When you think of Might and Delight’s tiny MMO Book of Travels, the word “combat” may not immediately spring to mind. But the game does indeed have combat, after a fashion, and indeed the developers are hoping to polish it up with an overhaul before the game leaves early access. Granted, the system the studio previewed this week is very much in an “alpha state,” the devs caution, with missing sound, animations, effects, and UI flair, but it does demonstrate the direction of the game.
Within the new system, players (or NPCs) will initiate a combat scenario with the battle stance skill, which triggers the tension meter that essentially shows you when combat is going to begin – or not, if you defuse those tensions and the bar goes away, but where’s the fun in that? If aggression is in order, players will contend with The Sequencer, which is just a fancy measurement for how quickly each participant can engage with each decision in the, well, sequence of combat. Players will then enter the decision phase and actually use their combat skills and knot spells; you’ll choose, and then the game will play out the round. Do note that while combat is in testing, players can’t be killed this way.
Obviously the combat plays more like a turn-based brawler or a puzzle game, which is surely the intent, which makes it a far cry from the twitchy action-slashers many MMO players are used to. Still, maybe that’s just what the genre needs.
Might and Delight says it’s working on additional features, including duels, loot on death, more combat skills, more weapons, a tutorial, boss fights, and of course, the combat UI itself.
