Creatures
Combat
Injuries, Poison &
Disease
No Attack Status
Arenas
Creatures
Crasimoff's World is a dangerous place
with not only the animals of the natural (albeit fantasy) world, but also
the results of bizarre astoff experimentation and the demonic products
of the Dark Time. There are well over four hundred different types of beasts
to be found upon the world all of which have fully-detailed descriptions
and many with special tactics and special attacks. Presented here are just
two examples:
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| Not
only do these thankfully rare beasts fight with extremely vicious talons
and teeth, they can also employ their tails to great effect and have been
known to swallow characters whole. Most can breath forth jets of flame
though legends tell of some which can squirt acid and release poisonous
gases.
Greater Dragons are on the whole very intelligent but also rather vain, cruel and savage. Some are believed to worship specific gods and act as their servants with certain scholars claiming that Emperor Crasimoff had his own Royal Dragon over which he had full control through a special artifact. |
|
Combat
Initiating Combat
Initiative
& Surprise
Tracking
Formation
Combat
Options
Withdrawing
from Combat
Combat
Experience
As you would expect in a fantasy environment, combat can be frequent and deadly. You can order your party to attack other players' parties as well as computer-controlled monsters and characters. By the same token though, monsters may well attack your party without provocation or warning.
While combat is dangerous, your characters will generally look out for themselves. This self-preservation prevents your characters from staying till the bitter end when victory is nowhere in sight. Further, your party may even avoid a fight altogether if it offers nothing but death.
Often weaker, common monsters venture near settlements such as towns and cities. These can prove an excellent way of learning more about combat not to mention a lucrative source of gold and treasure.
Obviously buying weapons and armour will greatly enhance your characters' survival rate although it is best to avoid heavy, encumbering armour for those that are not in too much danger.
Initiating Combat
There are two common ways to start a fight.
You can issue an ENGAGE order that will cause your party to attack the monsters or other player's party as soon as you come into contact with them. This order will remain in place until either your party meets the target, or you issue a new ENGAGE order or the turn ends.
If your party is in the same location as your target when you issue the order, your party will attack immediately. Multiple ENGAGE orders can be used in an attempt to finish off any monsters that fled, though this will not work against other players' parties. Alternatively, issue a new ENGAGE order for another target and move to fight it.
Within settlements, laws prohibit the use of weapons and spells. While this does not prevent fights, it means that generally a brawl at the local tavern is the only alternative. These skirmishes can be fought against other players' parties using the ENGAGE order. Typically, they are relatively harmless and can even be a lot of fun.
ENGAGE
E (target) - For example:
E 2123 tells your party to attack on sight monster group 2123.
The second common way a fight will start is due to your party's attitude. You can set how you would like your party to behave towards other monsters and players. The choices are friendly which is option 1, neutral which is option 2 or hostile which is option 3. This overall attitude uses 0 as the target.
You can set up to a further eight attitudes towards specific targets. These can be a monster class (i.e. all mirauko) or a monster group (i.e. mirauko group 3451) or another player's party.
In addition to your eight specific attitudes you can set your reaction towards all monsters by using code 180. To cancel an independent attitude, use 0 as the attitude code. Where two or more attitudes clash, the most specific attitude is used.
ATTITUDE
A (target/0/180) (attitude)
For
example: A 180 3 would set an attitude of hostile towards all monsters.
Initiative
& Surprise
If one side or the other
reacts before the other, they will gain a few vital seconds. This of course
gives them a slight edge. One way to help avoid getting surprised is to
keep a special watch out for a possible enemy using the KEEP EYES OPEN
order.
KEEP EYES OPEN
K (target) For example:
K 819 tells your party to be alert for any monster types 819.
Tracking
Monsters are computer controlled
and have a degree of intelligence. They do not sit about waiting to become
a player's next meal but have their own agenda. If you see a monster on
your map and wish to attack them the following turn, they may have moved
a few sectors before you get there. In case this has happened, it is often
a good idea to move to their last location and then issue a TRACK order
followed by one or more ENGAGE orders.
TRACK
T (target) For example:
T 3840 tells your party to follow the trail of monster group 3849.
Formation
The order your characters
are listed on your turn report is the order they are considered to be travelling.
Hence, character one is at the front of your party, followed by character
two, then character three and so on. When in combat, the characters at
the front of a party are the easiest to get to so they tend to be targeted
by the enemy first. Hence, it is a good idea to have the characters you
would prefer to be most protected towards the rear of your group.
SWAP CHARACTER POSITIONS
SC (character) (character)
For
example: SC 6 2 will have character 6 move to the second position in your
party. If a character was already in slot 2, he would swap places with
character 6.
Combat
Options
As the computer deals with
combat, all the actions that your characters will attempt during combat
must be specified beforehand. At this time though, the only one of concern
is whether your characters will prefer to use melee weapons (option 0)
or missile weapons (option 1) at the start of combat.
Missile weapons can obviously be used long before the enemy is close enough for hand-to-hand fighting, but are generally slower. Further, they cannot be used once an enemy has engaged the character in melee, thus valuable time will be lost drawing a melee weapon.
Choosing melee for a character will mean that the character will never use a missile weapon instead, charging at the enemy. Your character's preferred choice of weapon will be 'starred' on the party statistics table. Note, at the start of combat, mages and priests will try to cast any suitable spells rather than use weapons, see Order of Spell Casting and Automatic Spell Conditions in the Orders Section.
COMBAT PREFERENCE
CP (character/95-99) (0/1)
For
example: CP 96 1 will set all your party's thieves to use missile weapons.
Withdrawing
from Combat
Once a fight has started,
it will continue until one side has either been eliminated or retreats
from the battle. In the case of player owned parties, these will never
fight until all characters are wiped out although several deaths are quite
possible. What a monster will do depends on what type it is, some are cowardly
and will run away as soon as they see you, others will fight to the death.
You can set the amount of losses you are willing to take using the FLEE order. This is a very rough guide as to how much damage your guys will take before trying to retreat from a battle. It is used for both individual characters and for the party as a whole. This is because in a battle which is not going well, it is likely that one or two characters will become badly injured and these will retreat before the rest of the party in an effort to stay alive. The remaining characters will continue to fight until either they are injured, the party as a whole retreats, or of course, you win.
Different character classes and race types affect retreat, as do some spells. Plus, once a character starts withdrawing, he can still be targeted until he has got away completely. However, as he withdraws, he will parry with any attackers so there is less chance of further injuries.
If you try to pick a fight with a monster or another player that is far tougher than you, your characters will refuse to take part in a suicidal attack.
FLEE
F (1-100) For example:
F 20 orders your party to retreat once they have taken losses of twenty
percent or more.
Combat
Experience
All character taking part
in combat will gain experience points. These, along with some gold, can
be exchanged for skill increases at training shops found in most towns.
Additionally, all characters have a chance of an improvement in weapon
skills, even if on the losing side.
It is also possible to gain a very basic skill with a weapon by self-training. This is done by using the same character as both the learner and trainer. To gain a faster and higher level of experience but without going to a professional trainer, other members of your party who have some understanding of the weapon, can give basic instruction. This costs 100 experience points.
Weapons practise can only be done on a single character basis. You cannot use options 95-99 to have many members of your party practise together.
USE WEAPON PRACTISE
U (character) (weapon) (trainer)
For
example: U 5 110 3 tells character 3 to train character 5 in the use of
maces.
Injuries, Poison
and Disease
Combat is a dangerous business. When a
character is injured, their health will drop. If it ever reaches zero,
they are considered dead. The health value in brackets ( ) shows the characters
top ‘normal' health and the other figure shows the current health. Most
injuries will heal naturally or can be cured using priest or mage spells.
If your results indicate that a character is poisoned or diseased normal
cures may not be work.
If one of your characters dies, the rest of your group will, if possible, salvage all equipment and gold, and carry the body with them to either give the deceased a decent burial or find a way of resurrecting the character.
The longer a character remains dead, the more the body decays continually losing statistics and knowledge. Eventually, a body will get in such a poor state that resurrection is no longer possible. K'norian temples will resurrect beginning characters for free, for experienced groups, a fee is demanded as tribute.
No Attack Status
It is possible to avoid combat will all
other player-controlled parties by using the No Attack [NA] order. While
it is switched on, other parties will not be able to use the Engage and
Steal orders or cast offensive spells against you, nor will you be able
to do it against them. Attacks on or by monsters and NPCs are unaffected.
All new parties begin with the NA option switched on. This allows you to get used to the game and gain a little experience before having to worry about other, older parties attacking you. When you are ready, you can turn the option off by issuing an NA order.
Arenas
Arenas are an exciting place
to learn much about combat. It gives you the chance to pit your party against
another player's party in a duel. The difference between arena combat and
normal combat is that the effects only apply for the duration of the combat.
Once the fight is over, Arena priests use their curative powers to make
sure the two sides are restored to how they were prior to the combat.
To have a fight in an arena, you need to issue the VISIT ARENA order, challenging another player's party. This order can only be issued in a city or town. The player controlling the other party will be notified of your party's desire for a duel. If they accept the challenge, next time they are in a city or town, they should issue their own VISIT ARENA order, this time against your party. The duel will then occur immediately, irrespective of where the first party is currently located.
If your challenge is not accepted, you can issue another order against a different party. This will cancel your original challenge so you should wait a couple of turns before doing this. Only one VISIT ARENA order is allowed per turn. A target 0 will cancel the prospective duel and select no new target, this is a special case and can be used anywhere.
VISIT ARENA
VA (target party/0) For
example: VA 1230 will request a duel with party 1230.