Intro:
I will be comparing at some moments to a diffrent game called Forgotten Hope that is a Battlefield 1942 mod. (its a WW2 first-person shooter)
As a start, we should figure out what are the key elements to a victory, whatever it is, modern battle, medieval duel or simple street fight, the key elements are still the same. No matter of size of the army. Few i dig up are, perception (see the enemy before he sees you), knowlage (knowing enemies options) and finally decision making (where, how and when). Now, in TB Fonline combat, none of those are base to victory, very seldom and mostly by the enemies complete lack of those rather then ones superiority one can make use of those 3. In RT combat (TC) those come to use, however, could be on bigger scale?
Something a nerd can call experience;
I can tell from Battlefield game and realism. So, in battlefield 1942 players had a lot HP (like in Fonline), and most guns were weak (like in Fonline, majority of guns are weak). Only head shot was one shot kills (like eye shots/critticals in Fonline). If you shot a whole magazine in ones torso, he would not die (like Fonline). So, the battlefield 1942 was a lot about, reflexes, quick button pressing and joysticks (insert aimbots)(mean, which players were favorized by the game to win). Now, Forgotten Hope is a mod that tried to make the game more realistic, players were given a lot less HP and weapons did more damage, a torso one bullet shot most often ended in player elimination (meaning, totally the opposite way). Now that players were so easly killed, they had to think, exacly those; where is the enemy? What does he see/do? what weapon does he have? how do i kill him without getting killed, or should i risk? My main point with this is, the mod made the game a lot more about those 3 key elements then luck, and gave this feeling (which i think is good) that you play the game rather then the game plays you.
Real Time PVP
In Real time combat, even though those 3 key elements matter, there is a lot of space of improvement in my opinion, as those key elements are not really key at many times. HP 200+ is a must, becouse, if one person having 150 hp meets in a direct confrontation a person having 240 hp then one that has 240 hp will most likely survive the first shot and the other wont, so, is it really good to keep the game rules to who survives first shot (whole usage of AP)? What if both died on first shot? If the starting HP at level 1 was higher, and the EN bonuses were lower, making the lowest possible HP for a player around 110 and highest around 180? Would that not encourage decision making? Then the winner will be decided more by perception (who spots who first, who looks around more simply), knowlage (knowing the map, what advantage can i get by standing here), decision (Should i wait for him or engage and from where?)
About AP, who shoots faster, a Minigun or a Luger? They fire both same fast. Acually i do not see the point of even having AP in RT at all. How it looks currently, is not representation of the Turn-based combat system of fallout. Becouse in TB, the minigun does take longer time then a luger to fire, thats why the AP. I believe that if firing a minigun represented the AP cost in real time, meaning it would take time to fire it (there could be diffrent ways of achiving that, one could be, if the minigun burst cost 6 (with BROF lets say) then it would take maybe 3 sec overally, and the damage will be counted out on first shot and then delivered on the target in 3 parts, so if the damage was 60 then it would go 20 each second for 3 seconds) would strongly improve the area of ability of making decision during combat, tactics in other words. It would probobly make the combat slower, and therfore more responsive (player will have more ability to respond to what he sees and take actions). Lets imagine two players, one sniper and one p90, p90 is walking out of the building and he doesint know that there is a sniper waiting for him outside, p90 is outside and he is in range of the sniper, the p90 spots the sniper and the sniper begins to eyeshot him (which cost a lot of AP and therefore takes time, 4 sec?), now the P90 has a choice attack or hide, attacking would require to run and hope that he will get in range before the sniper shots him or running back to the building, but that is his choice and tactic. Isint that more fun then just bang bang?
