Ranged attack idea

[Omnomnom]

The game I am making the player is up against a lot of melee based monsters and is restricted to ranged weapons like pistols, shotguns and rifles to deal with them. Because there might be hoards of monsters I want the player to be able to fire multiple shots in a turn, possibly at multiple oncoming targets.

Accuracy should decrease with number of shots fired and number of targets fired at. At first I thought to have separate modes like "burst fire mode" for a few accurate shots at a single target, "panic fire mode" for lots of inaccurate shots at one or many targets. But as I thought it through I kept adding intermediate modes (eg "burst spray" for a few half accurate shots at two targets, "double shot" for firing a single accurate shot each at two targets).

Then it struck me it would save the work and be a nice to let the player decide for themselves how many shots and targets to fire at. Either they place shots up front and then "submit" the attack, or they could make shots sequentially.

The last one is slightly more interesting. Instead of ending the turn after the player has fired at a monster they get the option to take another shot, and another, and another, as many as they want until their clip is empty or they decide to end the turn. The caveat being that each subsequent shot has less accuracy, and also switching target would reduce the accuracy further. So for example the first shot might have 90% chance to hit, but the second only has 70% and the third 55% and then the player decides to stop firing because the chance to hit isn't worth the ammo and they are better off waiting till next turn when they have 90,70,55 again. So the player is effectively firing at the oncoming monsters with burst fire each turn.

Then suddenly the player realizes the monsters are getting too close so decides to screw the ammo and fire off all the shots in the clip in one turn. So now they've effectively chosen to panic fire.

This allows the player to choose how to handle the risk. It also challenges the player's discipline, ie how well they can avoid taking "just one more shot" rather than waiting for next turn when the %s for those shots will be higher.

I figure I might have a separate aimed shot mode anyway to allow a single consistent 100% hit option for the player as insurance against the RNG and for rpg element of the character actually standing there carefully aiming a shot.

It's probably been done before (seems everything has) but just throwing this out there in case anyone wanted to use it or had some improvements or saw some flaws in the idea.

[guest509]

  I like it. I was searching for the tabletop game that does the same thing. Something like this:

On your turn you can do one of the following:
1. Sprint (double move)
2. Move and Fire (or fire and move)
3. Aimed Shot (reroll any misses)
4. Burst Fire (fire on multiple targets, -1 for each successive shot, only SOME weapons)
5. Use an item (grenade, bandage, radio, etc...)

Note reloading was not an issue. Also shotguns couldn't burst fire, they were area attacks or maybe cone attacks.

Note: This may be a game I made, either way it was a good system.

[Paul Jeffries]

It's a very interesting idea.  I do see a couple of potential issues with it, though:
- You could end up with ridiculously high rates of fire.  If a standard roguelike tile is only one or two paces across then firing once per turn is pretty fast in comparison to movement anyway.
- It's mainly suited to automatic weapons.  For something like a shotgun it doesn't seem to quite fit.
- You'd need to have a separate 'end turn' button for when you're finished shooting, which would complicate the interface and slow down playing.

So, here's an alternative system:
- Only one shot per turn.  (So, firing ends your turn automatically)
- Your accuracy is represented on-screen as a meter, which is persistant across turns.
- Some actions raise the meter and some lower it.  So, standing still would raise accuracy; moving and firing would reduce it.

This system would give you some nicely organic options for the way you want to shoot.  For example take these sequences of turns:
SHOOT-SHOOT-SHOOT-SHOOT: Full Auto - gets steadily more innacurate
SHOOT-PAUSE-SHOOT-PAUSE: Aimed shots - slower rate of fire, but more accurate
MOVE-SHOOT-MOVE-SHOOT: Firing while running - inaccurate but high mobility
SHOOT-MOVE-PAUSE-SHOOT: Firing while walking - some mobility, slightly more accurate

You could also give different weapons different accuracy penalties for different things, thereby giving them different tactical roles.  So, a sniper rifle might have a massive penalty for movement, meaning it's best to set up and wait
a couple of turns before firing.  A shotgun might need to be pumped after every shot, but have a very low accuracy penalty for movement, making it a good assault weapon, etc. etc.