[MUD-Dev] Boring Combat (was:Mass customization in MM***s)

[Acius]

shren wrote:

> There are some interesting possible ramifications of such a
> system.  Probably the most interesting is that "power techniques"
> may weed themselves out.  In the average MUD, players tend to seek
> out and use to exclusion the most effective damage techniques.
> Under this system, a powerful but well-known technique would be
> less effective than a good but obscure technique.

Hmm ... that's eerily similar to our current forms system. We even
call them forms. I promise we didn't take your idea :-P. Although we
don't have any particular rules about form matching and form
dissonance, we do use the forms to reflect your approach to combat.

We're still in early development, so this hasn't been fully fleshed
out yet, but it *does* make combat a bit more interesting to
read. Each form consists of actions, reactions, and a function (this
is LPC) which chooses your next move. You can specify a move at any
time, overriding the default move selection. Forms can have variable
attitudes (such as blocking, parrying, attacking), and you have a
limited number of points which you can allocate between the
attitudes, and can reallocate at any time. You can fight a poorly
armoured beast with all points in 'attacking', throwing it off
balance, or you can keep the swordsman occupied with all points in
'parrying' while someone else backstabs it.

Different types of moves require different forms. Punch can be done
in many forms, but spellcasting is probably limited to a few spell
forms, which keep you from physical fighting. Sword fighting is done
using a different form than axe-fighting, and requires that you have
some kind of sword. Archery is yet another form.

Like I said, we're still in early development, but we are already
using forms-based combat for our fighting. Most of the players are
fighting with the 'brawl' or 'sword' forms, and the wolves are using
an 'animal' form that involves liberal doses of scratching and
biting. If you're interested, take a look at our stuff:
http://www.simud.org

-- Acius
Acius at Walraven

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