History of Combat in Hash Rush
Originally, we had designed Hash Rush to have a simple combat system, with greater focus on base building and trading. However, after player feedback from our live events it became very clear that it was a point that they wanted us to improve on. So, armed with this valuable information our Lead Game Designer, Rob Nicholls, rolled up his sleeves and created a far more robust combat system.
As a final note, this dev blog will mainly focus on what can be found in the alpha, when we talk about a post-alpha feature, we’ll be sure to make it very clear. Everyone in the alpha should know that we will be using the alpha as a live testing ground, so do expect a few of these things to change.
Unit Types
To understand how combat works, we first need to know what types of units players can find in Hash Rush. We have:
- Melee
These are your close ranged units and fight with swords, spears, or fists. - Ranged
These are your long ranged units and fight with a bow and arrow or slingshots. - Both
These are special units that can alternate between melee and ranged attacks.
Top Tip: If you are controlling a unit that does both types of damage, you can select the type of attack from the unit’s UI. Use that to your advantage to hit enemies from a distance with a ranged weapon, and then switch to a melee weapon to finish them off.
Attack and Resistance
As well as the three main classes of units, the Hash Rush alpha will have different types of damages and accompanying resistances:
- Slash damage/resistance — caused by slashing weapons such as swords
- Pierce damage/resistance — caused by piercing weapons such as arrows
- Blunt damage/resistance — caused by blunt weapons such as clubs, fists and slingshots.
While the alpha will feature only these three types, we have developed Hash Rush in such a way that it is easy for us to add in new attack types and even combine them. For example, we could add in Fire damage, and then combine it with an archer unit. When the archer attacks, it can ignite the arrow causing both fire and pierce damage.
Top Tip: Buildings are weakest to blunt damage, so use units that inflict blunt damage to attack buildings while the pierce and slash-dealing units protect them from enemies.
Now we come to the resistance. Every attack type has an accompanying resistance that may decrease the total damage the unit takes. The resistances are calculated on a percentile, so if a unit with 50% slash resistance is attacked by a sword-wielding unit, the defending unit will only take 50% of the damage. Make sure to bear this in mind, as attacking with the wrong type of damage can seriously hinder your chances of winning a fight.
Top Tip: Resistances can exceed 100%. If that happens, the unit with the resistance will be healed when it takes that type of damage.
Damage and Abilities
Our combat system allows for three ways in which damage can be dealt:
- Direct damage
The is the most common damage type. It is inflicted directly without any further effects. - Damage over time (not present in the alpha)
This type of injury deals continuous damage over a period of time. - Critical hits
When a critical hit is inflicted, that attack’s damage is doubled
Top Tip: Only certain units can inflict critical hits!
There are a few other factors that need to be taken into account that will affect the damage output of each unit:
- Attack Speed
Each unit will attack at a different rate, which impacts the total damage output. - Accuracy
While this feature will be in the alpha, it will not play an active role as all units will have a fixed 100% accuracy. However, in the future, we will be adding units that can decrease accuracy. - Hunger
Your units need to be fed. While they cannot starve to death, if a unit becomes hungry they will take penalties to their total damage, movement speeds and resistances. The hungrier they are, the higher the penalty.
Next, we come to special abilities. Hash Rush will feature units and structures which have a stamina pool from which they can draw stamina to perform special abilities.
For the alpha, only the Healer unit makes use of the stamina pool. However, at launch, there will be numerous other units and even structures that will be able to use stamina to power their special abilities.
A Hostile Planet
Let’s take a look at some of the situations that players will need to fight their way through.
Your planet has been infected by the crystal virus, causing the environment to become hostile. The level of threat that it presents is based on the player’s progression, with the level of progression derived from several factors:
- The number of units the player controls
- The number of structures the player has built
- How far the player has expanded their base
- The amount of Crypto Crystals that the player has mined
At first, the planet will just be somewhat cautious of the player, spawning only single units. These units will then either lie in wait, ready to ambush exploring units or may become bold and attack the player’s colony.
However, once the player has thoroughly established themselves on the planet, the attacks will change from single assaults to waves of enemies. At this point, the player will need to actively prepare themselves for attacks that will challenge their defences.
Defeated enemies will drop Crypto Crystals. However, if you want to collect them, you will need to have a fully constructed Crystal Silo with available space.
Top Tip: Crypto Crystals will vanish if not collected in time, so make sure to grab them straight away!
The Fog
Now let’s look at the fog that covers the planet. While this does not directly affect combat, players need to learn how it affects their units.
If you are an RTS player, you will know the term Fog of War. This is the fog that covers the playing field and prevents the player from seeing what is going on behind it unless they have a unit or structure nearby that has a line of sight. We took the Fog of War concept and developed it one step further: Hash Rush requires players to construct light sources to properly remove the fog.
While units can explore the planet and temporarily remove the fog as they venture forth, they will be affected by fear if a light source is not built. If their fear level reaches 100%, the unit will automatically run back to the nearest light source.
In the screenshot above, you can clearly see the explored area in a ring of light posts, but look to the distance and a thick fog covers the land.
Crystal Outposts
The crystal outpost feature takes the fog mechanics and combines it with the planet’s aggressive nature.
As the player explores the planet they will encounter crystal outposts which spawn numerous enemies. These outposts will need to be destroyed, the enemies defeated and finally secured by constructing light sources to keep the fog at bay.
Once the area is well lit, its light sources will need to be defended from counter attacks. If the light sources are destroyed, the crystal outpost will become hostile once more, and it will need to be recaptured and surrounded by light poles.
That’s it for this edition of the dev blog; we hope that you’ve enjoyed reading through it and that you’ve learnt a bit about how combat works in Hash Rush!
