Basic Attack Variations (Aesthetic Suggestion)

Kresslack

I'm not sure how possible this would be, but I was wondering in regards to basic attacks which are used for bashing, it's a very repetitive process in which the same flavour attack is used. So I'd like to suggest that, as was done with the deathsights, to mix things up a bit, adding one or two additional variations for basic attacks when a critical hit is achieved. 

For instance, a regular hit of:

With expert precision, you draw Striking Silhouette from its scabbard and unleash a vicious slash towards a rat.

You have slain a rat, retrieving the corpse.

Is the generic Drawslash message. Adding something for crits such as:

Stepping smoothly to one side, you draw Striking Silhouette from its scabbard and deliver two swift slashes towards a rat.

You have scored a CRUSHING CRITICAL hit!

You have slain a rat, retrieving the corpse.

(It's 4:30 am, that was the best I could come up with for now, but you get the point hopefully).

That being said, if you have suggestions for variations of basic attacks for your class, maybe post them for consideration. I just think it would be a good change of pace to the tedium that is hunting, being rewarded with something different for critical hits, or at least variations. I see stuff like this from denizens while hunting, and it just adds a new level of appreciation and enjoyment to the experience:

Before you can even blink, Nikos, the Stern has drawn and thrown three of his knives, burying them up to their hilts in you. 

Nikos, the Stern slips quietly behind you and stabs a knife between your shoulder blades.

In a single fluid motion, Nikos, the Stern draws two of his knives and slices your stomach open from hip to hip.

Stepping back, Aetos, the Brave raises his bow and nocks an arrow, taking careful aim. He looses the arrow and the vicious hunting tip buries itself deep in your flesh.

Shouldering his bow, Aetos, the Brave draws a pair of knives from the belt at his waist and flings them at you, his aim striking true.

Quickly grabbing an arrow from his quiver, Aetos, the Brave stabs you in the chest with it, the barbed tip ripping through your flesh.

Xli

I vote no. I have already gagged / replaced the long messages from hunting (monk combos are super spammy) and wouldn't want to have to add other "extra flavour" messages to my gagging list. You either enjoy bashing, and don't mind the messages, or bashing is a chore, and you want to ignore the messages.

Antonius

Seems like it would be such a low priority as to never actually happen, but it would be nice. That said I'm not sure how it has any effect on bashing, who is actually reading the attack lines there?

Tharvis

even though I like the idea, last time I asked if it was possible to reflavour some of my attack animations (I offered credits!) I got told somethin akin to : 

Sena

A few people (including me) have made client-side scripts for this, with varying levels of complexity. There's a thread about it here. It does make bashing a lot more interesting, in my opinion, and I'd love to see something similar implemented in-game.

I can also see how it would be problematic for a lot of people though, having to make dozens or hundreds of new triggers if they want to match bashing messages. There would have to be a toggle, so you still have the option of seeing the boring, static messages we have now. I imagine it would also be a pretty big project and take a lot of time, especially for something as detailed as Iocun's, but it would be worth it in my opinion.

Edit: I would, of course, prefer an overhaul of bashing mechanics rather than aesthetic changes, making it more complex and interesting and less repetitive. That seems a lot less likely to happen though.

Sena

Tharvis said:

even though I like the idea, last time I asked if it was possible to reflavour some of my attack animations (I offered credits!) I got told somethin akin to :

Really? They've allowed things like that (changing an attack message) in the past for 500+ credits.

Blujixapug

You can do something like this with gags and echoes in your client. Here's a thread I posted to ye olde forums from a couple of years ago when I set up something like this for myself. The mushclient script is posted towards the bottom of the thread. If you use a different client, all you need to replicate it is a way to capture, gag, and echo, a way to perform a random roll and echo different output based on the results, and your own ideas for some cool attack messages. Nobody else will see your echoes, but it is what it is.

Tharvis

Sena said:

Tharvis said:

even though I like the idea, last time I asked if it was possible to reflavour some of my attack animations (I offered credits!) I got told somethin akin to :

Really? They've allowed things like that (changing an attack message) in the past for 500+ credits.

wellll, I may have asked for some crazy stuff that made them go "What the hell"

Nellaundra

I'm staring at Blujixaholyhellthatname's script thing and trying to convert it to mudlet for my own bashing

Sylvance

This is one of those things that was easy enough to code that even I could do it. I found that it was great fun, and incredibly rewarding. Plus I wrote some of the messages whilst drunk and put them on a very low perchance, resulting in some very interesting wtf moments months later, along with a few ISSUE MEs that created a good deal of confusion.

Veldrin

Nellaundra said:

I'm staring at Blujixaholyhellthatname's script thing and trying to convert it to mudlet for my own bashing

local attacks= {"horripilation", "lightning", "dissolution", "scintilla"} local which = math.random(#elements) 

element = elements[which]

send("staffcast "..element.." at "..target)

that's what I use for using a random element for staffcast (someone I hunted with complained I only used lightning, hmph)

Instead of the element attacks put whatever string you want there and then just echo("\n"..element)

Nim

As an aside, the emoting-costs-balance issue is no longer there, for those who want everyone in the room to see things. Perhaps the administration might even add bashing attacks to the list of emotable verbs, as a relatively easy, open-ended solution to this!

Sena

Being able to emote replacement messages for bashing attacks would be amazing. You could limit it to only work if the attack will hit a denizen, to lessen the combat implications.

It wouldn't allow for different critical/death messages though, those would still have to be invisible to others.

Adioro

It might be just me, but when I go bashing for any length of time I tend to zone out a bit. Sometimes to the point where anything new or different on the screen scares me. Like I'll see an ambiance about an owl hooting and immediately type t owl and think omg a sentinel is jumping me halp

Not sure if that's normal or odd, but varying the attack messages would probably make bashing a nerve wracking, nail biting experience for me.

Nim

Sena said:

Being able to emote replacement messages for bashing attacks would be amazing. You could limit it to only work if the attack will hit a denizen, to lessen the combat implications.

It wouldn't allow for different critical/death messages though, those would still have to be invisible to others.

Note that there is a way to see past emoting (since combat implications already exist with even just giving people things).

Also, there's nothing stopping you from writing a follow-up emote in those cases. The bigger issue, I think, is handling things like missing.

Antonius

@Nim I'm pretty sure using custom messages for GIVE comes under HELP HONOUR. Mechanically possible but if you do it you're going to have a bad time if you get issued over it.