WARNING:
English is not my native language so you may experience some pain while reading this post.
•What is fighting techniques
It's movement of body parts like arms, legs and other stuff in relation to each other in such a way as to ensure maximum force delivered to the least defended part of the enemy body. Any movement in combat can be called a technique but only some of them can be described as effective.
Each move/technique can be described in 3 steps:
1. Preparation step: storing energy in body and maneuvering to enter effective attack range
2. Execution step: launching actual attack and delivering punishment
3. Recovery step: recovering from attack, regaining footing and assuming basic/new stance
Or in more free form: You step closer to the opponent bend you legs, turn torso and then deliver a punch/slash with a sword to the face while you other body parts simultaneously move to add their own force to the attack.
So if you turned torso to the right you now can use stored force to empower your punch or kick if they would be delivered with the limbs on right part of your body. On the other hand your attacks with the limbs on the left side you your body would be weakened.
•Defense in relation to the technique steps
1. Preparation step: Opponent observes your movements and can guess by your movements which attack you will likely execute and prepare accordingly. Also he can simply step out of your attack range especially if his limbs/weapons are longer than yours.
2. Execution step: Now that your opponent must stop your actual attack he can parry, block or dodge it. Parry will take only partial force of the attack dissipating and redirecting most of it. Block is an unsuccessful parry or a defense with specifically designated for this equipment which is designed to take full force of attacks. Dodge is a move that intends to bring target out of the attack trajectory but most successful dodges will be started at the Preparation step as a part of stepping out of attack range because limbs in most cases move much faster than whole body.
3. Recovery step: Your opponent no longer needs to defend and can launch his own attack while you are trying to regain balance and move all your limbs to places designated in your chosen stance.
•How it is related to Dwarf Fortress
In DF we have Strength, Agility, Mass, Length of the limbs and various skills to determine speed, force and other relative effects of the attacks this means that it is possible to integrate real life stuff in the game without much hassle (some things are already used in the attack calculations).
Lets make it in the same steps.
1. Preparation step
1.1 Storing energy
Limbs: Can be bend or moved to the side in preparation to attack and it can be simplified as movements in straight lines and arcs. So we can take up to half of the limb length as energy storage and up to 90 degrees arc getting in return Energy = (Strength of the creature's limb) * (Length taken to store energy). Limbs like tentacles or similar can have ability to store much more of their length for the attack.
Limbs which support body like legs can be used to store energy even for attacks made with any other limbs so you can bend your legs and get additional force for attacks with any other part of the creature.
Torso: Torso too can be bend or it can be turned to the side and both this movements too can be simplified like movements in straight lines and arcs. Bend torso will give it's energy only on attacks made in straight lines and turned body will give it's energy only on attacks with the limbs located on the side to which it was turned and reduce the force of attacks made from the other side.
If creatures turns body to the right it now has a bonus to the force of attacks with right arm or leg and penalty to attacks with left arm or leg.
1.2 Repercussions of storing energy
It takes time and makes your intent for attack obvious. The more time your take to prepare for the attack the more chances your opponent has to spot it and defend accordingly.
For competent combatant preparation for the attack takes as much time as longest of the moves and those who are not skilled really struggle to make their preparations go unspotted.
The second problem is that while legs are bend too much you have harder time dodging attacks and turning you torso exposes other side to attacks of your opponent. On the other hand you can wear more armor on the exposed side.
2. Execution step
2.1 Launching attack
Now your chose with which of your limbs you are attacking or maybe even making a body slam and chose how this attack will be made - straight line or arc.
Straight attacks: Faster due to shorter trajectory but can be relatively easily pushed to the side if spotted at the right time and have less energy.
Arc attacks: Need more time but have more energy, much harder to dodge but due to long launch time blocking or even parrying them is easier (parry till needs to remove enough force from the attack)
Total time of the attack is equal to the time of the longest move included in it counting also all the moves that were used to store energy.
2.2 Defending against attack
Dodge: You need to move attacked body part a distance more than highest of the dimensions of the weapon part used to deliver attack plus body part radius. That means that it is easier to dodge piercing attacks aimed to the limbs or head but slashing attacks with swords or the like are always hard.
Attacks spotted on the preparation stage are much easier to dodge due to much more time for movement.
Parry: Works in the same way as attacks to a certain extent. It is a straight line or arc attack against the enemy weapon that aims to reduce it's power and push to the side. Time of the attack becomes also a time of parry and we can see how much opponent can reduce the force of the incoming attack, how far he can push it and is it enough to stop the attack or make it miss.
Block: Blocking works the best against slashing attacks cause they are easier to catch with the shield.
3. Recovery step
Now you need to move all your body parts in their places and while you do it you also can't defend with the limb used for the attack.
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Topic: Fighting Techniques and related stuff (Read 990 times)