[MUD-Dev] Cognitively Interesting Combat

[Mike Rozak]

Ben Hawes wrote:

> This is exactly what the balance stat does (though it's described
> in words), though rather they say, "you can't do this," I always
> prefer to say, "this is a bad idea," but leave the final decision
> to the player. There is a feint move, which leaves the opponent
> off-balance if they block it. It has the exact same effect as
> above, simply refined to the bare minimum.

Sorry, I was being blind and missed your documentation at the bottom
of the page.

> Indeed. As the advanced and story versions show, extensions and
> additions to the system are simple enough. But bolting additions
> onto a broken system doesn't fix it, and complexity is not
> in-and-of-itself a good thing.

In general, I agree with starting with a simple prototype. However,
my intuition tells me that you have simplified the prototype too
much to be a good guestimate of the final system. Again, this is
your call.

>> - Don't have blow-for-blow. If someone wants to keep attacking
>> every 1/2 second then reduce their accuracy, damage, parry
>> ability, and fatigue them.

> It does. Well, it lowers their balance, which has knock on affect
> to pretty much everything. Against defensive players, "recovering"
> (not doing anything but regaining your balance) regularly is
> perfectly possible (though still risky). One of the goals in this
> system was to allow defensive play to be as viable as offensive -
> and indeed, I stack the odds in favour of blocks and dodges in a
> number of ways - blocks and sidesteps can form the entirety of the
> fight up to the killing blow with great success.

Be very careful about your decision decision to use turns. If you
assume combat is blow-for-blow, even taking into account the
off-balance setting, it could cause problems when you try to
integrate special weapons, magic, and other non-combat
events. Face-to-face RPGs used turns because realistic timing was
too difficult to calculate; computers don't have this problem.

Some other random comments:

  - I suspect you're dealing with linear probabilities. I suggest
  you think in terms of gaussians and standard deviations. This will
  affect the probabilities at the extremes (very likely success or
  very likely failure), and will always result in a small chance of
  success or failure. (I can go into detail, but it will take a few
  paragraphs.)

  - I mentioned using something other than hit points: Games use
  HP-based-damage for a reason. 95% of all face-to-face RPGs I've
  played, and 99% of all CRPGs have used hit points.

Face-to-face RPGs use hit points because they're much easier to deal
with. (Ever try to play Rolemaster? It was nicknamed Chartmaster
because it had to many critical hit tables the GM was forever
looking up critical hits. I think it had HP too, but in parallel to
critical hits. Combat was always interesting though.)

CRPGs (and MMORPGs) don't care about the difficulty of the
math. However, they still use HP. The reasons for this are:

  a) Using something else (like lots of critical hits) makes combat
  dangerous (and exciting). If combat is dangerous, players can't
  kill 10,000 orcs in a game session. They might get away killing
  10-50, but they'll almost certainly die at least once just due to
  bad luck. Any CRPG/MMORPG that introduced a critical-hit-based
  combat would become an entirely different beast.

  b) Combat with more complex mechanics requires more skill and
  learning on the player's part. Most players don't want to use that
  much brainpower when playing. The more complex your combat, the
  less mass-market your VW will be.

  c) Game balancing is a lot tougher with a more complex combat
  system.

  d) NPC AI is a lot tougher with a more complex combat system.

  e) And on a philosophical note... If wounds are NOT abstracted
  into hit points, people might realize how bloody and disgusting
  combat really is. The act of fighting wouldn't be fun anymore
  (except for psychopaths). A CRPG/MMORPG that forces people to
  reflect on the morals of killing might find that players suddenly
  wish to have pacifist characters. This kind-of nullifies the core
  activity of most CRPGs/MMORPGs.

... I suppose I went off on a bit of a tangent... Breaking away from
a standard CRPG/MMORPG combat system might have far-reaching
consequences to a VW's design and gameplay.

Mike Rozak
http://www.mxac.com.au
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