From allaryin@warbugs.com  Sun Dec 10 03:45:21 2000
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Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 03:45:20 -0700 (MST)
From: Ammon <allaryin@warbugs.com>
To: acius@warbugs.com
Subject: Hey, I just wondered if this would work :P
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Status: R

shrug, i'm bored, so i checked in just now. I got back from tucson around
9:30 and was with Penny and her brother until a few minutes ago. About two
nights ago when i disappeared... well, Mom shanghaied me and I had to go
ld immediately. shrug.

re combat: scott and I talked a lot yesterday about things... and
honestly, we can't see how to make your idea work. i understand that
you're going for this infinite flexibility thing,
unfortunately... well... when you divide the sum total of our programming
capability and divide it by infinity, you get zero... which is my
estimation of the probability of your combat system actually working well.

my proposal: any object capable of entering combat has the following
values to work with - 
  strength - figures into melee damage inflicted
  dexterity - affects whether you hit or get hit
  constitution - figures into max hp and damage taken
  skills - all kinds of stuff... weapon proficiency, armour proficiency*,
    dodge, parry, concentration, etc...
  speed - affects readiness rate
  will power - affects readiness rate
  hit %'s - these are a set of chances you have to hit an 'average'
    opponent with melee, missile, or magical attacks
  evade %'s - corresponding set to dodge 'average' attacks of those types
  readiness - value ~[0..1000], incremented every hb by speed and will,
    and decreased by taking damage, getting hit by stun magic, etc... when
    it fills... you act.

when two parties enter combat, the attacker acts immediately. depending on
the successfulness of his attack, the defender will either get an
immediate counterattack... or will have to wait for his readiness to
recover to full before he can act.
  everyone has a default action that they perform every 'turn' of
combat. a turn is, well, when it's their turn. some people get more turns
than others, for numerous reasons, but mostly because their speed and
will are higher. if you enter commands into your cue, they will take
precedence to the default, and will be handled in the order they were
received. for most people, the default action would be to hit, but it can
be set to anything, from fleeing to casting a spell to focusing on defense
and standing to block incoming attacks.
  whenever you take an action, your readiness is decremented by an
appropriate value. most combat actions take nearly all 1000 points of
readiness. some, however, like switching weapons or casting cantrips and
minor spells take much less (i'd rate the weapon thing at 200 if the new
weapon is convenient and old one is tossed asside in changing).
  haste spells increase your speed, and therefore your readiness in
fights. slow spells have the opposite effect, and hold type spells would
be particularly nasty.
  for rogue types and others who are particularly fast with their weapons,
the readiness cost per melee attack would be reduced so they can attack
much faster. for efficient spellcasters, the readiness cost for their
combat spells would be decreased... etc...
  we can have an average player's readiness increase at a rate of 100 per
heartbeat. typically, heartbeats are 2 seconds... so we're looking at them
swinging their sword every 20 seconds... we have time to be descriptive if
we want. i don't know how to handle that very elegantly.

* i am of the firm opinion that it takes quite a bit of skill and learning
  to move around effectively in various pieces of armour

scenareo: tim fails to kill the vorpal bunny with a hammer

		tim	vorpal bunny
speed		30	70
will		27	50
melee hit %	30**	50
melee evade %	20	40
hp		100	55

Tim approaches the unsuspecting bunny and attacks. His hit% - the bunny's
evade% is -10. This is applied to a d100 that heeds to be >=50. He rolls
a 27 and misses wildly. His readiness is reduced by the full 1000 because
it was such a lousy attack (adjusted roll of 17 was below 20).
  The bunny senses agression, decides that he can eat this wimp, and
begins to do so. He takes a -300 readiness penalty for being the defender,
but will easily react before tim gets a chance to.
  Tim's readiness improves at a rate of 85/hb [(spd+will)*1.5]. The
bunny's improves by 180.
  thump thump - tim: 85, bunny 880
  thump thump - tim: 170, bunny 1060
The bunny reacts in true vorpal bunny style. His attack roll is adjusted
by +30, and with a roll of 40, he plants a sound bite on tim. The adjusted
roll of 70 is between 50 and 80, so the attack cost the bunny 900 
readiness points. We do damage math (not shown here), and tim is hit for
30 points, dropping his hp to 70 and his readiness to 140.
  thump thump - tim: 225, bunny 340 (160 + 180)
  thump thump - tim: 310, bunny 520
  thump thump - tim: 395, bunny 700
  thump thump - tim: 480, bunny 880
  thump thump - tim: 565, bunny 1060
This time, the bunny rolls a 25 and barely hits tim (with a 55). damage is
tallied and he deals 5 points.
  thump thump - tim: 645 (565 - 5 + 85), bunny 340
  thump thump - tim: 730, bunny 520
  thump thump - tim: 815, bunny 700
  thump thump - tim: 900, bunny 880
  thump thump - tim: 985, bunny 1060
With a roll of 70, the bunny thwopps tim for a solid 45 damage and
triggers his wimpy.
  thump thump - tim: 1025, bunny 415
Tim's wimpy overrides his actions and he tries to run away. With a
successful roll, he manages to get into the next room before the bunny
finished him off it's next turn. This all took 28 seconds.

table 1: base readiness cost per general combat action
roll	cost
0-20	1000
21-49	950
50-80	900
81-90	850
91-100	825
>100	800

** tim's hit% is calculated from his dex and hammer wielding proficiency
   plus his base melee hit% (which is determined by his guild object) and
   any special bonuses from spells or his weapon in specific (but it's a
   rather boring mallet, so we don't worry about it too much)

Ok, i'd continue right now, but i just realized that it's almost 2am, and
i do need to go to church tomorrow. nite.

ammon

