Overhauling The Combat System in Dreadwinter - March 2025 Update
- Vogy Bear
- Mar 21
- 7 min read
Welcome
Hey there! Welcome to another blog post. This might be a wordy one, since this is a large feature I've been working on, but I'll try to keep it interesting.
February Progress
The bulk of last month's work went into revamping the combat system in Dreadwinter. While the game is primarily a cozy cafe sim, I've wanted to have adventuring gameplay from the start, and it was part of the original concept. I wasn't really happy with how the existing system was, in terms of quality and how future development would work, so I'd been holding off on working on it. At some point I had an idea for a turn-based, card game system, so I figured it was a good time to revamp everything.
Why I revamped the previous system
The gameplay started off as more hack and slash, similar to how it works in Stardew Valley and Sunhaven, but there were a lot of difficulties along the way. Part of it was a lack of experience, which meant it took a while to figure out how to do things, and a lot of it was overly complicated, but also I don't think I really enjoyed working on it. Action based gameplay is quite reliant on animations and visual effects, which wasn't my favourite thing to work on. I'm a little better at it now, but I'd prefer not to have to do 100s of frames of animation for the player if possible.
I'm more of a fan of turn-based games, some games I've been playing recently are Moonstone Island, Balatro and Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel. A few months ago, I was doing some idle thinking while playing those games and came up with a new combat system, which combined some of the features I liked about their gameplay. I let it sit for a while, but I'm getting to a point where a lot of the core features have been implemented, so it seemed like a good time to try reworking the old combat system.
How the new system works
As mentioned before, the new combat system is a turn-based, card battler. You draw a hand from a deck of 30-60 cards, ranging from attack cards that function as your skills and spells, to defense and player cards that give a variety of beneficial effects.
You and the enemy then take turns whaling on each other, using as many cards as you can/want. I initially had a system where you alternated using cards to try to build up a higher total damage than your opponent, and the winner would deal the difference in damage to their opponent, but I felt that it was a bit too simple and unsatisfying in terms of gameplay and strategy. I instead opted for more traditional turn-based combat, but with a slight twist.
My goal is for the player to be able to be able to play out combos with their cards to maximize damage, but there should also be a good amount of back and forth with the enemy, so you shouldn't be able to easily end a battle in one turn. Let's use two games as examples of what I mean.
Moonstone Island uses a similar system to what I had in mind, where you take turns using cards to attack the enemies. It has a resource system to prevent you using too many cards in one go, which allows for a good amount of back and forth, but I don't feel like there's too much strategy going on, since it's really just pick the cards with the highest number.
Yu-Gi-Oh's lack of a resource system allows you to play really cool combos with your cards, rather than just using 1 or 2 cards and calling it a day, but you do end up being able to do oppressive combos that prevent the opponent from playing. One thing I really enjoy is deckbuilding, maybe a little more than actually playing, so it's nice that I need to think about how cards synergize with each other, as well as considering card ratios and deck size.
So what I want is something that's in the middle of these two gameplay styles, that allows you to carry out strategies and combos, but is still ultimately a turn-based battle.
To achieve this goal, I have two systems that form a key part of the gameplay. The first is combo/finisher points (I haven't settled on the name yet).
Each attack card will either generate combo points, or use them. Weaker cards will generate points, while stronger cards use them up. This means that you need to start off with the weaker point generators, before finishing your combo with the powerful cards. I think it's a good way to allow you to be able to play long combos, without them being too strong. It also means you need to think about how many of each type you want to have in your deck, to maximize the chances of having a good hand.
The other feature is an elemental reaction system. Each attack card deals damage of a certain element, and if you then use a card with a different element, a reaction occurs, applying an effect depending on the second element applied. These reaction effects can be as simple as additional damage, to potentially stunning the enemy, or even drawing a card!
There are currently 9 elements in the game, each with their own unique reaction:
Element | Reaction |
Inferno | Increases damage of the attack |
Hydro | Generates a shield |
Lightning | Chance to stun the enemy |
Nature | Deals additional damage that increases with every reaction |
Aero | Draws a card and ends the turn. |
Terra | Reduces incoming damage |
Solar | Massively increases damage if the previous attack did Lunar damage. No reaction otherwise |
Lunar | Repeats the damage of the previous attack. If the previous attack did Solar damage, increases the damage of the second instance. |
Physical | No reaction |
As an example, if you use an Inferno attack card, then a Hydro attack card, a Hydro reaction will occur, generating a shield. I did it in this way as my plan is to have elements with strong reactions have low damage, and non/low damage reactions have high damage.
The aim is to make the player consider what order to play their cards in, and build strategies around the elemental reactions.
After a reaction occurs, the applied element is reset, so you can't perform a chain reaction with your next card. This is to prevent the combo snowballing quickly, especially early on in the game, as there is a lot of power in the reactions. This restriction can be removed later on, by levelling a skill in the skill tree.
In a card-based game, you want your power to be tied to how you build your deck, but I also wanted to make use of the skill tree and gearing system from before. I focused the skill tree around enabling and improving different strategies, such as having physical damage be able to critically hit, and applying a bleed effect that deals extra damage. There's also skills based around mono-elements, which increases damage dealt if you keep doing damage of the same element, as well as other quality of life skills.
The gear system has also been modified so that it still provides stats when you wear certain equipment, while not influencing your power too much. This is done in the form of simple things such as health, initiative (to decide turn order), crit stats (rate and damage), as well as arcana, which increases the multipliers from reactions.
Obviously, there's a lot of testing and balancing to do, so things are subject to change, but I'm happy with the direction it's going in.
How to obtain cards
The main way to get cards is by buying packs/decks at Blunder Muffin, the hobby store in Lunara. Initially it was just a place to hang out and maybe play some of the minigames I worked on, but it made sense to be able to acquire cards from a hobby shop, and it's nice for it to have a practical use.
You can still get cards from defeating enemies, as well as looting treasure chests and some unexpected places, but I like the idea of opening packs to get cards. I plan to have guarantee systems and packs with better odds/rarities that unlock as you progress, so getting cards shouldn't be too luck dependent.
What's next?
Currently, I'm working on the intros for Dreadwinter. There will be 3 different intros, depending on the playstyle you want (although it won't influence it too much), similar to lifepaths in Cyberpunk 2077. This will probably take a month or two to complete. I'm also tackling a bunch of small tasks that need doing, such as changing how the skin color customisation works (changing from making alternate sprite sheets to using shaders, which is much easier).
After that, I'll take some time to clean and finish up the existing content, such as adding in the rest of the NPCs in Lunara and their homes, and adding more customisation to the game. There's a lot of things to do that were low priority before, so I think it's a good sign that I have some time to get those tasks done. There's still a lot of content to be added, but it's mostly on the creative end, rather than gameplay features.
I'd like to have a lot done in the next few months, and then I can try to update the game demo. I'll try to get something out by May/June, but I'm trying not to rush and burnout again, so no promises!
That's it for this update! Thanks for making it this far, and I'll be back with another update soon!
-Alex
