Am I doing combat wrong? or... (unarmed combat)

[Vendayn]

So, I got my unarmed skill to level 7. I'm thinking maybe its just too low? as the wiki says a 10 or better is best.

I've read the wiki on combat 101, but that was rather confusing. Maybe its because I've had little sleep the past day and a half (have to stay up for my doctor appointment tomorrow...)...but

I attack an ant guard (since I heard these were easiest), I go in with jump, get my attack bar filled up (I've tried it full and mostly full), try to land a punch...and 100% of the time my punches miss. I've done this dozens and dozens of times, and each time I can't punch the ant. I don't want to know what other animals would be like. I then got a new ability called "Charge" and I use that first, but that misses. I try to use strangle, that misses. I try to use defensive moves instead, and no luck.

Is it my attributes that are the problem? I'm not sure how to raise attributes besides eating fish I catch. I can't get boars, if I can't even kill an ant. But according to wikia, I don't see anything about combat being effected by attributes. My STR is 16, Agi/Int 12, Dex/Psyche at 11...and the others are still at 10.

I'm kind of confused why every single attack misses. Unless its just because unarmed is too low. If it is, then I won't worry about it, and just continue to raise it as I get learning points. But I just want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong.

[TeckXKnight]

Okay, a very simple break down of how combat works. Red bar = Attack, Blue Bar = Defense. When you attack unarmed against an unarmed opponent (all animals should be unarmed, I think?), it's your Unarmed skill vs. their Unarmed skill. So if they have 10 and you have 10, then your Attack at Full = 10, their Defense at Full = 10. One attack at a Full Red Bar will damage their Defense by 10 points, reducing their Blue bar to 0 but this will count as a miss. Now you want to jump to raise your Attack Bar up again and Attack. The amount of damage you do is the percent of your Attack bar that is not blocked by their Defense bar.

For example: You have 10 Unarmed, they have 15 but you attacked them once. This reduced their Defense to 5 and your Attack to 0. You recharge your attack to full while they only charge 5 Points. Your second attack swings for 10 again, reducing their Defense to 0. You do this exact same dance again, Raising your bar by 10 and they raise their Defense by 5. You swing and you break their Defense by 5. 5 out of 10 Attack points for you go through dealing 50% of your damage to them. It took two misses but you finally hit!

What's key is reducing their Defense while raising your Attack.

Jump raises your Attack bar. Charge does too but it also reduces your Defense, leaving you open to enemy attacks. It gets easier with higher skills but small mistakes can turn a battle around entirely.

[Dataslycer]

So if they have 10 and you have 10, then your Attack at Full = 10, their Defense at Full = 10. One attack at a Full Red Bar will damage their Defense by 10 points, reducing their Blue bar to 0 but this will count as a miss.

Teck, that is not right. If each side has equal skill, a punch will take off 50% of the total defense bar since the formula of reduction of defense is (Attack weight / Defense weight) /2.

Here is the total analysis of the situation. The attribute that helps you reduce your enemy defense and keep your own defense is unarmed combat (right above Melee combat) which is the number that determines your default weight value for attack and defense. However after an attack, your attack meter is empty. Your attack weight is affected by how full this meter is by direct ratio. Meaning if your attack weight is 30 unarmred but you only have 50% meter, your modified attack weight 15. Of course if you try to attack anything with 0 meter, you are just wasting time as anything multiplied by 0 is 0. In short, each time you attack, you need to refill the attack meter up. The move, jump, is used for this when you first begin.

In this scenario, the ant swarm in this scenario has an unarmed combat of 5. Now let's say you have an unarmed combat of 9 When you throw your first punch, it will take ( (9/5) /2 = ) 90% of the ants defense. Afterwards your attack meter is depleted. What you want to do is use jump to fill your attack meter to 100% and punch again.

If you have more questions, refer to my combat guide listened below.

[TeckXKnight]

Clearly you should be listening to Dataslycer over any advice I give. I can't seem to catch a break today, he points out every time I'm wrong, haha. Thanks for clearing that up though, I wasn't aware that there was a 50% divide included in formula.

[Dataslycer]

That's only twice Teck. ._.;

[ciroth]

That's only twice Teck. ._.;

Doesn't this statement infer mean he made another mistake, so by saying that it is the 3rd time? :O

... yeah i will go back to my hole

[Masa]

So if they have 10 and you have 10, then your Attack at Full = 10, their Defense at Full = 10. One attack at a Full Red Bar will damage their Defense by 10 points, reducing their Blue bar to 0 but this will count as a miss.

Teck, that is not right. If each side has equal skill, a punch will take off 50% of the total defense bar since the formula of reduction of defense is (Attack weight / Defense weight) /2.

Here is the total analysis of the situation. The attribute that helps you reduce your enemy defense and keep your own defense is unarmed combat (right above Melee combat) which is the number that determines your default weight value for attack and defense. However after an attack, your attack meter is empty. Your attack weight is affected by how full this meter is by direct ratio. Meaning if your attack weight is 30 unarmred but you only have 50% meter, your modified attack weight 15. Of course if you try to attack anything with 0 meter, you are just wasting time as anything multiplied by 0 is 0. In short, each time you attack, you need to refill the attack meter up. The move, jump, is used for this when you first begin.

In this scenario, the ant swarm in this scenario has an unarmed combat of 5. Now let's say you have an unarmed combat of 9 When you throw your first punch, it will take ( (9/5) /2 = ) 90% of the ants defense. Afterwards your attack meter is depleted. What you want to do is use jump to fill your attack meter to 100% and punch again.

If you have more questions, refer to my combat guide listened below.

OMG. According to your formula I need at least 58 melee combat stat to lose "only" half of my defense bar against 10 level fox.

[Dataslycer]

Lvl X foxes has roughly 40 UA though and I think animals has attacks that carries less weight than their UA suggests.

Also the maneuver, Shield, has 125% weight of your melee skill.

[Vendayn]

wow, thanks guys. Combat against, at least ants, is so much easier now. And your combat guide thread helped quite a bit too.