Change Opponent Change (specify opponent?)

[brytta.leofa]

On the topic of getting mass-attacked...I think the way it works now is awfully cartoonish.

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The grey, three-fingered mul joins your fight!
A ragtag array of gladiator slaves joins your fight!
A unit of Borsail Wyverns  joins your fight!
A unit of Borsail Wyverns  joins a unit of Borsail Wyverns 's fight!
A human Allanaki soldier joins the grey, three-fingered mul's fight!
A human Allanaki soldier joins a unit of Borsail Wyverns 's fight!
A human Allanaki soldier joins the grey, three-fingered mul's fight!
The half-giant soldier joins a human Allanaki soldier's fight!
The human soldier joins a unit of Borsail Wyverns 's fight!
The human soldier slashes the slim bronzed man on his hand.
The human soldier pierces the slim bronzed man's body, connecting hard.
The half-giant soldier slashes the slim bronzed man's head, doing
horrendous damage.
The slim bronzed man cries out in pain.
The slim bronzed man crumples to the ground.

Consider this approach:  whenever someone (PC or NPC) is attacked, add a delay--up to maybe a second--before anyone else can join in.

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The vibrant, jade-adorned sergeant viciously bludgeons a lanky, brown-skinned gith's head.
> assist jade
You attack a lanky, brown-skinned gith.
(delay)
A lanky, brown-skinned gith dodges your slashes.

The delay can be tuned up or down: down if it's too easy to flee impossible situations, and up if powerful mages can get killed by 50 stacked soldiers in the blink of an eye.

[Rhyden]

Consider this approach:  whenever someone (PC or NPC) is attacked, add a delay--up to maybe a second--before anyone else can join in.

This is a good idea.

[jhunter]

Consider this approach:  whenever someone (PC or NPC) is attacked, add a delay--up to maybe a second--before anyone else can join in.

This is a good idea.

Yes it is. In addition to balancing it out a bit, it would be fairly realistic, and the delay would represent the time it would take for others to respond and get into position to join the fight and attack the target.

[Synthesis]

Why should there be a delay?

If a templar is charging at you, leading a unit of soldiers, is there any reason to believe that they would be so far behind him that they should suffer a pre-delay on initiating combat?

Fixing mass combat is hardly that simple.

Besides which, there already is a de facto delay on the 'assist' command (the amount of time that elapses before you pass the agility/speed check that determines whether you attack or not), which is really the only command that anyone should be using to jump into a huge fracas, anyway.

I don't think mass combat necessarily needs to make room for advanced tactics and maneuvers, anyway.  Two sides slug it out.  One side wins.  Lots of people die.  I don't think there should be an easy way to escape from an entire warband, but currently it's really just a matter of spamming 'flee' and getting lucky enough to have it pass before something reels you.

Also, if you repeatedly find yourself in situations where templars leading entire units of soldiers are coming after you...perhaps you should re-evaluate the sequences of events that keep leading up to that particular outcome and change your behavior in order to avoid it in the future.

[brytta.leofa]

Why should there be a delay?

If a templar is charging at you, leading a unit of soldiers, is there any reason to believe that they would be so far behind him that they should suffer a pre-delay on initiating combat?

I get that the delay should be small.  I don't get that it should be zero.  Heck, maybe it should be proportional to the number of combatants in the, ah, cluster: the first one or two are effectively able to attack simultaneously.

Note that this would barely affect PCs entering combat; by the time you're done typing "assist templar," the puny 0.5-1.0 second delay I'm suggesting will have already expired.  My aim is to reduce instagibs from every NPC in the room piling on in one round.

[Qzzrbl]

I really don't see how a magicker can affect an entire room, but that is another discussion.

With magick, my friend.... With magick.

[Delstro]

I know -how-, but I don't agree that they should be able to until 30+ days play time.

[Synthesis]

Why should there be a delay?

If a templar is charging at you, leading a unit of soldiers, is there any reason to believe that they would be so far behind him that they should suffer a pre-delay on initiating combat?

I get that the delay should be small.  I don't get that it should be zero.  Heck, maybe it should be proportional to the number of combatants in the, ah, cluster: the first one or two are effectively able to attack simultaneously.

Note that this would barely affect PCs entering combat; by the time you're done typing "assist templar," the puny 0.5-1.0 second delay I'm suggesting will have already expired.  My aim is to reduce instagibs from every NPC in the room piling on in one round.

NPCs that are coded to 'assist' suffer the same 'assist'-related delay, as far as I can tell.  I've been lucky enough to escape half-giant instagibs on a number of occasions, due to the sometimes quite long delay before their first attack after they assist.  Yeah, sometimes you get unlucky and the half-giant soldier whips off a first-round attack and reels you from the get-go...but them's the breaks when you're tangling with the Man.

The only time this sort of delay would have any noticeable effect is when there are 8+ attackers going for the same target.  E.g. one attacker assists...1 sec delay...next attacker assists...1 sec delay...next attacker assists...1 sec delay...so on and so forth, until the last attacker can't even begin until 8-10 seconds have elapsed.

However, you should probably ask yourself at this point:  does it really make sense for someone to simply be able to 'flee' away from 8+ attackers?  I really don't think so, unless you have some magick escape pod.  If 8+ dudes including a templar with HG soldiers are on your ass, you've just been pwned, and you should probably have the decency to die gracefully with your roleplay credentials still intact.

[jhunter]

That's how I feel it should be. Increased delay for each character attempting to assist attacking the same target. Also, about the fleeing from several attackers, I believe dificulty is increased by the number of enemies attacking you as well as the number of exits to flee to. Also, I think that people are overall worse at fleeing than they used to be prior to the addition of disengage. So, if the code says you manage to flee, I think it's pretty fair the way things are working.

[Synthesis]

I think the half-giant instagib is pretty fair, the way things are working.

[brytta.leofa]

However, you should probably ask yourself at this point:  does it really make sense for someone to simply be able to 'flee' away from 8+ attackers?  I really don't think so, unless you have some magick escape pod.

Honestly, it was magick escape pods I was thinking of, not so much mundane flee.  Which brings us back to the whole "do we really want more powerful wigglers" debate.

I still have Copper War guilt, okay?