General Combat (Game Mechanics)

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Game Mechanics - Mechanics Category

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Combat Flag

Fighting creatures, bandits, other players, or anyone that you consider an enemy is an integral part of adventuring. Players are considered to be in-combat so long as they are continually attacking a target or being attacked by an npc, player or creature, or if an npc/creature has activated aggression (in pursuit) towards the player. Players become disengaged from combat if the player has initiated the Peace command and the following conditions have met:

  • 1. Npc/creature ceases its pursuit
  • 2. Npc/creature stops attacking player.
  • 3. Enemy player ceases attacking the player.
  • 4. Player ceases attacking an enemy target (uses peace or changes targets).


Several examples will illustrate this.

Example 1.

Player attacks an npc then runs to escape from it. The player initiates the /peace command and stops attacking back. The npc remains in pursuit for a while longer and then halts the chase and returns back. The player is now out of combat.


Example 2.

Player attacks another player. The defending player doesn't respond back. The attacking player now initiates peace. Both players are now out of combat.

HAM Bars

Players, Npcs and Creatures have three bars representing their Health, Action, and Mind pool. When you target something, its name and HAM bar will appear in your heads up display, as well as over the target's head. Red represents the Health pool, green represents the Action pool, and blue represents the Mind pool. When you deal damage to a target through combat, you will notice that its Health, Action, and Mind pools deplete, based upon the amount and type of damage dealt. This can be seen in the HAM bar by a shortening of the colored bar that represents the pool that was depleted. When any one of the three pools is completely depleted, the remainder of the colored bar will disappear and the target will die if it as npc or creature or become incapacitated if is a player.

Damage received by and done to targets is displayed in flytext over the character/npc's head. The damage hit location is also displayed. Both the hit location and damage amount done are color coded to display the ham bar(s) that were affected by the attacks.


Targeting

SWG uses a system for targeting opponents that utilizes two features, a Look At target and a Target In Reticle. You can switch look at targets with the mouse or use the TAB key. The target in reticle remains the target in which the player is actively engaging/attacking or being attacked by. Until you /attack or /combatAttack the look at target you will not switch 'combat' targets.


If you have something else in the look at target, and combat begins, you do not automatically switch to your opponent in reticle. Any specials or actions that are lined up in the Combat Queue are attempted against what you do have targeted in the look at target. If the current look at target is an inanimate object (like a harvester) or a corpse, then the client will not be able to execute these commands.

The easiest way to check to see if this is the case is to look at the upper right hand corner of your screen, where it lists what you have targeted. If it's not the opponent that's attacking you, clear your target by clicking on an empty piece of ground or by hitting escape. You can clear the combat queue with the mouse and clicking Clear on the combat queue pane or use Ctrl-Backspace. Finally you can issue the attack command via the radial menu with the mouse or from the keyboard (~1), or double click the new look target, or use the /attack or /combatAttack commands or icons. The next opponent that attacks you will become your new target or you can click on the opponent manually to make it the new lookat target. If he's a melee NPC, and is still running towards you, he wont become the target until after he has attacked).

In general, you want to 1) switch look targets, 2) clear your combat queue, and then 3) attack.


To cycle back to all previous targets (living or dead) the player must issue the SHIFT + CTRL + ; keys.

Special Attack Costs

Default or auto attacks require no HAM to use. Almost every special attack or ability in the game has a base value associated with it. This base value represents the HAM that will be deducted from the player whenever they use that ability. Weapons are also given base values which are found under the Special Attack Cost category on the item. When a special is used with a weapon, a multiplier for that particular special comes into play. The multiplier for that particular special is multiplied against the current Special Attack Cost values on the weapon, then the values are added to the base special HAM costs. The value that comes from this process is then passed on to be affected by the player's secondary stats for each HAM attribute. The final HAM cost to the player is the remainder from this process.




For example:

1. Unarmed Hit 2 has a base cost of 12/18/12.

2. Given an Strength/Quickness/Focus of 400/350/450, the HAM cost is reduced by 28.6% / 25% / 32%.

3. HAM cost for these stats is 9/14/8. That's 8.75 / 13.5 / 8.14 rounded.


I'll stress again that the formula isn't accounting for some fractional amounts, but will usually get within 1 point of actual ingame costs.


HAM cost formula where Base is the H, A or M base cost for the skill and Stat is the relevant SQF value:

Cost = Base * ( 1 - ( Stat / 1400 ) )


Well, now I suppose you want to know the Base values for all the skills. Try this where Cost is actual, ingame H, A or M cost and Stat is the relevant SQF value:

Base = Cost / ( 1 - ( Stat / 1400 ) )

For example, given ingame Health cost of 13 and Strength of 380:
Base = 13 / ( 1 - ( 380 / 1400 ) )
Base = 13 / ( 1 - 0.271428571 )
Base = 13 / .728571428
Base = 17.84313725
So Base Health Cost for the special is about 18.

Figuring the Base from existing Stat and Cost values means you are working with rounded numbers ( a cost of 9 may actually be 8.57 rounded up), so again, the results will not always be exact.

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