HP

[Lavalamps]

I don't know if this is right or not, but, should HP numbers be so high?
I mean, how many hits from a sword can one take?

Think of it in real life terms: you're not going to keep fighting after you get hit in the neck, the arm, and the chest, hard, with a sword.
I know Zalanthans are tougher, but they aren't super human.

Idunno, just a thought?

[elvenchipmunk]

IMO it's a playability issue, backed up by the fact that Zalanthans are indeed very though, and we're only using weapons made from bone, wood and obsidian.

How fun would it be if, as soon as you get into the game and go for a hunt, that tembo bursts out of a rabbit hole and bites you very hard in the head, and the mantis screen pops right up?

Not very.

[Marauder Moe]

How fun would it be if, as soon as you get into the game and go for a hunt, that tembo bursts out of a rabbit hole and bites you very hard in the head, and the mantis screen pops right up?

And even with the HP that we have, things like this still happen.   :wink:

[bloodfromstone]

I agree with elvenchipmunk. It's easy enough for a character's career to end in one second without lowering HP. Personally, I've always played slashes to the head or neck that don't kill as grazes, even if they're very hard. It might not line up with what the code says exactly, but it's the only way it makes sense (unless they're using clubs), and you can always play the wound up as being bad for some other reason. Some people may disagree, but I'd much rather see something like:

The burly man slashes the smelly elf on the head, wounding him.
The smelly elf raises his forked dagger a moment to late, catching the burly man's sword across the brow.
The smelly elf swears under his breath, squinting as blood runs down over one eye.

Than to see someone slit someone else's throat and the other person grunt and keep fighting.

[Gaare]

- Zalanthian people are tougher then a earthling... and they use bone, stone weapons instead of extremely sharp metal.

- Also, I imagine metal weapons IG probably damage quite a bit, like a few hits may kill.

- Lastly, I have seen instant(one hit) kills both from ranged and melee weapons from PCs.

[Lavalamps]

Bloodfromstone, I agree with you, I usually play it down and treat an injury as less.

But RP-wise, should we be able to keep fighting when we're at 10 / 90 HP?
Or would we be too hurt to keep fighting by then?

[bloodfromstone]

Depends on the character, through-and-through, I would say. Some characters might collapse and meg for mercy after one good hit. Thanks to disengage, we can now RP this out properly. Are you a dainty aide or messanger? Or are you an honor bound House guard or barely surviving 'rinthi? I think both of the latter would fight to their dying breath. Less extreme characters probably fall somewhere in the middle.

[rishenko]

The references here will probably escape most, but I relate Zalanthan combat more to Tekken/Virtua Fighter/Soul Calibur than to Bushido Blade (<3).

Disengage helps, but it's still far from codedly supported realistic combat.  Not that I'm bitching - I still love it. *grin*

[LucildaHunta]

It's still a game. I always looked at hit points as how much damage your body could take before it physically shuts down. I'm not sure if I remember correctly, but, I'm thinking there was a time when you got hit it didn't specify where you got hit. It could be another mud.

Sometimes too much realism and harshness can be a bad thing. A gortok, which I imagine is a cross between a pitbull and a hyena, bites you on the arm, you'd keep fighting it. Realistically, your arm would probably be broken, plus you'd have a 70lb dog hanging on it for dear life. Or you're fighting Amos the Assassin and he stabs you in the neck. Realistically, the fight would be over for you after a few more swings and Amos would be trying desperately to pull his knife out or draw another one because it's stuck.

Nah, it should stay the way it is. You keep going until you have so many wounds, you fall unconscious, then death. Which is realistic enough for me.

I'm also guessing adrenaline is a factor here too. If you're pumped up during a fight you're probably more likely to keep going even though you're pretty messed up.

But that's all in how you RP. I've seen a lot of people come in from the desert, pretty screwed up and they play it that way: holding a wound on their neck, limping, etc.

[Dalmeth]

If my character has some kind of neck armor, then I can see how it might take a neck blow.  My character starts coughing up blood and has hoarse speech.  As for blows to the head, that big box of bone is a bit more durable than most people give it credit for, and a straight slash at the brainpan is a rare occurence with two relatively good combatants.

However, if you've ever had a really good combatant go against a simply average combatant, it quickly becomes apparent how much skill goes into damage.  A good combatant can take most people down in seconds without using any of the other skills.

[Angela Christine]

The seem high at first, but unlike many RP games they never increase.  With a lot of games you start with 10, but after a week or two you have 100, and after a few months you have several hundred.


Mainly it's playability though.  Insta-death sucks.