Archiplex wrote:Gosh there's a lot of fuss on whether it should be "easy" or "hard" to get away from combat, and I think there's obvious biases on both sides.
One thing I want to bring in from another game (Wurm, but I won't get into details since it's very different) is the idea of a combat 'handshake'- that is, the idea that once you commit to combat, it's hard to escape.
I think something like that would be feasible to exist- people in general being faster outside of combat, but once they get into the 'heat' of things (either hitting someone or being hit), that their relative speed is slower than otherwise. This means that if someone approaches you when you're not looking for a fight, it should generally be easy to just get 'away' (and frankly, this should be the case- avoiding gank squads and protecting hermits) unless you get caught out and hit by an attack in the first place (to still actually ALLOW surprise attacks to happen).
This also makes combats 'tighter' instead of so heavily movement based like what currently exists- and removes that issue of people who run from combat once their opening is high enough. I also think that there should be a way to start to 'try' and escape combat- perhaps dodge abilities (or Artful evasion) don't allow you to? Or perhaps an IP ability that grants you a large movement speed burst for just a few moments to try and escape- so that in order to escape, you need to land a few attacks/dodges that allow you to escape?
In general I sort of agree with coles in that these autohit abilities feel like they're damaging the intent of the system, but I don't think they 'break' anything (numbers tuning aside)- I just think it's lame they exist.
I totally agree with "combat handshake" idea - you should be able to run away if you don't want to fight, but as soon as you agressed - you should not be allowed to escape easily. To be fair, like in any game, consensual fight usually happens either about something (There's something contested, and both sides don't want to let go of something) or in some kind of arena or brawl, where all the participating people are willing to show and test their skill.
Every other pvp is basically a rape, especially in Haven, where there's a giant gap between casual and competitive players.
The only real reason I can see why strong should be able to attack the weak and unwilling if the weak is taking something that strong consider theirs. Like, collecting something near stronger player bases.
Overall - I suggest adding slow debuffs on both attacker and defender, and if defender doesn't have rage, instead of applying slow debuff force them to drop items from inventory or equipment window.
Maybe adding special "net" weapon type and moves will help the situation as well?