DungeonMaster - That''s kind of what desperate defense is in C&S. Like in an old movie where you see a bunch of swordsmen attack one guy who parries all of thier attacks at once.
"A man can't just sit around." 'Lawn Chair' Larry Walters (1982)
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Insights Into a Realistic RPG Fighting System
There''s another conflict here, related to the player skill vs. character skill problem:
Flow vs. Realism.
In a CRPG you can have full realism in your combat without needing player skill. Combat is not realtime, and you have all the time in the world to pick what type of attack you wish to make with your weapon, what moves to make, how to hold your shield, where to strike the enemy, etc. etc. The only problem here is that what in real time would be a few milliseconds, now takes a minute or more. For some players, this might be perfectly acceptable, while for others it''s an unbearable breaking-of-flow.
A good example of this are the REALLY old TSR roleplaying games. First person when exploring, third person when in combat, always turn-based. But exploring flow is MUCH faster than combat flow, and it can turn into "walk two squares and fight for half an hour"... I think this is no good, but how do we solve it?
Allow the player a choice between fully turn based and realtime? Allow shortcuts to be programmed for certain actions? any other ideaS?
Give me one more medicated peaceful moment.
~ (V)^|) |<é!t|-| ~
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Flow vs. Realism.
In a CRPG you can have full realism in your combat without needing player skill. Combat is not realtime, and you have all the time in the world to pick what type of attack you wish to make with your weapon, what moves to make, how to hold your shield, where to strike the enemy, etc. etc. The only problem here is that what in real time would be a few milliseconds, now takes a minute or more. For some players, this might be perfectly acceptable, while for others it''s an unbearable breaking-of-flow.
A good example of this are the REALLY old TSR roleplaying games. First person when exploring, third person when in combat, always turn-based. But exploring flow is MUCH faster than combat flow, and it can turn into "walk two squares and fight for half an hour"... I think this is no good, but how do we solve it?
Allow the player a choice between fully turn based and realtime? Allow shortcuts to be programmed for certain actions? any other ideaS?
Give me one more medicated peaceful moment.
~ (V)^|) |<é!t|-| ~
ERROR: Your beta-version of Life1.0 has expired. Please upgrade to the full version. All important social functions will be disabled from now on.
Personally, I would love to work out some better sort of combat system, especially for my MUD that I am developing. My main aim is to make sure that there is a good mix of both character skill and player skill in there. The other aim, is to make it fun and playable. This means that making 50% of battles lethal is not on. Therefore, I make it pretty easy to flee. Also, I don''t want it all to be decided by weapon type/reach, as that would make combat a trivial function of the weapon you use.
I mentioned in another thread that ''weapon skill'' could be subdivided to accommodate learning how to defend against other kinds of weapon with a given type of weapon... this could be factored into the equation, along with Weapon A''s inherent ability vs Weapon B. You might also want to divide ''defence'' into parrying and dodging. These 2 are likely to be inversely proportional, and based around the weight/clumsiness of the opposing weapon.
eg. A Rapier is not going to effectively parry a Claymore all that often. So, ''Claymore Attacks Rapier'' might convey a bonus against parrying, for example. However, a Rapier is quicker to strike with, and therefore ''Rapier Attacks Claymore'' may convey a bonus against dodging. A Rapier user who has fought against Claymore users many times could have 75% skill, and so they receive 75% of that bonus. Or whatever. Add your own formula in here.
That''s the ''character skill'' side of it, what about the ''player skill'' side? Well, I expect this would have to involve choosing attacks and defences in advance, and trying to guess what the opponent will use. Somewhat like a lethal scissors-rock-paper game. Except, each weapontype may have different attacks, most overlapping with other types, and so you have to learn what to expect from a given opponent. eg, no point entering the "block slash" command against an opponent with a piercing weapon that cannot use a ''slash'' attack.
This is a bit too simplistic perhaps, but maybe it beats simple randomness.
Comments?
I mentioned in another thread that ''weapon skill'' could be subdivided to accommodate learning how to defend against other kinds of weapon with a given type of weapon... this could be factored into the equation, along with Weapon A''s inherent ability vs Weapon B. You might also want to divide ''defence'' into parrying and dodging. These 2 are likely to be inversely proportional, and based around the weight/clumsiness of the opposing weapon.
eg. A Rapier is not going to effectively parry a Claymore all that often. So, ''Claymore Attacks Rapier'' might convey a bonus against parrying, for example. However, a Rapier is quicker to strike with, and therefore ''Rapier Attacks Claymore'' may convey a bonus against dodging. A Rapier user who has fought against Claymore users many times could have 75% skill, and so they receive 75% of that bonus. Or whatever. Add your own formula in here.
That''s the ''character skill'' side of it, what about the ''player skill'' side? Well, I expect this would have to involve choosing attacks and defences in advance, and trying to guess what the opponent will use. Somewhat like a lethal scissors-rock-paper game. Except, each weapontype may have different attacks, most overlapping with other types, and so you have to learn what to expect from a given opponent. eg, no point entering the "block slash" command against an opponent with a piercing weapon that cannot use a ''slash'' attack.
This is a bit too simplistic perhaps, but maybe it beats simple randomness.
Comments?
Regarding an earlier post about someone NOT dieing when their hit..
I''m going to quote my old D&D book for this one:
"
It is quite unreaonable to assume that as a character gains level of ability in his or her class that a corresponding gain in actual ability to sustain physical damage takes place.
...
[Hit points] reflect both the actual ability to sustain damage ... and a commensurate increase in such areas as skill in combat and similiar life-and-death situations, the "sixth-sense" which warns the individual, sheer luck, and provisions of magical protection and divine protection.
"
So a "hit" really should be called that. It should be called an "opportunity to strike a blow which will kill him/her." but I think "hit" is shorter don''t you?
-=-=-=-=-=-
Is 'amthst' a word?
What is the meaning of an NPC's life? simple-
"To make the player have fun by dieing horribly you %$^@ goblin! ESCALATE GOBLIN GENOCIDE!"
I''m going to quote my old D&D book for this one:
"
It is quite unreaonable to assume that as a character gains level of ability in his or her class that a corresponding gain in actual ability to sustain physical damage takes place.
...
[Hit points] reflect both the actual ability to sustain damage ... and a commensurate increase in such areas as skill in combat and similiar life-and-death situations, the "sixth-sense" which warns the individual, sheer luck, and provisions of magical protection and divine protection.
"
So a "hit" really should be called that. It should be called an "opportunity to strike a blow which will kill him/her." but I think "hit" is shorter don''t you?
-=-=-=-=-=-
Is 'amthst' a word?
What is the meaning of an NPC's life? simple-
"To make the player have fun by dieing horribly you %$^@ goblin! ESCALATE GOBLIN GENOCIDE!"
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