[MUD-Dev] A new combat system

[J C Lawrence]

On Fri, 14 Jul 2000 16:08:57 -0400 
Travis Casey <efindel at earthlink.net> wrote:

> This "I can't move for a while, then I'm just as fast" method
> makes it seem as if the slower characters are periodically
> "freezing" or "idling".

> If everyone starts acting at the same time, then uses the same
> number of action points to do things, you get the reverse effect
> -- namely, that the slower characters "freeze" at the end of each
> round.  Either way, it doesn't feel right.

You can alter this apparancy by making the rounds very short, and
then its is not the number of actions a character may make per
round, but either the fraction of an action they can compleat, or
the probability that they will be able to do a certain action in a
given round.  Players then have an indirect input in instering
"actions to attempt" into the queue for their characters.

The latter form has some interesting effects on the unpredictability
of combat, especially in subjectively bad PRNG streams (you can't
even swing a club an inch for some reason, and just stand there like
a lummox while he wails on you).  One could attempt to detect such
fringe value sets and explain them away at runtime as "surprise,
overwhelm, fudges and stumbles, etc.  This gets interesting when
both or all parties in a combat are sitting at the edge of the bell
curve (Bubba and Boffo just look mean and kinda stand there and
twitch, deperately wanting to disembowel each other but somehow
unable to make the first move).

--
J C Lawrence                                 Home: claw at kanga.nu
---------(*)                               Other: coder at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga/nu/~claw/        Keys etc: finger claw at kanga.nu
--=| A man is as sane as he is dangerous to his environment |=--


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