire, which has reduced accruacy and no critical damage.
Unlike Overwatch, Suppression fire enforces:
((DESIGN IMPLICATIONS:))
Active Fire/Strikes:
Opputunity Fire:
Player is rewarded for:
Having an advantage in not loitering, ie. quick decisive shortest path movements rather than hesitative back/forth/run+stop movement when potentially facing enemy interception fire.
A bit of twitch thinking and controller-based movement on the player’s part:
NOTE: An “easy-auto-pause” mode can be used during enemy reaction triggers, but this operates under click-based movements rather than controller-based movement.
Player doesn’t require twitch gameplay in:
All triggers must resolve before the player can end turn or trigger an action during a turn.
Melee engagements:
Once you get within engagement range of a melee aggro unit, a sort of combat circle surrounds you.
MELEE OVERWATCH:
Similar to current system used for Ranged Overwatch, omitting out range considerations and considered all “very close” by default. Mode is always using Analog Loiter and Suppressive fire.
Melee overwatcher being attacked is priortized over others.
MELEE OPPUTUNITY ATTACK:
Exiting the combat circle of a melee aggro
Balance turn Scheme:
Turn-based, I Go- You Go team based as a standard sceheme.
Thus, active side will be quite powerful with the ability to deal critical damage and special abilities. This is counterable with reaction fire in the form of overwatch/suppression/retailiatory fire. However, higher damaging actions usually use up more time, which can mean potentially more reaction attacks on the enemy’s part. But generally, the active side will still have the overall advantage of initiative and killing/damaging power so that camping is discouraged. Movement must still be encouraged by ensuring interception fire isn’t too overpowered, and allowing ways of overcoming it.
Adjustable balance parameters:
CPs. Similar to Valkyria Chronicles. CP(s) is used to control a unit and perform 1 action for the actve side, or perform some global order buff/action. The team with the first turn opening advantage will start with half less CPs, or the team that runs on the next turn at the starting phase will have double the CPs over the team with the first turn advantage.
Give between 0 - 0.215 seconds aggro time elapsed globally per CP used for a different unit?
For simplicity, provide free reloads of all ranged weapons at the start of every phase? If not, there needs to be an option to hold fire for weapons, or automatically hold fire once ammo reaches down to a certain limit. Overwatch fire control options become more important in such a situation.
Alternative/additional balancing methods:
Adjustable balance parameters:
Adjustable balance parameters:
Max Reacting units based on trigger time being used for weapon. Thus, single shots will yield less exposures.
Certain units like Ranged units may not have this feature , or may only have this feature against other ranged units only (thus providing melee attacks an advantage over ranged in not having ranged retailiatory fire against melee attackers).
Adjustable balance parameters:
( Urgency Close Range ) - For dealing fire urgently. Also the lowest range possible for all ranged weapons in game.
( Effective Closing-In Range ) - Halfway between Effective Range of weapon and Urgency Close Range
Minimum Range - Some weapons have a minimum range so if the enemy gets too close, you need to shove them forward first before being able to trigger the weapon’s primary attack.
Effective Range - It’s all dependenant on the user’s accruacy within effective range
Maximum Range - From effective range to maximum range, the accruacy and damage diminishes for ranged weapons down to 25% of it’s damage and 10% of accruacy. Percentages are adjsutable.
Adjustable balance parameters:
Shorter reached weapons usually have slightly shorter time to swing, critical capabilitity, and armor piercing. However, longer reach weapons may have higher weight and thus higher base damage, and higher reach. Long reach weapons may also have a minimum range limit imposed.
Total checklist of adjustable parameters:
BASICS:
ADVANCED:
Human footbase: 32 units
Human unit base: Somewhere between 32 units to 48 units. Used for collision detection.
Human engagement range: Depends on the range of the melee weapon, usually around at 128 units on average between human sizes.
Human engagement safe-range border: Also known as Zone of Control. Human engagement range + half of human footbase distance.
When you exit out of human engagement range of an enemy, or do so halfway towards human engagement safe-range border, an opputunity attack is always potentially available for the enemy to take.
Enemy engagement safe-range border drawn as a circle known as “Zone of Controls”. You can wander freely around this border without drawing any reaction attacks from such units, similar to Mordheim City of the Damned, where iuter movement clipping is enabled for these Zone of Controls, and you cannot enter the Zone of control of an enemy unit until you choose to engage him via a melee attack that causes you to enter that zone of control. Additionally, unlike Mordheim City of the Damned, you can manually engage him via action-style Dark souls locking-on, causing the zone of control to be unlocked and you can enter it. Note that loitering within the effective maximum range of the enemy weapon can yield a free stationery ambush attack from the melee unit.
Effective melee weapon ranges are clamped to approximate multiples of 16 game units, which is half the distance of human footbase.
All weapons have 3 stats:
Effective maximum range: Effective range of the weapon which determines the Human engagement range radius and Zone of Control.
Effective minimum range: Effective range of the weapon. Used as a closed-in charging attack distance limit at times.
Minimum range: Range of the weapon capable of dealing a proper attack with it. If you are carrying such a weapon, you cannot move in closer beyond this range boundary to a targeted enemy, but you can move out of it, which is necessary if you need to deal a proper attack with the given weapon.
When you go into target mode, attack choices are given descriptively according as below that provides a combination of auto-manuevers to accompany your attack:
Spring attack:
Available if your weapon range can’t reach the enemy and you are at the enemy’s Zone of Control border or within it, but can still reach the enemy within a human footbase distance. Lunges forward by the required amount (up to a maximum of a human footbase or half of it) to strike at enemy, than springs back into the original position. Prone to counterattack from enemy. This will form a combat engagement between you and the enemy. Allows disengaging from combat with the least risk particularly if you are at the enemy’s Zone of Control border or if you want to minimise a unit’s chance of escape.
Closed-in Charging attack:
Available if your weapon’s effective maximum range is usually shorter than the enemy’s and there’s room to move in closer to the enemy to either meet your weapon’s minimum range if it’s shorter than the enemy’s, or else towards your effective minimum weapon range. This will form a combat engagement between you and the enemy. Disengage with more risk for both you and the enemy due to the closer range of the engagement. Not prone to counterattack if your position goes beyond minimum range of enemy’s weapon, and will attempt to move in as close past that range in order to deal such an attack if possible. A common tactic used against spears. If you get hit while charging, the charge is deemed failed.
Charge-in attack:
Available if you can’t reach the enemy and you need to rush in to meet your weapon’s effective maximum range against the enemy. This will form a combat engagement between you and the enemy. This can potentially be safer for dis-engaging compared to closed-in charging attack which can require you to move further in. If you get hit while charging, the charge is deemed failed.
Opputunity attack:
Occurs when you attempt to disengage from combat against the enemy, or happens to run out of the Zone of Control of an enemy. Bonus effectiveness of disengaging opputunity attack affects the chance to hit and higher chosen damage bias, and is determined by the amount of extra straight-line distance traversed within the opputunity attacker’s zone of control before exiting out of it.
Reach attack:
Available if your weapon range is higher than the enemy’s weapon range and you conduct the attack at a safe range. Not prone to counter attack. This will NOT form a mutual melee engagement between you and the enemy, but the enemy will be engaged to you and is susceptible to your opputunity attacks if he chooses to exit out of the engagement on his turn. Spears are such weapons.
Regular attack:
Available if your current weapon can attack the enemy from your current position without further movement, and the enemy’s weapon’s range can also reach you. Usually happens if both units have the same weapon ranges. Susceptible to counterattacks. Forms an engagement beween you and the enemy. Susceptible to opputunity attacks if you disengage.
Back-off and attack: (might trigger an opputunity attack, and this is stated)
Available if you are too close to the enemy to deal an attack, and need to back off more just enough (if there’s space available) to deal an attack.
Back-pedal and attack: (might trigger an opputunity attack, and this is stated)
Available if you can afford to move further back towards your effective range to deal an attack.
Shoving attack:
Available if you are too close to the enemy to deal an attack, and need to attempt to shove him forward. Deals a bit of damage, but primarily to shove the enemy.
Balancing longer reach vs shorter reach weapons:
Longer ranged melee weapons may be better in general in terms of the overall reach and weight for damage, but shorter ranged melee weapons have higher critical chance and potentially better critical multipliers.
(Depreciated. But can be kept as a general reference)
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Glidias/Asharena/master/bin/riddle/img/asharenatable.png?edited
*Legend:
(Depreciated. But can be kept as a general reference)
Ingame, the Decision popup menu can be opened/closed by the player at anytime, allowing one to decide on the unit’s Prefered Defense/Prefered Attack maneuvers and CP slider allocation beforehand, and acts as a way of pausing/unpausing the action and determining the unit’s prefered tactics. However, in Pure Riddle of Steel mode, the intention is to be as faithful as possible to the original experience, so this menu auto-opens whenever a roll event occurs, with new situational information of the being presented, allowing exact reaction decisions to be made on the spot at the relavant critical junctures, without having to rely on scripting.
So, how it works?
When going to target mode to point at various in-range enemies (with their visible stances) for a melee engagement:
1 or 2 choices are available, depending on whether you lost the initiative or you have initiative.
1) Roll Attack
Stipulations:
2) Roll Defense
Stipulations:
Movement:
Moving units or waiting/loitering can draw opputunity attacks from enemies.
Stance can only be set at the start or end of the turn and only if the particular unit has initiative against all melee threats or isn’t melee-threatened at all. It reverts back to Neutral stance once any movement/actions occur during the turn.
Once a [Pause] or successful disengagement occurs between 2 opposing sides, both sides regain their intiatives, can change stance if possible under stipulated conditions, and can either roll attack or defense against each other if they are within range (or get back within range first).
Full Evade manuever is only possible if you are standing at the edge of a melee engagement’s enemy zone of control or is implicitly done when attempting to exit out of an enemy’s melee engagement zone of control. There must be room to escape out of the enemy’s zone of control, so, if you are cornered, such a manuever is not possible. Also, Full Evade is only possible if you did not attack in the previous exchange, otherwise, it resolves to only an initial Partial Evade first, or you must manually roll a defense manuever first or wait for a [Pause]. If it was only the first exchange, you can perform a Full Evade on the second exchange and will automatically do so if there was a resolution through Partial Evade first. If it’s a partial evade resolution for the 1st exchange, only half of the remaining CPs (rounded up) is used in the 1st exchange before using the remaining half against the Full Evade in the second exchange.
Non mutual engagement attacks:
Drawing an opputunity attack from enemy means you auto-Roll Defense.
If opputunity attack is a disengagement strike (ie. done while exiting a enemy’s melee engagement zone of control), Full Evade is the defensive manuever always being used and all remaining CPs from both sides are used. If you get hit, you are pinned and you have to remain within the zone at the edge, and you are forced to use another turn to unpin yourself, where another Full Evade attempt is required, else you remain in combat engagement until you successfuly performed a Full Evade. This process is done automatically without the Decision popup needing to be opened. The manuever being made for a disengagement opputunity attack is usually a quick thrust/spike or cut/strike, depending on the weapon and situation.
A reach attack on a target (ie. a melee attack on a target in which the target doesn’t have enough reach to retailiate back readily) forces the target to Roll Defense as well. If the target regains intiative, no counterattack on the second exchange is possible unless the target wants to deal a Charging counterattack and has room to do so.
Perception:
Bash
Greater Bash (same as bash but +1 CP for added damage)
Spike
Greater Spike (same as spike but +1 CP for added damage)
Beat
Bind and Strike
Cut
Disarm
Draw Cut
Feint-and-thrust
Feint-and-cut
Head Butt
Hook
Kick
Pommel Bash
Punch
Stop Short
Thrust
Toss (note that for “Kick Sand”, repeatedly doing it will be less effective for everyone in the vincity)
Simultaneous Block/Strike - Requires dual interface
Master Strike (level 15, requires dual itnerface)
Twitch - (level 8, requires dual interface for twitch set)
Quick Draw - (Level 6), requires interface to change to other weapon
Murder Stroke (requires mail gloves)
Double Attack (requires dual interface and possibly differnet targets)
Evasive Attack (level 6, requires fallback positioning)
Grapple (requires positioning)
Half Sword (requires mail glove. requires some form of halfsword indicator)
http://pasteboard.co/1w0CDBFB.png
1) dial controls to see or change manuever/cost
2) scrollable list-overlay ( for manuever+buyInitiativeCheckbox, or basic list for non-humanoid body)
3) humanoid body zone view :: when attacking/defending
4) Info menu
If using defense dial, buy intiative checkbox will change the contents/selection of the manuever to an offensive one. Unchecking will revert back the state.
Roguelikes tend to be more faster-paced, in semi-realtime or realtime, rather than fully turn-based.
This mode works fairly intuitively like a regular solo roguelike rpg but with a target mode view (that pauses the game action, either done manually or automatically during critical moments) to roll precise attack/defense manuevers against enemies during 1-vs-1 or 1-vs-many exchanges.
Since it’s solo-based against AI, it’s fast-paced to resolve moves accordingly.
When you move per step, enemies also make their counter movements in response to your movements in semi-realtime. This might not work well for certain game type movement/view controls, so, optionally, enemies can tick and move in full real time regardless of whether you are moving or not, forcing you to pause the action as you see fit. (RTWP)
A slight modification to the above to allow managing a small party like in Dragon Age or Baldur’s Gate. Party members can move together as group(s), following a main leader which is player-controlled, or as switchable solo individuals while the other AI does their own thing.
Micromanagement is kept to the minimal with AI controlled units performing their manuevers independantly for every step you make in semi/full-realtime, but you can optionally give orders beforehand for AI controlled units to attack different targets with different manuevers under each step, or attempt to disengage, change path, etc.
This mode can support any number of players/AI, or basically no AI requirements at all. It’s good if you basically want players to just about micromanage everything in a traditional tabletop tactics experience.
In order to adapt the above Riddle of Steel experience to multi-combatant exchanges, especially without any AI-intervention and only players involved, a more involved process is required. This is because the regular individual Challenge Roll being made on a single target, only works for 1-on-1 exchanges. In the event there are multiple combatants involved during an exchange (eg. engaging a unit while being engaged with another, or engaging a unit with other friends surrounding that unit…or a mix of all these varied cross-engagements), a different approach is required to resolve actions of many combatants.
To begin with, having 2 seperate phases is required, one for Movement/Deployment only, and the other for Combat, focused solely on the Combat Round where every unit involved in an armed conflict gets to act during the turn.
Note that in actual gameplay, when a battle starts (this happens on first mutual contact made during exploration), the Combat Phase is actually done first, not the Movement/Deployment phase. This allows intiial combat encounters encounters to be resolved for the entire combat round of 2 seconds within the phase (eg. often in the case of ambushes), as some battles might have already men waiting in overwatch and ambush at the very start. Performing a Combat Phase at the beginning also allows up 2 seconds worth of initial movement to also take place.
Let’s start with basic movement first….
From Lowest Reflex to Highest Reflex (…or use a different intiaitive system to determine this?…see inner section), non-engaged (ie. disengaging/disengaged) can make broad movements around the map across a certain distance in yards, restricted within a traversible region shape that takes into account obstacles and movement costs. Disengaged units cannot enter into any melee engaging radii of enemies or body radii of friends, but can skirt at the edges of the those radiuses to prepare for actual engagements (technically, they can be in range to deal their attacks when skirting at the edges, but since it’s a movement phase, no attack manuevers can happen yet. ). This is also known as deployment.
The metric distances allowed for travelling in both phases matches official Riddle of Steel rules.
Marked clipping obstacles can be used to plan out your movement safely, either to avoid getting hit, pinned or to prepare for a Charge during the Combat phase later.
You can switch between 3 obstacle modes during movement as long as the spatial conditions allow so.
vs
vs
The movement deployment region is clipped away by any blockign radii accordingly. Thus, the blocking radii act as obstacles for disengaged deployment.
Note that if you happen to move close enough to the enemy during the Movement Phase to get in range to hit him, the enemy is still deemed freely disengagable if his turn hasn’t taken place yet, giving him time to react and move out of your given chase when his turn arrives (NOTE: there are exceptions to this rule…see inner section) . This only happens if the enemy’s turn is yet to happen, and it normally occurs for higher reflex units (<- this rule is depreciated.. see inner section). For such a case, no opportunity attacks will be triggered on the enemy. Only melee opportunity attacks will occur if a unit himself deliberately enters AND exits the threatened melee reach zones, or loiter around within it for >=1 second.
This is basically the Combat Round.
Check for blood loss
Refresh combat pool
Exchange…..
\1. Pre-manuevering:
From Lowest Reflex to Highest Reflex (or use a different initiative system to determine this?…see inner section), all units regardless of being engaged or not, can:
1) perform up to 1 second’s worth of further footwork movement. Before that, they need to decide their movement style for this 1 second. Movement styles like duck-walking, crawling, sprinting, jogging, etc. are available besides the regular cautious/walking speeds, and are subjected to their own various limitations/advantages/disadvantages.
2) turn to face any given necessary direction, if possible or if they wish to, after movement.
3) choose a martial stance, if possible
4) end turn secretly as either an Aggressor(red) or Defender(white), where this role is only revealed once all units are done.
If anyone is not in-range and in-view to attack any enemies, they can only roll white as Defender.
During pre-manuevering, terrain rolls are handled accordingly if movement is done, but no opportunity attacks/fire can be triggered. Units will generally try to spend that precious 1 second to try and fine-tune their position, get out of sticky multi-opponent situations, or get into proper range to deal an attack.
With cautious/walking movement style, they can also adopt a martial stance so long as they were unengaged previously, or had a pause during the last combat round, before ending their turn.
During pre-manuevering movement, if a unit finds himself inside an enemy weapon reach radius and the enemy has view on him, they will be considered already engaged and can no longer exit out of the radius. This is determined at the end of the turn (after a max of 1 sec movement) for both sides, and also while movement is being made by the moving unit against any enemies that might “catch” them in their tracks. To remain safely unattackable and unengaged, they must stay outside of any enemy weapons’ reaches during movement, and remain so once everyone else has finished their movement. Once engaged by enemies, they have to successfully perform a Full Evade manuever in order to free themselves . Otherwise, they will miss a turn during the Movement/Deployment phase and won’t be able to move during that time, since they are still locked in combat.
However, if the above unit is inside multiple enemies’ weapon reach radii, they can stll try and manuever their way (restricted within the weapon reach radii region) so that only 1 unit threatens them during Pre-manuevering. A terrain roll is used accordingly to determine if they are successful in performing such an escape upon exiting out of 1 of the radiuses in the radii set, and they must decide beforehand how much CP they wish to sacrifice if they were to commit to this manuever, else a default value is used. If they fail, they continue remaining locked in. If they succeed, they can freely move on and try and find the best spot during the second’s worth of movement, but must still face against at least 1 opponent within the radii region.
You cannot move too close to an enemy (eg. at point blank range), until you successfully performed a Grappling manuever on him. This can be done once you get close enough to the edge of the minimum range between you and the enemy.
Certain tight formations, tightly-spaced environments, or crowded positions with friends/enemies can restrict certain manuevers with your weapons, especially longer-reached/larger weapons. (eg. Tight shield wall formations will only allow for thrusting manuevers). So, carefully decide on where you wish to station yourself within that precious second.
\2. Declare manuevers:
All units that are able to attack/defend against neighboring units from their current position and facing, get to declare their manuevers, the respective target within their view and body zone to aim at if required. Do this in order of Lowest reflex to Highest reflex first for attackers, and then, for any defenders respectively in the order of lowest reflex to highest reflex as well.
In the event a defender is attacked by multiple assailants, then the defender, if he isn’t buying initiative, must divide his CP among all assailants to defend against each one seperately. (Depending on house rules, different defense manuevers can be used for each assailant…)
\3. Resolve manuevers:
Finally, all attackers roll their own Reflex against their ATN to form a score-based queue of attackers to resolve their actions. Initiative buyers also contest for all higher attacking positions in the queue from the bottom up order, starting with the highest position to contest against. Once the queue is finalised, resolve attack manuevers accordingly in order from top to bottom (against any defense manuevers, if available). Some blows might resolve simulatenously if they have the same score.
Repeat exchange one more time….with new altitude.
Exit exchanges. Exit Combat phase. Proceed back to Movement/Deployment phase.
Full Evasion manuever (used to escape combat engagements) can only be done if you are near the edge of the enemy’s exit weapon reach while declaring the manuever among standard TROS exchange rules for Full Evasion manuever. This means you can be “hinting” to the enemy that you may actually be attempting to fully evade, if you are located close to the edge of escape.
Once a successful Full Evade is performed, you are considered disengaging from those units (that you successfully perform a Full Evade on) and you must make your exit out of that enemy’s weapon reach area (within a maximum time limit of 1 second) under “Disengaging” status during the Movement/Deployment phase. Failure to do so would mean you’ll be re-engaged to the original opponents you faced during the previous Combat Phase.
When running through multiple radii of other enemies’ weapon reaches, terrain rolls are done to determine if you manage to escape or draw a disengagement opportunity attack from 1 or all of them (if you botch). If you get hit by a disengagement opportunity attack, you remain pinned in most circumstances, though there can be saving throws (up to the discretion of the game’s rules/hero perks), to allow continuing movement after getting hit. When running through a single radius of an enemy’s weapon reach, a disengagement opportunity attack will be triggered upon exit, or, loitering within enemy weapons’ reaches for >=1 second will also deal opportunity attacks from 1 or more of the melee enemies.
Determining whether to ignore enemy melee weapon reach obstacles or avoid them is part of the game. The player has to determine the risks/rewards involved in both disengaged obstacle modes, since careful winding disengagements may be too slow in being able to reach a certain target location. Sometimes, a particular unit, once disengaged from a fight, might want to “risk it all” running past some enemies in order to save a nearby friend, for example.
If you end the turn fully disengaged from all melee engaging radii, then you are considered “Disengaged”. If you end turn inside any enemy’s weapon reach radii, you are Engaged. If you end turn in neither radii (ie. you are within engaging range to still attack other opponents) your status remains as Disengaging, until you get conditionally engaged with some other enemies during the Combat phase.
(Depreciated in favor of Riddle of Steel rules)
Difference from Divinity :
Movement points instead of action points per turn. They determine how much your characters move. This is either represented in giving more movement points to characters, or making characters move faster per movement point. Either way, it’s the same because movement points are primarily for movement.
Difference from Divinity:
Skill actions (ie. special abilities) will cost a certain percentage of your initial total movement points rather than actual points itself. This means a character with faster Speed doesn’t necessarily mean a character that can perform more special actions in a row. However, similar to Divinity: Original Sin however, is that the movement point percentage cost of a skill action might be more or less depending on your skill level in that area of expertise. Using skill actions will require the player to reserve those actions beforehand to prevent him from “accidentally” exceeding his usage of movement points while moving the character around.
Some skill actions can cost stamina as well, which is a seperate pool of “energy”.
Some skill actions have a phase cooldown requiring several enemy turns before you can re-use the action.
Similarites to Valkyria:
When running under a command point system, each command point means only 1 action for 1 turn using 1 command point. If multiple actions can be done per turn, than one must allow even basic attack to cost a certain percentage of total movement points.
How it applies to Asharena:
You can execute another action by using another command point for the subsequent turn like in Valkyria, but re-playing the same unit for the subsequent turn will result in incrementally halving the movement points provided, thus limiting what you can do on the 2nd repeated turn of a unit. (eg. a skill action that uses higher than 50% of movement points, such as a 55% skill action, cannot be done on a 2nd-repeated turn. A skill action that is above 25%, cannot be done on a 3rd repeated turn). Thus, your combos are limited according to the time tiers of the skill actions (>50%, >25%, >12% ), therefore sometimes requiring more “difficult/time-consuming” actions to be executed first.
Defined as Talents under Divinity: Original Sin.
Defined as Potentials in Valkyria Chronicles.
Each character class starts with a default set of 5-point attribute bonuses and 7 available Warband abilities for training.
If playing a campaign, different quests, scenerios and enemy encounters can open up new unknown abilities to be available for that class to “research”, but usually unlocking such new/unknown abilities for a class would require spending credits.
Depending on the class at Level 1, some compulsory training points (out of a total of 5 training points) are already pre-assigned to those abilities that the class requires (marked with a “+”) , leaving behind the remaining training points to be used as you see fit.
Leveling up is done (as per-standard) as a class, not by individual, during training sessions (lull time). Leveling up will accumulate 1 training point for the class.
Training points can be saved and spent on abilities to upgrade them. Upgrading the same ability becomes incrementally more expensive, because for example; upgrading an ability to “2” will require 2 training points, and upgrading to “3” will require 3 training points, and so on.
Every Warband character class has one (natural affinity/flair) Warband ability (marked with an asterisk *)
When upgrading such abilities from level “2” onwards, it’ll always cost 1 less ability point. For example, upgrading such an ability to level “5” will cost 4 ability instead of 5.
When a class levels up (remember it consist of existing individuals..), different individuals’ attributes might increase with slight variations, but will generally keep to a certain “typical class” standard. Some individuals might come up slightly unique as a result, and commanders can take note of this, since a squad can be at times only as strong as it’s weakest link.
Also, different individuals might be given certain items that might boost certain attributes as well to either make up for their weaknesses, or further accentuate their strengths.
Skirmisher
+2 Dexturity
+2 Speed
+1 Perception
(2 unspent training points at start)
Sharpshooter
+3 Perception
+2 Dexterity
(2 unspent training points at start)
Pirate Captain
+2 Constitution
+2 Dexterity
+1 Strength
(2 unspent training points at start)
Knight
+3 Strength
+2 Constituion
Armsman
+2 Strength
+2 Dexterity
+1 Perception
Bowman
+3 Dexterity
+2 Perception
Huscarl
+2 Strength
+2 Dexterity
+1 Speed
Gestir
+2 Strength
+2 Dexterity
+1 Speed
Halvlik
+2 Dexterity
+2 Perception
+1 Strength
Slavus
+2 Intelligence
+2 Speed
+1 Dexterity
Samnian
+2 Strength
+2 Constitution
+1 Dexterity
Flammite
+3 Strength
+2 Constitution
Dimochai
+2 Dexterity
+2 Strength
+1 Intelligence
More strategic options to handle realistic situations. But can be a bit unstreamlined as a result. Maybe it can be a pre-battle management option for different “types” of characters and their habits.
Based on scenerio. First turn player will start with half.
Unsure. Try 0.025 sec.
Unsure. Try loh.
Movement region based on different unit’s movement allowance
Matches 1 exposure.
** Char Specs Parameters below:
Yes. To avoid exploitation of drawing out enemy fire infinitely till ammo bleeds dry.
No. Or, Yes around 50%, without the above, assuming this will be good enough in most circumstances to kill off the enemy after a few shots.
Unlimited For everyone by default. But adjustable.
Enabled For everyone by default. But can be disabled.
1 to aggro. Infinite passes.
No.
2 exposure counts required or 1 with accruacy penalty.
No Free reloads. Option to conserve 1 (wihout covering fire) or 2 trigger time (for covering fire) worth of ammo if not suppressing or as many as you decide.
Always fixed to 1 minimum. Based on sustained fire trigger time, may involve others to be stacked along, but capped trigger time.
1 exposure count required. (or 0 with accruacy penalty?)
Yes
Yes
Yes
0 exposure count required
Based off Valkyria Chronicles game directly.
Based on scenerio. First turn player will start with half.
0 seconds
No
Varies from unit to unit…uses Char Specs.
Matches VC
** Char Specs Parameters below:
No, but only on VC2, or N/A
Unlimited For everyone.
Automatic For everyone.
0 or N/A.
Slightly or N/A.
1 exposure count required or N/A (0 exposure counts >5% exposure without Suppressive Fire).
Free reloads at the end of every turn
Always fixed to 1. N/A for others in overwatch (or allow others in overwatch?).
0 exposure count required or N/A.
None or N/A (Yes?)
None or N/A (Yes?)
None or N/A (Yes?)
0 or N/A
The standard streamlined specs for Asharena.
Based on scenerio. First turn player will start with half.
Unsure. Try 0.025 sec.
Unsure. Try loh.
Movement region based on different unit’s movement allowance
Unsure. Matches VC
** Char Specs Parameters below:
No. (for now)
Unlimited For everyone.
Automatic For everyone.
1 to aggro. Infinite passes.
No. (for now)
2 exposure counts required
Free reloads at the start of every phase
Always fixed to 1. Allow others in overwatch.
1 exposure count required
Yes
Yes
Yes
0 exposure count required
Move all unengaged combatants in order of ~ reflex(intiative)-> ~ reflex(initiative) across distances.
Delaying turns might be a possible option in the event you are being blocked by friends and such…or need others to move first. However, you must conceit at least 1 second/unit worth of movement penalty when delaying, similar to Mordheim’s system (the PC game, the tabletop unsure..).
Per exchange: 4 parts (instead of 3 parts ..now the roll for red/white intiiative is done seperately from the movement to avoid complications with other unit movements invalidating existing attack rolls.)
A: Stance, Movement and Facing.
In order of reflex ~(intiative)-> ~reflex(initiative)
Movement Initiative approach:
Moving Initiative for…
1) Movement Phase:
2) Combat Exchange:
In Riddle of Steel, Last Move advantage is often prevalent, despite the fact that you get to move last, you get to see what others are doing first, or may wish/require to wait for others to move first, in order to move in last and take up the best position for a surprise last minute attack. First Move advantage may not be as commomplace compared to other games, since the person that makes the first move doesn’t necessarily deal damage first due to “simulatenous” resolution of action manuevers. Traditionally, in Riddle of Steel, the person with higher Reflexes always gets to declare their manuevers and stance last, but when it comes to having movement being made….shouldn’t a higher Reflex unit have the option of being able to move first, or shouldn’t it be a situational choice?
By consigning a High Reflex unit to be severely disadvantaged when it comes to moving first (but being advantaged when it comes landing blows faster or strategically responding last in the turn initiative ladder), this limits the flexibility of a High Reflex unit in being able to respond first in situations where the need (often) arises. After all, why should having higher Wits and Agility (the stats that make up Reflex), become a liability, even if it’s only a liability at times? So, how to solve this problem?
You can quickly toggle between aiming for starting Last Move advantage vs First Move advantage (either extreme), depending on which “advantage” you deem best, or set a custom balance between the two by adjusting how many dice you wish to use to roll for or against movement initiative to alter the way initiative occurs.
eg.
1 reflex: (ie. 0 to 1 to 2 initative score)
2 reflex: (ie. 0 to 2 to 4 initative score)
3 reflex: (ie. 0 to 3 to 6 initative score)
4 reflex: (ie. 0 to 4 to 8 initative score)
5 reflex: (ie. 0 to 5 to 10 initative score)
6 reflex: (ie. 0 to 6 to 12 intiaitive score)
7 reflex: (ie. 0 to 7 to 14 initiative score)
8 reflex: (ie. 0 to 8 to 16 intiative score)
9 reflex: (ie. 0 to 9 to 18 initiative score)
10 reflex: (ie. 0 to 10 to 20 intiative score.)
Roughly based on situation where Wit == Agility and Perception == Reflex.
When contesting for movement initiative…
Base initiative score = Reflex score..
(first mover…attempt to get highest intitiative)
…Roll a max of Wit over inverse TN of Agility. Above ie. ratings are based on the assumption that wit and agility is the same. A person of higher wits can have more dice to roll for initiative. Add number of successes to Base initiative score.
When not contesting for initiative (last mover..attempt to get lowest intiative)
Base initiative score = min(Reflex score,Inverse Perception)
…Roll a max of Wit over inverse TN of Perception. Minus number of successes to base initiative score.
Higher wits means higher flexibility and range in determining your initiative score from your current Base initiative score, depending on what you want. Your attribute for Agility vs Perception respectively determines how easy it is for you to get the results you want for movement initiative (first-mover) versus perception (last-mover) initiative.
House rules:
COMBAT PHASE and Charging
During pre-manuevering during an Exchange in the Combat Phase/round, you get to choose your movement speed style for engaging within that single second of exchange.
Approach #1:
Engaging the enemy at a fixed Hurried (>=jogging) speed or higher during an exchange enforces a faux effective offensive stance (+2 CP bonus for attack manuevers and +2 CP additional cost for defensive manuevers) regardless for the entire round. (ie. i think across both exchanges, according to Tros rules). This may tend to give away your “intention”, or could be used as a bluff (even though this puts you at a technical disadvantage if you do bluff). This is known as “Charging”.
Whenever you adopt hurried movement, you can no longer adopt any personal stance on your own (eg. such as defense or neutral, because you are forced to use the faux offensive one).
This can be situationally good…and is only available at the start of a bout or after a round pause in the fight by being able to manuever at that given speed. Otherwise, only the Normal/Cautious movement speed is allowed, where given that particular slower movement speed, you can adopt the necessary martial stance.
Post-rotation penalty:
Note, however, that if your body has to turn a siginificant number of degrees in order to face the enemy after performing such Hurried movement, the offensive stance CP advantage you get for an attack manuever roll will be nullified. This means you only end up with the disadvantage of a higher defense manuever cost for the entire round given that faux offensive stance in effect. Whenever this happens, you get a “Charge failed” notifiication.
You also need to move (without stopping) across a distance of at least higher than half a second at that particular hurried speed to constitute your manuever as a valid charge, or move from outside the range of your weapon reach towards the enemy in order to validly charge. Anything else is also considered a failed charge. Any drastic change of body rotation direction after stopping also constitutes a failed charge. Normally, given the right charging distance and angle, you need to hold down decisively the movement key only once for a charge, and without any sudden releases, halt and turns, etc. to get a successful one.
or Approach #2: For advanced players that still wish to have the inherant speed advantage of hurried movement, despite the risks. (ie. they still want to circle around the enemy a bit faster, or flank another person)
Engaging the enemy at a fixed Hurried (jogging) speed or higher during an exchange can be done at anytime as the player sees fit. If you do this at the start of a bout or after a round pause in the fight, you are deemed Charging and a faux effective attack stance remains in effect for the entire round like in Tros rules. giving you a +2CP bonus advantage in attack manuevers for the entire round. In other situations, you are considered NOT Charging regardless, and there is no added advantage except for the inherantly faster movement speed, and house rules might dictate that you still have to conceit a +2 additional CP cost for performing defense manuvevers after hurried movement, which means in either case, this option only gives you a certain speed advantage in contrast to a certain disadvantage in defense. Only in rare cases would performing such a move may be useful, eg. if flanking is required and you need to rush there in time to get in range.
Post-rotation penalty:
Same penalties apply as for the first case, as well as you will always conceit a +2 additional CP cost for defense.
House Rules :: Additonaly penalty for Post-rotation penalty
After a mission ends or leveling up a class, certain ability action skills under each Warband ability may finally be unlocked due to their requirements (Level requirements) being met.
Note that if you assign training points to an ability to upgrade it, it won’t unlock the action skills immediately under it until the next mission is completed (Or, more specifically, on the next training session visit).
Unlocked action skills must be bought with credits. It is like paying for new “lessons” to be conducted by the class.
By default, all units will attempt to roll for first move initiative advantage per phase or exchange, with their given Reflex setting combining their Wit and Agility. In most cases, the game should favor first movers (high Reflex units contesting for first move), as it’s easier to understand conceptually and “realistically”, so when it comes to several disadvantages with first movers, I try to circumvent them so that there is an overall advantage in moving first by convention.
However, units still have an option of going for last move initiative “advantage” using their Perception and Wit instead when the need arises. Since Wit partially influences Reflex, high Reflex units often may have the versatility in being able to contest pretty well for lower movement initiative as well, assuming they have reasonably good Perception. Ultimately, Wit is the common stat that benefits both aspects of contesting for either first-mover or last-mover initiative.
Below is the list of advantages/disadvantages associated with different initiatives and what can be done to circumvent the drawbacks which are deemed “unfair”.
First-turn advantages when:
Engaging to lock/strike an opponent within the same turn to prevent him from disengaging or he must (or risk) being penalized in doing so, assuming it’s possible within the game rules.
Engaging to surround/corner an opponent in order to block his path so he cannot escape or move to his destination.
First-turn disadvantages when:
Always…
Re-Roll for moving initiative at beginning of Movement Phase for unengaged units
Re-Roll for moving initiative at start of any Combat exchange for all units
Depending on the level of awareness of enemies against the currently active moving unit, blocking/engaging obstacles are formed out of the given arcs.
Field of View arc: Will always get spotted if you walk into the field of view. Also used for attacking/defending adequately. normally a total of 124 degrees FOV, or 62 degrees in either direction.
Flanking arcs: For Imperfect flanking arcs, they runs the risk of being spotted on the current turn while moving in per 0.3 seconds units of time within this arc portion. Normally to the sides. Performing an attack within this angle during the Combat Phase contitutes a flanking attack.
Backstab arc: No risk of being spotted. Completely to the rear. Performing an attack within this angle during the Combat Phase contitutes a backstab, or rear attack.
Full Circle obstacle = Field of View arcs + Flanking arcs + Backstab Arc
Defending Arc obstacle = Field of View arc + Flanking Arcs
Imperfect Defending Arc obstacle = Field of view + Imperfect flanking arcs
(note: only field of view arc will block movement….imperfect flanking arcs can be visibly shown but do not block movement…)
During unengaged movement turns during Movement Phase, the obstacles that are formed out of given enemy melee engagement ranges can be visibly turned on by the player, in order to block the player’s own movement, if the player does not wish to get within range to unintentionally draw melee opportunity attacks from enemies. Otherwise, they also serve as rough visual indicators to avoid being spotted by enemies. In some cases, he might want to turn these off while moving, if he needs to rush through hastily…though this is very risky as he can draw opportunity attacks from the enemies in such a mode. In other cases, turning it off is done because he wants to threaten/pre-engage an enemy in order to be able to attack him on opportunity as well.
During movement during Combat Phase, all obstacles are hidden from view by default , unless you find yourself being engaged within any of these obstacle arcs/circles and within range of the enemies, then it visibly turns on. For Combat phase, these visible obstacles function in reversed, locking you from inside rather than from outside.
To free yourself completely from all locking engagement circles so you can freely move again during the Movement Phase, you must successfully perform a Full Disengage manuever as per standard rules during the Combat Phase.
House rules might allow for all obstacles to be shown visibly during Combat Phase as an option, to act as visual indicators to be able to easily predict backstab/flanking angles, but this is non-standard. Normally, the colored arcs will already tell you the level of awareness the enemy targets have on you.
If you wish to avoid getting locked engagement in during the Combat phase, play safe and do not attempt to move closer to enemies for that extra 1 sec since you can’t exactly predict the ranges as the obstacles aren’t visibly shown. It’s also part of the game that backstab/flanking angles cannot be previewed during movement turn until you get in range to strike, so you have to judge on estimation and veer more towards the safe rear-end side if you’re attempting a surprise attack.
Save/update state at:
(first group)
First group is “last-aware of”.. Second group is “currently aware of…”.
Recreate new aggro awareness state:
On every end turn position+facing, add to a valid threat targets for engaging/defending against, within Field of View arc.
For these targets, the watcher will always turn to face them while movement is made during the targets’ turn to keep them in sight. This can be done as a turn from current offset pivot basis, or only turn if they went pass the edge of field of view…
Units that move first (and commit their end-turn position+facing) may a disadvantage of having their current facing be offseted by threat enemies that attempt to circle around them. Deciding to move last (ie. attempt high Perception..low initiative setting), has it’s advantages in determining your end-turn facing to minimise the chances of any surprise attacks or cheap-shots being made on you. If you already commited your facing on your turn before the targets move (ie. you moved first), you will rotate to face moving opponents relatively from your current rotation offset to ensure you keep them in sight. A good end-turn facing will attempt to keep all threat targets balanced within view.
After all movement is made, on rolling for red/white initiative and declaration of manuevers these threat targets (and all other nearby threat targets) are being considered for Defending/Attacking against, taking into account surprise against any of these targets depending on the situation.
This is mostly based off standard TRoS rules, but adapted to the current game movement flow system involving movement and multiple combatants within a combat exchange to make more sense.
3 main levels of surprise:
1) Aware of opponent, but victim of cheap shot (saving throw TN7)
2) Caught completely unaware/inattentive (saving throw TN10)
2b) Caught by surprise (saving TN9)
3) Blindsighted (saving throw TN13)
TROS standard rules for a Check For Surprise saving throw involves rolling Reflex against the TN. House testing rules may use Perception, or the average of Wits+Perception, or the average of Reflex+Perception, etc.,
Let’s say you are trying to be stealthy while moving in order to deal a surprise attack:
Implications of sight on obstacle, awareness:
He had sight of you at the end of his turn, or, spotted you make you were making your move during your turn.
=> Full Circle obstacle, always aware of you.
He had sight on you before the start of his turn, but no longer at the end of his turn (if any) and never at all subsequently while you were making your move during your turn.
=> Imperfect Defending Arc obstacle, previously aware of you
He had no sight on you at all during the entire time since the start of the phase.
=> Imperfect Defending Arc obstacle, unaware of you
Result of implications:
Full Circle obstacle, always aware of you.
Imperfect defending arc obstacle, previously aware of you:
Imperfect defending arc obstacle, unaware of you
For example, if you end your movement turn against an enemy at his rear or flank and is deemed a threat to him….a Check for Surprise saving throw against you will be required.
If the saving throw fails against you, he cannot Defend or Attack against you at all during declaration of moves. This means you successfully flanked/backstabbed him.
For Level-1 surprise or different variations of flank vs rear attacks, (or perhaps only flank/back-threatening him before his movement turn rather than after his movement turn) house rules penalties might involve maybe half effectiveness of manuever or something else against the you, depends on balancing…since he could always turn around during his movement turn and face towards you on his moving turn, but is he allowed to defend/attack against you now? As per standard Tros rules, any kind of failed surprise saving throw means he cannot do anything against you.
Unlike TROs standard rules, Check for Surprise is always done on a between-combatant basis, rather than arbitarily at the start of the Combat round/phase. Also, it’s done either after each individual’s pre-manuevering movement turn (favouring first-movers), or just before rolling for red/white initiative (favouring last-movers).
Such rules for Check For Surprise can also apply to action-rpg sitiations.
Implications of enemy awareness on sight and obstacle during Movement Phase
For unengaged enemies that ended their turn while moving cautiously (ie. enemy is in full guard mode and walking slowly throughout the entire turn, or unengaged enemies that haven’t moved on their turn yet)
For enemies that already finished their movement turn with jogging/hasty movement, or are in engaged state and cannot move.
NOTE: Any modifiers for Surprise attacks do not apply in opportunity attack situations during Movement Phase, regardless of apparent facing. In short, you can’t backstab/flank-attack during Movement Phase, where such an attack merely counts as an opportunity/overwatch attack in such a situation. Simply put, Check for Surprise only occurs in Combat phase.
