Combat Rework Poll 1

Now that the poll on animations has concluded, here's the second poll for V0.3.0's development.

Since the release of Rise of Corruption, I've made it clear that combat isn't the focus of the game, and will never be the focus of the game. Combat in Rise of Corruption is mean to support, and give context to the story, as well as the characters to an extent, rather than be a core selling point of the game. In other words, the story and/or character context and reasoning behind the combat events is meant to be more interesting than the fights themselves, with the fights just being there to progress the story and show the MC progressing and growing in power when appropriate.

However, since the very first release of Rise of Corruption, combat has been consistently described as the worst part of the game, with a rework of the combat being one of the most commonly requested things. I have wanted to improve the combat systems in the game for a while, and now is a good time to determine when/if I should do it. So, this poll is meant to determine when, and if the combat rework should happen.

Now, this is only the first poll of a potentially two-part poll. This poll is meant to determine when/if the rework should be done, with the second poll being about what the rework should entail.

A combat rework wouldn't be too extensive. Combat would still be a side aspect of the game, with the corruptions, characters, and story still being the main focus of the game. The combat rework would simply be to make existing combat mechanics, encounters, and party member abilities/roles more interesting, more refined, and less annoying/boring in certain aspects/areas.

I will mention, that reworking combat will require players to start a new game if I do make a combat rework update. There just isn't any way to rework combat in any meaningful way, and have that update be save-combatable.

Now, on to the poll options.

I could do the combat rework during V0.3.0's development. This will of course increase development time, however I won't be able to give good estimations on how much longer development time would be until the second poll on this.

If I don't do the combat rework in V0.3.0, then I would do it in V0.4.0, which would be the update after all of the elf corruption routes are complete. Because of when V0.4.0 would be development-wise, this will put off the combat rework for several months if this option is chosen. However, it would mean that V0.3.0 could come out sooner, and there would be a lot more time for suggestions, feedback, and other planning for the rework to be done.

Finally, I could not do a combat rework at all, and simply leave combat how it is. This option is here in case the majority of players either like the way combat is right now, or otherwise don't think a rework is needed.

As usual, I will be combining the votes of both patreon and subscribestar polls, and if no option reaches more than 50%, then a second poll with only the top two voted options will be released.

Edit: Since I know there are a lot of people want to avoid restarting their game, I'll mention this in the main post since I already mentioned this in it's comments. One thing I'll be adding in V0.4.0, is a cheat to skip content to just after the elf corruption routes are finished (i.e., completing all the content that was available just before V0.4.0.). There will also be other cheats in the game by then as well, such as skipping to the end of Ayumi's corruption, and the end of Erina and Hikari's corruption. One or two of those last ones will be added in V0.3.0. The choices you make will also be accounted for in these cheats, similar to how in the cheat to skip content to just after Misaki's corruption, you are asked if you killed or spared Terindus, and you then make the choice for what you did, and it is accounted for. So, while you would need to start a new game if a combat rework was voted on, using the cheats, you will still be able to pick up where you left off in a way. I'll also be thinking of other ways to soften the impact of having to restart for people that can't/don't use cheats as well if the result of the poll is to do a combat rework.