Versus: Battle of the Gladiator Windows game

Score Above Kill Count

In Versus, you need higher score to win a battle. If you killed 10 players and scored 1,000 points, you will lose to the player who killed 3 and scored 1,700 points. I'd like to talk about whys and hows of this aspect of our game, Versus: Battle of the Gladiator.

Why Did We Added Score System?

We didn't want the combat of Versus to become a mindless kill fest. It would drive players to focus only on the kill counts. There would be only one way to become better at Versus, which is to kill more players in shorter time. It was too linear to be interesting enough.

That's why we added score system. With score system, players have at least 2 ways to become better at Versus: get more kill counts, or score higher points per kill. Former would require players to outplay the opponent, while the latter would require players to study and understand combat system. Players would have to plan their kills - to get highest score out of the kill. The ultimate gladiator would know not only how to kill, but also how to kill with style.

The only exception of this is no-respawn game modes. These modes ask players to outplay the opponent, no matter how. It means players can completely ignore scoring aspect of Versus, and focus solely on kill.

This is somewhat discouraged by our reward system. At the end of each battle, players are graded according to the score they earned during the fight. And battle reward is mostly based on the combat grade, along with win/lose of the game, and ranking of the player among others. Thus, players should focus on both winning the game and scoring higher points.

How Does the Scoring System Works?

There are 3 elements: Skill used as the final blow, Combo counts, and Medal.

Final Blow

There are several skill types in Versus. I have categorized them with their power and look, and assigned them points so that killing with more powerful skill or performing a special finisher move would let players score the highest point possible.

1. Basic attack gives 100 points. This is the lowest score you can get.
2. Killing with a trap gives 100 points. In Versus, most of the traps grant an immediate death, so it's pretty easy to abuse them. This is to discourage experienced players from abusing trap kills.
3. Guardbreaker, Grapple and Charge gives 150 points. Guardbreaker and Charge are "middle" skills, which packs decent damage and great for initiating or chaining combo. Grapple is an "ignore defense" skill which doesn't deal much damage but ignores most defenses and disrupts the rhythm of the fight. I wanted them to be used mid-fight, not as a killing blow.
4. Power attack and Evasive attack gives 200 points. They have the highest damage among non-conditional attacks, and looks pretty decent. It would be best if they are used as a finishing touch for a combo chain.
5. Counter gives 200 points + additional 200 points for a medal(PvP only). I'll talk about the medal score later. Simply put, counter gives 400 points to the player. Counter can be used only when you input the command at the right timing, and it's pretty hard to pull off. Thus high points for a flashy kill.
6. Finisher gives 300 points + additional 200 points for a medal(PvP only). Again, simply put, finisher gives 500 points. Finisher can be used only when the opponent is stunned. Stun happens when player's HP is lowered than a certain threshold (currently, it's 1/6 of max HP by default).

Combo Bonus

Chaining combo is a very important skill player must master in Versus. It isn't necessary (or even possible) for heavier weapons such as greatswords or warhammers, but for smaller weapons, combo is a important part of attack.

The longer your combo is, the higher players get bonus score. Score bonus is based on the final blow score, so players still have to use the right skill.

Heavier weapons would have less combo score bonus, because their combo chain is shorter and they deal higher damage, killing their opponents faster. But they are better at killing multiple players at once, in multiple v. multiple situation, compared to smaller weapons.

1. 5~9: 20%
2. 10~14: 30%
3. 15~19: 50%
4. 20~29: 80%
5. 30~49: 100%
6. 50~: 200%

Medal

Players get medal when they achieve great kills. 3, 5, 7 and 10 Killstreaks. Killing the foe who owned the player before. Killing an ace player. Killing with Counter or Finisher. Getting a lot of assists. These are to give players a feedback that they are playing the game right, and also to reward them for playing right.

Usually medals are worth a good kill - 200 points. But there is one medal which gives a huge bonus score of 1,000 points. It's called Kingslayer, and is given to a player who killed another player who's wielding an "Excalibur". It's a gimmick sword which spawns only in the map "The Excalibur", which has immense damage output that players can kill other players with only 1~2 hits. Players want to wield that sword, and wielding that sword means a huge score boost until they die.

In this case, medal works as a mean to turn the tide of the battle. With 1,000 points bonus, players can actually follow the score of a player who wielded Excalibur.

Conclusion

Score system gives a unique edge to the gameplay of Versus. To become better at Versus, you have to learn more than how to kill; you have to learn how to kill with style - using a right skill, stacking up a high combo chain, and if they do it right, we give them even more score by granting them a medal or two.