14 DAY TRIAL // Josh Sawyer, the lead designer and project director working on Project Eternity, is offering another update on the party-based role-playing game, focused on the mechanics of melee battles.
The developer says that the core innovative element for the combat phase is named Engagement and is designed to force certain classes into direct battles with melee-focused characters.
Sawyer states, “Melee engagement is a solution to two common problems in the Infinity Engine games: melee characters' inability to control an area and ranged characters' ability to 'kite' melee characters.”
In Eternity, as in some tabletop games, coming near a melee character will draw any combatant into an Engagement, which will allow the melee-focused fighter to show off his unique skills.
The Obsidian lead developer adds, “When an opponent is Engaged by an attacker, moving any significant distance away from the attacker will provoke a Disengagement Attack. A Disengagement Attack has an inherent Accuracy bonus, does significantly more damage than a standard attack, and will call a hit reaction animation while momentarily stopping the character's movement.”
The official update then goes in depth in order to explain the mechanics and how players will be able to use them during battles.
A number of effects and actions also end an Engagement, forcing the player party to work together in order to make sure that its weakest members are protected.
Sawyer also says that the new mechanic can make the Artificial Intelligence smarter and better able to challenge gamers.
Obsidian will offer more special rules for Engagement for the various monsters and creatures as Project Eternity is nearing its launch date.
The new game is created using an entirely new engine and Obsidian is talking to players all through the development process in order to make sure that the final product is adapted to their needs.
