How $Combat Works (1.2) by Mm'rek "Tabby" Llin (MTL) with comments by Peyna E. Anders (PEA) *** Overview Unlike most of my other documents, this one needs to be written purely OOC. At the time of this writing, SFMC has already taught classes with IC material, and I don't see any need to repeat their efforts. What's needed here is an explanation of the $combat system. This is my attempt to give one. The $combat system is based on the Hero(tm) System Role-Playing Game combat engine, using for the most part its characteristics, skills, powers, levels, and other mechanism, but presented in real-time in a MUSH environment. As the writers have explained to me, it is a work in progress, and is due to be moved into hardcode, from its current softcoded form, in order to enhance speed, and offer a more accurate simulation of the Hero(tm) System. I have collected a large amount of information and purchased the rulebook. in order to understand and present these documents. The Wizards kindly granted me access to what small portions of the operational hardcoded system there are, and explained to me some of the changes we should expect. I will attempt to note the expected changes throughout this document, as required. *** Actions Combat takes place in Turns. A Turn is 12 seconds (under hardcode it will be 24), where each second is a Segment on which actions take place (under hardcode a segment will be stretched to 2 seconds). During the Turn, a character may take a number of actions equal to their Speed characteristic (See: @listcharacterstics). A player with a Speed of 3 can act on Segment 4, 8, and 12 (12 being the end of the Turn). Speed of 4 allows actions on Segments 3, 6, 9, and 12 (See: Appendix A). The Segments on which characters act, according to their Speed, are known as 'Phases'. If a character does not use a Phase when it comes along, it carries over, allowing the character to act at any time. Additional Phases that occur while the character waits are lost. This means a typical character can expect to act no more than once every 4 seconds (8 under hardcode). This does not offer a lot of room to think, so knowing how the system works, intuitively, is the key to mastering it. In a realtime environment, a number of tactics become evident. These will be discussed below. *** Target To attack someone, you must designate them as a target. The syntax for this is: TARGET Note, this command will function at any range, so if you know who you are going to be fighting before you arrive, you can set up your target ahead of time. Targetting someone will have you 'prepare for combat' and everyone in your location will see it (this feature may disappear). You can keep someone targetted for a maximum of 60 seconds, if you do not issue any other $combat commands. After 60 seconds of no $combat commands, you 'relax' from being in combat and lose your targetting. >>> PEA: Be aware that issuing this command in combat, or even while not in combat, takes a Phase. Keep this in mind when fighting multiple persons, switching targets, or recovering from surprise attacks. Also be aware that other people are alerted to your preparing to attack somebody, although they aren't altered of who. >>> MTL: Also be aware that drawing or slinging a weapon, or even just changing it from Stun to Kill or setting its power level, will take a full Phase action, like Targetting. *** Rolls Attacks make a die roll based on the Dexterity (or Ego in the case of mental attacks) of the attacker, and the target. They are adjusted by Skill Levels, and Modifiers for the specific attack used. The basic formula is this: 11 + (OCV of attacker + Modifiers) - (DCV of defender + Modifiers) or less on 3d6 >>> PEA: I'd explain the '3d6' stuff, as most people might not get it unless they have experience in MUDing or something.. you'd probably explain it better then I. >>> MTL: Since the combat system is based on a die-rolling role-playing game, it uses die rolls to determine things. 3d6 is three six-sided dice, rolled together and summed. The basic OCV (Offensive Combat Value) and DCV (Defensive Combat Value) of a character is equal to their Dexterity (or Ego in Mental combat) divided by 3, and rounded. If you have a DEX of 14, your base OCV and DCV are both 5. If you have a DEX of 10, your basic OCV and DCV are both 3 (See: Appendix B for a statistical breakdown of rolling 3d6). Maneuvers and Weapons all have modifiers that can affect the OCV and the DCV of the character using them. The Modifiers themselves can be different based on the type of attack being used. The most common one is the HTH (Hand-to-Hand) combat maneuver. Any HTH combat maneuver, such as STRIKE (the basic strike), KICK(the basic kick), BLOCK (the basic block), MSTRIKE (Martial Strike, an advanced strike), etc, carries with it a set of OCV and DCV Modifiers, but, these Modifiers only count in HTH. The only HTH maneuvers whose Modifiers count toward both HTH and Ranged (Ranged being things like Phasers, Guns, Thrown attacks, but not including Mental attacks) attacks are the DODGE (basic dodge) and MDODGE (Martial dodge - advanced dodge). I'll offer some examples of this effect further on. *** Damage Damage comes in many shapes and sizes. HTH attacks are always physical in nature, and thus applied against physical defenses. There are basically two kinds of damage: Normal and Killing. Normal attacks are blunt-trauma non-piercing or slicing attacks. Normal Physical damage: A Punch, being hit with a bat, a kick, falling damage, are all examples of Normal Physical damage. This damage is applied against any kind of Physical Defense the character has, including his Physical Defense characteristic, Any Armor (See: @listpowers) of Forcefields the character has. Killing Physical damage: A sword, a claw, a bite, a bullet, etc, are all Killing Physical damage. These attacks ignore Normal-only defenses, like the Physical Defense characteristic. They only apply against defenses that are Resistant (defenses that work against killing attacks), such as Physical Defense that has Damage Resistance bought to make it Resistant, Armor (resistant), and Forcefields (resistant). There are also engery versions of both above. Killing Energy Attacks (phasers, disruptors, lasers, fire, etc), and Normal Energy Attacks (softer heat attacks, radiation attacks). >>> PEA: Phasers can be set to either 'kill', which is Killing Energy, or 'stun', which is Normal Energy. Be aware that 'normal energy' attacks, while maybe not on phasers, can sometimes kill people, but not as easy as Killing Energy Attacks. For these four basic types of attack, we define their defenses, logically, as follows: the nPD, kPD, nED, kED. The last kind of attack is the Mental attack. Typically, the only kind of Mental attack will be the EGOA (Ego Attack) which does only Stun damage to knock a person out. This type of damage is only defended against by the Mental Defense power, a defense unto its own. Damage is defined in DC (damage classes), where 5 points (Strength are the source of points for most HTH attacks) worth of Normal attack does 1d6 of Normal damage, 15 points worth of Killing attack does 1d6 of Killing Damage, and 10 points of Ego Attack does 1d6 of Mental Damage (usually stun only). If there are odd points left over, the die system breaks down into 0.5d6, +1 to roll, and -1 to roll adjustments. Attacks do two kinds of damage: Stun and Body. A character has a certain amount of Stun, and Body. Stun regenerates quickly. Body does not. I will cover these later. Stun damage from normal attacks is computed by rolling 1d6 and taking the face value. The Body done by a normal attack is 1, unless you roll a '1' in which case that die does 0 Body, or if you roll a '6', in which case that die does 2 Body damage. Killing attacks work a little different. For each 1d6 of killing attack, the face value of the roll is Body damage. A straight multiplier is applied to compute the Stun damage. This is 1d6-1, minimum of 1. It should be noted that in ATS, the hit-location system is used, such that the location of the character you hit, i.e. in the head, legs, arms, chest, hand, etc, directly defines the Stun multiplier for Killing attacks, and can also multiply the Stun and Body damage that gets past defenses, of Normal attacks (See: Appendix C). *** Attacking The basic HTH attack is the STRIKE. It confers a +0/+0 Modifier (+0 OCV and +0 DCV to the character using it, only for purposes of HTH, no damage bonuses). The damage it does is 1d6 x (Strength / 5). This attack will burn (Strength / 5) Endurance to use. A person with a 14 DEX attacking another person with a 14 DEX, both of which are doing STRIKEs, will have a 11 + (Attacker's OCV of 5 + Attacker's Strike Mod of 0) - (Defender's DCV of 5 + Defender's Strike Mod of 0) or less chance -- 11 + (5+0) - (5+0) = 11 or less, on 3d6, to hit. This comes out to a 62.5 percent chance of hitting (See: Appendix B for die roll statistics) If the attack hits, and the attacker has for example a 13 STR, they will do 3d6 of Normal Physical damage to the target, which will be applied against their total Physical Defense, and anything that gets through will then be multiplied by values dependent on what hit location is randomly rolled. The final Stun and Body damage, if any, is subracted from what the target has. There are a wide variety of attacks. Most of these special are Martial Arts maneuvers that can be bought with Experience Points earned by being online and active (See: @listskills ALL). Some of them confer bonuses to OCV or DCV, some of them confer penalities to either. Some of them confer extra STR for purposes of doing damage. Each have their uses. The game also supports some 'natural' attacks, like in the case of Cat-folk, 'Claw', which does a minor hand killing attack. The Borg have a built-in KARE (Ranged Energy Killing Attack) laser. The Aurellans have a wing-buffet, a physical attack that does Normal Physical Damage EBP (energy-blast physical -- the term 'energy' here is a misnomer). Some telepathic species have an EGOA (Ego Attack) as mentionned earlier. Ask you admin if you've got any of these. *** Blocking The Block maneuver is only useful against HTH attacks. It is a bit odd, because it adds an extra stage in the procedure for making an attack. This extra stage is transparent in the real-time combat system, but it exists and is real. When you perform a Block manuever, you are waiting to stop an attack. When the attack comes, you make an attack roll of: 11 + (Your OCV + Mods) - (The Attacker's OCV + Mods) or less, to successfully block. If you miss, they still have to perform their normal attack roll against you. This gives the Block the advantage of having two rolls required in order for an attack to happen. I will explain how this works in combat: Human(5 OCV/5 DCV) A is doing a MSTRIKE(Marital Strike)(+0/+2) to Caitian(6 OCV/6 DCV) B who is has already done a DBLOCK(Defensive Block)(+1/+3) and is waiting. B tries to DBLOCK the MSTRIKE (this occurs passively, once the DBLOCK is set): 11 + (6 + 1) - (5 + 0) = 13 or less on 3d6: 83 percent chance to succeed. If B misses the Block, A tries to do the Strike: 11 + (5 + 0) - (6 + 3) = 7 or less on 3d6: 16 percent chance to succeed. The overall odds of A hitting B in this example, are 16 x (100 - 83) = 3 percent.The odds do not favor a hit. If the attack lands, it will do the Human's STR of 13, plus 10 STR more from the Martial Strike, which is (13 + 10)/5 = 5d6 nPD to the Caitian. This could do as little as 5 STUN 0 BODY and as much as 30 STUN 10 BODY to the Caitian, that has a Physical Defense of 4, 10 BODY, and 22 STUN. *** Counterattack Examples To continue the example, the Caitian B will now attack the Human A with an OSTRIKE(Offensive Strike)(-2/+1), assuming the Caitian is still awake, not stunned, and has a Phase available to spend. The DBLOCK and its modifiers disappear from the Caitian. The Human's last maneuver was an MSTRIKE, and until the Human's next action, similarly, its modifiers will remain: A tries to OSTRIKE B who still has the MSTRIKE mods. 11 + (6 - 2) - (5 + 2) = 8 or less on 3d6: 26 percent chance of hitting. If the attack lands, the OSTRIKE will do the Caitian's 9 STR plus 20 STR extra, for (9 + 20)/5 = 6d6 nPD to the Human, who has a 5 PD, 10 BODY, and 26 STUN. The OSTRIKE confers a penalty to hit, but does a lot of damage. It confers a bonus to defense, so when the Human attacks back, it will be harder to hit the Caitian. If the Caitian decides to use the Phaser he is holding to Shoot the Human, instead of using a HTH maneuver, things work a bit differently. First of all, Shooting never incurs a DCV modifier to the attacker. Weapons often have OCV bonuses built into them. The Caitian's Phaser, for instance, has a +2 OCV bonus. Note that since the Phaser is a ranged weapon, the DCV modifer from the Human's MSTRIKE will be ignored: 11 + (6 + 2) - (5 + 0) = 14 or less on 3d6: 90 percent chance to hit. This phaser is a 12DC Killing attack, set to 100 percent, and set to Kill (special effects vary with weapons). It will thus do 4d6 of kED to the Human, which can be as low as 4 BODY 4 STUN or as high as 24 BODY 120 STUN depending on where the beam strikes the Human. Ouch. *** Dodging The two Dodge manuevers, DODGE and MDODGE, give the character a flat out bonus to DCV and do nothing else. They have the advantage of affecting both HTH and Ranged attacks. Following the above example further, after the Human very luckily avoids the Phaser blast and decides to not get hit by it, the Human does an MDODGE(+0/+5). The Caitian fires a second time. 11 + (6+2) - (5+5) = 9 or less on 3d6: 37 percent chance of getting hit. >>> PEA: Be aware, even dodging does not do anything against mental attacks such as EGOA. *** More counterattack tactics You can't expect the Caitian to miss forever. Since the Human does not have a Phaser to shoot back, and must use HTH maneuvers, the best choice is to go for one that will do a lot of damage and gives bonuses to hit: FSTRIKE(Fast Strike)(+2/+0 +10 STR) and SSTRIKE(Sacrifice Strike)(+1/-2 +20 STR) are ideal here. The -2 DCV from the SSTRIKE will not make it any easier for the Phaser to hit ... HTH manuever mods, except for Dodges, don't affect incoming ranged attacks. Obviously a BLOCK is useless here... you cannot block a beam of death with your arm. SSTRIKE it is. 11 + (5+1) - (6+0) = 11 or less on 3d6: 62.5 percent chance to hit. This will do the Human's 13 STR + 20 STR bonus, or 7d6 nPD to the Caitian if it hits. This is as little as 7 STUN 0 BODY or as high as 42 STUN 14 BODY against the Caitian's weaker nPD of 4. An average blow will knock the Caitian out, a blow to a good location like head or vitals will worsen the damage and could kill the Caitian. *** Tactics The above examples should demonstrate a very important underlying theme: You must know the effects your maneuvers will have, in terms of modifiers to hit your target, modifiers to the damage you will do to them, and modifiers to your own defense, which in turn will affect the maneuver they pick to use on you. If you do a KICK(+0/-5 x1.5 STR) you will increase your STR by 50 percent for purposes of doing damage, but your DCV will drop by 5, leaving you WIDE OPEN for a counter-attack. Another example is the SSTRIKE(+1/-2 +20 STR). This attack confers a bonus to hit and does tremendous damage, but it penalizes your DCV and makes you easier to hit, with HTH attacks. Of course, if your opponent is trying to shoot you with a ranged attack, these penalties to your DCV disappear, so, why not. If they've got an SSTRIKE or an OSTRIKE, they'll most likely forego trying to shoot at you, and use their own HTH attacks to make use of your DCV Penalty, and flatten you. >> PEA: A good counterexample to this is the DSTRIKE(+1/+3), which does a little no more damage then standard strike, but also increases your DCV, making you harder to hit. If the opponent doesn't know this, and tries a manuver that has a lower OCV, like SSTRIKE, as opposed to FSTRIKE (+2/+0) - which has a higher OCV, it makes you even HARDER to hit, and leaves him a little wider open for attack. ALSO be aware that some manuvers like DBLOCK (+1/+3) can can also boost your OCV for your next move, increasing your odds of hitting the person. Learning what sequence of maneuvers and counter-maneuvers to launch in a HTH battle is the key to winning it. Some examples of using the basic HTH maneuvers are offered below, in Apendicies E and F. In the future, Maneuver vs. Maneuver tables will be offered for the full gamut of martial maneuvers, offering at-a-glance references. It should be noted, however, that these values will become less accurate, as you fight races with DEX and defence which vary widely from your own. Also, not everyone has every manuever. In fact, most have only the basic ones, and a couple Martial maneuvers. *** Taking Damage As you take Stun Damage, your STUN characterstic drops. If you take more Stun from a single attack than the value of your CON (Consitution), you will be Stunned, and will lose your next Phase. If your STUN drops below 0, you lose consciousness and are basically defenseless. As you take BODY damage, your BODY characteristic drops. If your BODY goes below 0, you start to bleed to death. If your BODY value drops to the negative of its normal healthy maximum, usually -10, you die. Recovering Stun occurs at the end of each Turn, after Segment 12. You get back your REC (Recovery) worth of STUN points. If that brings you above 0 from negative, you wake up (in the hardcoded version, the deeper negative you are, the less You recover END (Endurance) at the same rate you recover Stun. Note: If you get knocked out, your END drops to 0 instantly, so be aware of that before launching a lot of attacks right after waking. You may find yourself too tired. Recovering BODY happens slowly. You heal your REC worth of BODY every 2 IC weeks. Some races have the Regeneration power, which lets wounds heal over in minues. >>> PEA: Paramedics can also heal body damage, be it slowly, but it can happen. In a "battle field" type scenario, this isn't useful, because it is so slow. >>> MTL: I am also pretty sure that Paramedics skill makes you very easy to hit when used, but I do not know exactly how much of a DCV penalty it is. *** Closing Notes As mentionned above, the most important thing is to know the effects of every manuever, and to know what to counter with. If you're fighting someone tough, but you've got the edge in speed, you might have to go for the KICK or SSTRIKE just to get in some damage past high defenses. If you've taken a lot of stun, you might have to hide behind a BLOCK or DODGE in order to recover enough to be able to risk such attacks. It also needs to be noted that HTH combat radically changes in the presence of Melee Weapons. Swords, knives, blades, Lightsabres, whatever. All these weapons do more damage than fighting barehanded, and they add-on to HTH maneuvers. Some of them do a LOT of damage, so much, in fact, that using SSTRIKE becomes pointless, and maneuvers like DSTRIKE become the best ones of all. You want to focus on avoiding being hit, and high-DCV maneuvers like DSTRIKE and MSTRIKE become immensly valuable. Know your weapons, know the maneuvers. Stay alive. I may write very specific papers on aspects of $combat in the future. Suggestions are welcome. Sincerely, Old Man Tabby *** Appendix A: Speed chart SPD| Segments ---|------------------------------------ 01 | -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 12 02 | -- -- -- -- -- 06 -- -- -- -- -- 12 03 | -- -- -- 04 -- -- -- 08 -- -- -- 12 04 | -- -- 03 -- -- 06 -- -- 09 -- -- 12 05 | -- -- 03 -- 05 -- -- 08 -- 10 -- 12 06 | -- 02 -- 04 -- 06 -- 08 -- 10 -- 12 07 | -- 02 -- 04 -- 06 07 -- 09 -- 11 12 08 | -- 02 03 -- 05 06 -- 08 09 -- 11 12 09 | -- 02 03 04 -- 06 07 08 -- 10 11 12 10 | -- 02 03 04 05 06 -- 08 09 10 11 12 11 | -- 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 12 | 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 *** Appendix B: 3d6 Roll Statistics Roll Perm Pct HitPct ---- ---- ---- ---- 3 1 0.5 0.5 4 3 1.4 1.9 5 6 2.8 4.6 6 10 4.6 9.3 7 15 6.9 16.2 8 21 9.7 25.9 9 25 11.6 37.5 10 27 12.5 50.0 11 27 12.5 62.5 12 25 11.6 74.1 13 21 9.7 83.8 14 15 6.9 90.7 15 10 4.6 95.4 16 6 2.8 98.1 17 3 1.4 99.5 18 1 0.5 100 *** Appendix C: Hit Locations 3d6: Location kStun nStun Body 3-5 Head x5 x2 x2 6 Hand x1 x1/2 x1/2 7-8 Arm x2 x1/2 x1/2 9 Shoulder x3 x1 x1 10-11 Chest x3 x1 x1 12 Stomach x4 x3/2 x1 13 Vitals x4 x3/2 x2 14 Thigh x2 x1 x1 15-16 Legs x2 x1/2 x1/2 17-18 Feet x1 x1/2 x1/2 *** Appendix D: Any race vs. Itself Any(5/5) Strike(0/0) vs. Any(5/5) Block(0/0) 11 + (N+0) - (N+0) = 11: 62.5 to block 11 + (N+0) - (N+0) = 11: 62.5 x (100 - 62.5) = 23.4 to hit Any(5/5) Strike(0/0) vs. Any(5/5) Dodge(0/3) 11 + (N+0) - (N+3) = 8: 25.9 to hit Any(5/5) Strike(0/0) vs. Any(5/5) Kick(0/-5) 11 + (N+0) - (N-5) = 16: 98.1 to hit Any(5/5) Strike(0/0) vs. Any(5/5) Strike(0/0) 11 + (N+0) - (N+0) = 11: 62.5 to hit *** Appendix E: Human vs. Caitian Human(5/5) Strike(0/0) vs. Caitian(6/6) Block(0/0) 11 + (6+0) - (5+0) = 12: 74.1 to block 11 + (5+0) - (6+0) = 10: 50.0 x (100 - 74.1) = 12.9 to hit Human(5/5) Strike(0/0) vs. Caitian(6/6) Dodge(0/3) 11 + (5+0) - (6+3) = 7: 16.2 to hit Human(5/5) Strike(0/0) vs. Caitian(6/6) Kick(0/-5) 11 + (5+0) - (6-5) = 15: 95.4 to hit Human(5/5) Strike(0/0) vs. Caitian(6/6) Strike(0/0) 11 + (5+0) - (6+0) = 10: 50.0 to hit Caitian(6/6) Strike(0/0) vs. Human(5/5) Block(0/0) 11 + (5+0) - (6+0) = 10: 50.0 to block 11 + (6+0) - (5+0) = 12: 74.1 x (100 - 50.0) = 37.1 to hit Caitian(6/6) Strike(0/0) vs. Human(5/5) Dodge(0/3) 11 + (6+0) - (5+3) = 9: 37.5 to hit Caitian(6/6) Strike(0/0) vs. Human(5/5) Kick(0/-5) 11 + (6+0) - (5-5) = 17: 99.5 to hit Caitian(6/6) Strike(0/0) vs. Human(5/5) Strike(0/0) 11 + (6+0) - (5+0) = 12: 74.1 to hit *** Appendix F: Human vs. Gorn Human(5/5) Strike(0/0) vs. Gorn(3/3) Block(0/0) 11 + (3+0) - (5+0) = 9: 37.5 to block 11 + (5+0) - (3+0) = 13: 83.8 x (100 - 37.5) = 52.4 to hit Human(5/5) Strike(0/0) vs. Gorn(3/3) Dodge(0/3) 11 + (5+0) - (3+3) = 10: 50.0 to hit Human(5/5) Strike(0/0) vs. Gorn(3/3) Kick(0/-5) 11 + (5+0) - (3-5) = 18: 100 to hit Human(5/5) Strike(0/0) vs. Gorn(3/3) Strike(0/0) 11 + (5+0) - (3+0) = 13: 83.3 to hit Gorn(3/3) Strike(0/0) vs. Human(5/5) Block(0/0) 11 + (5+0) - (3+0) = 13: 83.3 to block 11 + (3+0) - (5+0) = 9: 37.5 x (100 - 83.3) = 6.7 to hit Gorn(3/3) Strike(0/0) vs. Human(5/5) Dodge(0/3) 11 + (3+0) - (5+3) = 6: 9.3 to hit Gorn(3/3) Strike(0/0) vs. Human(5/5) Kick(0/-5) 11 + (3+0) - (5-5) = 14: 90.7 to hit Gorn(3/3) Strike(0/0) vs. Human(5/5) Strike(0/0) 11 + (3+0) - (5+0) = 9: 37.5 to hit *** Credits The vast majority of the information presented here, was collected or confirmed by Okira'ak, the Aurellan admin, and from the Hero(tm) Systems Rulebook. No small thanks to Peyna E. Anders for his annotations.