[MUD-Dev] Critique this combat system

[Britt Green]

Hello,

In working on coding a mud from scratch, I've had to come up with a
new combat system. I'd be thrilled if the sharp-eyed readers of this
list could provide me with some constructive criticism on what I've
come up with. Praise is also encouraged! ;)

A few words before we get into the mechanics of it. I despise the
death-of-a-thousand cuts that seems to be the dominating style of
mud. In this mud, a player can be killed after a few hits. The goal
of this is to make combat more risky, and cause the player to fight
only after giving it some thought. Hopefully this will give a little
encouragement to players to find their fortune in other ways!

So to begin with, my combat system is based on the premise that two
combatants, completely equal in skill, have a 50% chance of hitting
one another. Please note that armor doesn't affect ones chances of
being it. That's handled later. The only two factors that affect
one's chances of actually striking an opponent are agility and
weapon skill.

The formula to determine ones chances of hitting is as follows:

  (first combatants agility + first combatants skill) - (second
  combatants agility + second combatants skill) / 2

This number is added to 50 for the better fighter, and subtracted
from 50 for the worse. Here's an example:

  Rig the Barbarian is fighting Jean-Louis. Rig has an axe skill of
  31% and an agility of 40%. Jean-Louis is better with his sword,
  having a skill of 41%, but city life has made him sluggish. His
  agility is only 35%. So Rig has a subtotal of 71 and Jean-Louis'
  is 76. Pretty evenly matched. 76 - 71 = 5. 5 / 2 = 2 (we'll drop
  the 0.5) So since Jean-Louis has a better subtotal, his chance of
  hitting is 50 + 2 = 52%. Rig is 50 - 2 or 48%.

Things get more interesting if Rig was fighting a cloud dragon (96%
agility, 85% skill with its claws.) The dragon has a base of
181. Doing the math we discover that Rig has a -5% chance to hit,
while the dragon has 105%! This would default to 2% and 98%
respectively, since those seem like good min / maxes.

The moral of this is don't bite off more than you can chew! :)

If a hit was made, we'd determine *where* the blow landed. Lets
assume for this exercise that all creatures are humanoid. There are
six body parts: a head, a torso, two arms and two legs. When a hit
happens, the location is randomly picked from 1 - 10. The numbers
correspond as such:

  Head - 3
  Torso - 4, 5, 6
  Left Arm - 7, 9
  Right Arm - 8, 10
  Left Leg - 1
  Right Leg - 2

These numbers were picked based on where they fall on the bell
curve. Arms have two hit locations because they're likely to be
struck during combat.

Next, there are no hit points in my mud. Instead there's vita
(clever, eh!) All creatures have a base amount of vita based on
their size. After all, a dragon should be able to withstand more
damage than a sparrow. Furthermore, vita varies from body part to
body part. Here's a table that will help illustrate what I mean:


Size (example)  Multiplier              Torso Vita      Limb  Vita       Head Vita
-------                 -------------           --------------  --------------  --------------
Tiny 
(Mouse)                -                     1               1 
  1
Small 
(Gnome)       1                     3                      2                1
Medium (Human)      2                     6               4               2
Large 
(Troll)               3                     9               6               3
Huge 
(Dragon)               4                     12              8               4

So according to this table, Rig the Barbarian  and Jean-Louis who are both 
about the size of a human, have 2 vita for their head, 6 for their torso 
and 4 for each of their limbs. Make sense?

When a player loses all his vita on his head or torso, he basically rolls 
against his luck percentage to see if he dies. If he's successful, he must 
make this roll anytime he's struck, anywhere. After all, he's grievously 
wounded and any further damage could push him over the edge. If its a limb 
that goes to zero AND the weapon has the sever flag (ie: swords and axes, 
not clubs, arrows and daggers) the player must make a luck roll or else the 
limb is whacked off. Otherwise, the limb is just horribly mauled and hangs 
limply at ones side.

Now, its doubtful that no one on my mud would stroll around without armor, 
let alone get into a fight without it. So far I've identified several 
base-types of armor. Each one provides different bonuses against different 
types of attacks. The four different types of damage are piercing, cutting, 
chopping and bashing. Here's another table.


  Damage  
  Type*   Hides  Studded  Bone  Chain  Scale  Plate
  ------  -----  -------  ----  -----  -----  -----
  Pierce     +1       +1    +2     +1     +2     +3
  Cut        +1     +1.5**  +2     +2   +2.5**   +3
  Chop        0        0    +1     +1     +2     +2
  Bash        0        0    +1   +0.5**   +1     +2


  * There will be other damage types in the game (fire, electrical,
    poison, etc) but lets not complicate things.

  ** A .5 mean it randomly provides either n or n+1 protection. 50 /
     50% chance of going either way.

When someone is stuck, the armor can absorb from 0 to its rating of
the damage. Hides can absorb up to 1 point against cutting attacks
while plate can soak up to 3 points against piercing and
cutting. Enchantments can of course, change this.

One last table, this one of weapons, their damage type and their
damage. Just like armor, enchantments can change this.

  Weapon       Damage    Damage
  -------      ------    ------
  Arrow        Pierce         1
  Dagger       Pierce         1
  Club         Bash           2
  Mace         Bash           3
  Short sword  Cut            2
  Hatchet      Chop           2
  Long sword   Cut            3
  War axe      Chop           4
  Maul         Bash           4

So what does this all mean? Lets expand on our previous example of
Rig vs Jean-Louis.

Rig strikes Jean-Louis with his hatchet. The location roll is a 6,
so Jean-Louis is struck in the torso. Jean-Louis is wearing chain
mail, which might absorb a point of the blow! The damage roll for
the axe is 1d2, and is a 2 in this case. Jean-Louis' armor roll says
it absorbs 1 point of damage. So Jean-Louis takes a point of damage
to his torso, which now has total vita of 5.

Jean-Louis now returns the favor and slices Rig with his long
sword. The location roll is 3, a head blow! Rig isn't wearing any
armor on his head. Yikes! The damage roll for Jean-Louis' sword
could be as great as 3, but is only a 2. Since Rig has no armor on
his head, there's no armor roll. Instead his head vita goes from 2
to 0! Fortunately Rig makes his luck roll, so he's not dead. But
every time Jean-Louis hits him, Rig will have to make a luck roll or
else shuffle off this mortal coil.

That's basically the combat system for my mud. I'd really appreciate
any feedback on logic flaws, scenarios that might throw a wrench in
this and other general comments. Sorry if this wasn't the most
succinct and concise explanation but I hope I got the point across.

Thanks!


The ocean, she is strange and wondrous, filled with animals that
disturb even a Frenchman.




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