VictorGijsbers
commented
10 years ago I think we can safely say that the reaction system isn't really delivering yet. It is quite complicated, and yet most of the time I'm just typing "dodge", just like Mike. Here are some proposed changes; let's discuss it.
- Remove rolling.
Hardly ever used, and parrying already ought to give you an offensive edge on the next attack.
- Remove defensive and offensive flow when you attack, even when the attack is successful. This means that dodging before an attack is strictly worse than parrying if you're going to attack on the next turn.
- Dodging turns all flow to defensive flow (if successful), parrying turns all flow to offensive flow (if successful). This means that parrying just before an attack is good, but parrying if yo are not going to attack afterwards is useless.
These two changes together give dodging and parrying the roles I originally envisaged for them: one sets you up for more defense, the other for more attack. Which is the right choice depends on what you think your next action is going to be -- with, of course, some nice variety thrown in by circumstances where one of the two gives you a better defence. (It is good to dodge against a scythe ... but is it still good when I want to attack after my dodge? Suddenly, there is an interesting choice between better defense and the chance for a better attack afterwards.)
- Blocking gives no flow whatsoever, but is the most solid defensive option. We increase the blocking defense bonus to 2 + the shield bonus.
This means that blocking is best if you need to stay undamaged, but you forego the medium term advantages of flow.
What do you think?
mciul
The new reaction system is really cool, but I'm not sure it's balanced yet. Dodging is so attractive that I hardly ever do anything else. Maybe that's okay - the other moves are there if you need them - but I think it would be fun if they were useful slightly more often.
I've already mentioned the gauntlets of grip in #309, and talked a little about parrying. But what about rolling and blocking?
Rolling is probably okay. It's a big risk with a big potential payoff. On the other hand, the risk is constant and the payoff varies. Still, it's nice to know it's available, even if I hardly ever use it. It's a good option when you know you'll die unless you hit someone on the next turn and you don't have any concentration, and you think there's a chance you won't die right away from doing it.
Blocking, however, seems underpowered to me. Victor mentioned that it's good against the Tormentor. I guess this makes sense if you think of the staff of pain as an omnidirectional ranged weapon. But I don't tend to encounter any other situations where it's better than dodging. I have a nagging feeling there's a bug in blocking, and I think I might have seen it increase my offensive flow or cancel out all my flow. I almost never want to do that - first, I rarely have offensive flow, second, dodging is usually more likely to succeed. Blocking should be a "safe" option, not a bigger gamble than dodging.
Did you ever try having blocking increase defensive flow by 1 and then transfer any remaining offensive flow to defensive flow? Maybe that doesn't make sense in ATTACK, but perhaps that could be a property of some shields - instead of applying a block bonus, they increase defensive flow.