Major Combat Updates

From Haelrahv Wiki

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MAJOR COMBAT UPDATES!
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[05.03.05] The following changes have been made to chance to hit or miss: 
- Lower level/skill players will find it easier to strike low level creatures. 
- Overall, various modifiers to hit or miss a target are flattened down so 
that they have a less severe effect on combat. 
- Melee attacks (all) now rely on coordination (primary) and mentality 
(secondary). No other stats effect chance to hit with melee. 
- Thrown and Fired attacks (all) now rely on coordination (primary) and 
mentality (secondary). No other stats effect chance to hit with ranged. 
- Evasion now relies on agility (primary) and mentality (secondary). No other 
stats effect chance to evade. 
- Shield Use now relies on coordination (primary) and strength (secondary). No 
other stats effect chance to shield block. 
- Parry now relies on coordination (primary) and mentality (secondary). No 
other stats effect chance to parry. 
- The effectiveness of defenses varies very slightly. Their effectiveness from 
most to least effective: shield, parry, evasion. 
- Evasion suffers additional penalties for armor hindrance. 
- A player or creature's level now affects offensive and defensive ability. 
- Being blinded and in a dark area will no longer have a combined penalty. The 
greater of the two penalties will be applied. 
- The difference between an attacker's level and that of a defender now has 
extra effect on one's chance to hit or miss.. 
- Defense is now impossible for stunned defenders. 
- Attack and defense "fumble" rates -- that is a small random chance one will 
fail to attack or defend regardless of skill, have not been added and are 
profession based. 

[05.04.05] 
- Skittering tseritze are now level 42 rather than 40. 
- The stats for most huntable NPC's were adjusted with extra weight given to 
mentality. 
- The skills of all huntable NPC's are now 3 points of skill per level, with a 
maximum of 200 skill until level 101+ at which point they have 200 skill plus 
3 skill per level. 
- The health, stamina, and focus points of all huntable creatures have been 
reduced. For lower level creatures they were increased in most cases, and for 
moderate to high level creatures they were decreased. In some cases they were 
decreased a LOT. They are essentially on par with players now. 
- An apparent longstanding error that has caused NPC's to only flee from 
players under level 10 was corrected. 
- Modifications were made in general to the chance a NPC will flee. NPC's will 
not flee players level 10 or under, and will also not flee anyone who is 
within eight levels of their own level (i.e. a level 50 guard will not run 
from a level 58 player, but could from a 59). 
- NPC's will now bleed and take poison damage four times more quickly. 
- NPC's of level 6 and higher will now have a hidden profession designation 
(Agent, Guardian, Mage, Mercenary, Psionic, Tracker, or Trooper) and will 
enjoy the appropriate stat, skill and other combat related bonuses of that 
profession. 
- Flying Kick and Jump Kick will now properly allow critical deaths and 
messaging issues with both were corrected. 
- Combat damage is now based much more on the difference in level between the 
attacker and defender. 
- The effect of strength on melee and thrown attacks was increased. 
- The effect of perception on fired attacks was increased. 
- Trackers will now have a slight bonus to achieve a crit death kill when 
using archery weapons and firearms. 
- Guardians will now have a slight bonus to achieve a crit death kill when 
using unarmed attacks. 
- Troopers will now have a slight bonus to achieve a crit death kill when 
using pulse weapons. 
- Technicians will now have a very slight bonus to achieve a crit death kill 
when using pulse weapons. 
- Note: Mercenaries already receive such a bonus with all weapons; Agents 
already receive such a bonus with stealth attacks. 
- Fatigue has been lowered for general attacks, but will be raised for some 
special use attacks in the future. 
- Flying Kick and Jump Kick will now properly work outside of pole range when 
a Meditate Light is in effect. 
- Double Slash and Pummel are now much more effective and much more tiring. 
- The chance a stun or knockdown will occur are now lower. 

[05.06.05] 
- The role skills play in chance to attack/defend was slightly increased. 
- The role level plays in chance to attack/defend was greatly increased, 
especially for defense. 
- Due to a previous oversight, defense was in general a bit more difficult for 
even-level or slightly lower level fights than intended. This has been 
corrected. 
- An error that reduced attack ability inadvertently has been corrected. 

[05.08.05] 
- High level players hunting high level creatures will now be able to do so 
more reliably. 
- Spell and psionic attacks that use normal hit/miss mechanics (lightning 
bolt, spirit slash, etc.) will now strike more reliably. These attacks will 
properly consider level, as well as other factors common to hit/miss attacks 
such as encumbrance, fatigue and so on. The actual weighting of each issue 
varies. For instance, being undertrained in armor affects magic users more 
then those using conventional weapon/unarmed attacks. Likewise, a magic user's 
position (prone, sitting, etc.) is less of an issue. 
- Both magic and psionic attacks now use coordination as the primary stat for 
striking, and perception as the secondary. Intellect still augments spell 
damage and mentality still augments psi damage. 
- An error that could allow attackers or defenders who fumble an attack or 
defense to still succeed was fixed. 
- An error that could allow an attacker to miss a stunned defender was fixed. 
- Elemental magic spells now may hit or miss their target in part rather than 
all 'parts' of a cast either hitting or missing. 
- Elemental magic spells will no longer miss a stunned defender. 
- Elemental magic spells now have a profession-based fumble to-hit roll and 
defenders can fumble defense against them. 
- Elemental magic spells will now apply level differences between attacker and 
defender to a greater extent. 
- Flame Wave, Lightning Bolt, and Disintegrate may now be shield blocked. 
- Use of shields with electrical resistance will now properly reduce or 
eliminate the chance of being struck by the Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning 
spells. 

[05.16.05] 
- It is now somewhat easier to strike a specific body part. 
- The level factor in attack and defense calculations has been slightly 
decreased. 
- The random factor in attack and defense calculations has been slightly 
increased. 

[05.17.05] 
- Adjustments were made which may balance low power and high power weapons 
more appropriately, especially lower power multi-shot weapons versus single 
shot weapons intended to have near-equal per-attack power. In other words, a 
gun that does 20 points of damage in one shot and a gun that should do two 
shots of 10 damage are more likely to follow this pattern now. Previously in 
some cases the single shot weapon might do 22 while multi-shot weapon did, 
say, 8-10. 
- An error that caused some ammunition to be grossly overpowered (in terms of 
damage dealt) was corrected. 
- An error that prevented the Awareness survival ability from providing its 
intended benefit to snapshot / low aim shot attacks has been corrected. 
- A large damage penalty has been added for failing to aim or not aiming long 
enough. The shorter one aims a fired weapon before shooting, the greater the 
penalty. The Awareness survival ability is able to mitigate some of this 
penalty for excessively short aim periods. 

[05.18.05] 
- Damage resistance levels were lowered for the following: eofaelsh paladin, 
chith mystic, chith oracle, fledgling kamohakun, Alteri skeleton, Jaddan 
skeleton, royal guard, elite royal guard, Z'dan royal sergeant, skittering 
tseritze. 
- The damage modifier based on level difference between attacker and defender 
has been greatly increased. 

[05.19.05] 
- Damage ratings, load times, firing roundtimes and ammo capacities were 
reviewed and altered for all fired weapons. 
- Firearm specific updates: Handguns generally have lower load times, more 
accuracy and are generally less powerful than rifle or shotgun type weapons. 
Shotguns require more frequent loading than handguns or rifles, but have more 
power. Rifles have very good power, generally high capacities but slightly 
higher load and fire roundtimes than handguns. 
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Author: Trevor Rage - 05/19/05 10:08 p.m.