[MUD-Dev] Modelling combat

[Travis Casey]

On Saturday 22 December 2001 11:24, Jon A. Lambert wrote:

> more replies to old messages....

... since this is an old message, I wanted to clarify something for
those who didn't read the original thread or don't remember it well,
and to make some additional comments.

> Travis Casey wrote:
>> Friday, July 14, 2000, 12:16:06 PM, Vladimir Prelovac
>> <tomcat at galeb.etf.bg.ac.yu> wrote:

>>> For example if you look at two very powerful and skillful
>>> characters engaged in combat, it may last for very long time
>>> with both of them dodging and parrying other person's blows
>>> until they both fall to the ground exhausted (a combat in "Red
>>> Sonia" movie betwee Arnold and the girl comes to my mind).

>> Comment: movie combats are not a good place to look to see how
>> real combat works.  Now, for a mud, you're probably more
>> interested in making it "seem right" than *be* right, so movie
>> combats can be good examples, but I just wanted to point that
>> out, since a paragraph before you were talking about how real
>> combat works.

> I'd like to point out that many players are more interested in fun
> combat than real combat.

Yep -- which is part of what I was trying to get at, myself.  Most
people's idea of what combat is like comes from movies; they want
movie combat, not real combat.  When designing a combat system (or
any other kind of system, really) you need to know what it is you
want to end up with.  To put it another way, before you can have
"realistic" combat, you have to have some idea what "realistic" is.

> I'm most interested in combat systems that allow me to:

>   1) wade naked into battle like Conan or Tarzan with just my
>   broadsword/knife and luck.

>   2) swing effortlessly from chandeliers and ship's rigging like
>   Errol Flynn.

>   3) break tables, chairs and bottles on the backs and heads of my
>   opponents like John Wayne.

>   4) leap from rooftops onto the back of horse like Zorro.

>   5) run up walls and do flips like Jackie Chan.

In other words, you want movie combat.  :-) I'll note that all of
your examples are from movies, except Conan and Tarzan -- and the
Conan of the books generally wore armor, or at least clothes.

Paper RPGs have it a lot easier here.  In many of them, combat is
highly abstracted, and most of the sort of stuff you mention above
is left up to the GM and/or players to create as description.  On a
mud, there's less opportunity for GMs or players to do this,
especially if you're trying to have combat take place in anything
near real time.

Some do try to have detailed and cinematic combat, though -- in
those sorts of games, doing stunts like the above gives a character
bonuses in combat.

--
       |\      _,,,---,,_     Travis S. Casey  <efindel at earthlink.net>
 ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_   No one agrees with me.  Not even me.
      |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-' 
     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_) 
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