Conflict Resolution (prototype)

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I was messing around with play-by-email game concepts and at the same time kinda thought back to an idea I tried yeeeears ago in a far more clumsy manner.

Conflict Resolution is based on those absolutely awesome stick-figure martial combat animations that often do the rounds on Youtube and the like. I wanted players to get the sense of creating an awesome, fast-paced fighter without the dexterity focus. So you finalise your character *before* the fight starts (choosing a moveset and tweaking parameters) then watch it duke out against another prefab AI.

Fights last 15 seconds each and the goal is to deal the most damage possible.

Interface / controls etc will cause you to grit your teeth a little (especially in the character creation screen), but for simplicity there's 4 ready-made characters supplied with this build:

- Default (a "dumb fire" bot that uses the basic moveset)
- Monk (a lightly-programmed bot which uses the Grapple and Meditate moves)
- Berserker (a lightly-programmed bot which uses the Charge and Summon Sword moves)
- NandrewBot (A decently-programmed bot which uses the basic moveset)

SPACEBAR to reset the combat / swap combatant positions
ENTER to leave combat and return to main menu

Here's the file, have fun messing around (if you can)! https://www.box.com/s/1gptsbr9xmj11zadyjr6

Comments

  • Your "game goal" for the purposes of this build: try building your own bot / character that can topple the NandrewBot in two-way combat (one starting on each side, average out the scores). Post the file here if you're interested in offering up your own challenge!

    Unfortunately, there' no brilliant tutorial system for the character creator, but if you crack open the default character files you'll be able to see how this stuff works. :)
  • This is pretty awesome! The fight are difficult to read for a first timer like me so I was struggling to get my strategies to play out like I wanted to, but this was probably me not being used to the game (want to spend more time tweaking and stuff but having to type in the names each time was getting to be a drag, def want to play with it more when I have some time). I ended up making MadRaxter though, a dude that only unblockable punches to the face, and nothing else :p he lost miserably so I'm not putting him up here :p

    I've been thinking of a similar idea recently whereby you have a character with which you customise the moves, similar to Conflict Resolution. Except that it is more like a Chinese Kung Fu movie or epic Jedi lightsaber battle and the 2 players take turns to choose attack and defense moves (or change stance, initiate a jump, etc). It would be a turn based strategy sort with each player trying to pick a weakness in their opponent's techniques. With a side advantage of playing back the fight at normal speed and watching the Jedi-Knight/Kung Fu master flurry of perfectly executed attacks and blocks, like a hyper-speed chess game

    _o_| ---____o__
    / |___   \_   \ 
     _/

    (I hope this comes out right... it is supposed to be two stick figures fighting...)
  • I understand exactly what you're talking about, I was musing over a similar idea (basically a play-by-email fighter) and recording a set of deterministic "move" commands isn't far from what I've already got supported.

    To have a more "game" feel, I suppose one could also explore some single player options (room full of specifically tweaked bots vs one player).

    Hilariously enough, just started *another* side project, so I dunno if this will go anywhere. But I'm trying to make a resolution of posting more of my work online.
  • Thanks for the contributions :P

    I kinda realised that if I wanted this to be more engaging for multiple players, it probably would've been wise to work first on a broader variety of moves rather than better move programming, so that it's easier to see a more explicit player personality come in.

    That said, pitching your bots against each other was, in particular, a very entertaining watch. :)
  • Ha, I played with this last night! :D The fights were way fluid; it's not like a lot of other games where you see them taking turns, as if they really were robots.

    It wasn't always obvious to me who won though, without looking at the score.
  • To tell the truth I downloaded it and really wanted to make it work, but then I started it up and the wholeness of it smacked me in the face. I tinkered with it for like 10 minutes and gave up. I'll give it another shot when im in front of the computer again...

    I really dig the idea, it reminds me of ff12 where I built a self efficient army through programming the gambits, and that was glorious.
  • I think I'm on a binge of creating fairly inaccessible games at the moment, so thanks for the willingness to test early madnesses like these. :P
  • I enjoyed tinkering with this, but my bots seem to be a combination of sheer brilliance (countering a flying kick with an epic super move) and utter stupidity, now if I could just figure out how to do more of the former and less of the latter I'd be good.
  • edited
    Haha, I reckon that's the main component of the game challenge.
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