Combat System

So, it has occurred to me that we don't have much of a combat system. Or at all.

And we need one.

Any ideas?

As this topic has been brought up on numerous occasions, both in the IRC and on /tg/ (and most recently brought directly to me by REDSHEILD), I advised RED to create this thread.

I would like to make it clear now that this is not going to be a discussion of the necessity of a combat system. This thread is for discussing how such a system should be implemented were it ever to be. In addition, I would like to note that suggestions may include changes to existing systems in place (ie, the Point-Buy Tech Rating system) so long as the changes are directly beneficial to the combat system's implementation; that is to say, the changes must be on-topic. General suggestions for currently implemented systems belong in other threads. One final thing I will mention is that the use of the combat system will be optional. Players will be permitted to use either pure roleplay, the combat system, or something else (you could use 'rock, paper, scissors', even) so long as it is agreed upon by the thread participants.

With those things in mind, you may begin discussion. I am eager to hear everyone's thoughts on the matter.

Quick post, I'm at work - I am of the opinion that players are capable of committing their own forces without babying them. That is, they know when they would realistically take losses and how good their weapons are and how often they can jump. On that note, the Shield of Light committed herself to combat with a combat jump and now can't jump again without another 48 hours of capacitor charging. That is a good example of the consideration I would like to see players in combat giving to their own forces.

What I am concerned about is the more subtle aspects of combat. Specifically, system damage without outright destroying the ship, whether an attack misses, hits, is caught by PD, etc.

I'm not talking about an in-depth battle system with HP and all that. More general guides, so that if and when we use dice to determine outcomes in combat, we are all using the same system. This is to reduce room for inequalities that are not inherent to the game universe itself but rather a result of how a poster is interacting and determining outcomes.

I have always done combat on freeform RPs as, first player writes attack including description of weapons, quantity, etc, and second player writes a fair damage given by those weapons. If the first player's weapons are unsportingly powerful or the second player's damage assessment of their own ships is unsportingly weak, the admin may determine if godmodding was involved. It has worked for me on a few boards without incident so far.

Well, that's about how I usually do it.

Your use of dice made me think twice though.

I guess then that this thread is not needed.

I'd like to talk to you on IRC before I post though, when you can.

I use dice for universe events such as twists of fate. Nothing I do directly is affected by dice.

Ah, okay. Good to know.

Please lock thread SysOp.

REDSHEILD wrote:

Ah, okay. Good to know.

Please lock thread SysOp.

I'm going to leave it open in preparation for the inevitable future discussions regarding conflict resolution/combat.

Terribly sorry Redshield but I work pretty much sunup to sundown on weekdays. I can write posts on breaks but I can't access irc at work. Let's try a round or so and see if we need it.

Okay, that's fine.

I'll probably post tonight or tomorrow morning. If you have any questions about my post, PM them to me, likewise if I have any questions about your reply I'll shoot you a PM. I'll try to include any information that will help in OOC if it isn't obvious in the post.