Strike Feet

Atalkez

Greetings!

I come to you with an idea to change the above mentioned strike, not in any major way, just in a more realistic way.

Currently, when I strike feet I recieve the following message:

With preternatural grace, you dart to the side of <player>mount. Grabbing her ankle from the 

stirrup, you execute a precise twist, sending her tumbling from the saddle.

You feel the subtle power of Shindo flowing within you.

Now - my next input, of course, is to impale which I recieve the following message:

You thrust your blade towards <player>but she dodges easily out of the way.

Now I ask you - how can I send a person tumbling out of a saddle usually at least 2-4 feet off the ground...and them not be prone afterwards?

It doesn't make realistic sense for me to have to prone a person that essentially just fell headlong to the ground.

So, essentially, I am asking if it is possible to change the results of Strike Feet to a prone position versus a standing position.

Comments?

Nemutaur

As long as you let me axekick any race that is shorter than a Xoran because they are shorter than me and my kick should reach their head I'm all for this suggestion. Lets keep it real here.

Sylvance

Atalkez said:

It doesn't make realistic sense 

This line is the kiss of death to any opening post about a skill change.

ETA: And these thrice-damned forum quotes are the kiss of death to my sanity.

Atalkez

Hey just a question/suggestion is all! I'm just saying in the form of mechanics, you would be prone.

If it is this way for any particular reasons (which I am sure it is) then that is fine, I was merely bringing it up!

Iocun

Yeah.

Arguments for realism aren't invalid per se. As long as it doesn't harm game mechanics, I'm all for more realism, as it allows for more immersion. But we're talking about something with severe combat implications here, and combat balance simply needs to take precedence in this case. It isn't crazily unrealistic enough to call for such an important change.

As for why it currently is like this: mounts are supposed to provide some level of defence. Originally, blademasters didn't even have feet strike at all to deal with this. Now they do, so they can deal with mounted opponents reasonably well, but the mount still adds another step in the proning process and thus fulfills its function in providing some benefit against blademasters.

Plus, I can imagine falling off a saddle and not ending up sprawled on the floor. Most Achaeans tend to be able of much more acrobatic manoeuvres than that. If you are a seasoned fighter who has been pulled from his mount so many times and knows how deadly it can be to become prone, I'm sure he will have practiced some fancy falling techniques.

Nemutaur

Atalkez said:

Hey just a question/suggestion is all! I'm just saying in the form of mechanics, you would be prone.

If it is this way for any particular reasons (which I am sure it is) then that is fine, I was merely bringing it up!

You can already prevent people from remounting with hamstring. So smart money is that's the reason why strike feet doesn't prone in the first place.

Blujixapug

Atalkez said:

It doesn't make realistic sense for me to have to prone a person that essentially just fell headlong to the ground.

They landed on their feet. Boom, realism.

Realism arguments are a bad idea. They're a slippery slope. Where PK is concerned, realism is secondary to PK balance.

How can you touch tattoos on your skin if you're wearing clothes? How can you carry around the corpses of a bunch of dead elephants? If you're paralysed, how can you move your arms to eat herbs? How does firelash work underwater? How can you impale a mage with diamondskin - wouldn't they shatter? These are all problems if you're concerned with realism, but the implications of fixing those problems would only create more problems, gameplay issues, and PK imbalances. For example, a weight limit on inventories would be realistic, but it also wouldn't be fun, and it would be a huge hassle to adjust to.

Synbios

I'm a blademaster, and even I think that prone + dismount would be too much, mechanics-wise.

Kyrra

I dunno. I got thrown off a horse once and landed on my face.

Zeon

Diamonskin magi should shatter on impale, that'd be pretty cool.

Blujixapug

Zeon said:

Diamonskin magi should shatter on impale, that'd be pretty cool.

Make it a 50/50 chance of shattering the magi or your sword.

Another pressing question: how can magi have both stone and diamond skin? Some kind of quantum superposition?

Xli

Blujixapug said:

Zeon said:

Diamonskin magi should shatter on impale, that'd be pretty cool.

Make it a 50/50 chance of shattering the magi or your sword.

Another pressing question: how can magi have both stone and diamond skin? Some kind of quantum superposition?

Layers, man, like an onion... cosmic

Xith

For some reason I was hoping this was an idea for a new foot-tickling skill. I am disappoint.

Trevize

Nemutaur said:

As long as you let me axekick any race that is shorter than a Xoran because they are shorter than me and my kick should reach their head I'm all for this suggestion. Lets keep it real here.

DESCRIBE SELF and is taller than you.

Synbios

DESCRIBE SELF and has robo-legs. ROCKET KIIIICK!

Seldin

Blujixapug said:

Zeon said:

Diamonskin magi should shatter on impale, that'd be pretty cool.

Make it a 50/50 chance of shattering the magi or your sword.

Another pressing question: how can magi have both stone and diamond skin? Some kind of quantum superposition?

Magic.

Kresslack

Nemutaur said:

Atalkez said:

Hey just a question/suggestion is all! I'm just saying in the form of mechanics, you would be prone.

If it is this way for any particular reasons (which I am sure it is) then that is fine, I was merely bringing it up!

You can already prevent people from remounting with hamstring. So smart money is that's the reason why strike feet doesn't prone in the first place.

Both of these are strikes, and usually people Vault automatically upon balance gain. Dealing with mounted opponents has always seemed to be an issue for Blademasters. While it does say it sends them tumbling from the saddles, I can envision a few ways they'd be able to prevent themselves from falling on their face ( grabbing the saddlehorn to swing around and land on their feet for instance ). I don't know what the current balance recovery is for someone who has been struck to the feet, but it should be long enough to allow a follow up if it isn't already imo.

Eld

Kresslack said:

Nemutaur said:

Atalkez said:

Hey just a question/suggestion is all! I'm just saying in the form of mechanics, you would be prone.

If it is this way for any particular reasons (which I am sure it is) then that is fine, I was merely bringing it up!

You can already prevent people from remounting with hamstring. So smart money is that's the reason why strike feet doesn't prone in the first place.

Both of these are strikes, and usually people Vault automatically upon balance gain. Dealing with mounted opponents has always seemed to be an issue for Blademasters. While it does say it sends them tumbling from the saddles, I can envision a few ways they'd be able to prevent themselves from falling on their face ( grabbing the saddlehorn to swing around and land on their feet for instance ). I don't know what the current balance recovery is for someone who has been struck to the feet, but it should be long enough to allow a follow up if it isn't already imo.

Strike feet doesn't put the target off balance. AFAIK, balanceslash is the only blademaster skill that does. Hamstring lasts 9 seconds and can be looped so it never wears off, though, so keeping someone hamstrung while you strike feet then break and strike knees is manageable. Mounts are annoying, but there's no need to make them irrelevant.

Kresslack

Hamstring doesn't seem to prevent remounting though. Unless I'm doing it wrong, but I stuck stupidity, hamstringed, struck feet, balanceslashed, and they still stood up and remounted before I could impale..

Eld

Kresslack said:

Hamstring doesn't seem to prevent remounting though. Unless I'm doing it wrong, but I stuck stupidity, hamstringed, struck feet, balanceslashed, and they still stood up and remounted before I could impale..

If it was less than 9 seconds between striking hamstring and remounting, sounds like a bug.

There have been occasionally been bugs where hamstring doesn't stack properly, so that if you strike hamstring before the previous one wears off, the timer doesn't extend. Might want to check whether that's the case.

Synbios

When in doubt, armslash doublebreak+strike feet.

Leinad

I was going to suggest you may just want it reworded, but then - It sends them tumbling out of their saddle. Whenever we TUMBLE we still end up on our feet, despite having broken or shriveled limbs. So seems fine to me.

Jovolo

Kresslack said:

Hamstring doesn't seem to prevent remounting though. Unless I'm doing it wrong, but I stuck stupidity, hamstringed, struck feet, balanceslashed, and they still stood up and remounted before I could impale..

If it doesn't, bug it, because it's not working as intended. Blademasters are one of the better equipped classes to deal with mounts through nigh unblockable strikes and hamstring affliction that renews its timer when reafflicted. You won't have much trouble if you strike hamstring, strike feet, slash/strike x2, and hamstring again before the timer runs out.

That in itself almost renders the mount obsolete.