Yes exactly. So right now if there's an enemy hidden behind a door, you can't avoid the combat. But maybe will change the behavior based on some non-combat skills like Survival and similar.

I think this would be a good idea, would add some replayability. Do I train the meanest bashers, or do I train a team which moves like a ghost through the levels?

If the second game is anything like the first I don't think I'll be doing much fight dodging. Grinding was too important in PS1 to skirt combat.

Maybe the gal/guy who detects first the enemy would get some XP for finding the enemies - whether it is by running into them or by finding them in time for avoiding them.

Well last time I spoke with Anima, the plan was to have grinding but really required only at max difficulty level. Some important skill upgrade would be tied to specific plot scenes, to avoid problem of balancing... see Loren where some (crazy haha) people reached level 25 before chapter 3

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BMyUyN1CUAIdM2m.jpg:large" style="max-width:100%">

an example of an event happening in the isometric map. Certain tiles can trigger events, and party character can interact. Here you see Philipp in his usual relaxing and friendly mood

Ah exploration sounds cool, so similar to the hovercraft one then, works Haha, nasty joke there



But there be random battles too? Or will see.



Have you considered how you encounter an enemy? Perhaps if you approach a bad angle, you get last strike, or first strike from a good angle? Perhaps an angle to denote the way they are facing. Run into head on, equal last strike or normal, side way = advantage, behind them = first strike?



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xxxxx O xxxxx

xxxxx V xxxxx



etc



Cheers

Well so far it works that in some cases you "stumble" into an enemy just hidden behind a corner, so you get a sort of surprise attack by enemies. I haven't spoken with Aleema but I think should be possible to check if you saw the enemy before or if it was a sort of ambush and change the battle accordingly.

As for "behind them" is really not possible to do that since the enemies are represented with plain 2d icons, so there isn't really a "behind"

Will there be some stat which improves the chances of getting "first strike"? Either directly or be "seeing" what is behind the corner?

Yes some skills should have impact on that, but before making any decision the new battle system needs to be finished to see it in action. But shouldn't be too hard, since the game battle uses a timer system like Final Fantasy early titles, so to simulate any bonus or ambush would be enough to start the battle with one of the two sides with a time penalty/bonus.

Note that the timer can be both turn based or semi-real time, so is not like you won't be able to plan your moves like before

Sounds interesting. With getting some pressure through the "semi-real-time" it will make it even more fun. (And with turn based for the first time, so I can learn the new system at my pace.)



Though, on second thought, I would just lob a granate behind the corner if I suspect something...

That strategy always works! ...until you run out of grenades

Granted, the enemy icons may be represented in a 2D manner, but you can always use colour, or arrow indicators to highlight their facing perhaps?



Like O>



Or <O,



It could be even a mini puzzle in a way too.



Such as, if you approach the boss from the long typical front, the boss may get a Preliminary round of Alpha Fire, for the heroic approach. Or if you found that secret door, or used another walk way and approach it upfront or another direction, the boss may have no time for an alpha strike.



Just ideas. I replayed PS1 and found the environmental skills unlocked pathways which may give a minor tactical advantage perhaps. Or Disadvantage.



Approach a boss from behind? The Reinforcements will arrive even faster!



Food for thought, etc.



Just thinking what was the point of the Isometric maze, unless it was a automapper/satellite/visual diagram of the dungeon crawl. In which case, that works fine too



Cheers

Ah ok. Adding an arrow to show the point the enemy is facing is not a bad idea. But there will still be those "choices" during the battles like the first game had, presented by menu items to pick. Of course making them directly in the map would be nicer, but they'll be also present in the "old way"

We're currently thinking about the map and the general interaction of the game. I'll make a more detailed blog post in next weeks about it, but in practice my idea was to have missions. Check this quick mockup I made:

http://i.imgur.com/6ju0so8.jpg" style="max-width:100%">

the red missions would be the one to advance the plot, while the blue one would be secondary missions, using base map but with randomized content (enemy, loot, etc).

The idea is that on Easy/Normal mode you can only play the red missions and go on fine, but since we know that SOME players absolutely like to grind, playing in Hard/Impossible difficulty means that they should also complete some of the blue missions to get more EXP/money/resources.

For the exploration gameplay, each missions has isometric maps to explore, so I really feel that there's no need to have even an exploration part at a biggest level (planetary exploration). Besides I'd like to think that after defending the whole planet they have already explored it, it's only some small areas that need to be explored at a more close-up range (a bit like the modern world warfare).



There will still be a map for your movement inside the colony, to choose which character to talk to, and so on (and yes they'll have an indicator if they have something new to tell you as requested!).

I saw the words, random mission, and grind. Woot!



I like how that looks. A mission terminal in place of a journal log, for the players to read from their Data Bridge. If you can make it look more techy, it be great. Again, a nice advanced, tech looking journal log.



I personally hope the game is hard enough to warrant grinding. PS1 had a terrible point loss, and Loren was more about beating the stage before the Computer asploded.



Cheers

This time will do my best to make some battles VERY hard when playing at max difficulty level to provide a challenge even to veteran players

How many maps for "blue" missions will there be?



I don't like to grind for grind sake, but if there are interesting side missions I like to do them. "Interesting" being the key word - if every blue mission takes place on the same map, only sometimes there are robots and other times there are Marada to shoot, then it is definitly not "interesting".



My personal preference would be randomly generated maps. Which may be too much effort for the effect desired... The second best solutions are maps which offer several "rooms" in which the loot resp. mission target can be hidden, so there is still some exploration to do. Oh, and of course if the maps are pre-drawn then I like to see many of them.



One more idea: While I am not sure what the map can support, features like roving guards may make the maps even more fun. Especially for those players who like to sneak through. (Some just kill anything running around, then it makes no difference.)

There are already "side missions" on the map themselves, the main (red) missions: like you play a story mission to recover precious water tanks and then you stumble into a prisoner who offers you the side quest to free him. Some are even turn based, so you need to hurry.

So the blue one will be mostly randomized or pseudo-randomized map, we've yet to think exactly how it will work, but I think we'll just design a ton of maps with some predefined places where the enemies can be, and maybe some "simple puzzles" (get this key to open this). But fully random maps might be too much and beside every time I played them in games they sucked.

In practice it will be like some sandbox games like GTA or others, where there are the main missions that advance the story, and then several side missions which are mostly to grind to get money, resources, and so on, to become more powerful (which is not needed in Easy/Normal level).

http://25.media.tumblr.com/abdc2e18d0c3d3118642e2fcaca1ea0a/tumblr_mp5wmoehIw1qhts2bo1_1280.jpg" style="max-width:100%">

this is the "colony travel map" I was talking about. Clicking on the top-right allows you to go outside and begin a mission

On each location a portrait of the character present is shown, and there'll also be indicators if they have something new to say or not.

is rebecca a liutenant and rumi a sargeant now?

Hopefully! Otherwise they might hold a grudge against Joshua/Lisa because the PC got bumped up so quickly while they are still where they were before PS1.

Ah you noticed! yes they have different suit colors now. The playing character is promoted and has a black suit, Rebecca is 1st lieutenant and Rumi sergeant. Rebecca actually looks better in red