Overhaul Acrobatics

Estarra

Discuss the overhaul acrobatics skillset.

Moi

ab acrobatics
You have gained the following abilities in Acrobatics:
Dodging             Dodge the blows of your foes.
Limber              Limber your limbs to improve your body.
Balancing           Balance on the balls of your feet, like a cat.
Falling             Reduce the effects of falling through body control.
Elasticity          Muscles can be trained to reduce physical damage.
Adroitness          Move very quickly.
Climb               Climbing abilities can be performed quickly.
Handstand           While standing on your hands, you make a hard target.
Springup            Quickly spring to your feet from a prone position.
Sprint              Move quickly about the lands.
Somersault          Roll out of danger gracefully and quickly.
Handspring          Leap out of danger with the greatest of ease.
Contortion          Show them the real way to escape from being bound.
Forwardflip         A complicated move to knock someone over.
Avoid               Prepare yourself to deftly avoid the next blow.
Highjump            Amazing move to jump high into the skies.
Backflip            Hit your foe, and leave quickly.
Barrelroll          Intensely complex maneuver to move into other rooms.
Jumpkick            Leaping into a location gives the element of surprise.
Scissorflip         Amazing flip scissors legs in a kick to hit many targets.
Hyperventilate      Learn to master your breathing technique.
Tripleflash         Become so chaotic, you will be impossible to strike.
AirPike             A difficult spin to change direction in mid-air.
Hyperactive         Become like a speedy predator.
See AB ACROBATICS <ability> for more information on an ability.

ab acrobatics Dodging    
ACROBATICS - DODGING

Buff: Dodging, Level 2/max 5
Dodging is the ability to move out of the way of incoming attacks, this includes physical attacks and some magical attacks that are aimed at you. You will only be able to dodge those attacks which you can see coming, making this ability of limited use against psionic attacks, dreamweavers, and long-ranged attacks where your assailant is not near to you.

ab acrobatics Limber   
ACROBATICS - LIMBER

Syntax: LIMBER
Buff:   Body Buff, Level 1/max 3
By limbering your muscles and joints, you can increase the power of your body.

ACROBATICS - BALANCING

Syntax: BALANCING [ON/OFF]
Like a cat, you can balance yourself in such a manner that you stand a
chance to remain on your feet from those attacks which would knock you
over. On use there is a chance the balancing will stop.

ab acrobatics Falling   
ACROBATICS - FALLING

Syntax: FALLING
You can prepare yourself to brace yourself against falling. This means you will reduce damage and lessen the chance of breaking limbs. Your falling skill increases as your level in acrobatics increases.

ab acrobatics Elasticity  
ACROBATICS - ELASTICITY

Syntax: ELASTICITY
Buff:   Universal Damage Resistance, Level 1/Max 3
By stretching your muscles, you will take less damage from any injuries aimed at you.


ab acrobatics Adroitness  
ACROBATICS - ADROITNESS

Syntax: ADROITNESS
This skill will allow you to run very quickly indeed.

ab acrobatics Climb   
ACROBATICS - CLIMB

Syntax: CLIMB UP (to climb trees)
You can climb faster than most, including out of pits.

ab acrobatics Handstand   
ACROBATICS - HANDSTAND

Syntax: HANDSTAND
Power:  3 (any)
By standing on your hands, you can avoid most physical attacks from
blades, bludgeons and fists thrown against you. (It provides no
protection against magical or mystical means of assault.) However, there
is very little you can do while standing on your hands.

ab acrobatics Springup    
ACROBATICS - SPRINGUP

Syntax: SPRINGUP
You no longer need balance in order to stand. Rather, you can spring upright at any time.

ab acrobatics Sprint     
ACROBATICS - SPRINT

Syntax: SPRINT <direction>
Sprint quickly in a particular direction.


ab acrobatics Somersault    
ACROBATICS - SOMERSAULT

Syntax: SOMERSAULT <direction>
You can easily roll out of danger, quicker than a tumbler.

ab acrobatics Handspring     
ACROBATICS - HANDSPRING

Syntax: HANDSPRING <direction>
From a handstand position, you can spring over walls and other
obstructions with the greatest of ease. You may also handspring if you
are not in a handstand, but it will require a greater balance recovery.

ab acrobatics Contortion     
ACROBATICS - CONTORTION

Syntax: CONTORT
Through dislocating joints and other tricks, you can contort yourself out of all forms of entanglement.

ab acrobatics Forwardflip    
ACROBATICS - FORWARDFLIP

Syntax: FORWARDFLIP <target>
Flip forwards to knock your target to the ground and, if you're lucky,
break his bones.

ab acrobatics Avoid
ACROBATICS - AVOID

Syntax: AVOID
Avoid the next attack directed at you. You will not be able to perform
any aggressive actions or move while preparing your avoidance.

ab acrobatics Highjump   
ACROBATICS - HIGHJUMP

Syntax: HIGHJUMP <target>
Leap up into the air or trees and pull someone down, crashing him into the ground.

ab acrobatics Backflip   
ACROBATICS - BACKFLIP

Syntax: BACKFLIP <person> <direction>
This skill allows you to backflip agilely off of another person's body,
briefly stunning them and knocking them to the ground as you make your
grand exit.

ab acrobatics Barrelroll   
ACROBATICS - BARRELROLL

Syntax: BARRELROLL <direction>
Power:  2 (any)
If there is enough room, you can jump completely over a room and land on the other side.

ab acrobatics Jumpkick   
ACROBATICS - JUMPKICK

Syntax: JUMPKICK <target> <direction>
From an adjacent room, you can rush in and jump kick an opponent, knocking them down and stunning them.

ab acrobatics Scissorflip   
ACROBATICS - SCISSORFLIP

Syntax: SCISSORFLIP
Power:  5 (any)
You can kick out all your enemies from the room.

ab acrobatics Hyperventilate    
ACROBATICS - HYPERVENTILATE

Syntax: HYPERVENTILATE
Buff:   Asphyxiation Damage Resistance, Level 2/Max 4
Hyperventilating allows the acrobat to control his or her breathing, thus reducing damage from asphyxiation.

ab acrobatics Tripleflash    
ACROBATICS - TRIPLEFLASH

Syntax: TRIPLEFLASH
Power:  10 (any)

For a short period of time, your chance to dodge attacks will be vastly
increased. You will have an additional 50% chance to dodge any attack
(by either a denizen or player), compounded with your natural dodging
ability. As with regular dodging, denizen attacks will be reduced rather
than avoided entirely.

ab acrobatics AirPike     
ACROBATICS - AIRPIKE

Syntax: AIRPIKE <direction> <direction>
Power: 3 (Any)
A master acrobat can change directions in mid-air, controlling their
velocity and movement to a superior degree. This difficult task may be
aided by the ability to fly, in which case the power cost is lessened.

ab acrobatics Hyperactive  
ACROBATICS - HYPERACTIVE

Syntax: HYPERACTIVE

Power:  5 (any)

For a short period of time, you will be so fast and hyperactive that you
will be able to predict and avoid many effects that might happen when
you enter or leave a location.

You can fully bypass waylay, motion alarms, illusions, runes, ancestral
spirits, hexes, and reality shift.

You will occasionally be able to bypass blocking and traps.

Moi

General notes:
Forwardflip does not appear to be doing broken limbs right now.
Prone works as normal - it's a one-stage traditional style affliction.
Dodging is fully functional.

Estarra

Yeah, sorry,. none of the blunt damage afflictions are coded. There's notes to implement them into forwardflip once they're done.

Fully functional is a good thing?

Moi

Yes. Mostly I just wanted to note acrobatics dodging still exists and still lets you dodge things as expected in the new system.

Malayn

Can we replace dodging with universal damage mitigation during the swap overs?  

While thematically neat, people dont like the chance RNG can screw up their plans or prevent them from anything.

I personally dont like relying on dodging to be saving grace, because being prone will stop it anyway so acrobatics is extra squishy at those points.  We have nerfed dodging at least twice but not adjusted anything for the fact it was supposed to be how acrobatics users tank.

Chade

I'm of a similar opinion to Malarious here - changing dodging to damage mitigation would be my preferred way to go.

Moi

I'd be fine with that too.

Estarra

Well, I'd like to keep calling it dodging and have the rp mechanics of dodging. We could have it that upon a successful dodge, the results are damage reduction. What I don't like about that is that dodging would only work against attacks that do damage and not anything else which is more than a little nerf.

Anyway, we can let dodging have 5 levels, with each level reducing damage by 10% (i.e., 10% to 50% damage reduction). Innate acrobatics could start with dodging 2/5.

Lerad

I'd say go with the nerf. We can make up for the nerf by adding a little bit more elemental dmp here and there or something, but entirely negating a full attack is more than a little frustrating and can get unfair for the opponent.

Malayn

Agreed.

Dodging can still be "they dodge" the attack and reduces the damage. If it is % chance to dodge then make it a decent amount (20% is fine I imagine) especially as it will only fire on damage.  Maybe make it special in that it could reduce mana/ego damage too?

Moi

I think what Estarra is getting at is that dodging in the overhaul lets you avoid the whole attack, including afflictions, and a % damage reduction from dodging does not. Which is a big nerf to dodging. And there's no good way to handle a percent reduction to afflictions.

Malayn

That is why I am saying maybe make it also reduce mana/ego damage when it fires. Or if something deals more than 1 aff at a time, give it a chance to drop an aff (if it does multiple different affs), or if it deals multiple of a single aff (like princessfarewell does 2) have it drop to 1.  The new system provides lots of new options! 

Rivius

But in some ways that's more painful because you're spending power for certain affs or aff levels and now you get less than you paid for if the dodge goes through, whereas currently at least you'd keep the power.

Lerad

Just make dodging damage mitigation, and make up for the loss of aff dodging with additional dmp or some other effect. Affs don't need to be blocked by rng.

Steingrim

Estarra said:

Well, I'd like to keep calling it dodging and have the rp mechanics of dodging. We could have it that upon a successful dodge, the results are damage reduction. What I don't like about that is that dodging would only work against attacks that do damage and not anything else which is more than a little nerf.

Anyway, we can let dodging have 5 levels, with each level reducing damage by 10% (i.e., 10% to 50% damage reduction). Innate acrobatics could start with dodging 2/5.

It is only 'more than a little nerf' in the sense it was too much to begin with. Lots of skills are going to be nerfed more than a little. It really needs to go.

Hiriako

Dodging does need adjustment. I actually like the thought of it having a chance of weakening an incoming affliction, making a 2 weight into a 1, or the like. 

Estarra

Hiriako said:

Dodging does need adjustment. I actually like the thought of it having a chance of weakening an incoming affliction, making a 2 weight into a 1, or the like. 

Except that the majority of abilities only give 1 level--and surely you don't mean to drop those to 0!

Hiriako

No, and that's one thing that I've been thinking about. I haven't seen how the afflictions come in first-hand yet, and I'm seeking someone to help me with that right now. I don't think I'd want it to negate afflictions entirely, but having a chance of dropping a more potent attack into a weaker one? Perhaps. Let's see things running full speed first.

Llandros

More complicated solutions, with dodging levels you could have it progressively block the higher range affs or prevent them from being moved up one or more.

dodge level 1 10% damage reduction - no aff negation

dodge level 2 20% damage reduction - blocks new level 5 affs when triggered

dodge level 3 30% damage reduction - blocks new level 4 and 5 affs when triggered

dodge level 4 40% damage reduction - blocks new level 3, 4 and 5 affs when triggered

dodge level 5 50% damage reduction - blocks new level 2, 3, 4 and 5 affs when triggered

This would make dodge a chance for damage reduction and higher end aff negation but not a total waste when it is triggered.

It would water down dodge, but also could neuter power attacks and have them still cost power. :-?

Steingrim

@Llandros it just needs to not have any affliction dodging and all skills need to work towards combat balance, if people are hung up on the name if the skill change the name instead of breaking the game at the altar of arepee.

Llandros

@steingrim why?

With the new system you can have affliction mitigation/reduction just like you can scale down damage.

There are dozens of ways to block afflictions - sustained random protection, first hit protection, and full protection for a period of time. There are karma blessings, passives, teas, and active abilities and even constructs.

I just don't see how including scaling affliction severity reduction to go along with the scaling damage severity reduction is game breaking. 

If you are getting hung up with the new mechanics think of this as Lusternia 2.0. The combat system is very different. Blocking afflictions isn't preventing a particular affliction being given so much as slowing the build up in that tree. It's a progressive system that can be controlled and throttled just like damage attacks can be by making them health % based.

Moi

Alternative idea: Dodging gives 10% damage negation per level, plus access to the DODGE command. Using DODGE takes two seconds of balance and gives you two seconds of strong and non-random affliction resistance. Maybe something like @Llandros's suggestion, where it blocks afflictions when afflevel+dodgelevel>6