Shattered Kingdoms

While we're at it, let's have a look at combat length.
One of Lakir's arguments concerning why magma wasn't broken, was that melee classes kill people just as fast.

If this is the case (which in some cases it is) then something needs to be changed. Either melee damage needs to be brought down a bit, or armor needs to be buffed. I don't mind seeing naked people dying in 2 rounds, but a GM character fully armored in adamantite? I think that really takes most of the skill out of an encounter.

So, how long should combat last? Should armor be buffed to compete with the damage being dished out right now? Should the damage be wimped to compete with armor right now? Should enchantments play more or less of a role? What spells need to be changed to make each class able to compete, while not making them so buff the fight is over in 2 rounds?

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I would be okay with armor being buffed, it never made sense to me that someone in adamantite being hit by a whip for instance is getting massacred and all that.

Combat seems the same to me, save the bash thing.

The same compared to when? It's a lot faster now than when I played Feranim and Seram. At least from my perspective.

I'm sorry, but I was under the impression that this last code update was ABOUT lengthening the PK time.

I also have noticed in the squabbles I've been in that its noticeably longer now.

Even yesterday's relic raid took forever. People took AGES to die. It was wonderful.

The bash change didn't really do much, and I didn't think it was gonna do much in regards to combat length. It might've added what, 1 round worth of attacks to kill someone? And that's only with 1 vs 1. I doubt it made much of a difference, if any to group fights. You're not going to live long when you've got 3-4 or more people aiming at you. Hell, there's a pretty good chance you'll die in one round.

Personally I find it ridiculous when even the warrior classes in the game have to walk around behind a horse to avoid getting surprise-ganked. Something really needs to be done with combat. From what I've seen, it still only takes 4~ rounds or less for 1 warrior to kill another warrior. Less if it's 2 vs 1.

For all the talk about how Dulrik wants the game to be more group combat based, group combat really sucks. Really big fights are -ALWAYS- completely lopsided. You very rarely see like multiple people die on both sides.
Let's look at a quick example.

9vs9 fight or something, you could easily have 3 melee characters up front and 3 people in the second row with reaching weapons. Whoever attacks first pretty much wins, because all their buddies will autoassist on whoever they attacked and uh, sorry, but 1 single person isn't going to live through a round of 6 people hitting them. And then the other group's formation is completely screwed and the whole group will probably die/run away without doing much damage to the other group. It's hard to heal someone who dies instantly.

I think it was Finney made a really good suggestion a while ago. Remove Auto-assist when it comes to attacking other PC's.

Removing auto assist would probably be the best change in the world. It would mean people would have to coordinate their attacks rather than 1 person lead around a group of 9 and 1 person attack while the other 8 auto assist.

What about sanctuary then?

You shouldn't be able to initiate an attack and keep sanctuary up. If you get attacked, sure, but if you're the agressor it should go. I think it's stupid that you can currently use auto-assist and rescue to "get around" sanctuary.