After years of suggestions and player commentary, the game administration has constructed a new combat system that is more fair and also fits Cantr's slow-paced nature. This system was adopted with overwhelming consensus, and we're posting here for a preview period to allow us to address your comments and concerns. It's not really easy to explain, so I'll post the major highlights below, and will let the discussion flesh out the rest.
-Attacking another character will now generate a combat state between those two characters. Upon initiation of the attack, an event is generated, tiredness is applied, but damage is not assessed until either a) the player of the attacked characters logs in and resolves the attack or b) a period of time passes (one day for logged out players, much less for players that are logged in to prevent stalling). Resolving the attack just means that the player of the attacked character clicks a button to finish the attack. We were discussing things like partial defending upon attack resolution, etc., but felt these were over-complications (for now). This doesn't mean that we won't add features in the future.
Developer's note: This guarantees that active characters can never be hurt/killed while off-line (providing you log in once per day), allowing for role-play and the elimination of nasty surprise death notices. It also guarantees that your attacker will be present when you resolve the attack, eliminating hit and hide attacks.
-The combat state is resolved when either the defender resolves it or the attacker cancels it. Canceling the combat state will not regain lost energy, nor will it erase the initial event message. Neither the attacker nor defender can move while in the combat state. Both can speak, consume food, advance projects that they were working on before the initiation of combat, and write and (possibly) pass notes. Other limitations on what a character can/can't do while in the combat state are still being discussed.
Developer's note: Most likely, dragging will have to be disallowed during the combat state. If it were allowed, attacks could be canceled by dragging off the attackers, and then combat would shift even more towards dragging. What we want to avoid is having leaders under massive attack pass off all their possessions to other characters. Attackers should still be able to use surprise as an advantage, and have a fair chance at obtaining the dropped possessions of the deceased. We are currently discussing how to do this in a fair way.
-Attacks will no longer be limited to one per day, although tiredness from each attack will be increased.
Developer's note: This allows the resolution of combat between characters that are awake at the time. We can now have proper duels, contests, epic battles, (and I guess suicides) etc.
-Attacks are resolved at the state the attacker was in at the time the attack was made. Dead characters will enter a near-death state where only talking is possible. When death actually will be finalized is still under discussion.
-Implementation of stomach capacity to prevent unlimited healing/energy regeneration.
-Road combat will be a state of suspended motion. When attacks are resolved, on the next travel tick, vehicles will be put where they should have been had they not been stopped.
Possible Future Additions:
-Guarding another character
-Agility skill that would would increase odds of not being hit
-Integration of dragging into the new system, as opposed to being explicitly excluded
-Division of weapons into ranged and melee categories, further diversification based on skill
(LD/Liaison Officers, please translate this when you can and start a new topic on it in your language forum. Please post the link to that thread here. Thanks!)
Spanish Thread: viewtopic.php?p=437451#p437451
