Combat notes
These are just a few notes about the new combat system, partly FYI and partly as a reminder to me of what else needs documenting.
Combat takes a whole new set of parameters into account to determine success and failure so experiementation will be required to figure out the most successful combinations.
We have been successful if different players with different stats, skills & preferences each find a different combination of weapons, tactics & specials as the most effective for them.
Some things to look out for:
- The HP monitor has new options
- 'tactics' has new options:
- extra offense/defense settings
- mercy options
- focus on specific body parts
- combat distances are there but currently disabled
- which hand you use to attack & parry makes a difference.
- weapon weight, encumberance and injiry will affect the outcome.
- Standard specials are smash, bash, stab, pierce, slash, slice, hack & chop.
- Warrior-only are crush, pierce & behead.
- We could create specific attacks for each guild or for specific weapons if we want (eg. poke, prod, fillet etc.)
- Some new commands:
- 'defend'. Requires parry tactics. like protect but parrying instead of taking a hit.
- 'surrender' sets your surrender point (somewhat akin to wimpy) surrender is currently disabled
- 'feint' is a special attack, uses up opponents actions
- 'trip' & 'shove' have been written
- disarm has not been altered yet and is not available.
- Some weapons (worm sword, broom) need their attacks modifying
- Focus zone mappings have been added for races. You should not see yourself stabbing a tree in the foot.
- All two-handed weapons _can_ be held in a single hand. There are penalties for this but please check if this is too unbalanced.
Notices
A number of other things have changed including weapons, armour, special, some spells (defensive ones), skill-stat relationships. These things will affect your effectiveness.
In order to determine if someone is hit the old system does two calculations. Firstly it figures out an attack and determines if the attacker succeeds at that attack. Then it uses the damage to figure out if the defender can defend against that damage.
The new system uses compare_skills(), that is each time someone tries to hit someone else the system compares their offensive skill against their opponents defensive skill +/- modifiers based on a number of factors.
This entirely different principle means that the system will often react differently. If you wish to increase your chances of hitting someone there are many things you can alter.
- Your tactics (more offensive gives you a greater chance of hitting)
- Your burden (reduced burden, increased chances of hitting)
- Which hand you're using (you will do better with your left hand than your right!)
- Using special commands (especially feint).
- Using the right weapon/weapon combination. Heavier weapons are harder to hit with, but 2 handed weapons aren't as hard for their weight.
