Approaching and the whole load of things with it.

[joyofdiscord]

I think pre-delays on some combat commands, kill, kick, bash, disarm, etc, could be neat.    But then you might have people who can spam run as soon as they see the echo for someone moving to kill them.  Still, I'd like to see a modest pre-delay on "kill" and maybe lessen up the post-delay a bit because it's really quite long in my opinion.

Also could add some variety to combat.  A less experienced fighter might try a disarm, but when you see them advance with the disarm, you could try to bash them.  Being more skilled, the delay would be shorter and you could interrupt their disarm.  On the other hand, this would add more of a twitch-factor to combat, which I wouldn't like to see increased even more.

[Larrath]

Magickers are an important consideration in this.  A change like this can end up making them very overpowered.

The newbie starts approaching the non-magicker (really!).
The non-magicker (really!) starts a spell.
The newbie hits the non-magicker (really!)'s body a couple of times, inflicting moderate damage.
The non-magicker (really!) completes spell.
The newbie is fucked.

This could even happen before the newbie could get the first hit in.  Not that this isn't realistic, but I'm not sure how well that would sit with the balance.

[Delirium]

Magickers are an important consideration in this.  A change like this can end up making them very overpowered.

The newbie starts approaching the non-magicker (really!).
The non-magicker (really!) starts a spell.
The newbie hits the non-magicker (really!)'s body a couple of times, inflicting moderate damage.
The non-magicker (really!) completes spell.
The newbie is fucked.

This could even happen before the newbie could get the first hit in.  Not that this isn't realistic, but I'm not sure how well that would sit with the balance.

Uh, I would put that as a GOOD thing, not a bad thing.

But there's plenty of other reasons I don't want an approach-style command to go in, which have already been stated.

[sacac]

First off. Most of the time it is already like that.
Everytime I see a magicker in the wastes they can finish their spell before I can get in 2 rounds of hits. Usually, that means I can't attack. Or I am damn near dead.

So you want them to have even more power? Well fine, I like that idea, but I don't like approach.

[Delirium]

So don't resort to melee to kill a mage.

If somebody could kill you with a wiggle of their fingers, would you walk right up to them and start hacking away?  I have a suspicion that you would try to kill them from as far away as possible, or by other means than direct combat.

[sacac]

Or run up on them.
Or sneak up on them.
Or shoot them from a distance.
Bolo them.

Would magickers have to approach to use magicks?
Probably not.

So.. even if this was added I would an alias.

[Revelations]

Delay without the echo I ment.  :roll:

[Larrath]

What's the point in a delay without an echo?

I think putting something like that encourages insta-attacking even more, and it will create OOC paranoia (as opposed to IC paranoia, which is good).

[Revelations]

How so? It would be the same thing as backstab, but prevents people from entering a room and slashing away without much pause. And if a magicker knows your aggressive, he should be able to get a spell cast before you get near him, realistically speaking, correct? (unless somehow the guy can run faster than the magicker can notice him and start doing the motions, words, and whatever else the magicker does) It allows more strategy involved in encounters, since fleeing a battle is much easier. The side effect would be that people would live longer in certain circumstances, but is that such a bad thing for the game?

Currently, I think most NPCs are good as they are on the instant attacking thing, it's the whole mess with soldiers that seems to be the main problem.

[Larrath]

How so? It would be the same thing as backstab, but prevents people from entering a room and slashing away without much pause. And if a magicker knows your aggressive, he should be able to get a spell cast before you get near him, realistically speaking, correct? (unless somehow the guy can run faster than the magicker can notice him and start doing the motions, words, and whatever else the magicker does) It allows more strategy involved in encounters, since fleeing a battle is much easier. The side effect would be that people would live longer in certain circumstances, but is that such a bad thing for the game?

Currently, I think most NPCs are good as they are on the instant attacking thing, it's the whole mess with soldiers that seems to be the main problem.

Backstab is a specialized stealth skill.  Also, if I was in the desert and some hooded figure ran in and immediately backstabbed me, I will email the staff and ask them about it.

If a magicker knows I'm aggressive, they'll probably start getting ready.  But if there is no echo, how will they know if I'm waiting for the attack to go in or just typing an emote?  Most magickers that didn't want to die would be forced to immediately start casting.
Would a magicker, ICly, be able to zap me five times before I managed to run up to them in the open desert?  Probably.  Will this sort of change drastically affect the game balance?  Yep!
A halfling, agile as it may be, probably can't keep up with a running mount.  But they can as far as the game goes, and if they couldn't, halflings would become far less dangerous.

All in all, this is similar to a mildly powerful Rukkian creating a grains of sand (or even a tiny pebble) on something by pointing at it.  Most 15-day Rukkians are probably powerful enough to be able to make a tiny cantrip like that, but make that pebble appear in your airpipe and suddenly your PC is going to suffocate to death.

There is game realism, but there is also game balance, and both things are important.

[sacac]

The approach command by itself is completely useless, in my opinion. I don't want to see this:

The very tall figure in a woven brown cloak approaches the watery-eyed and blue clothed magicker.

The watery-eyed and blue clothed magicker walks east.

The very tall figure in a woven brown cloak thinks, "WTF?"

The very tall figure in a woven brown cloak runs east.

The very tall figure in a woven brown cloak approaches the watery-eyed and blue clothed magicker.

The watery-eyed and blue clothed magicker walks east.

The very tall figure in a woven brown cloak runs east.

The very tall figure in a woven brown cloak approaches the watery-eyed and blue clothed magicker.

The watery-eyed and blue clothed magicker walks east.

The very tall figure in a woven brown cloak runs east.

The very tall figure in a woven brown cloak approaches the watery-eyed and blue clothed magicker.

The watery-eyed and blue clothed magicker walks east.

The very tall figure in a woven brown cloak runs east.


Obviously, the elf is never going to catch the magicker. who is on foot.

Unless of course..

The magicker has to flee each time someone approaches him.


That might could work.
Agility should be the main factor in establishing an approach lag and their chance of forcing the approached to fail flee.
The approachers pace and the approachee's pace should do negatives or positives to each other for the speed. So as a walking elf can't catch a running human. And so on for each race.
You don't have to approach to assist someone. You don't have to approach when you use backstab, steal, plant, sap, tell, and so on.

How is that adjustment? A raider on an erdlu or a war beetle will catch that merchant on a kank every single time.

Editted to add:
When in a "group," where everyone in that group is following each other, you don't have to use "approach" on members of the group. so if you "shadow" someone, you don't have to approach them to kill them.

Of course, that can be abused by "following" someone. Though, those people can be weeded out and shot with Tektolness' shotgun of torture +50 str