Shattered Kingdoms

(NOTE: Just because I'm suggesting this doesn't mean it has more or less of a chance of being implemented. However, I think a bit of discussion regarding the idea would be good to gauge how players -- and other IMMs -- would feel about such a thing. Discussion's always good!)

Two new targeting keywords: front / behind.

These work with anything attack or spell that targets, and only works against formations. If the character's not in a formation, it just defaults to targeting the person themselves.

So if Sargas is ungrouped,

> kill front Sargas
> backstab behind Sargas

Is equivalent to kill Sargas and backstab Sargas, respectively.

If Sargas is grouped, then whoever is in the formation in front or behind him is targeted. There are some caveats:

• This ignores reach or capability as it SPECIFICALLY targets the front and back populated rows. If you kill front Sargas, you will kill the person ALL THE WAY in front of that line of the formation, regardless of whether you can reach Sargas or not -- and if it's Sargas, then you will kill Sargas. This is a method of targeting the FRONT of Sargas' column.
• If there's someone in the middle, that you're trying to target, then you have to deal with them as you normally would.
• This doesn't necessarily auto-target the right mirror image; mirror image still pop as normal.

What would this realistically help with?

This helps you figure out who is tanking where. It adds a bit of a bend to PvP as it give you more decisions to make in certain situations. A rogue can now accurately try to backstab someone in a group, and if that person has someone behind them, they can let it immediately default to whoever's behind (bs behind Alaric). A sorcerer can now accurately target the right tank to petrify in a situation where they are trying to get to the person behind (c 'petrification' front Lorias). A mercenary can now bash the person standing in front of the squishier stuff (bash front Michiru). This takes away some of the confusion of having to determine formations accurately because of there not being an easy, visible guide as to what an enemy's formation looks like (which your character can plainly tell at a glance).

What does everyone think about this?

Love it! Where are the like buttons!

When did the glance command stop working?

Glance still works. The problem is when you have an issue of 12 "a wraith" and need to discern which is behind X or in front of X, so on and so forth. This absolutely eliminates edge cases and it lets you focus on doing what needs to be done faster instead of spending time glancing / processing extra information.

I am already on the boat for the behind command. But can you please name the situations where you try to attack someone and do not already attack the guy in front of them?

Lots of "someone is standing in front of them" last I checked, and I mean when you open the fight with something primarily.

I suppose I am against a targeting command that allows you to target someone and hit someone else. If anything I think you need to enhance the glance command to include groups and differentiate between like NPCs. Glance Sargas. Sargas is behind 2.wraith, 4.wraith, and next to 7.wraith. Figuring out who's where is a PvP skill people should have to learn. If you want to make it easier that's fine, but don't do it in the manner of putting in a bypass for actually forcing them to make their character look at the group and figure it out. Adding in a behind or front targeting command also takes away from combat where formations change, such as with tumbling, rescue, or ejecting.

At first, I didn't like this idea. Then I liked it. It eliminates the "fake" difficulty of fighting NPC wars by being unable to correctly target whoever is standing in front of someone else. It also eliminates the annoyance of having to deal with multiple pets of the same type in formation with someone.

I think if you try to attack someone and they have things in front of them you should automatically attack as deep as you can in the group formation. The attack behind command would be amazing for rogues though.

With a reaching weapon I agree, and I think that's how it is. However with spells, scrolls, circle stab, hamstring, wands, etc, I don't agree. You shouldn't be able to recite petrification scrolls at "front" sargas without ever even looking at his group to see what's in front of him. How difficult is "north, recite front sargas, recite front sargas, order all bash sargas"? Not very. It seems silly to me. If you want to address circle stab issues, do that. Honestly you should be able to target any rank with circle stab if you're going to allow it to hit behind someone in the first place. The rogue is running from his own group around formations and stabbing someone, then retreating. What's the difference if he's running to the opposing formation's first, second, or third rank?