Obscurity
commented
9 years ago SO! This proposal is kind of a blend of all the stuff I like from other MUDs I've played with reasonably complex combat:
-Momentum based combat. Players should get bonuses or advantages if they're putting out enough successful hits in a short amount of time - a cumulative damage bonus, or malus to their opponent, is my thinking here.
-Attacks would fall into three categories:
1) instantaneous ones that don't do a lot on their own but either build up to or open up the possibility of stronger attacks. These would be minor. Rough comparison: a jab, or a kick. Afflictions from this category can be cured instantly.
2) attacks with a channel (and a telegraphing message) that can be interrupted, so the trick is slowing down someone enough to use them. Rough comparison: an uppercut, or a knee. Used to inflict an enemy with an affliction that takes time to wear off.
3) debilitating attacks that require a significantly hindered enemy and a channel time - used to end fights. Rough comparison: a knockout punch. Afflictions from this category generally don't wear off without outside assistance.
-Defenses, as such, would also fall into three categories.
1) passive defenses, which help prevent some of the instantaneous attacks from being as effective, but can be stripped.
2) active defenses, which can be used to stop channeled attacks. Some instantaneous attacks fall into this category, as they can be used as counters, but different skills would have different defenses and counters effective against them.
3) escapes, which are used to exit combat.
Here's a hypothetical skillset, which I'll refer to as Pugilism, which contains one of each of the following skills:
-Jab: A standard punch. -Uppercut: A power punch. -Knockout: A debilitating blow to the head. -Fortitude: Shake off a stunning blow. -Armblock: Guard yourself. -Abscond: Flee the scene!
The jab is our instantaneous attack. Performing it instantly strikes the enemy, dealing some damage and incrementing toward a stunning blow. This would be a slowly-building percentage, slowly falling over time as well. Once it caps out, the next jab is a stunning blow, which prevents the enemy from using any active skills for a few seconds. In mechanical terms, once an enemy is stunned, their stun percentage drains rapidly - too rapidly for a single assailant to keep them locked. Jabs can be used to interrupt opponents winding up for more powerful blows.
The uppercut has a slight channel - a successful completion against an opponent who does not interrupt it (whether with a jab or an armblock) winds them, making it more difficult for them to recover from stuns and increasing the balance time for most physical actions.
A knockout punch has a longer channel, and requires a stunned enemy to begin performing - a successful completion results in substantial damage. If this doesn't end the fight then and there, the enemy is concussed, which significantly impacts their combat performance and makes them much easier to fight unless they can spare the significant time it takes to recover from the injury (not likely in the midst of battle).
Fortitude is a passive defense that makes it harder for you to get stunned. It's stripped when you finally do get stunned, and it reactivates when your stun percentage reaches zero again.
Armblock is an active defense that works against unarmed strikes to the upper body.
Abscond lets you turn tail and run, like a yellow-bellied coward.
In this model, attacking and getting hit costs you stamina - a successful attack or defense recoups you stamina. These losses and gains are proportional to the power of the attack in question. Thus, the setup rewards you for successfully landing and blocking attacks.
If your stamina drops below 50%, you begin suffering cumulative penalties - extra damage, more time spent regaining balance, more cunning spent using abilities, etc. - you'd of course have health and mana (I'm calling it cunning to be more general) in this setup, too.
The idea is that fights would go relatively quickly, with the stamina mechanic ensuring that a player who gains the edge in early combat will generally succeed in destroying their enemy. It also provides the potential for comebacks!
In summary:
-Players have health, cunning, and stamina. Health measures the damage you can take, and cunning is spent to perform all exceptional abilities. Stamina is used to perform pretty much all active skills, and ebbs and flows with the tide of battle. You gain penalties if your stamina is low. Stamina might also be used for travel.
-Attacks and defenses come in six general categories:
- Instant attacks, which are the least effective but quickest, with minor afflictions. They can also be used to interrupt certain charged (but not debilitating) attacks.
- Charged attacks, which are middle-of-the-road with slight channel times and a moderate afflictions.
- Debilitating attacks, which have long channel times and major afflictions incurable in battle.
- Passive defenses, which fall and are restored given certain conditions in battle; they generally block a minor affliction and/or reduce damage.
- Active defenses, which last until you regain balance from them; these have a slight channel but will block certain instant, charged, and debilitating attacks.
- Escapes, which let you break out of battle at a significant stamina penalty.
Mechanics for individual, team, and vehicular combat. How abstract do we want to get? How in-depth? My preference would be something simple, with not a lot of moving parts, but which is nonetheless trickier to deal with than just building a system.