Combat Outlook

[HR-Trevor]

I suppose a post, much less modifications in game regarding combat are really overdue. This post will primarily apply to the balance of weapon types (including unarmed as a weapon type) since that's the most heated issue in combat right now.

One thing I need to say from the onset is that not all weapons are created equal. It's simply a fact that guns trump bows, and pulse weapons trump guns if you're using realism as a model. Of course, it's also a fact that modern day fighters don't run around with swords if they have a gun available. They also don't run around in platemail or leather armor.

Still, this is a game and our intent is not to model it after the real world. Our intent is to make the game fun and enjoyable, while offering challenges, risks, and adventure. Our genre can neither be considered fully sci-fi nor fully fantasy in nature, but it enjoys a large helping of both. So in our world, a bow, a gun, and a pulse gun have to share some fairly relative level of balance. Not complete equality, but making any weapon type greatly inferior to another will never be healthy for our world.

Some basic statements of my personal belief based on player feedback and experience:
* Unarmed combat deals too much damage, too quickly.
* Multi-shot attacks like PUMMEL and DOUBLESLASH should not be the attack normally used throughout hunting, they should be situational in nature and used when it's safe or advantageous to use them. This is not the case currently.
* Archery is way underpowered.

I'm going to look at every weapon type and discern where we need to make changes. I'm going to look at it mostly as a damage per minute matter including aim time, load time, and where appropriate, stamina recovery time. Some of the changes you will notice when changes finally do come in will include some changes to roundtime, stamina-related downtime and perhaps load/aim times. Melee users should expect they may not be able to attack as quickly as humanly possible without being exhausted, unless they mix high and low power attacks.

Another item of note is the effect of non-lethal regions on combat. This affects magic user as well. One of the complaints that magic users have is the time that is required to kill something. Part of this may be due to the damage dealt by their spells -- something I need to research -- but a big part of it is the fact that no matter how hard you blast a limb, it isn't going to kill your target.

Now that I mention this, one thing I need to correct, I believe, is that destroyed body regions count against magic users in a way they do not against non-magic combatants. That is, if a player attacks a creature with a sword, there is no chance they will waste the damage they do on an already destroyed leg. However, a magic spell can in fact target this area and effectively waste part or all of the spell's destructive force in the process.

At this point that's all I can say about our plans for combat. Once I parse out numbers and look at the specifics, I will provide more information to everyone.
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"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." -- Plato

-- Trevor Rage / Rich Mondy

[SoulTorn]

[Dzynna]

Thank you for all your hard work concerning combat, Trevor. I've noticed significant changes regarding archery, enough that archery has again becomed the preferred weapon for me.
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Dzynna Zol
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The Retreat
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[HR-Faith]

[Xenoapollyon]

the new changes to aim and snapshots are really great. Just having a decent non-aimed shot makes up alot for the difference in the ability of someone with pummel. Having to wait the 10 or so seconds to be able to hit someone my level, while lets say a Guardian could pummel in 2 seconds... that was a problem with PvP, was also harder to hunt cause I would have to aim alot. Having a better snap shot is really nice. Any hints or clues to about how much of a hit the "flat rate" is? Wherever its at now is nice though, specially for lower levels criitters. Was hard to rationalize why something 20 levels under me would take 10 shots to kill, and would dodge about a fourth of those.. but this change is really nice.

Sean


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I'm not grumpy

[soundless]

i dont notice much of a change with the marksmanship stuff, but i hunt horribly under my skill level.

i'm all for boosting the awesomeness of marksmanship, though. it makes sense that someone highly skilled doesn't need to aim that much.
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A bright-eyed Thekko Ku Kalla dressed in a dapper sailor suit takes to flight and careers through the air toward the Modan Kucho and slams into him!
With a high-pitched cry, The Modan Kucho collapses in death.

[HR-Trevor]

Previously each second you did not aim resulted in -5% of your skill being applied, up to a max of -50% skill. Post-change -3 skill is applied (so essentially 1 level of skill) per second you don't aim, max -30. However also, to assist very low level players, the hit will never lower your skill below 10% of what it was before aiming was considered.
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"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." -- Plato

-- Trevor Rage / Rich Mondy

[soundless]

so if it takes 6 seconds (4 second AIM + 2 second wait) to fully prepare a shot, if you do that without aiming you get -18?

i guess the scale is sorta sliding, since handguns take shorter aimtimes than rifles?
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A bright-eyed Thekko Ku Kalla dressed in a dapper sailor suit takes to flight and careers through the air toward the Modan Kucho and slams into him!
With a high-pitched cry, The Modan Kucho collapses in death.

[HR-Trevor]

If you do a partial aim, you will receive credit for the part you did according to the time required to aim that weapon. So if a weapon has an aim time of 4 seconds and you aim 3, the penalty is less than if you needed 6 seconds to aim and aimed 3.
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"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." -- Plato

-- Trevor Rage / Rich Mondy

[epol]

Trevor, as I read this thread a few questions came to mind. You mentioned that Unarmed does a bit too much damage per period of time compared with other modes of attack. Whwat I was wondering was if damage done/received is a function of how closely one is engaged?

Since Unarmed requires the attacker to be at melee to execute, does being at melee also subject the attacker to more damage? If so, then wouldn't it make sense for an unarmed attack to inflict more damage?

Thanks for thinking about this and also for the improvements you and the team have been making.

[HR-Marduk]

[epol]

In that case, since some professions don't have the ability to fight at range really, except for spells allowed to them in the new system...shouldn't they be able to inflict more damange when they finally do get to Melee? The thought behind this being that they will take on damage getting to Melee in the first place. Otherwise, in order to fight critters at or higher than your level (to obtain boxes under the new box system), it will be most difficult trying to get close enough if the critter has ranged capabilities. Just a thought and perspective. Keep up the good work.

[Brokyn]

Well, that's just the risk you have to take with using a melee attack against an opponent with a ranged weapon. If you increase damage of melee/unarmed attacks overall just to balance the field against ranged aggressors, you're still boosting the damage done during a "fair" melee vs. melee fight.

If you're a Guardian, you have access to the LEAP ability which reduces the amount of time it'll take you to get to melee. I'm not sure how effective it is, but it's there nonetheless.

--William
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Haelrahv Wiki!
++Brown Nosing Points

[Dzynna]

[HR-Marduk]

Guardians have a pretty wide variety of options available to overcome the fact that they can't use missile weapons, and will be getting one or two more in the near future.
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HR-Marduk