Stopping a fight

[Nyard]

Is there any way to stop a fight other than fleeing?  I think there should maybe be a "stop" command or something like that, so that you can stop attacking your opponent.  If they wish to keep hitting you, then they can and you won't defend yourself, until you use the kill command again, or they can also "stop", and the fight will be stopped.  I think this would be a good idea if two people get into a fight, and maybe an offer of a bribe or somesuch is yelled out, and so the fight is stopped so that an exchange can be made, and a life saved?  That way you don't have to run into another room to stop a fight, especially if you're locked together in a single room, and you can't, but you don't want to continue attacking each other.

[Jherlen]

This is something I'd really like to see.

>resist off.
You will no longer fight back against attacks.

While you're not resisting, you'll still attempt to dodge/parry incoming blows, but won't attack back yourself. If two people fighting each other both stop resisting, the fight ends.

If one party in a fight isn't resisting, neither they nor the people attacking them will get skill increases. (To prevent someone from turning themself into a sparring dummy for their friends' benefit.)

[Cuusardo]

What is so bad about using flee to stop combat?  Flee, type walk, step back into the room, and roleplay it out as if you backed off.

[Anonymous]

What is so bad about using flee to stop combat?  Flee, type walk, step back into the room, and roleplay it out as if you backed off.

It's just clunky for certain situations, is all, mainly sparring.  It'd be cool if there was a stop combat command that if both parties entered would end combat so that you didn't have people who had to flee and then didn't remember to turn off run.

[EvilRoeSlade]

Heh, I can just imagine some bad-ass warrior beating the shit out of a newbie in a sparring room and then typing stop only to have the newbie continue attacking in a misguided attempt to up his skills.  I wouldn't use this if it were implimented.

[Anonymous]

Heh, I can just imagine some bad-ass warrior beating the shit out of a newbie in a sparring room and then typing stop only to have the newbie continue attacking in a misguided attempt to up his skills.  I wouldn't use this if it were implimented.

In my mind combat wouldn't stop until both had entered the command.

[Delirium]

It isn't sparring that comes to mind when I think of a stop/passive command.

It's fights or torture scenes that are taking place in one-room areas.

It's highly unrealistic to be unable to stop the battle just because you are in a jailcell with no open exit.

Even a "flee here" would be nice.  You flee to the room you're in, with all the checks and lag that a flee currently has, stopping the battle.  While we're at it, let's change the flee message from the stock "You panic, and attempt to flee" to "You attempt to flee."  Not everybody's panicking when they flee.

A passive command would be extra code, but would it ever be nice.  No more hitting back at your torturers while you are emoting being curled up in a fetal ball on the floor.

[IntuitiveApathy]

What is so bad about using flee to stop combat?  Flee, type walk, step back into the room, and roleplay it out as if you backed off.

I think what people are contemplating is something completely different from flee.  Flee, you're trying to run away from your combatant - you can imagine how this is accomplished however you'd like (tossing sand in their face, throwing them off balance and making a break for it, whatever).  For instance, how would you 'fail' standing there defending yourself but not actually fighting back?

This is different than just standing there and 'giving up' essentially.  It's really similar to nosave, actually and I could see nosave being extended to do this.  I think it'd add a great option to the current coded combat - like someone suggested, one-room instances.. or you want to defend yourself, but not actually fight back (there's no way to do this unless the opposing character's skills are in very particular ranges - eg. a high shield use vs. low weapon skill so the 'defender' could just have a shield out..).

[Cenghiz]

Err.. I just want to join the fray because.. Not everything increasing the skills is twinkish..
A newbie tries his best to get past the badass warrior's defence and he can't.. He tries newer attack styles again and again, just to fail. It sounds realistic enough to me to have skill increases. Why shouldn't the noob's skills rise when he tries all tricks he knows against an undefendable foe? Because someone may do this to the eternity?
Heh.. I've seen people who sparred to the eternity. If you're only 'bleeding lightly', it's too fast to regain all your HP and start another sparring. So why shouldn't a badass tutor watch the hopeless trials of the noob for some time still tutoring: "Swing should begin from the shoulder when you try a wide swing.... Do NOT bend your wrist or your foe will fekkin' fly that sword leagues away!... (typing 'hit noob' and hitting once, then quickly typing 'stop' again) You saw where your mistake is? Your guard's low. See? I could deliver the hit with ease. KEEP YOUR ARMS HIGH, FOOL!...."
And I'll go further and say, this type of education would be more realistic. Normally the better your tutor is, more he would teach you. But say, if you face a ten-day-old warrior in the sparring circle with your noob, he would in no time deliver three strong blows against you (three defence failures and skill raises accordingly) while you could swing, let's say, eight times and fail all. (Eight agreession failures). It would be better for your skills to train with inexperienced ones like you. Also in real life, your tutor would not beat the hell out of you in no time. He would be softer against a learning inept youth. The little example above is the way he would possibly act, not "The beefy slashes your neck, wounding you"*3
......
As I'm bored of many things, I'm bored of people seeing skill increasing as a twinkish act. If you're a gemmer hired by Tor or a Lord Templar as a warmage, it's RPing to practice and get stronger. If you're the guard of Lord Fancypants and you have 'sparring' at every dawn in your schedule, it's RPing to attend all the sparring sessions and max out your all skills. If you're a lucky assassin, lucky enough to have found a tutor, it's RPing to train backstabbing as your tutor says, even when this training includes backstabbing some helpless victims.

As a last note, I hate warriors, I hate sparring, I hate all combat skills. I'm pleased with my merchants and magickers. So I don't think I have the right to say if this change's necessary or not; it won't affect my characters. But if this change happens and a grizzled warrior uses this code to tutor a new warrior, I say more power to him. It won't be a twinkish act.

[Cyrian20]

Since I know the situation Nyard is talking about I will give my two cents.

Flee is fine, but like in the situation what if the people are locked in a room?

[derail]

And to add to Cenghiz's post. Trying to get your skills up isn't always twinking. I do kickboxing and some mma and bartend or promote on the weekends, and you better believe I am working out and sparring everymorning. (4+ hours of training and even an hour of so of practicing batender's "flair" on the weekends before work.)

If your life basically depends on a skill or an ability then yeah train the hell out of it. Until they code in Television sets powered by elkrosian batteries. People are going to just work and try thier best to get better to get out of thier current hole. Now this argument makes sense for someone hired on as the Nobles Aide who decides he is going to train with the guards in his silks everymorning or what not. But for everyone else until you are confident in the skill that decides your life your gonna practice.

I had a merchant that did little in the ways of rping cause he was going to stay independant so I had to spend a lot of time crafting, the moment I got comfortable in a few crafts then I relaxed, cause at that point it was ic for my character to decide "Damn I am good at what I do I can take a break if I want"[/derail]

Just my example and two cents

[Maybe42or54]

Sounds realistic to me and I think I would give the benefit of the doubt to the pair.

If one always attacks, and the other always defends. One gets really good at defending and one gets really good at attacking.

If they switch periodically, then it is basically the same thing as sparring, but really drawn out, right?

Sure, that Mul might be able to guard against you forever, but if he ever dicided to attack, your defense would suck and you'd die anyway.

What is the problem?

[Dalmeth]

Here's an idea : extend the functionality of disengage if you are the main fighter.  If you are the main fighter, and you enter the disengage command, this will send an echo of you backing off, and start a delay period where you do not attack.  If the opposite party has disengaged at the end of this period, combat ends.

Lastly, I think any method of  quitting combat should put one side at a disadvantage defensively.  Obstructing one's offense is as much about blocks and parries as it is putting your opponent off balance with your own blows.

[mansa]

Here's an idea : extend the functionality of disengage if you are the main fighter.  If you are the main fighter, and you enter the disengage command, this will send an echo of you backing off, and start a delay period where you do not attack.  If the opposite party has disengaged at the end of this period, combat ends....

You don't even need a 'delay period of attack' but it might be a 'nice feature'.

You could just make the 'disengage' command valid for 10 game ticks, and if the opponent also types 'disengage' during that short period the fight will stop.  That could just be the most simplest situation.

[Synthesis]

What's so bad about someone "becoming a sparring dummy" for their friend's benefit, anyway?  You suggest it as if it were a ridiculous idea or something.

Far more ridiculous, in my opinion, is the current system, where veteran fighters beat the ever-living dogshit out of their new recruits, even when they resort to using a weapon they've never trained with in their secondary hand.

I think this would be an excellent idea, both for stopping combat, and for creating -realistic- sparring scenarios.  Obviously, given the way the combat skill system works, the person attacking the non-retaliator wouldn't get any improvement to their defense, but they would at least improve their weapon skill and their base offense.

[Cale_Knight]

I made a similar post to this in the last thread about this idea.

Back in high school, I wrestled varsity. I did a little kung fu for a while too (far less sucessfully).

When you're sparring your teacher, someone loads better than you, he's never going to give you his best. He's going to stand there and block you over and over and over again, maybe smacking you every now and then to make a point. This is what a command to go purely defensive would simulate, among other things.

I remember the first (and honestly, only) time I sparred my sifu. We got into the boxing ring (this gym did a bunch of different stuff) and he proceeded to slowly beat the crap out of me. I'd kick him, he'd knock me away and stand there. I'd punch, he'd flip me to the ground and stand there. I got frustrated and tried a wrestling move on him and he kicked me half the length of the gym. And then stood there. When it was over, though, I wasn't really hurt. He held back and barely bruised me.

As it stands now, the code makes no distinction between sparring and killing. If my merchant takes it into his head that he wants to learn to fight, he's going to get the shit kicked out of him far quicker than any actual teacher would.

The "one room, how to stop fighting?" scenario is also too important to be ignored, in my mind.

[Manhattan]

if you're gonna torture a prisoner in a jail cell, then don't use 'hit' or 'kill'. you don't need code to torture someone. that's why they call this an rp-mud...so just emote torturing them.

[LauraMars]

if you're gonna torture a prisoner in a jail cell, then don't use 'hit' or 'kill'. you don't need code to torture someone. that's why they call this an rp-mud...so just emote torturing them.

Yeah, but emoting will not drain their hp at all.  If you torture with intent to kill, no matter how much you emote it's going to be a big brawl at the end there, and that will be unrealistic.

I think that a "stop" command would be a great idea for scenes like that.  Someone who's been tortured for hours shouldn't be able to fight back when the time comes for a'killin.

[Oxidised Lizard]

A command for stopping combat without going to another room would be great - seems like it should be pretty high-priority to me.  Cenghiz's idea of sparring with the teacher just defending would also be good to have implemented.