Translating Song of Swords/Call of the Void RPG to a Fire Emblem UI/Grid interface type of game…
Tile selection cursor on overhead strategic view map similar to Fire Emblem. Arrow/WSAD keys to perform popup menu selections or stepped tile movement selection on map. Popup GUI menus are primarily list based menus which are completely navigable with Arrow/WSAD keys. Drag map to pan around as a secondary means of navigating, especially for large maps.
Spacebar to select with current selected map tile cursor or popup menu selection.
Ranged:
If already in Melee/Ranged action mode but can switch to another mode, append “Switch to Melee/Ranged”.
Select self/ground: Open up GUI popup menu. Allows changing Action mode/Declaring Action between:
{line break}Positive Contradictions: A lot like Fire Emblem, but with significant differences to make it more like Valkyria Chronicles/Codename Steam games, yet with more significant differences from the latter games to make it more like an old-school First-person view RPG (a necessary part of roleplaying the Fog of War), yet running through a new-school open world 3D environment (so you’ve got Elder Scrolls/Fallout3 format).
Some menu options have a (3D) tag to include the ability to view surroundings in 3D within the area, or perform a specific action in 3D from character’s perspective.
Game flow may involve seamless transitioning between 2D/3D overhead map to full 3D on-the-ground 1st/3rd person view and vice versa to provide better visualisation/execution of spotting enemies and such. Unlike boardgame/some-gridded-tabletop/typical Fire Emblem games, spotting of enemies is done only from 3D camera eyeballing always (raycasted 3D environment all-around to potential enemy targets) from prescribed lookout points in 3D, to determine cover presence, line of sight and ability to shoot/aim, prior to having them marked on 2D/3D overhead map view. Computing power is used in that respect that you won’t get in a regular boardgame/old-school tactical RPG game. (It’s more like Valkyria Chronicles/Codename-Steam style of spotting enemies..). However, unlike those games, spotting enemies can be done automaticaly (or narratively) behind the scenes without having the player go through the 3D view manually. This is done in order to save time and allow the player to skip viewing the 3D environment entirely (ie. viewing game in 3D is entirely optional, as the computer can handle it on your behalf). Sometimes, the grid might morph/translate into multiple planes/levels/zones, which is why environment isn’t restricted to 2D but can be fully 3D on various levels.
3D is primarily done in 1st-person view in order to get an accurate picture of what a particular character can/cannot see, and a realistic/epic sense of scale (Yes, you can see miles away from 3D, and whatever you see is REAL, ie. the map environments are huge and open-world sandboxey like in the Elder Scrolls/Fallout3 series, each tile can be theoritically travelled to from the battle map, even though the tactical scenerio usually has a restricted mission zone area. Incomining reinforcements (and faraway battles) can be seen from miles away and such. Terrain LOD kicks in the moment you transition to 3D view from the overhead strategic view. So, it’s like bending to look across a virtual tabletop, but a tabletop that is large enough to span miles and miles of landscape detail.
A character can only declare against a particular target he can see in 3D, or so long as a “nearby” friendly character informs him of that location well enough that he is able to make a declaration on a target he can’t directly see, so taking up the highest up position within an area in order to lookout/spot enemies is crucial strategically. Use of horns/drums/flares/markers/smoke grenades, etc. as alerting devices becomes integral to the gameplay tactics.
Also, a character’s exact height (even if it means a difference between 1 feet or a fraction of it), can actually mean the difference between spotting something or not at various times (as it affects the camera height, so a tall person might be able to look over a high wall by tiptoeing/jumping, but not a person that is too short, unless he uses a stool or something). So expect some unpredictability in that aspect!
Hidden enemy movement during resolution that ends up getting detected, may transition to 3D view to represent the scale/spotting of that enemy position as it moves across the map. This gives a far more cinematic/scale-accruate view of the scene when spotting enemies that move about on the map, similar to Valkyria Chronicles format.
When crossing tiles/difficult terrain that are sloped and yield higher movement cost that exceed your typical movement allowance in squares, Challenge dice rolls (typical tabletop style) are used to determine whether you manage to cross them to gain a specific zone of control on the grid, or only succeed in partially incremented successes. The same goes for feats like Climbing, etc. and such that run outside the scope of basic foot movement.
At GM discretion, depending on the results or nature of an obstacle, some of the movements may only resolve when the phase ends, which might result in contested rolls against specific individuals if they attempt to move into the same area, etc. at the same time after the phase ends.
For more details, see Grid Cost Movement scheme section.
(Terrain info)
TerrainName(Desc)
TN:4, *: 1, |_|: 2^ 1| _0 |0
Cost: 1<1 0^2 0>2 3_2 (Target character info)
STANDARD FILLS AND OUTLINES:
FRIEND-FOE IDENTIFICATION:
BOUT IDENTIFATION:
or
ALREADY-DECLARED/ALREADY-RESOLVED IDENTIFICATION:
RANGED/MELEE ATTACK DECLARATIONS:
White: Not yet declared. May Melee Attack/Engage/Charge you
OTHER DECLARATIONS:
Colors not reccomended to use because of other coors:
Accounting for varying movement resolutions due to differing Character MOB stats , Difficult terrain squares, and terrain squares with slopes and additional distance costs:
Mobility pool of pre-rolled dice of MOBx2 may be used at times for movement to help determine if you managed to traverse through Difficult terrain without additional impedance, or perform that extra final step to the next square immediately, if you fall short of available Movement allowance to traverse to the next square for the given phase skirmish turn.
Each square to square cardinal movement is basically 3 yard cost. Diaognal movement can be approximated to 4.5 yard cost, but is seldom used except for determining the aggregate reference Movement allowances for Charges/Straight-line Melee attack lanes.
Each die is depleted for any movement per yard (1 die per yard cost) made with lowest rolled die, but also subjected to Difficult terrain TN requirements which requires depleting specific die that is >=TN of diffiucult terrain. Failure to meet TN requirements requires up increased expenditure of dice of up to double required amount from this given pool, starting with all dice meeting TN, and any remaining (lowest rolled) dice to meet total dice amount required.
Slope Grades:
<25 (neglible/no slope, 3 yard cost)
25 to 35 degree (Grade 1 slope Tn5, 4 yard cost)
35 to 55 degree (Grade 2 slope Tn5) (Considered “Difficult” from this point onwards, 5 yard cost)
55 to 60 degree (Grade 3 slope Tn5, 6 yard cost)
Examples of difficult terrain:
(3 dice - 6 dice, 100% increase from 3 dice) eg. >=Tn6 grade level ground
(5 dice - 10 dice, 333% increase from 3 dice) eg. >=Tn5 grade 2 slope
(6 dice - 12 dice, 400% increase from 3 dice) eg. >=Tn5 grade 3 slope
Total yard cost from square to square RS = Math.floor( Total Yard cost from edge to edge between squares )
Base Terrain TN travel cost = Math.ceil( Average TN between squares )
For any terrain with base TN of 6 or higher, it’s always considered Difficult. When you reach a place that requires traversing Difficult terrain but you have no more required dice left from your MOBx2 pool usage to perform it, you cannot proceed any further for your current turn and is deemed hampered.
Charge: 15 yards (5 squares maximum) (may be Hurried for +1 square if hadn’t yet reached maximum square limit)
Melee Attack: 10 yards (3 squares maximum) (may be Hurried for +1 square if hadn’t yet reached maximum square limit)
Base Movement: MOB in yards (MOB/3 squares maximum)
Sprint: MOBx2 in yards (MOBx2/3 squares maximum)
If you run out of dice for your Movement Allowance to traverse that given square distance cost, due to greater movment cost in yards per square, but still have required remaining TN dice left in your Mobilityx2 Pool to meet Base TN over distance to travel, you may spend such dice off this MOB pool (dice that meet the TN) in order to move up immediately to resolve an extra Final Step instead as if the last step is a “Difficult terrain” roll, in lieu of delayed Final Step movement allowance. If the last step travels over terrain that isn’t deemed Difficult Terrain, you may reduce the RS by the amount of Movement Allowance (in yards) you have left, instead of using the Full distance cost of that terrain transition.
Not enough Movement Allowance left for 3++ yards = last final step struggle attempt to move up to 3++ yards for the square. Such movement only resolves post phase and defaults to Engage action, not Melee Attack/Charge. Contested locations will result in seperate Mobility contest dice rolls.
If Final Step goes through Difficult terrain, you need to also meet requirement off your Mobility pool in order to succeed in your Final Step.
Roll (3 + Distance to travel in yards/BaseTerrainTN): RS (3 + Distance to travel in yards - Dice remaining)
Check if it’s theoritically possible , given Movement Allowance to reach target destination. If so, determine the success/contigency of given declared objective based on that. After that, resolve the movement accordingly by rolling for Mobility Pool and then performing the movement to see if it’s “successful”.
Failure to meet target destination as a result of failing to meet Final Step or ability to traverse Difficult terrain upon both declaration and resolution, will result in clamping the target destination accordingly. However, these destinations are still marked as “valid” destinations to travel to, and the character MUST travel to any of these clamped destinations to match their declared intention. Thus, there’s a risk of failure “in-the-middle” involved if someone declares to cross through Difficult terrain for a Melee Attack/Charge. However, if the declaration did not involve crossing Difficult terrain for that declared approach (just that the new target location/path is different and now involves a Difficult obstacle), then the player may opt to abort his action when resolving it, and rely on contingency, if available. Thus, the nature of your movement Declaration has an effect on how you resolve your turn as well.
Determining pathfinding costs in grid graph.
Movement cost value at square: The higher the value, the “better” it is.
Can traverse to square: Specific condition to determine whether path can recurse further on into here.
(If Movement cost value at square goes negative, remember to invert Floating point to reflect complement case.)
cos(deg) = 1/h
arccos(1/h) = deg
Walkable slopes: (calculations of incline degree and rough personal breakpoints)
Level 0 slope: < 32 degrees (personal verdict < 32 deg) (Neglible/gentle slope)
Level 1 slope: 32 degree roundline, 41.4 degree baseline (personal verdict >= 32 deg) (Considered Slope)
Level 2 slope: 48 degree roundline, 53.1 degree baseline (personal verdict >= 42 deg) (Steep slope) (Difficult)
Level 3 slope: 57 degree roundline, 60 degree baseline (personal >= 52 deg) (Very steep slope) (Difficult)
Difficult personal bias of around -5 to -6 degreees below roundline. 10 degree differences between 32 to 52 degrees.
MOBx2 pool to clear both movement and Difficult Terrain and Hurried Final Step movements.
SCENERIO 1:
flat - flat - Level 2 slope
Testing with characters of MOB from 6 to 9.
move!
move!
(Hurried final step chance: rem 1 not counted due to Difficult Terrain)
6 dice left to clear RS:4 tn5!
7 dice left to clear RS:4 tn5
8 dice left to clear RS:4 tn5
9 dice left to clear RS:4 tn5
SCENERIO 2:
Level 2 slope - Level 2 slope - Level 2 slope - Level 2 slope
12 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5!
14 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5
16 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5
18 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5
7 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5!
9 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5
11 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5
13 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5
(Hurried final step chance: rem 0)
2 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5! (impossible)
4 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5 (impossible)
6 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5
8 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5
SCENERIO 3:
Level 2 slope - Level 3 slope - flat - Level 3 slope
12 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5!
14 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5
16 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5
18 dice left to clear RS:5 tn5
7 dice left to clear RS:4 tn5!
9 dice left to clear RS:4 tn5
11 dice left to clear RS:4 tn5
13 dice left to clear RS:4 tn5
(Hurried final step chance: rem 1 not counted because Difficult Terrain)
3 dice to clear RS:4 tn5! (impossible)
5 dice to clear RS:4 tn5
7 dice to clear RS:4 tn5
9 dice to clear RS:4 tn5
SCENERIO 3a: (final step different)
Level 2 slope - Level 3 slope - flat - Level 1 slope
(Hurried final step chance: rem 1 counted)
3 dice to clear RS:2 tn5!
5 dice to clear RS:2 tn5
7 dice to clear RS:2 tn5
9 dice to clear RS:2 tn5
SCENERIO 3b: (final step different)
Level 2 slope - Level 3 slope - flat - flat
(Hurried final step chance: rem 1 counted)
3 dice to clear RS:2 tn4!
5 dice to clear RS:2 tn4
7 dice to clear RS:2 tn4
9 dice to clear RS:2 tn4
Delayed Final Step Movement: (or basically if Hurried test fails)
Roll (3 + Distance to travel in yards/BaseTerrainTN): RS (3 + Distance to travel in yards - Dice remaining)
(NOte: Difficult terrain requires HUrried TEst to pass anyway, or may require additional “Distance to travel in yards” with Dice remaining zero, or Dice remaining be negative which can affect RS)