[MUD-Dev] Better Combat

[John Buehler]

cruise writes:

> So what ways could depth be added to combat?

Add more factors that go into its success or failure.

  1. Use only blunt weapons, and ablate morale and/or awareness, not
  health.  Morale can be a much more complicated thing than health.
  My group might be fighting 1:1 odds and be doing great, and when
  reinforcements arrive for the opponents, our character morale
  drops.  If we start to lose, our characters will run away.  And
  some will run before others, according to their stats.

  2. Introduce physical balance and momentum into the game.  Not as
  single values, but as a set of vectors that the computer knows
  about, and that the player can only guess at.  The computer then
  involves that in dodging, kicking, lunging, throwing and other
  activities that the player directs the character to use.
  According to context, the use of those skill - and their
  application on the character - influences to what degree they can
  be used again.  If I dodge, I can't lunge until I find my feet
  again, and my energy is going in a specific direction.

  3. Involve the environment.  In a combat system with blunt
  weapons, anything that is hard enough can be used as a weapon.
  Improvisation becomes an art.  Grab a chair and have at it.  Punch
  this guy, throw a rock at that guy.  Daylight combat tactics
  versus night combat tactics.  Slippery wet grass versus dry rock.
  Falling down on rocks versus falling down on sand.  Dodging and
  diving on a steep slope versus the same on a flat.

  4. Multiple opponents.  This requires careful collision detection
  to ensure that opponents don't overlap, etc.  Managing multiple
  opponents is another art.  Intimidate opponent A to cause him to
  sacrifice his balance, then swing at opponent B, or physically
  shove C into D.  Instead of focusing ample resources against one
  opponents, juggle two or three or four.  Introduce a buddy and
  you've got a two-on-four situation, with many factors to manage.
  It then becomes a real issue of whether or not you've fought
  alongside a particular player or not.

With the introduction of more factors, especially the inclusion of
the environment, players are obligated to be inventive.  They can't
assume that what worked yesterday is going to work today.  Because
the ground is a bit more slippery, or the rock that the NPC tripped
over yesterday isn't there today.  Or the sky is cloudy, and that
mirror distraction trick isn't going to work.

With a system like this, I move mages away from damage-dealing
powerhouses and into the realm of tricksters.  They play with the
new factors in order to influence the balance of power in a fight.
Opponents trip, slip and fall.  An object that was at hand
mysteriously moves away.  A flash of light.  A clap of thunder.  A
distraction here, an illusion there.  Complexity that players and
NPCs have to deal with.

Oh, and bards now have a reason to sing their songs - to boost the
morale of the troops.  And singing becomes a minor skill that anyone
can have.  Think of the Welsh regiment in the movie "Zulu", singing
to boost their morale in defiance of the song of their opponents.

The music played during combat is controlled by your character's
morale.  The lower the morale of your character, the louder the
opponent's theme music.  The higher the morale of your character,
the louder your theme music.  Other 'moods' could be incorporated
into a character's makeup as well, suggesting that a spooked
character can do some things, but not others.  The very presence of
undead may alter a character's available tactics, just as having a
limp from a blunt blow may alter them.

JB
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