K`Hare totlh
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 The combat system
« on: Jan 14th, 2005, 1:13am »
The combat system has not changed from last year. I stole the following from my own post on the BF forums.
http://www.bravofleet.com/bfinfo/bfforums/viewtopic.php?p=98093
I didn't get this message up as soon as I expected, but it is here now. (:}
First I will try to explain the logic of what we changed and the goal, then a little about what we are doing this year, and then I will take questions and complaints. We will be asking participants about what they thought after the competition too.
So, consider the goal of the competition. It isn't so one person in bravofleet can say they won. Like all the simms, it is so everyone can have fun getting there character to interact with others. It is a chance to show off your writing, show off your character, and maybe give you a chance to have things happen that you would never have planned. For example, for anyone who was there last year, the bar conversations between K'Hare and Tauvits were totally unscripted and unplanned. I got a lot of kudos for those posts because they talked about how to lose with honor.
As much fun as last year was, probably the biggest issue was the actual combats. Everyone had an equal chance of winning. This would have been fine if everyone who went had been the champion from their BF ship, but there were highly experienced characters and young, fresh characters, and each had an equal chance of winning. Note I said characters, not players. One of the top four was a character who had never picked up a betleH before the competition. This made the results seem a little too random and was hard to explain in character.
So, this year we wanted to give a combat advantage to the more experienced characters, but still allow for upsets and surprise endings. Often, losing is much more dramatic and a better vehicle for writing than winning, so don't expect that every player will be there to win. Also, the reality of it (I learned from my ship at the time) is that it isn't necessarily the most combat experienced character on a ship that will want to attend.
If you have looked at the application this year is the combat skill section breaks up into two parts. The first is your own assessment of combat skill and the second is a set of modifier questions to raise or lower it. What this does is give more experienced or combat characters an advantage. But in character, they should have a better chance of winning a combat. It seems logical that being Klingon should give an advantage since its a Klingon weapon and a Klingon fighting style, but really, the advantage comes from willingness to kill and experience. A federation security officer who has seen combat and has an interest in Klingon culture and weapons will do as well or better than most Klingon characters. The questions about serving on a Klingon ship and knowing the language are supposed to give bonuses because knowing these experiences help understand the way the weapon is used.
The second part of combat is the honor system. Again, last year this was totally random. This year you will choose it yourself. Before each match you will be able to read the bio of your opponent. Then, before combat begins you email me your stance in the fight. Will you fight honorably (lowers your skill score) or fight dirty (raises your skill score). This could help even the difference in skill. And over time, the crowd will learn how you fight. Your accumulated honor will be saved up and the character who gained the most honor, in this way, will get the honor trophy. The judges may also award extra honor points based on what was posted for a match.
So, if there are any specific questions about the combat system I will try to answer them. The basic system is that your answers will determine your skill with the weapon. The honor/dirty modifier will be added in to each player. Then a six sided die roll will be added to each score and the highest number wins the match. The players will be told the outcome and then they have some time to post the match.
The obvious first question will be what keeps someone from just picking a high skill score. Well... hopefully honor. I hope everyone answers the other questions after thinking about their character's history. (How many starfleet officers have killed an opponent with an edged weapon?) For the next few days I will be looking at the applications as they come in and the three judges will look at the over all skill scores before the numbers are made public. This review could mean we remove some of the modifiers (we might get 30 players of skill 2 and 30 with skill 12... that would mean to many modifiers) or it could make a few character's scores stand out because they are inconsistently too high or low. If we find that, we will contact the characters in question before scores are posted. This review is just to make sure characters with similar backgrounds get scores around the same area.
The judges will try to be fair and unbiased of course. If you can't trust us to do that you should reconsider participation. Where possible I will try to summarize the data and show it two the other two judges blind of identities but that may not always be possible.
So, what questions do you have? It might seem complex but the actual running of it wont be so bad. Before each match, each player sends in how he will fight. The judges roll and email both parties the result. The players then write and post the action of that match in the next day or two. Then on the deadline, all the results are posted by the judges and the next round begins.
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The combat system (Read 1088 times)
