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Old 02-18-2006, 03:04 PM   #7
KaVir
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Name: Richard
Home MUD: God Wars II
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Well 'best' is a matter of opinion, but the God Wars II combat system is nothing like the Simutronics muds.  The Simutronics combat system, as far as I'm aware, uses a "balance" system whereby each player has a selection of combat moves available.  Performing an attack then results in a delay for a number of seconds, after which time the player can perform another attack.  The same approach is also used by a number of other commercial muds, including (as far as I can tell) The Eternal City.

However in God Wars II you don't simply perform a combat technique - instead, each technique is the result of a specific sequence of commands, depending on your fighting style, skills, talents, powers and weapon (or combination of weapons).  Thus a character fighting in Viper style with paired shortswords will have very different options available than someone using a shortsword and shield in the Crane fighting style.  In total there are over six and a half thousand possible fighting techniques, each with their own modifiers and affects.  Each weapon has its own set of commands and fighting techniques, and even these vary depending on other factors.

Thus you cannot simply kill your opponent with a powerful attack, then wait to recover your balance - you have to build up to the technique, during which time your opponent can prepare an appropriate defence.

Another important point of note is that each character has four separate combat locations (left hand, right hand, head and feet), each of which is completely independent - thus you could perform defence techniques with one hand while attacking with the other, or using both hands to attack, or to defend.  You'll see some builds where the player uses both hands to defend (perhaps with shields) while using their head to attack with bites or mindblasts.  Some players will use their feet to perform jumping kicks or pouncing attacks, while others will drop into defensive stances or retreat from their opponents.  In Ide's example you can see that he was using one hand to defend with a shield while spellcasting with the other.

Although the four combat locations are independent, there is still some crossover - a 'clap' while spellcasting requires both hands, for obvious reasons.  Equally many specialised fighting techniques benefit from certain weapon combinations, and performing certain techniques with one hand will also adjust the other (for example the unarmed 'defence', 'fist', 'strike' combo will result in the character performing a jab with their main hand, then a hook with the other, and finally an uppercut with their main hand again - equally one of the quarterstaff techniques requires you to use one hand to assist, the other to perform a thrust which lifts your feet off the ground and performs a double-kick technique).  Some techniques will actually combine both weapons into a single attack (eg a single whirling attack using both katana and wakizashi).

The separate locations become particularly important when it comes to defences, as each location defends separately, and has its own cooldown timer indicating how long before it can defend again.  A player using a sword and shield will likely be using the latter as their primary defence, but a feint could knock the shield down and force the player to rely on dodges (feet defence) or parries for the next 2 or 3 seconds.  Thus paired weapons can provide highly effective in such a situation.

However each attack and defence also has its own 'strength', indicating which defences can counter which attacks.  The person with paired weapons may have an offense advantage, but they'd be unable to block an arrow or shield-bash, and would need to use a combined defence to parry a double attack. The person using a two-handed weapon would likely have to rely on specialised fighting talents in order to block a double attack, although they would make up for that with other bonuses.

The same is true of God Wars II as well - it's only the supernatural powers that are divided among specific classes (the classes are supernatural archtypes, not professions; it makes no sense for a werewolf to be able to transform into mist, for example, or for a vampire to grow a giant scorpion tail).
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