Combat Mechanics

[Ornir Elunari]

Ok everyone, in this thread I am going to present what I have been thinking of implementing as far as changes to combat mechanics goes.

First, a run down of the current system:

Luminari MUD currently has a pulse based system, where standard attacks are grouped into rounds, each one 6 seconds long. Special attacks can be used at any time and trigger a wait state that prevents other combat actions (other than the autoattacks) after the special attack is complete. Spell casting takes 1+ rounds to complete (depending on the spell) and is interrupted by causing some sort of status condition on the caster, be it dazed, stunned, confused, prone, etc. Some attacks like Stunning Fist and Smite set an affect on the player, causing the next attack (if performed within 24 seconds) to be enhanced with the appropriate affect. Note that you could effectively have a smiting stunning fist with this system. Regardless of what the player does, they always get their full attacks, including any extra attacks granted from having a high BAB.

I think this sums it up, although there are many, many details that I have glossed over here. In my experience, this leads to fast combat, very deadly. Because the special attacks do not affect your round-based attacks, you are able to do tons of damage while tossing around status affects.

After much consideration I would like to propose the following system:

Combat is more round based, with each round lasting 6 seconds. Each player (or MOB!) has a queue where special attacks are placed as the commands are entered. Every round, the next attack on the queue is processed and applied to that round’s combat. Every combatant has 1 move action, 1 standard action and 1 swift or immediate action. A standard action can be used as a move action, if desired. An immediate action can be used at any time during the round, but you may only use swift actions via the queue. I apologize if this is confusing, I will try to explain.

If a combatant issues no commands after ‘kill X’ (his combat queue is empty at the beginning of the round) then he will perform a full attack, meaning that he gets all of his attacks based on his BAB, dual wield, etc. If, at the start of the round, a combatant has a special attack or other command queued up in the combat queue then that will affect how many attacks the combatant will get during that round. For example, turning undead is a standard action. If, at the start of a combat round, a combatant has ‘turn undead’ queued in his combat queue then he would NOT get an attack (because a single attack is a standard action and you get one standard action per combat round.) Instead they would attempt to turn their undead opponent. The following round he would regain all of his actions and would be able to perform a full round attack (with all of his attacks) assuming that his combat queue is empty. Similarly, standing up from a prone position is a move action. Even though the player may be able to stand up without having to queue the action in the combat queue, performing this action will affect his next combat round, using up his move action and only allowing him to make a single attack with his primary weapon (a standard action). Every special attack has an ‘action cost’ and that would determine the dynamics of that attack – There would be fewer wait states as each activity would have a significant affect on the flow of combat.

I hope this made SOME sense. Basically, I am trying to adapt the flow of combat in the d20 system into a real-time environment. This is a difficult task, but with some changes I think it would be fun. The biggest changes will be 1.) Attacks and commands will have an impact on the number of auto-attacks that your character performs, 2.) Fewer wait states overall, 3.) Most commands will not be instantaneous, they will be queued until the start of the next combat round, where they will be executed in initiative order, 4.) QUEUES. You will be able to stack multiple commands without the dreaded (wait). Note that some very powerful attacks might destroy your queue, as will receiving status conditions (dazed, stunned, confused, blind, etc.) Controls will be available for manipulating the combat queue.

Please leave a comment if you have one, and I will try to answer any questions you might have. As far as timelines go, it really depends on other work but it could be done by the end of January, assuming I start working on it in the next 2 weeks.

– Ornir Elunari

[mosheh]

Sounds really awesome, I’m excited to test her out!!

[Treyorn]

Wow, the work going on behind the scenes here is insane. I really like your ideas here.

My concern looking at this is we need to be very on top of our help files. This type of combat will be different from almost all MUDs out there which is good if people understand it and bad if people can’t figure it out. Once it is in place I can work on adding it to the tutorial zone. We need to make sure all of these incredible additions are understood properly by the players. It sounds like DnD people will pick up on it quick, but non DnD players will be confused which is fine as long as we explain it properly.

I seriously can’t wait to see this + feats live.

[Shadorn]

I agree wholehearted about ensure help files or some type of tutorials is in place. If I visit other MUD and they don’t have good help files system in, I usually stop playing at there.

I like the concept in place for the combat mechanics! More true to DnD style. But I hope that interface for new feats system will continue to tweak and look less confusing than just number and feats name, which I’m sure it will be! 🙂

[Ornir Elunari]

Hi Shadorn, thanks for the comment!

Could you please drop by the ideas forum and describe, in the user interface thread, what would be the best way to select feats, in your opinion?

Trey and Shadorn – Agreed. Help files are super important and I have started writing them up locally. Unfortunately, the help system seems unstable atm and I think that it needs to be reworked. Ideally, I would like to store help in the database, that way we can make it easily accessible/editable from the web. Once I am ready to go live, I will spend a few days at least fixing up the helpfiles. Good points all around.

Any other combat related comments?

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