DESIGN DOCUMENTATION

Elementary Combat

When two pods engage eachother on the main map, they flash over to a close-up combat view ala Final Fantasy or Master of Orion. In the combat view, you will see a few things on the screen:

First off, there are two pod groups, one on each side of the screen. The pod groups are divided into theoretical tactical positions: Front, Rear, Center, and Side. Ontop of the pod position representations are the actual shapes placed inside the position they have taken in combat.

You will also see the "combat cards". Each card shows a mini representation of a shape, which color axis it belongs to, it's material and Force type, attack, defense, and all the other combat stats. It also displays remaining life and effect status (frozen, +attack, canceled, turn finished, etc.). There is a row of cards for each pod and the shapes contained therein.

Who attacks first boils down to shape Speed. All shapes involved in combat get ranked by their Speed, which thus becomes a shape's initiative in combat. Each shape takes an attack turn when it comes up in the list.

When it is a shapes turn to move, it can choose from several options, none of which are directly under player control: pass, attack, special, combo, and possibly defend. For the sake of arguement, if it chooses to attack an opponant, it will first select which opponant to attack. This process is done via the shape-level AI module ("Grunt") combined with "advice" from the pod-level AI ("Captain"). It will weigh in engagement and combat priorities, relative threat levels of the enemies, and possible tactics the enemy might use. After choosing, it will make an attack attempt.

If an attack is made, the shape first rolls a to-hit. This consists of the defending shape's Opacity (evade) and the attacking shape's Acuity (accuracy). Subtracting the two stats produces a number that is used to bell-curve the final attack (although more of a window than a bell curve). A low Acuity/Opacity number will result in a total miss and no damage is rendered. A medium number results in a more or less regular strike, while an overwhelming Acuity/Opacity number produces a "Critical hit" and awards a bonus modifier to the final attack roll.

Now we do the actual attack. This is a pretty straight forward Force minus Resistence with a little bit of random fudge in the attack roll. The varience in the attack roll is modified by a shape's Constancy statistic. A shape with high Const. will always hit about the same, while low will produce a shape that may strike incredibly hard this turn but might do the opposite the next. The final number is subtracted from the attacked shape's HP or structural integrity (SI).

When a shape's SI falls below zero, it's life status goes to DEAD. At this point, it obviously sits out of combat, however it can be revived by an ally given the right special or combo. When all shapes in the pod are DEAD, the pod losses and combat is finished. There is no retreat in AXIS (pending). Every combat is a fight to the death, so do it right the first time! Why you ask? Well, if a pod was losing and some shapes escaped, they could easily be "finished off" the next round, so running away is just delaying the inevitable. However, it's up for discussion. There may be time-out situations where one side cannot damage the other sufficiently and combat never ends. This may introduce the need to have escape as a legit option.