Dark Legacy MUD Forum

After saying that Sai daggers were mostly pierce with possible slash damage i decided to post on a topic that I think quite a few experienced players would like to see: Combat moves that reflect different damage types. Right now theres jab, thrust and lunge. These however are exactly the same moves with more power in each respectively. Technically however, with any pointy weapon, you will be "piercing" the enemy.
Or if you have staff and you thrust you "poke" them actually and i couldnt imagine fracturing ppl's bones with a hard poke. Thats why i suggest either coding multiple damage types into weapons that make sense or code damage types into more combat moves (this is probably easier) and only allow those extra moves with certain weapons. So lets say for a sword you get the normal jab, thrust, lunge that now give pierce damage. Then you get cut, slash, cleave for example that do slash damage with the same proportions as the jab type action. Another thing this allows for is the increased use of knee, elbow and all the other non-weapon skills for blunt damage.
This could only work for several weapon types that allow for different uses. For example, daggers are mostly pierce but you can cut with them of course...but you wouldnt be able to cleave. Or with a spear thats also mostly jab work and you couldnt really see any slash damage happening, so you take that out but allow spears to be "twirled", sort of like a weaker multistrike that does slash damage. Im too lazy to make a list of all the weapons and describe what they can do, but you get the point.

sounds like a great idea.

Cut (a weak slash):
swords
daggers
axes
sickles
...(anything that has a blade)

Jab (anything that has a pointy end):
daggers (causes pierce damage = bleeding. Weak but fast)
swords (same, but more damage than a dagger. Also slower than a dagger)
staves (causes blunt damage and possiably piercing if the damage check is high enough)
trident (causes tripple pierce damage per hit. amplification of damage. VERY SLOW because it takes a long time to remove the trident from the body of the opponent. easily stuck in the metal armors. )
Things that can not be jabbed are axes, hammers, sickles, scythes...

Lunge:
hammer = crushing/blunt damage.
axes = slash damage
swords = slash damage
daggers trident, sickles will not work

you get the idea.

Yeah for example. Cept heres where the problems start like i suspected, dealing with the definitions of moves and the weapons themselves.
thrust: To pierce or stab with or as if with a pointed weapon.
lunge: A sudden thrust or pass, as with a sword.
jab: To poke or thrust abruptly:
These are the same moves but with a different degree of power behind them. So a lunge with an axe would def. not do any slash damage and only pierce damage if you have one of those cool sharp spikes on the top.
The idea about tridents with triple pierce damage might help make it more interesting and different "special" properties or moves can be thought of to make things like spears or whatever actually useful. For example with weapons with a long weapon shaft, maybe a reverse blow. For example you have a scythe or a spear and you use the butt of the weapon to make a 'staff-like' move where u thwap the dude with the end of the weapon causing blunt damage. Or with weapons with a butt, like a sword, you can jab the butt-end into an opponent, presumably the face, to give a slight 'headbutt' effect. (Could do the same for the 'reverse' move)
It all depends on how far you go, a skill like parry could be enhanced for example if you have a weapon with a crossguard or some other property that would help.

an interesting idea, but maybe we should balance combat more before we further complicate it?

just so you know, the code for this already exists, basically, even from like stock smaug i believe.. Fight with a longsword, it will do two different types of cuts, randomly

or at least it used to

yeah, sounds fine to me, i just wanted to mention that a basic form of it already existed.

i do believe that the randomness would need to be there though.

Like ok, you have an axe, and you set your style to be blunt, but theres a good chance in the heat of battle that your axe twists, and you end up lopping off their head

(rather than the intended smacking them in the head with the flat side)

pierce should be pierce
slash should get confused
blunt should get confused - unless its a staff, then always be blunt

hows that for complexity

This is all so complicated... why not just go back to automated combat?

Uhh I think the point (at least mine) was that it wasnt complicated enough and/or not realistic enough. My point was if youre gonna make combat manual which im all for, you might as well have it reflect the complexity of real hand-to-hand combat. To be honest id like to get all the combat moves into the game and not have it automated. Parrying and shield blocking should be automatic since you cant "see" the attack coming, but the game should have moves like ripostes after parries and stuff. Or even allowing for combination moves that might increase the use of rather pointless (at the moment) skills like elbow and stuff. For example, jab followed up with an elbow. You could possibly increase the damage of the elbow by linking it with the roll of that jab attack with the roll of the elbow as a modifier. So the better the jab, the better the chance for a good kick. Since the victim is left more vulnerable after a better attack.
However I do think that making things complex should be optional. Especially for newbies who will be put off by ripostes and combo attacks, especially since the game is already so "hard". So if possible it should be a config option. I dont know how youd balance the two tho. Mb im just ranting overzealously, but at least i made it clear that i dont think its "complex" at all, specially dealing with just the damage aspects of weapons.

Those are advanced moves and tactics and should be "learned" later on. Have them read Sun Tzu or something...