In Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode, combat is done mostly turn-based, Rogue-like. You got your sword, you got your target. Press against the target and you hit him with your sword. It might get stuck in your target, in which case pressing against him again without either of you leaving your current positions means you get to twist the sword around inside of your target. Yay. You can also throw stuff like darts and other people.

In Megazeux, combat is done real-time. By default you only have a gun. Hold space and press a direction to fire a fast-moving but easily dodged projectile. The gun is also an automatic. Several sword engines have been made that replace the unlimited-range gun with a close-range sword (duh) that usually does damage in a two or three tile strip perpendicular to the player. That is, if you face north, the sword strikes the tiles from northwest to northeast.

In Corruption of Champions, combat is strictly turn-based, like the average RPG. You pick an action, the opponent picks an action, and whoever’s faster gets to do his thing first.

For Noxico, which has (MZX-style) realtime movement and exploration, I was thinking of going MZX-style with the combat, too. Most weapons would be close-range, with bigger blades having more range (imagine a BFS reaching some three tiles far and a simple knife only one tile). Guns would still be more or less unlimited in range, but instantly hit – there’s no visible bullet. The further the target, the higher chance of not getting hit, and maybe if you do get hit, it won’t be as effective if it’s from far away. And if that’s not enough, just make guns relatively rare.

What do you think?