Responses:
Grid system:
I like the idea of making this so that multi-tiled creatures aren't necessary... for now. This system does have its limits. For example, say a dragon is three times as long as a dwarf with, say, a spear, can reach. If the dwarf comes up beside the dragon, what section does the dwarf see? Moreover, if you attack the dragon's front, you might still get an option to attack the tail, which would be unrealistic.
Also, good point about the titan's attack grid. I wouldn't have thought of that.
Hilt bashing:
Hilt bashing with different weapons would be exactly the same, given that they are held far away from the pointy end of the weapon. Even a creature with hands on two parts of the hilt could reasonably perform this maneuver. However, there should be a range restriction going on. Something like you can only bash with the hilt if you are (furthest grasping hand's point on the weapon)/(number of dwarven feet per tile)->(integer--fractions always are rounded up to 1) tiles away. So if I have a hand on my weapon's 2 and my weapon's 4, and it's 4 dwarven feet per tile, I can hilt bash if my step forward gets me 2/4=1/2->1 tile away. (dunno if we should count diagonal tiles as being one away, probably not, I think.)
Varying weapons:
I believe there are very prominent groups in England looking at the English long staff, as well as Phillipino martial artists who devote most of their lives to a slightly longer staff, and, of course, the Chinese studies of the staff, in varied lengths. It would be good to seek out people from all these martial arts, find out what the component movements are of these martial arts, and see if we can code them in. With quarterstaves coded in, we could add support for most of the pole arms, if we can add some logic dealing with the pointy/slashy bits. Sadly, I haven't studied these MAs.
Axes and hammers are two of my favorite weapons--specifically, two handed axes. I haven't been able to practice with an Axe for a while for lack of equipment, but here are some things I learned from experience, and have no idea how to code in:
* The space between your hands is a good place to block--as you do so, you're already moving into a strike.
* Let your foreward hand slide down the shaft of the axe when you strike, and it'll be harder, further away, and you'll be less exposed.
* Put a spike on the head of the axe, so if you have to block low, you can still get some sort of strike in.
* If someone attacks your knees or below, you can drop to a crouch to block (which sometimes fails spectacularly) or move out of range of the blow. Other methods involve breaking your stance, and leave you open for attacks from everywhere else.
* Bearding breaks shields, stances. (Or: your axe's blade has a hook built in. Use it.)
Basically, most of axework depends on changing your grip points and managing the space between your hands. I imagine two-handed hammers being much the same.
A single handed axe can really be treated like a sword, at this point in time, but perhaps with an option to "hook shield," where you hook a shield with the bearding of your axe, and, until binding with shields comes into play, pull it away from your weapon side. Eventually, if more complex binding could become available, the axe could be used in a much more hook-ish way.
On a related note, are there any texts dealing with the axe? I've not been able to find any.
Two handed worries:
Something that's bothering me about this is the inability of a two-handed weapon to bind or block two things at once, or to block and attack in the same motion, which is really essential when fighting someone with two weapons or a weapon and shield. Perhaps these could be handled like so-- the two hander can change his bind points on both weapons by the same amount, can change one of the opponent's weapon's bind points, or can reverse his weapon around the nearer bind point.
Styles:
So far, I've tried to limit myself to the parts of the Medieval Fechtbuecher that are universal. I've probably failed in some aspect, but here are the defining characteristics in fighting arts that I see.
Medieval European (Liechtenauer)-- Timing and range are most important here, and most blows land or do not land by matters of seconds or inches. Also important are blocks that attack at the same time, the concept of in-fighting, weapon captures, and stepping off-line.
Phillipino stick fighting (Warning: Not a practitioner.): Constant. Motion. Every stance is a moving stance, and there is no such thing as binding. Triangle footwork is also important.
Japanese Sword Arts (Warning: Not a practitioner.): Much like Medieval European texts, setting aside the blade and moving immediately to an attack is key. Also key is the razor-sharp edge--instead of infighting and blade captures, the opponent who is able to more quickly put his edge on the other seems to win.
I have no clue about Russian weapons arts, Japanese arts dealing with non-sword fighting, or any other martial arts. Feel free to correct any of these styles.
I think that a specific region should be generated with a certain style, and that they train everyone in this style to begin with. Fighting against opponents with a certain style should raise your skill in that style. (But not as quickly as practicing that skill, and with a skill cap.) An adventurous or curious entity could attempt to practice that style. If a military dwarf with enough skill in many different styles gets a strange mood, that could allow him to try to "generate" a new style by combining elements of both styles.
Dealing with non-humanoids (possible solution):
So far, I've been talking about styles that would only deal with humanoids. This is because we know most about them--centaurs, not so much. If we can somehow implement enough features that we can check that all of these styles work in the game, and the game can create generative styles, we could then expand these styles to centaurs and dragons and what-have-you. As a note, I think only sentient creatures should be able to have more than one style.
This is getting away from coding issues, I know. I'm just putting out what needs to be done to accurately represent what I know about weapons fighting.
Heph, you come from Germany, right? What's that word you're trying to translate? Usually, I just say the Liechtenauer school, and that encompasses most of the fight schools from Germany.
[Edit: made more readable.]
Author
Topic: Armed Combat Overhaul thread. (Read 18747 times)