I’ve been processing this for a few days now. Writing in my notebook as well as in this repo. I have a decent draft of the First Circle of Combat written, and I’m about 4 hours in to a new draft of the Second Circle.

Currently I am focusing on designing a good mechanism for positioning, and an associated “facing” mechanism. I don’t want the complexity to get overwhelming, so I am minimizing the number of facing options available during combat.

For example, I’m brainstorming about “average” facing direction for when two entities are adjacent to you and to each other. Your entity would then face both of them, and be able to block or parry attacks from either. Attacking and intent would need to have specific targets, but at least this solution would simplify battlefield awareness. (Having to guard against two enemies next to each other would be very challenging.)

You can check out my current progress at Combat.