Combat Mechanics
Briefly, the core of the game consists in personalizing your Character choosing
the equipment and the combat decks he or she will use in combat, and then trying
to outsmart your opponent each round, picking the best Maneuver and Event cards
available in your current hand.
Players can engage each other in combat using the Engage button on the HUD,
picking an unengaged opponent in the nearby area, or issuing a general Challenge
which can be accepted by any character in shout range (i.e. about 40 meters).
When an opponent accepts the engagement, both characters are considered engaged
in combat till one of them manages to disengage or is defeated.
During combat, the player's deck of cards is actually split into three separate
decks, one containing Attack cards (red), one for the Defense
& Special cards(blue & green), and the last one with all the Event
cards (gold).
The player has usually eight cards in his/her hand (this can change according to
Experience Level difference), and can set anytime the mix of cards as he sees fit
for the current tactical situation (the default is starting with three Attacks,
three Defenses and two Events cards).
In other words, the player can specify for each hand's card position which deck
to use to pick a replacement when he plays or discards the card in that position.
In Ordalia, combat is split in rounds. During each round, a player can:
- Discard a card: this replaces a card with a new one extracted
randomly from the appropriate deck (Attack, Defense & Special or Event deck).
- Play an Event card: an Event card can be played only if the playing
prerequisites for the card are satisfied, if any, as indicated on the card itself.
Event cards can target the character who plays it or his/her opponent, and only
one Event card can be played each round. The Event card must be played before
any other card in the round, and the player can choose to not play any Event
card during a round.
- Play a Maneuver Card: a player clan play only one Maneuver card each
round against an opponent. This card can be an Attack (red), Defense (blue) or
Special card (green).
If the card has some use prerequisites (like being restricted to certain weapons
only), these conditions must be satisfied else a warning message will be shown
to the player only, and the card won't be played.
Playing the Maneuver card terminates the current round!
To play a card, the player simply has to left click on the card picture itself
shown by the HUD.
When both players have played their Maneuver cards, the game evaluates their
Attack values against each other Defense values to decide whether any of them has
been hit and wounded.
To hit an opponent, the Attack value of the Action played must be higher than the
Defense value of the target. Both character values are modified by the cards
played and by the equipment in use.
The damage inflicted will depend on the Strength of the attacker, modified by
the Weapon's stats and reduced by target's armor Protection. If the Attack score
was much higher than the target's Defense value, a bonus damage will also be applied.
Moreover, secondary special effects can be applied due to special weapon
characteristics, Events, or just because of special vulnerability or
effectiveness of the Maneuver played compared to the opponent's one.
Some examples are:
- characters falling down, or being disarmed
- changes in character's status (like Bleeding, being Stunned, Charmed,
Entangled and more)
- tactical advantages or disadvantages, giving modifiers to Character's values
when using certain types of Maneuver in the following round
- change of engagement distance, like closing in or keeping at distance
(especially valuable when using weapons with different reach's length)
- free action option, allowing the character to draw another weapon, stand
up, or consume it casting a spell etc.
- disengagement option, interrupting the combat immediately without any penalty
If one of the combatants is hit and wounded, leaving him or her with no
Life
points left, that Character is defeated. Otherwise, the game proceeds to another
round of combat.