Combat 3.0

Combat is undergoing a large overhaul in the near future. This page will attempt to maintain the current plans for the update.

Defenses Changes

Evasion, parry, and shield will combine to form a first line of defense. They will be equal partners, and any 180% stance variation will be equally effective, all other considerations being equal. Evasion will not longer have a disproportionate strength compared to others.

In place of the Multi-Opponent skill, instead becoming a check of attacker's Tactics skill vs. the defenders Defending skill. In general, fighting two creatures are once will drastically increase the difficulty of combat, and is no longer needed for efficient training.

The number of stance points available depends on the user's Defense skill, with an extra point every 50, 60, or 70 ranks, for Armor Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary, respectively.

Using a twohanded weapon with a shield will hinder both the attack and shield defense.

Armor

Armor skill is now used as a passive defensive vs. the attacker's offense, with a progressive reduction in armor protection as the attacker's offense exceeds the defender's skill.

Armor hindrance minimums are determined by skillset placement.

Several armor skills will be combining. See Skills 3.0 for details.

Shields

Shields now have varying effectiveness against certain types of attacks.

Small: Good against melee, bad against ranged

Medium: Moderately good against both

Large: Good against ranged, poor against melee

In addition, the cap on arm-worn shields has been removed, and instead replaced with a flat 25% reduction to shields stats.

Rangers, Paladins, and Barbarians automatically ignore any extra RT from using an armworn shield with a bow.

Multiple Opponents

The minimal multiple opponent penalty is achieved when the Defending skill is roughly equal to the defenses needed.

The further Defending is from this parity, the more severe the penalty.

Damage

Even though you are hit more often, physical damage does not start happening until your character until you lose 10% of your total vitality.

Offense Changes

To-hit and damage have been divorced, removing long-standing problems with one hit kills. While better hits does contribute somewhat to damage, it no longer scales far out of proportion.

To hit rolls are bonused by agility and weapon balance, while damage is bonused by strength and weapon suitability.

In addition, all attacks have a small chance to both miss and hit, regardless of any difference in skill between the attacker and defender.

Maneuvers and Attacks

Combo chains have been removed. Instead, every maneuver has benefits and penalties, which can include roundtime, defensive effects, balance changes, etc.

A full list of available maneuvers and their impacts can be found here. You can now use MANEUVER HELP FULL to get all of the details of that maneuver.

Maneuver penalties no longer last until a new maneuver is performed, but instead fade after a few seconds, after which it will revert to the last defensive maneuver (DODGE, PARRY, BLOCK).

Generally, balance will be gained by using the less damaging maneuvers, such as JAB, and the more damaging ones will reduce balance. Additionally, there is a new balance level - 'adeptly balanced' now lies between 'nimbly balanced' and 'incredibly balanced'.

Brawling manuevers have been split up. The BOB, WEAVE, and CIRCLE maneuvers now use and train the Tactics skill, rather than the Brawling skill. BOB bonuses your balance and fatigue on a successful usage, WEAVE penalizes the enemy's defense, and CIRCLE penalizes the enemy's balance.

Maneuver Chart

KEY:

+: good for this

=: won't help, won't hurt

-: bad for this

move	fatigue	balance	speed	accurate	puncture	slice	impact	evasion	parry	shield
attack	=	=	=	=	=	=	=	=	=	=
bash	-	-	-	+	-	=	+	=	-	+
bite	-	-	+	=	+	=	-	-	+	+
block*
bob	-	-	+	=	=	=	=	+	-	-
butt	-	-	+	+	=	-	+	-	=	+
choke*
chop	=	=	-	+	-	+	=	=	=	=
circle	-	=	+	=	=	=	=	=	=	=
claw	-	=	+	=	=	+	-	+	-	-
dodge	+	=	+	x	x	x	x	+	-	-
draw	=	-	+	-	-	+	-	+	-	=
elbow	-	=	+	=	=	-	+	+	-	-
feint	-	+	+	-	=	=	=	-	+	=
flee*
gouge	-	=	+	=	-	+	=	+	-	-
grab*
grapple	-	-	+	+	=	=	=	=	=	=
jab	-	+	+	-	=	=	=	-	+	-
kick	-	-	+	=	=	-	+	=	=	-
knee	-	-	+	=	=	-	+	-	=	+
lunge	-	-	-	+	-	+	=	-	+	-
parry	+	=	+	x	x	x	x	-	+	-
poach*
pummel	-	=	+	-	=	-	+	=	=	-
punch	-	=	+	=	=	-	+	=	=	=
retreat*
shove	-	-	+	+	=	=	=	+	-	-
slam	=	=	+	=	=	=	=	=	=	=
slap*
slice	-	=	+	=	-	+	=	-	+	-
smite*
snipe*
sweep	-	-	-	-	-	+	=	+	-	-
swing*
tackle	+	=	+	-	=	=	=	=	=	=
throw*
thrust	-	=	+	=	+	-	=	-	+	=
weave	-	-	+	=	=	=	=	+	-	-

Ranged

Base damage is the ammo's appraise. The ranged weapon used modifies this based on its Power and the class of weapon it is. This is a rough comparison of weapon class:

Thrown < Sling < Staff Sling < Shortbow < Longbow < Comp Bow < Light Crossbow < Heavy Crossbow < Arbalest

Essentially, the shorter the RT the lower the base damage adjustment, but it is not shown in the weapon's appraise. Snap shots give no damage bonus, and fully aimed gives a moderate damage bonus.

Retreating

Endless retreating will now come with a cost. Multiple retreats will begin inflicting a penalty to ranged attacks, though it will fade over time. ASSESS will display the level of penalty from this source.

In addition, after making a ranged attack or casting an offensive spell, the attacker cannot leave the area for a period of time, approximately 4 seconds after the attack's RT is up.

Combat Speed

It is intended that combat speed is reduced, aiming for it taking approximately four times longer to kill a creature compared to the previous system. Most maneuver RTs have been increased by a second and higher stats are required for RT reduction.

Both players and creatures have had their health significantly increased, making one hit kills nearly impossible. In addition, it is expected that players will take hits more often but for far less damage, as wounds are reduced at the higher levels of vitality. The reducing is reduced the lower vitality falls.

Stealth

Stealth has not been changed in 3.0, though future changes have not been ruled out.

Experience

Experience will be awarded primarily based on the difficulty of the action, meaning that the best trainers are creatures that can barely be hit and that barely miss. It should be noted that the comparison is based on raw ranks, so artificially handicaping an attack or defense will not grant greater experience. In addition, missing the target will still grant some experience. Higher damage will still grant more experience, but it will no longer be the major determinator of experience.

Due to an extraordinary amount of rebalancing and bug fixing, many creatures are slightly easier than they used to be. This means that these creatures will stop teaching experience sooner, so you may need to find a new, harder creature to hunt.

Thus, it will be beneficial to hunt creatures that can injure you, as the vitality reduction to wounds will allow survival in situations that previously were not possible.

Miscellaneous

It is now possible to APPRAISE <equipment> ON <creature> to appraise the weapons or armor of any creature, including a guardian spirit.

Bugs

Stealth attacks are currently bugged.

Related Forum Posts

Click here to search for related posts.