How about a slight change to Flee.

[Fredd]

Ok, the way Flee SEEMS to work is that the more skill you get, the  better chance you have at breaking away AND fleeing the direction you want.

The problem I have with this is by the time your flee ever hits that level of skill, well, you will be super B-A and probably wont ever run until you die.

What I purpose is this. You type FLEE EAST. you fail your check, you dont go anywhere. If yo pass, you actually go east. I say this because if you are fleeing a specific way, theres probably good reason, like a cliff. Your cherecter probably knows this, thats why hes trying to go the opposit way (hence you typeing east instead of say west, or no direction)


Edit: This would only work for those who actually have the skill though, maybee?

[Sam]

I like it.

[maxid]

I'm not in favor of this as stated... it's a battle, you're jumping around, dodging, flailing, etc.  You might not even realize what direction you're facing when you run away.

I am in favor of some sort of tag to block a direction from fleeing.

For example, if you're fighting in a room with the exits [NES] and east is off a cliff, you could type (flee noteast) which would roll the usual pass/fail and if after that, the randomizer set you to east, you simply failed overall.  That needs some work, but I think the gist is understandable.

[Synthesis]

Also, I'm pretty sure the way that skill caps are set up, warriors are the only ones who -ever- have a reasonable chance of fleeing in the right direction.

Of course, it seems like you can game the system in certain circumstances.  E.g. if you don't have the flee skill, and there are only 2 exits, you'll probably end up going the direction you want to go more often if you actually attempt to flee in the direction you don't want to go.  (I haven't done the logging and the math breakdown, but it makes sense intuitively.)

But yeah, it would be nice to be able to tell the game "I want to flee, but I definitely do NOT want to go THAT way, NO MATTER WHAT."

[Fredd]

my best flee skill ever was a ranger.

But yeah, i just hate hearing about how people die fleeing over a cliff, when they really shouldn't.

[Synthesis]

my best flee skill ever was a ranger.

But yeah, i just hate hearing about how people die fleeing over a cliff, when they really shouldn't.

You've never played a decent warrior, then.  There's really no comparison.

[brytta.leofa]

If fleeing over cliffs or into silt is the problem, how about this?  When you flee, the game looks for "bad" exits (into deep silt, over a cliff, into a hole) and takes the worst one off the table.

Example 1:
N = desert, E = 1-room drop, W = 3-room drop, S = deathroom
The deathroom is the worst option, so, if you flee randomly, it'll be north, east, or west.

Example 2:
N = desert, E = 1-room drop, W = 3-room drop, S = desert
The 3-room drop is now the worst option, so, if you flee randomly, it'll be north, east, or south.

Example 3:
N = desert, E,W,S = 3-room drop
One of the 3-room drops is eliminated, giving you a 33% chance of not falling...still lousy, but better than the 25% chance you'd have had otherwise.

[Synthesis]

The random-direction flee code is stupid, in the first place.  'Flee' as a skill is stupid, and yo, I love me some mothafuckin' skills.  Besides which, the code couldn't possibly account for all the factors involved.

E.g. if you're flying, a 3-room drop isn't nearly as big a problem as a wall of flaming gith skulls (although it's stupid that you can't just fly over the motherfucking thing...but aaaanyway).  Or if you can breathe in silt but lack the climb skill, perhaps you'd rather go for a swim than find out whether there are a half-dozen gith trapped at the bottom of that pit.

[wizturbo]

I think the suggested change is best.  Flee <direction>, if you fail, you don't flee anywhere.  If you succeed, you flee that direction.  If you aren't skilled in flee, it's highly recommended you don't "flee direction" if you really need to get out of there as the chance for success will be limited.

[brytta.leofa]

Synth, you're just being contrary.  99% of the time my idea is a 100% improvement on the current situation, with no change in how you use the command.

If you're fighting something between the pit and the pendulum while flying and you have to flee, well, by golly, accidents will happen.

[musashi]

And I was under the impression that flying made flee'ing very easy to begin with. Much more so than someone trying to flee on foot.

[Sam]

You kick at the cloud!
The cloud rises above you and then laughs at you and makes fun of your small package or over-endowed chest.

[musashi]

I just meant to suggest that if you're flying I believe that fleeing the direction you want to flee in is a lot easier than if you're on foot to begin with, and maybe Synthesis didn't account for that in his hypothetical example.