Hello Slayers,

Today I want us to talk about critical strikes. It is the element of the Dauntless combat system that I dislike probably the most. I believe that a mechanic rooted in random number generation is a poor fit for an action game of skill and knowledge. I also think that randomness takes away player agency and limits the design space of the game.

I will present my understanding of the topic and offer examples of the solution I would like implemented.

Enjoy the ride.

Disclaimer: specific ideas and numbers illustrate the point. They are likely not balanced enough to be included in the game. Please focus on what they enable rather than their viability if implemented as shown.

Origins of Pen and Paper

Let's start our exploration in games that aren't Dauntless -- the classic RPG games such as Dungeons and Dragons. I might be wrong when I say this is where dice-roll critical strikes originated. But they will serve as a great example of why they existed.

So why did these games use a simple dice-roll to determine the occurrence of critical effects? The answer is simple: complexity. Critical successes and failures are great for adding some flair and diversity to the experience but integrating them into the game can be difficult. Imagine your typical pen and paper RPG game trying to allow aiming at vital points without creating many new rules. That wouldn't fly. The game would become too complex to be enjoyable. Or players would ignore the mechanic because the complexity took away the fun. Or maybe the players would become too powerful if critical aiming was too easy.

So the simple roll of dice was devised, even if it meant that you could hit a vital point on someone's left ear. The mechanic has been inherited by the newer games, even though a computer can handle a lot more complexity with ease. Why is that? The simplicity of implementation. The familiarity of players. The genre-agnostic nature. All of these are reasons.

But I think they are not good reasons.

Agency of Mayhem

The worst thing about critical hits determined by the roll of a dice is the lack of player agency. What is that, you ask? It's a fancy name for an easy to grasp idea. A player has agency when they can cause things to happen or prevent them from happening.

Let's examine how this works in the game, using Nayzaga pylons. The behemoth creates a lightning rod that can shoot balls of electricity at you. Are you defenceless? No. You can destroy the spawned object. You can hide behind the behemoth. You can dodge the projectiles or bat them away with your weapon. Let's upgrade this to Shockjaw Nayzaga and the electric shields it adds to the lightning rods. Again, you are not defenceless against this addition. Reflected shock orbs destroy the barrier and open the turret to attacks. Insulated perk immunises you to the damage they cause. And finally, surviving until the shield times out is an option as well.

You, the player, have choices. You can influence the situation. You have agency. And do you have agency when dealing with random critical strikes? No, you don't. You couldn't prevent the critical hit from not happening. You couldn't cause a critical strike to happen, either. A dice roll takes all the power away from your hands. It is not just that you don't get to do more things. You effectively have less impact on what is happening.

Random effects reduce your agency as a player.

Setup and Payoff

How to bring the agency into critical strikes, then? By replacing the current dice-roll mechanic with deterministic critical hits. What does this mean? A deterministic system gives you the same results if you do the same things. For critical hits, that means creating a condition. If the condition is satisfied? Your attack will critically strike. Otherwise, it will not.

My admiration for the conditional system comes in no small part from Dead Cells. If you haven't played it, Dead Cells is a 2D rogue-lite game with a heavy emphasis on combat. It features many of the elements we know from Dauntless -- heavily telegraphed attacks, quick dodge-rolls, attacks requiring player's commitment and so on. Critical strikes are handled by attaching specific conditions the player has to satisfy, which include:

1. Hitting enemies enough times in a short period
2. Player (or target) being affected by a specific status effect
3. Hitting the enemy from the back, or against the wall
4. If a player performed a certain action within the last X seconds

When combined with quick, fluid combat, these conditions send the player into an adrenaline rush of constant engagement. Every enemy spotted has to be accounted for. Every cooldown and environmental factor becomes relevant. Standing in a dangerous position can be tempting, luring the player out of safety with the promise of an enemy's quick and brutal demise. The deterministic system creates a constant loop of engagement in combat, dictated by the need to set up a critical condition to enjoy a payoff of critical strikes. The player has a greater influence on the fight through quick decision-making, equipped build, and the ability to perform the intended game-plan. When all pieces fall together, the fights feel beyond satisfying.

You might recognise some of these design elements from Sword Rework. Each action has weight. Each action affects the fight beyond the immediate damage dealt. Each button press has to be a part of a greater plan to achieve the best results. Playing Sword became a mini-game of its own, but we should not stop there. Critical strike build archetypes could usher in the age of builds that affect how the game is played depending on one's Cells. It is the chance to achieve some of the build and playstyle diversity we have been longing for.

Can't see it? Let's explore potential benefits, with examples to offer a more intuitive understanding.

Deeper Think

As hinted already, conditional critical strikes offer more agency and thought to combat. It is easy to understand how rolling dice on every attack does not inspire strategy or thought. All you have to do is to hack away. How can conditional critical strikes provide the opposite? Let me introduce you to the first brainchild of mine.

Hooked Tip (Sword Mod)
If you have less than six Valour, the third hit of Sundering Blade strikes critically.

Hooked Tip is simple on the surface. It asks the player to keep spending Valour in exchange for critical hits. There is no small number of caveats here, though.

1. Sundering Blade is a heavy combo. It demands the knowledge of openings in the fight. Setting it up for success might be a mistake at times or wholly ineffective in specific encounters.
2. Sundering Blade generates Valor faster than Frenzied Blade, pushing the player to spend Valor more often.
3. Stockpiling Valor might sometimes provide more value than bonus critical hits. It is on the player to think this through and act accordingly.

It turns out that the mod is not so simple after all. Notice how much of the added depth comes from interactions between the weapon, the encounter and the mod itself. Simple, well-crafted systems can combine in a game in sometimes unexpected ways, becoming more than the sum of its parts. That's another benefit we can ascribe to deterministic critical strikes (and other systems to come): future emergent gameplay patterns.

Broader Hand

Like every new system, conditional critical strikes could be used to offer more ways of achieving similar results. Let's consider the problem of sustain in combat. There have been many arguments over various sources of lifesteal in the player base, but I would like to think the following example is inoffensive.

Ravenous (Cell)
Heal a flat amount whenever you critically strike.

Ravenous represents a potentially infinite source of sustain. I can see how that could make somebody panic, but fret not! Much like Hooked Tip, this design benefits from trickle-down complexity. The simple yet useful effect is kept in check by the reality of critical strikes: a player has to create an appropriate build, then execute the gameplan. A good system can be safely expanded, and desirable gameplay patterns can be reinforced with additional benefits.

A New Life

By now, we probably all know that some ideas don't want to work within the core systems of Dauntless. Introducing a deterministic critical strike system could offer an opportunity to reinvent these forgotten and abandoned tools into something more worthy of attention.

Cruel Riftstrike (Chain Blades Special)
Teleport forward, phasing through and damaging enemies. Affected behemoth parts are Marked. Any weapon attack against a Mark will consume it and guarantee a critical strike.

Yes, Grim Onslaught is not a weapon attack. I will give you a moment to boo me. Okay, that's enough. Let's talk about the positive sides of this idea.

Repeatable and consistent access to critical strikes creates opportunities for team play without hurting the solo viability. Any chain blades user could create a critical build around this Special and potentially enhance teammates' performance. One could also focus on delivering Marks without interacting with them. Whatever it is, a reimagined Cruel Riftstrike promises something the live version lacks -- a purpose.

Conclusion

Time has come to rest my case, but not before re-iterating on the benefits of the system.

1. Increased combat engagement and skill expression
2. Increased build and playstyle diversity
3. Wider and deeper design space for weapons, cells and combat

As a bonus, we could also say "Farewell" to the riveting Trials experience of repeatedly smashing our heads against a brick wall until the randomness of critical strikes is just right.

Say "No" to gambling, Slayers.

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