There are several ways to change and improve the combat system for better or worse for sure, but probably too hard to code within the limits of the engine. First you have to identify the drawbacks of the current system.
To me personally:
- You can run out of ammo in for example a boss encounter by RNG.
- My experience of melee combat was underwhelming where I had to square dance over 1 minute with 1 undead with the poison knife you find in the alcove.
I have only played the male gun slinger character, so my observation is only from this character's point of view and only up until the first boss encounter.
So maybe I can throw some ideas which you can pick up some aspects from them in case you find them plausible.
1. possible way of "improving/changing/fucking up" (depending on your personal view) the combat for the gun slinger would be to remove ammo box scrounging and make your guns self recharging over an extended period of time (if that's possible to code with steps taken or something like that). Since it fires shock charges visually, it wouldn't break immersion.
Enough ammo in 1 clip to dispose 2 -3 undeads at once, but then having to run and hide for at least a minute until your gun is recharged. This way you can keep your current accuracy/evasion system in place. And slightly bump up enemy encounters.
A big chunk of Energy can be used to impale an undead halting it's movement for like 20 seconds or something blocking off a corridor. Or simply one shotting an undead at the cost of like 50% of your energy. Make your character look more badass slaying monsters quickly at the cost of huge energy usage.
2. Same idea like the first option but with a very weak unlimited pistol that needs to recharge and make the ammo boxes pick ups very rare for your 2nd "pellet gun" and only to be used in boss fights or heavy encounters.
3. Remove ammo boxes and place recharge stations (fountain demon heads for example) that fill up your energy and/or gun. And place 1 recharge station before each boss encounter.
All these 3 options allow you to bump up enemy encounters reducing the risk of truely running out of ammo/resources.
Then adjust game difficulty so that enemies need more shots to die:
Easy option = ~2 shots -> people can focus on puzzles and quickly dispatch enemies.
Normal option = ~3 shots -> Balanced energy/ammo usage should get you through.
Hard option = 4+ shots -> Every encounter stresses your energy/ammo use to the limit where you will need to retreat and hide until you have recharged.
I really feel you should implement a quick "melee" instakill option like "impale" at the cost of a huge amount of energy.
And then balance energy by making it regenerate slowly or with recharge fountains.
You can even add items/upgrades/secret that will upgrade your energy reserve for example.
When I come up with more "possible" ideas I will edit this post, I have stuff to do now
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