Hamstring/Potshot/Chase skill

[gotdamnmiracle]

So I had an idea for a skill. Before I did anything first I wanted to run it by the player base to see if it was awful, or OP, or just uninspired.

Alright, so I was thinking to myself about how each weapon seems to have a separate subskill related to it save for chopping and slashing (piercing/stabbing=backstab, bludgeon=sap). I remember reading about the design of the uruk-hai weapons in lord of the rings and how the weird sweep in the weapon was deliberate to hamstring cavalry or routing enemies. *ahem*



See that backswept bit like jersey shore hair? Yep, that's the ticket. I was trying to think if that's feasible in either bone, obsidian, or chitin, and I know I've seen crazier things.

Here's how I imagine it working. So if you have mercy off and a person flees then you attack them. I suggest if you have mercy off, and hamstring/potshot on with the appropriate skill that the attacker slices at the legs of the retreating enemy, either halting their flee attempt, acting as a specialized backstab, or both. This would roll against their flee skill, either nullifying the halting effect, the backstab effect, any damage done, or any variation of the three based on the flee level of the attacked and the hamstring level of the attacker.

I'd completely understand this not working as a backstab, because it might be considered OP and additionally it doesn't follow the formula of stabbing someone in the eye, etc. I understand as well if it's simply just a removal of that final "mercy off" strike and tying it around a skill, so it's more focused on reflexes and a knowledge of where to strike with a steady incline rather than just an on off switch, although I wouldn't prefer tying something unnecessarily to a skill.

This could be placed on combat oriented folk and would either be viewed as necessary, or honorless, based on your profession. In training it should be treated exactly how you'd imagine. Essentially another tool in the raiders tool bag, or whomever really. And additionally a weapon would have to have specific traits to pull it off.

Also, I'm not a coder, so if this is either an impossibility or just so difficult that it might as well be then I completely understand and will rescind the whole idea.

As I see it, during this time of change with guilds and sub guilds getting busted up and shifted around this would be the perfect time to suggest something like this. Alright, let's hear from the masses.

[Jihelu]

The f-me attempts to flee east!
You hook their leg and pull them right back, they fall to the ground!

I like it.

[The Silence of the Erdlus]

Another combat skill would be beautiful. I could see this being in the skillsets of warriors and assassins.

[Jihelu]

Maybe even burglars.
I don't see rangers getting it.

[roughneck]

I would rather have a chase skill/command that allows you to follow someone who is fleeing.

[Dar]

Personally, I think it should be a command available to all and based off straight off/def and agility. It would work only if certain weapons are used. Upon it's activation, the user gives up 10 of it's attack rolls afterwards, whether it's a success, or fail. Upon success, it would give the victim a 'hamstrung' effect for 5 minutes, which has the same affect as being drunk, or other IC effects. Meaning that if a person tries to get away, he's got a chance to go prone. The chances increase if he is running, or sneaking, and decrease if he is walking. The chances to avoid being hamstrung rely on defense/agility and the chances of falling rely on agility/endurance.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

I would rather have a chase skill/command that allows you to follow someone who is fleeing.

[The Silence of the Erdlus]

I would rather have a chase skill/command that allows you to follow someone who is fleeing.

As long as you don't fucking give it to animals I'm fine.

[SuchDragonWow]

An anti-cavalry skill would be dope.  Maybe with a passive trigger to counter charge.

[gotdamnmiracle]

I would rather have a chase skill/command that allows you to follow someone who is fleeing.

As long as you don't fucking give it to animals I'm fine.

Fine with this too.

[Rathustra]

Why wouldn't we add it to animals?

[The Silence of the Erdlus]

Honestly? Because I'll turn into a little self-pissing bitch when the anakore that killed my team decides to go after me when I successfully flee.

[Jihelu]

A successful flee wouldn't have it chasing you.
Because it's a successful flee.
Or atleast that's how I'd make it.

[Riev]

Why wouldn't we add it to animals?

Yeah, going with a successful flee compared to the mobs factors means they don't then get to chase you. The Attack of Opportunity can already be a killer, but if an animal gets that -and- follows you when you successfully disengaged from combat? Most already sniff you down.

I'd be fine with a hamstring/potshot even if all it did was cause the fleeing opponent to encounter lag in the next room, like an automatic reel. But again, we already have flee code and Attacks of Opportunity that kind of cover this functionality. I'd say just give certain classes either a higher flee skill, or nerf the "average" flee skill across the game, so that the upfront fighter classes have a better opportunity to stop you from fleeing.

Or better yet, make a skill branch off flee or guard that, instead of someone failing their flee skill against you, you succeed your block check. Make it come before the flee checks even come into play, and if your skill is high enough, to stop their flee attempt and they have a 3second lag. If you fail to block, then they can flee (but I don't know if the codebase can do successive checks like that)

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Oooo. I really like the block-flee idea. I know something like this already occurs in game sometimes, but I'm not sure if it's because of a skill or if it's a conditional message. I can't remember when I saw it and under what circumstances.

[gotdamnmiracle]

Oooo. I really like the block-flee idea. I know something like this already occurs in game sometimes, but I'm not sure if it's because of a skill or if it's a conditional message. I can't remember when I saw it and under what circumstances.

I think Exit guarding can render something similar.

[Lizzie]

Why wouldn't we add it to animals?

Yeah, going with a successful flee compared to the mobs factors means they don't then get to chase you.

So if a critter successfully flees YOU - then you don't get to chase them, right?

[lostinspace]

Oooo. I really like the block-flee idea. I know something like this already occurs in game sometimes, but I'm not sure if it's because of a skill or if it's a conditional message. I can't remember when I saw it and under what circumstances.

I think Exit guarding can render something similar.

Yes, this can be used to prevent fleeing, but I think the intent here is to impose a status effect that makes the opponent fall when moving or move very slowly. Then even if they do slip by, gaining any amount of distance would be very difficult.

I had some ideas a while ago for a hamstring skill to force the victim to move at sneak speed, a 'pocket sand' skill to temporarily blind your opponent with sand to the eyes, and a garrotte skill to stop the victim from speaking, shouting, casting, etc. When I proposed them I wanted them all to be ways to start a fight, similar to backstab and sap. Ideally all of them on assassin and a few on pickpocket and burglar. I've always felt that crippling combat openers should be the realm of sneak types, and the usable anytime abilities should go to the head to head fighters, but that's just me.

[nauta]

What if we changed 'guard direction' so you can continue to guard a direction during combat?  It'd have something of the same effect...

[Lizzie]

What if we changed 'guard direction' so you can continue to guard a direction during combat?  It'd have something of the same effect...

If you're already in a fight with Amos, you are kind of busy at the moment. How are you going to stop fighting Amos, when Amos hasn't stopped fighting you, just so you can prevent Malik the Sneak from sneaking past you? That doesn't make any sense at all.

[Vositus]

What if we changed 'guard direction' so you can continue to guard a direction during combat?  It'd have something of the same effect...

If you're already in a fight with Amos, you are kind of busy at the moment. How are you going to stop fighting Amos, when Amos hasn't stopped fighting you, just so you can prevent Malik the Sneak from sneaking past you? That doesn't make any sense at all.

Yeah, I think it would have to be a hamstring skill, not a change to the current guard skill. Guarding anything would be effing ridiculous while you're engaged in combat, and any attempt to guard while fighting would have to be penalized to the point of uselessness.

[CodeMaster]

That doesn't make any sense at all.

Some of the smartest people I've ever had the luck to interact with would tell you how an idea could work rather than why it won't work.  I think the tendency we have to do the latter can needlessly shut down a good brainstorming session.

I think being able to guard while fighting would be nifty.  Note it is currently impossible to pummel someone in a dead end in this game if you're by yourself.

[gotdamnmiracle]

That doesn't make any sense at all.

Note it is currently impossible to pummel someone in a dead end in this game if you're by yourself.

Could you elaborate on this? I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

[CodeMaster]

That doesn't make any sense at all.

Note it is currently impossible to pummel someone in a dead end in this game if you're by yourself.

Could you elaborate on this? I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

I guess what I'm thinking of is a single character encountering another one in a room with a single exit.  And then simultaneously attacking them and preventing them from running away.  This might be akin to having someone against the ropes in boxing, or clinching someone against an MMA cage (which I'm sure Desertman can tell us all about), or being chased into a dead end in middle school and beaten up by a bigger kid (which I can tell you all about).

[edit: I'll throw in an anecdote (not mine):

One of the hardest things about being a bouncer at a bar is that you have to "guard" (protecting an entrance, or the bar's patrons) without attacking.  Your "guarding" job would actually be a hell of a lot easier if you could punch and kick and throw the riffraff to the ground.  Sometimes the best defense can be a good offense ... rather than standing there and sponging up damage on someone else's behalf.]

[gotdamnmiracle]

I think I see your point. And I do agree that we shouldn't argue or shoot down ideas, even if I do believe that this shouldn't be some vestigial part of an already existing skill, although that is an option.

It does seem kind of jarring to expect a "guard" to be lashing out or halting while fighting. It occurs to me that you could consider a bash to be the equivalent of this skill, but I feel like that is next to useless, buying you only a handful of seconds before the persons -stand-s and flee spams.