Barricading Buildings

[SekoETC]

Might as well implement some way of automatically hitting a person coming out of a certain building with a reduced chance of success, since I'm guessing blockade situations might encourage people to use macros if the person coming out always has the advantage, so it would be better to either allow automatic retaliation or make coming out of a blocked building to take more than a second and include some noise effect, just like docking was given a two-ticks-in-advance warning to make things fairer for the defenders. If there's been one case of using macros detected then most likely there'll be more if the system isn't fixed somehow.

For example, people could physically lean on a door to keep it closed even if the room wasn't blocked with excess weight, and other people trying to enter would cause tiredness to both parties. The people holding the door closed couldn't go use a cot so they would recover more slowly and couldn't keep it up forever, but it would offer people a way to defend themselves without locks for a limited period of time. Although that wouldn't yet address the current blocking issue.

[trojo]

Maybe they should just make it so that dead bodies don't count at all towards either the weight limit or people limit of buildings and vehicles. That would be a relatively simple way to solve many corpse-related issues. It's not "realistic" perhaps, but cadavers have no intrinsic value, so there'd be no reason to pile fifty corpses in a motorcycle even if you could do it.

Characters should be able to barricade themselves inside dwellings.
Characters should not be able to exploit barricades as weapons.
Characters should be able to disassemble buildings.

So, that's my new position on the matter. Now, what do we do about it?

Maybe barricading, building disassembly, and building decay could all be more or less made to work this way: buildings should of course decay over time (I believe this is already planned anyway), and once a building reaches the "crumbling" stage it should be enterable regardless of any locks or door-barricades (since you can just go in through one of the numerous holes in the wall). Also, players outside or inside could start projects to speed up the decay process, aided by tools such as battering rams, sledgehammers or axes. "Barricading" should be a project as mentioned and not just filling the building with corpses or sand.

There should of course be orders-of-magnitude difference in the time it takes to tear up a building enough to enter or leave it, depending on what the building is made out of. A player locked in a mud hut jail could conceivably dig their way out even with their bare hands given enough time. Similarly, a criminal player barricaded in a grass hut ought to be easy to deal with-- just knock a hole in the wall with a stone axe and drag them out. On the other hand, a stone or brick building would be all but impervious to anything short of a vehicle-mounted wrecking ball.

[Doug R.]

Might as well implement some way of automatically hitting a person coming out of a certain building with a reduced chance of success,... just like docking was given a two-ticks-in-advance warning to make things fairer for the defenders. If there's been one case of using macros detected then most likely there'll be more if the system isn't fixed somehow.

This makes sense in some ways. My only concern is that it's introducing combat automation. Two turns advance warning isn't automation, and it can be defeated by getting close enough before docking so the message never appears. Instead of getting on the slippery slope of combat automation, let's think of something else.

The currrent ideas are centered around a barricade/defeat barricade scheme. If the character leaves the barricade to exit the building, then those trying to break in will do so. Isn't that enough? (Although, if they barricade an open door that has a lock, they could exit the building, allow the attackers to fly in the open door, walk back in, and then lock them in. Good fun. Obviously we need to think about this a lot before we implement anything).

Edit: I guess the scenario I cite above won't work, as the way the game works doesn't allow for influences outside the project to influence the project. For example, if my character can drag a pile at 99%, and then takes some off the pile, it's still at 99%. So I guess the character leaving the barricade and exiting won't affect any break barricade projects on the outside. Is there any way to change that?

[Idriveayugo]

Yes, it is highly frustrating and annoying, but it can be RPed...believe me, a whole people were displaced because of this at one time.

I wonder why that happened?

[Saalko]

Could I ask how's the progress is? Here are some suggestions in the thread. Are they rejected? Or are still in discussion?