This document describes the aspects of the new battle system, which is actually 4th battle system. Hopefully this is the best and satisfies both realism and playability. First, I'll describe all other possible battle systems, hoping you'll understand that this new battle system is the only, and the best possible of all. 1) The most common battle system in combat-oriented muds is automatic 'spamming' battle. It works ok but lacks realism, and isn't really usable on gridmap. This, original battle system makes me laugh. The user can only idle and watch the battle going, and can't do much else than move out of the room or use the battle skill, for example 'slash'. Funny thing in that is the user actually is slashing the monster all time, so why the user needs to use some special skill to do another slashing maneuver? Also, in this battle the user needs to hit monster like 100-1000 times before the monster dies. Completely unrealistic. The battle messages in this system are actually just a spam, with no wits at all. These messages gives the user hint how much the hit did damage or did it at all, with no hit locations. If we take example of really unrealistic battle messages we take it from BatMUD. There you hit monster's artery explode like 100 times one after another. 2) Most self-respecting combat-oriented muds are converting their battles to limb-based combat system, which is same as the original but includes hit locations. Nothing else. The most advances limb-based combat systems include possiblity to actually cut the limbs off and eat them, but that is piece of cake for us. However, I haven't seen one except in Majik ;> 3) Aluna's maneuver-based combat system was possibly the first one of its kind ever seen in any mud. It still followed the aspects of original battle, from the 'spamming' side at least. It was maybe more worse since the user couldn't really do anything except idle while battle because there was no usable battle skills like 'slash'. The idea of maneuvers was probably Aluna's idea to replace battle skills by some more realistic way, however it never worked and will not either. If the maneuvers would be used as replacement for battle skills we would need really many maneuvers and somehow have some system that needs changing maneuver upon certain time of battle. That would also need the battle to be much more slower and longer, which would increase lack of realism. If the maneuvers would be used as to increase possiblity to use tactics among different kind of monsters, we would need very many different maneuvers with seeable difference. It would be good, but still it would be spamming battle and user would need to idle until attacking another monster type which needs another maneuver, or then changing maneuver at all. Also, it is really confusing if the user wields weapon and charges to battle the user still uses brawlers punch maneuver since he/she has not changed it! If we'd make 'default' maneuvers for every weapon type and set it automatically when wielding then we would go back to original battle system and lose the actual idea of maneuvers. Aluna's battle was not really suitable for gridmap, with modifications we could add gridmap support for it, but still it wouldn't be usable at all. Now we finally got to the new battle system, and for the beginning we'll think what we need to solve to make it to be the best. At least these unrealistic aspects needs solving: * Replacement for battle skills, and make sure the player doesn't have to idle in the combat. * Avoid to become 'spamming'-battle. * Make the battle quick and therefore realistic. In real life one good hit of sword makes you die, make a wound or force you to fall down. Speaking of average, approx. 2-5 normal hits with decent weapon should make the player unconscious. However, armour will affect this greatly. With no armour player should die after 1-3 hits and with average armour it would need hits from 3 to 10, depending on weapon and with very heavy armour it would need very many hits. That also fixes the problem with hit points and advancement. No longer need to gain more hit points to be able to stand more damage. More armour, worse defense, better protection. * Make the battle to sync with missile combat and spellcasting with unique speed system which allows some mortals to do more than one attack per round and for some, only attack per two rounds. Depending on weapon, armour, encumberance, natural speed and many other factors. Thus, no longer spellcasting while fighting. * Make it to be suitable for gridmap. Movements must sync with speed system also, thus allowing no hit & run combat if we have no enough speed. Mortals should also see the movements easily, with no spamming. * Make it to be easily understandable and extensible without cutting it from realism. Aluna's battle for example was just too complex from coders point of view but has no any significant difference to mortal eyes! Waste of resources. The most simple solution is possibly the best, and that is really true in coding. Usually complicated solution is a kludge. My idea for this all is a non-automatic battle system, quite similar to ones in real roleplaying games. At the beginning of every round everyone gives command what to do and then after certain amount of time the round is over and Majik will tell combaters what has happened. This is possibly the first battle which allows users to use real tactics with no any artificial kludges. The battle is initialized when user A attacks user B and battle is running until A or B is killed or fleed from combat by magic or by running away from range of vision. Anyone who attacks A or B while combat will be part of battle. The simple demostration of running battle is like this: ........ ...@.... ....@... ........ A> hit se A: ** COMBAT INITIALIZED ** B: ** COMBAT INITIALIZED ** A: OK A> hit se A: You can hit only one time per round with that speed. B> hit nw B: OK A: ** THE ROUND IS OVER ** A: A: You hit B to something and do something and B doesn't dodge. A: B hits you to something but you dodge. A: ** NEW ROUND ** B: ** THE ROUND IS OVER ** B: B: You hit A to something but he dodges. B: A hits you to something and that hurts. B: ** NEW ROUND ** A> sw A: OK B> hit nw B: OK ... and so on. Don't say the people doesn't have time to type commands in the start of every round and people who have lag will always lose combat because it is partially wrong. The muds who use the original battle have also the same problem. Recall BatMUD, there you need to use slash at monster like every other turn and that is actually the same time or even less than we have one round and our commands are much shorter by default. As mortals will of course make command aliases for these commands it is something like 1-2 chars per round and if someone can't type that fast he better learn to type faster or use lagless link. I've tested that already and it seems to be too slow actually and I consider to drop it from 10s/round to 5s/round or even less. We'll see. This file is not completely ready yet. This will include real specification for the combat when the system is ready first. Yet, suggestions are welcome but no flames please without proper explanation. Your admin, Namhas