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 Post subject: Re: Aim
PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 1:58 pm 
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Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2002 4:00 pm
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Location: Redwood City, California
There is no jaw/mouth/throat body parts. If you aim upper you can hit the head or chest. All the damage descriptions to your jaw, etc, are just flavor text for the head location.


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 Post subject: Re: Aim
PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 3:23 pm 
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Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2008 1:22 pm
Posts: 1648
Thanks Dulrik. One more question though. I don't believe I've ever saw a kill-shot on the mouth/jaw/throat. If the blow being landed is a killing blow, will the text that is shown always be a hit in the head, or am I crazy and just not remembering/noticing those flavor texts on kill shots?


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 Post subject: Re: Aim
PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 4:22 pm 
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Joined: Fri Jul 09, 2004 8:43 am
Posts: 5614
Location: Columbia, South Carolina
SK Character: Pilnor, Surrit, Berr, Rall
It's probably just that death texts from a head shot don't include those messages.


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 Post subject: Re: Aim
PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 4:57 pm 
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Edoras wrote:
It's probably just that death texts from a head shot don't include those messages.

Precisely my calculated guess.


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 Post subject: Re: Aim
PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 3:14 pm 
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Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2005 3:18 pm
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grep wrote:
It's important to note that in SK, unlike many tabletop RPGs such as D&D, your character's "hitpoints" are not in fact one pool. The percentage in the prompt is an approximation that can and does mislead you if you interpret it incorrectly.

Looking at an injured NPC will reveal information about the status of various limbs. Head is scratch, chest is bleeding heavily, and so on. Each of these "body parts" has its own HP pool and consequences if that pool should fall too low. Each has different qualities, too.

For example, the hands and feet and other such extremities are not critical. You can lose them and stay alive. On the other hand, one's chest and head are important body parts. You do not want them mangled nor severed.

When you aim upper, you try to direct damage towards the head. This means that your damage can more quickly slay an opponent, but does not necessarily mean you are dealing "more" damage.

This is one of the paradoxes of levelling. You are rewarded for dealing damage, so consider whether or not you want to kill a NPC with minimal damage dealt? In situations where you can kill things very quickly, perhaps it does not matter, but the idea is good practice for thinking about PVP.

The hitpoint percentage in the prompt reveals the percentage level of the most-injured body part. This is why it can sometimes seem to take forever to drop someone, because you are in fact dropping them from 21% left arm 100% right foot to 21% left arm 20% right foot, for example. You'd only see a change of 1%, but more went on than that. This is also, in my opinion, one of the reasons why spell damage has such a hard time competing with highly accurate melee spam.

Many people don't seem to get this concept. Gilgon's Algon Guide, for example, glosses over accuracy as a mechanic and talks about damage in terms of "dps." It isn't a good idea to assume that SK works like whatever RPG or MMO you've seen before, because chances are there are features at play you may not even directly be aware of when it comes to SK mechanics.


Just to clarify - you clearly should not be giving advice in this section. No mention at all of total hp pool vs individual limbs, some of which lead to death when hp is brought to 0? Yawn.


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 Post subject: Re: Aim
PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 3:22 pm 
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Carsetius wrote:
So I am going to ask a really noob question, Aim? How does it work?

I am just going to write how I think that it works.

Aim - Upper - Highest chance for damage, but the trade off is that you have a lower percentage of change to hit.
Aim - Mid - Highest chance of likehood to hit, but medium damage. Also has a chance to cut off arms which would result in no xp gained after both arms are cut off?
Aim lower - The only think that I know about this is you can cut off legs which helps preventing from fleeing.


You have total hp and you have individual body part hp. Total hp is a big number, individual body part hp is a smaller number. Most individual body parts, when they are taken down to 0 hp, are severed - the items carried in them drop to the ground. You can no longer use certain skills (no more dirt kick or fleeing if your legs are off, for example). Three body parts lead to death when they hit 0 hp: head, chest, waist.

Aim upper: head, chest
Aim mid: chest, waist, left arm, right arm
Aim lower: waist, left leg, right leg

There are some mechanics associated with aiming besides the things above, but they are a bit hazy because we can't see code: reduced shield blocking of your enemies when you aim lower or reduced accuracy when you aim upper. Extremely few players will ever aim lower in pvp. There is some disagreement about whether upper or mid is better. The conventional wisdom among veterans is that because accuracy buffs are so easily available, aim upper is better, because the subtraction to accuracy isn't that scary.


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 Post subject: Re: Aim
PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 3:40 pm 
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Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:50 pm
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Gilgon wrote:
Just to clarify - you clearly should not be giving advice in this section. No mention at all of total hp pool vs individual limbs, some of which lead to death when hp is brought to 0? Yawn.


Any newbies reading this should note two things. First, beware people who try to defend their views and flame others, much as Gilgon is an example of doing both here and in his mistake-ridden guide thread. It's probably best to lurk a little and figure out who won't leave you alone if you offend them and then avoid them afterwards when you start posting. The foe feature is a good example of how to do this. Second, beware people who talk about any sort of "conventional wisdom" in terms of "best" options with limited alternative views and rhetorical evidence. As we can see in this thread, for example, many posters have noted that the head HP pool is a relatively small one and may result in death with less damage having to be inflicted. While discussing aim, Gilgon only cites the accuracy mechanic, and accuracy is something he probably should have given attention to in his guide thread instead. He also should probably not give me as much attention as he did. Other posters, such as Edoras, OA, and even Dulrik, demonstrate a good command of both silence and of motion.

Newbies interested in roleplay might also take note of the ways in which a reply can open or close opportunities for additional, relevant participation in a conversation. While some posts, such as my original reply, speak in broad strokes and make their main ideas clear, there are also other posts, such as the one Gilgon makes here, which have no natural response nor productive place in the greater conversation. In that sense, we could say that Gilgon isn't "participating" in the thread in a conversational sense. We could, in theory, think of him as a troll in this instance. His follow-up post is a good defense against such allegations, though, and does seem to join the conversation... albeit redundantly except for his Livy-like concessions to the conventional wisdom of veterans.

I suppose it might also be interesting to note that all the information about HP pools is not officially documented in the game. To make decisions in-game based on these pools is, regardless of how we're able to spin it, a good example of some of the necessitated metagame thinking for making mechanically sound choices with characters.


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 Post subject: Re: Aim
PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 3:58 pm 
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Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2005 3:18 pm
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I'm just like biggy smalls, you mention my name in random threads at your own risk. At least you had the courtesy to mention me in your own forum ;).


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 Post subject: Re: Aim
PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 7:07 pm 
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Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:50 pm
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You're like voldemort. :drunk:


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 Post subject: Re: Aim
PostPosted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:04 am 
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Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2008 1:22 pm
Posts: 1648
Or Beetlejuice


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