Now, FE has a totally different combat system with damage types, defense types, attack types, etc. I haven't come up with a straight forward way to make combat in WOM more strategic without rewriting the combat system. I was hping that attack speeds would do the trick but they don't.
Hm... with the limitations of the current combat system... very hard indeed.
The only thing I can think of is the addition of special abilities to equipment, like some mods did. Though this isn't such a great solution, since it makes combat very micro heavy.
There are 4 stats which define an unit in battle:
- Attack
- Defense
- HP
- Action Points which define nr of attacks per turn and movement
Thus we have a system, where more in any of those 4 stats is always better and the first 2 are of supreme importance. Imo, there is nothing you can do with only those 4 stats which make combat strategic in any way. The current system means, bigger numbers always win.
You could do some stuff with special abilities tied to equipment though. Simple example:
- Staves, low attack value, significant defense penalty, adds a heal ability to that unit
- Bows, normal attack, significant defense penalty, adds a suppressing fire ability that lowers an units action points by half
- Mounts, adds a charge ability that doubles that units action points
- Shields, adds a defense ability that doubles that units hp temporary, but removes all its action points
- Hammers, adds a strike ability that halves an enemy units defense, stackable
- Swords, adds a berserk ability that does very high damage but lowers defense of the unit using this ability
- Axes, normal attack value, significant defense penalty, adds a break ability that halves an enemy units attack, stackable
Ie. some abilities per equipment type, with significant power.
Ideally, combat then would play like this. You engage an enemy troop. Your bow troops would use supressing fire on the enemy cavalry to negate their charge so they can't outmanoeuvre you, a very high armoured enemy unit would be swarmed by hammer guys to drop its defense, wounded units get healed up by stave guys in the back. Low hp enemy units and enemy archers get finished of by berserkering swords men, since there won't be a counterattack that could seriously injure them. OP enemy champion? Use some axeman to cut their attack down to manageable levels.
The defense penalties on certain items would be there, to make sure that armies consisting of only those units wouldn't be op, by negating some of the possible offensive power through stark reduced defense of such units.
Ie. you have tons of archers and axe units to reduce an enemies attack superiority? Though luck, since your units fall like flies without some units to soak up the damage.
Ofc combat like this would be micro heavy but imo it would add quite a bit to the game, if we'd get special abilties like this. The above are only examples of course, but imo simple abilities with strong effects for weapons and some equipment could make the battles more tactical in the current framework of the system. It's also important to not overdo the number of abilities, to keep the combat fast. In other words, iconic abilities for weapons that would define them instead of them having just an attack score.
The disadvantage of such a system is, it would need serious AI work to make it good and the necessary APIs for the AI to do that may prove too time intensive to add.
TL;DR without special abilities tied to equipment, the current system can't be made tactical.
