Shattered Kingdoms

In this update, Dulrik finds a solution to something nobody thought was imbalanced.

Increase the fail rate of bash, increase the lag time on bash, add a 3/4 round lag time to the flee command, allow stance change while prone or revert to previous stance upon gaining footing.

People have been asking for bash nerfs for years, this may be the code change to motivate bash changes.

Hammer swash tanks ftw

nah screw that just hammer ftw

I like the change. Sets the scene for modifying bash/trip in the future to be more tactical and less brain-dead, which is obviously great.

What if you made it so that bash and trip do a "room lock" effect that's something like 5 rounds but reduced the prone effect to 2 and 1 rounds, respectively, while leaving the lag for the user the same?

I think something like this would make bash and trip tactical answers to stance usage, give all melee a skill a la taunt to ensure that a target's kept in the room for a fight, and prolong fights by allowing the bashed/tripped target the opportunity to respond with skills/potions of their own in the time between them regaining their footing and the end of successful bash lag.

That is not a good solution at all. If anything, the game should make using potions a more meaningful, tactical decision - not encourage the spam quaffing of heal potions as a measure of "skill". A better solution is to update stance so it is useful for casters as well as melee.

Bash is an easy fix: the lag for the basher should be slightly longer than the prone status for the victim, like every other PK MUD that I have ever played - Everwar, Duris, Arctic, etc. The victim stands and has a chance to react - either to flee, quaff a potion, zap a wand, recite a scroll, bash, trip or whatever. As opposed to the current iteration that allows a basher to indefinitely bash lock his victim. This is common sense and how it works on nearly every other PK MUD.

You'll note that I did suggest reducing prone time to a number lower than bash/trip lag. You appear to have disagreed with me and then reworded my suggestion, with some additional hating on SK's potion system on your side.

A room lock would not make fights come down to who has more potions, necessarily. It would allow for other tactical decisions like dirt kick, disarm, etc. You are not winning any fights if you choose to spam quaff instead of going for a smart move, and wind up disarmed as a result.

I still maintain that bash lag (for both basher and bashee) should be variable based on their natural dex score.

This just rewards the style of play of setting the aggressive stance, and bashing your opponent to submission so he loses the bonuses of his stance. The defensive stance is now worthless, I'm not sure about the hedgehog stance, but if it holds the same chance as other stances to avoid being knocked prone, it's worthless as well.

I don't like that it rewards front-line melee that use aggressive stance by making it harder to knock them prone after the first bash/trip. The code is in effect putting them in a better stance, without any input from the player. Conversely, it punishes front-line melee that use defensive stance by making it easier to keep them prone.

This update is counter-intuitive and to be blunt - scrub friendly. It punishes players for using the correct stance (defensive) in the front row and rewards players that sit in aggressive stance and go mongoloid/HAM in PK.