Skill delays

[Good Gortok]

I think these need to be done away with entirely. With the exception of a select few commands that should truly render you unable to take any physical action for a significant period of time, most of these are incredibly unrealistic. Even if we look past the fact that time flies by much faster in-game than out and a 5 second delay would be more like a minute IG, most coded skills that impose a delay on the character should not actually prevent all action for such a long period of time, or at all. Attempting to kick somebody does not render you paralyzed for eight seconds. One could also point out that if the intention of this coded function was in fact realism, one's character should not continue to execute attack rounds or follow other characters who are moving between rooms while under the effect of skill delay.

A much more elegant solution would be to render the character unable to do things that actually should not be possible, but allow them to do other things. I can see how one would not want a character to be able to flee instantly after backstabbing, but they should not be prevented from operating items or following an opponent who flees. Attempting to kick someone in the teeth may put you off balance so that you can't immediately attempt to bash as well, but it should not prevent you from then drawing a knife for so long a time that you get to swing your fists multiple times in between.

The skill delay concept is a relic from the infancy of MUDs, baggage from the days when someone downloaded a DIKU stock and began to work on it, in 1991 or whenever it was. The purpose it currently serves on Armageddon is to prevent players from spamming abilities in unrealistic and destructive ways, but in practice what it more often does is prevent the players from taking the actions that their character would and realistically should be able to do. The purpose can be preserved by delaying the individual actions that should not be spammed rather than preventing all actions altogether. You would no longer have to deal with such things as throwing a kick and then watching your character die while you input 'flee' five times, or attack somebody only to see them run six rooms away before you can start the chase.

[Synthesis]

If you're close enough to kick someone, you should ask yourself whether it's realistic that you could just "flee" to get away from them in the first place.

[Good Gortok]

If flee is given a short pre-delay ala steal and backstab, like it should, then it would be fine. Your opponent can flee, after all, and he's in pretty much the same position.

[MarshallDFX]

There's certainly a case for some of these.. But I wouldn't just want to remove skill delays too hastily.  Deal with them on a case by case basis.

I for one, would love to be able to Way while walking.

[shadeoux]

There's certainly a case for some of these.. But I wouldn't just want to remove skill delays too hastily.  Deal with them on a case by case basis.

I for one, would love to be able to Way while walking.

Umm you can't?

[Praetorian]

There's certainly a case for some of these.. But I wouldn't just want to remove skill delays too hastily.  Deal with them on a case by case basis.

I for one, would love to be able to Way while walking.

Umm you can't?

I think what MarshallDFX was referring to was the -delay- on using the Way.  The delays following any use of contact, psi, etc etc.  A whole contact/psi combo to tell someone 'Yes' can leave your character pretty much motionless for a bit since you can't move along thanks to skill delays.

[MarshallDFX]

Also if you're spam-walking along, you have to stop before you can Way somebody "yes", then you get the delay.

[Shardok]

I like the delays.

I hate how they work.

Delays don't tell you how long the delay is or when you're using something that has a delay. It'd be nice to get some response besides a blank screen when you're using a skill that has a delay. Because at first there were several skills where I did it and waited and wasn't sure what was going on at first and even after reading the help files wasn't all that much less confused... i.e.

"Delay:

Before"

That makes no sense, okay. Some sense. But it still leaves me looking at it and wondering, uh? Mainly because that still leaves me wondering why my guy is taking so long to do a skill. Eventually I figured out that some skills take Nearly forever to use, especially without training. And yet, what I found Most hilarious was when I skinned something. Boom. Done. No delay. I never know how long the delay is for (or even an estimate) and that leaves me wondering if the skill is worth attempting or not. (And wondering if I'd be better off getting something to drink while my guy spends the next 5 minutes contemplating)

[Spice Spice Baby]

The only delay that really bugs me is the one on "value."

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

The ... delay that really bugs me is the one on "value."

Haha. Hell yes.

[Shardok]

See, just my point. I've never Noticed a delay on value, but I sure did notice it on steal. It all depends on what you're playing as and the thing is, I've *never* seen someone who actually can get through their life Only doing things their good at/have experience with. So it would be nice to see what the delay will be (obviously your skill in determining delay would be partially based on your experience with the skill, so it wouldn't be too helpful if you've never used the skill before, but it'd still be a guideline)

[a strange shadow]

The only delay that really bugs me is the one on "value."

Yeah, I think that's a redundant leftover that we could definitely stand to get rid of. Before the fix for value went in, it was a deterrent from spamming it a ton of times so that you could average out the price and weight.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I'd like the skinning delay to be dictated by the size of the animal. Corpses have weight values. I'd also like some messages while a person is skinning the animal.


>skin scrab
You begin skinning the body of a dark-shelled scrab.

[delay]

You continue skinning the body of a dark-shelled scrab.

[delay]

You pull a shell away from the body.
You cuts some eyes away from the body.
You got you some guts off this thing.

I absolutely think that skinning a mek should take at least 5 RL minutes. I don't have a problem with that at all. Perhaps a 1-second delay for every 10 stones the corpse weighs.

[Lizzie]

I'd like to see -all- crating-related delays (including skinning) be dependent on a few things.
If you fail, you shouldn't need to wait 5 minutes to learn you've created nothing. It only takes a second to completely destroy something enough that you can't use it for something else. So - I feel failure with skinning/crafting, should only have a second or two delay.

However, there are different levels of failure. Especially with skinning. Maybe that mek has 5 pieces of meat, and a hide that can be turned into 5 lengths, a pile of bones, guts, and a head, all of which you would get if you had max-skin. If you succeed, at that max-skin, then hell yeah, make it take a couple of RL minutes.

But if you can only get one piece of meat from it, give it a long enough delay to type in an emote saying that you're trying.

If you can get the hide, but fail the meat, then give it long enough for 2 emotes (since a mek hide probably takes longer to peel off a house-sized animal than reaching into an axe-wound with your fist and yanking out a piece of flesh.

And so on. So basically, if you're successfully skinning a lot of stuff, or difficult things, then it should take longer than if you're successfully skinning something easy, or small (like a gimpka rat). And all successes should take longer than failures.

[jhunter]

I think there should be delays but I think that some of them are excessive and should be reduced. (typically combat delays) I agree that crafting delays should vary as well.

[Kryos]

Personally I'd like to see all delays be 'before' and interruptable at the cost of failure.  If you're grebbing some salt, you aren't going to finish your look around after an arrow hits you or a mek tramples in.  You're going to do something about these far more dire circumstances.