Shattered Kingdoms

Available for:


Proposed effects:

vs. Fleeing
- Your currently targeted opponent has a reduced chance of fleeing.
- Occasionally, the flee attempt will be interrupted by a lash-out attack.
- Additionally, an opponent who successfully flees may still eat a single additional attack as they attempt to escape.

vs. Non-Combat Actions
- Quaffing provokes attacks of opportunity. A quaff that is interrupted by an attack of opportunity that hits automatically fails, and the vial is wasted.
- Reciting provokes attacks of opportunity. A recital that is interrupted by an attack of opportunity that hits automatically fails, and the scroll is wasted.
- Brandishing provokes attacks of opportunity. A brandish that is interrupted by an attack of opportunity that hits automatically fails, and the charge is wasted.
- Zapping provokes attacks of opportunity. A zap that is interrupted by an attack of opportunity that hits automatically fails, and the charge is wasted.
- Casting a spell in reach of an opportunist will provoke attacks of opportunity (chance lowered by stance defensive and by combat casting). A spell that is interrupted by an attack of opportunity causes it to take longer to cast.

Meh. If anything this would be better if it triggered on any non-combat oriented action, like quaffing a potion or casting a spell, except for classes with mastered combat casting. I'm not too sure that it would be useful to have it's focus be on keeping your target in the room, since quaff recall is the more common choice.

I could've sworn I also wrote a chance to interrupt specific actions in combat (recite, quaff, brandish, zap). Interrupting said action would cause one round of prone (to prevent spam quaff).

Then again, don't even get me started on quaff recall needing to be eliminated from the game...

The entire PK structure of Shattered Kingdoms needs to be reorganized aside from just heal and WoR pots. A level 5 barb can PK a level 50 cloth priest with a practice dagger and buckler. Why?

Trying to attack any PC that considers "Death will welcome you" should be met with "You wouldn't dare, he/she is so buff!". Trying to attack a PC that reads "You could kill him/her naked" should be met with "Why waste your time?". Players should be able to opt for a No-Pk flag permanently, ultimately having their max weight reduced and being unable to join cabals or tribunals. Players should not be considered eligible for cabals or tribunals until exceptional RP is shown and they reach level 35. Upon being PKd, a player should be flagged No-Pk for at least IC 24 hours.

I'm happy to see that, almost 15 years later, people still don't get the point of this MUD.

One of the problems with PK in SK is that there's too many outs to actually dealing with combat when it happens, too many ways to "end" combat before it even starts... there's really no involvement a lot of the time. It boils down to this: trying to kill people needs either a commitment from both sides to see the fight out to the end, or for you to really get the jump on someone with an instant-kill scenario. On top of that, it takes a ton of preparation for people to get ready for a fight. This, primarily, is because there's a lot of WAYS to prepare for a fight, and they all take a bloody long time to do. Finney put it best here:



Roleplay is and will always be a very important part of SK, but PK is also an incredibly important part of it. It's really not hard to get your fun and time's worth in roleplay, because you will know pretty quickly whether you're having fun playing with someone else or not. The mechanical part of PK is important because you want players to remain engaged and to feel that fighting in the game is fair, and that all of the classes have something of worth to contribute to a battle.

If I was going to improve combat in SK, I'd do any or all of the following:
- Remove get out of jail free cards that make it too difficult to deal with certain classes and replace them with other things (word of recall casting time increased, word of recall unbrewable, teleport unscribable; remove etherealform and replace it with the spell 'blink' which is a passive defense in the form of a spell that works exactly like dodge but fires much more often, must be maintained with concentration and also raises flee rates)
- Remove and reconfigure instant-kill attacks (cleave is now just a high-damage opener; dual backstab damage wildly lowered, remove any and all spells that can potentially instantly kill an enemy (petrification, voodoo, final strike) and replace them with more utility and combat-damage spells with more flavor)
- Increase in-battle survivability across the board; consequently, reduce flee rates so that getting into combat and what happens in combat is more meaningful. Add more skills that directly impact combat.
- Add meaningful choices both outside of combat (add 'meditate' as a command, requires the meditation skill, and is the mana-regen equivalent of 'rest' -- you are sitting and resting but you regen mana at a very advanced rate, but your health and stamina do not gain any additional bonuses) and inside of combat (different combat classes having different combat options, etc.)
- Provide a little more information for the player -- stop obfuscating stat amounts; even the most hardcore of tabletop roleplaying games have the numbers available to the player (and the ones that don't use no numbers at all). Let players feel more in control and ownership of their character in terms of total potential. Think about it: the min-maxers have access to all this information in some way anyways, and sometimes without cheating, so why not just let everyone have it?
- Intensely focus on the game's soft-cap being level 40, which was a design goal of Dulrik's all along -- consequently, reflect that by making 41+ equipment nearly nonexistent and capping enchanted gear at 41 to prevent 'vanishing' items (any gear over 41 never levels up via enchantment). If you really want to focus a soft-cap at a certain level, then you need to make stopping at that level attractive and design towards it.
- Provide inter-class variety. This kind of change would be really extensive and not really feasible right now, especially with the amount of hours I'm pretty sure Dulrik realistically has that he can devote to SK. And I don't just mean specializations...!

The prone status was a huge step in the right direction. More things can be added like it that would be great for combat. More involved combat, even if slightly more, helps keep people engaged. It doesn't have to be much more complex, it just needs a little more ... oomph, I guess!

wat

epic barb yo

Wudnil who may or may not be level 50 was spam bashed to death by a giant barb with a practice dagger and buckler just the other day.

Maybe Wudnil needs to work on not being awful?

Practice dagger and buckler does not mean he's level 5. Honestly I bet a priest could probably out melee a level 5 giant barb if he had a weapon equipped. Any storebought -pet- can outdamage a level 5 giant barb.