Dinobut's Combat Etiquette Guide

What's a Combat Etiquette Guide you might be asking yourself? It's not a set standard operating procedure, these are not a list of rules one must follow when participating in combat at TF2k5. Rather, it's a bunch of suggestions and common sense notes that one -might- find helpful when engaging in combat on the MUSH.

First and foremost, I'd like to remind everyone reading the Combat Etiquette Guide about the object of the MUSH. No winners, no losers. It's not about going all out to trash that one FC or stacking a multitude of abilities for an uber awesome combo that'll one shot KO people. It's about creating a friendly atmosphere amongst your peers, enjoying the enviroment and players around you, and having fun! If anything, I'd like the readers to come away with a better understanding of 'the norm' and how to properly handle fighty scenes!

A Note From Your Friendly Administrative Overlord
Combat scenes are consensual and will always involve players coming to a "consensus" of what is acceptable. This article can help you with that but keep in mind that it itself does not define the parameters and standards of your combat scene. Players should have a healthy skepticism of "non-rule rules" and always bring up anything that feels like a true "exploit" to the attention of the administration. We also have both the official rules and a very nice beginner's guide here on the wiki.

Starting Combat
How should you open up combat? Should you pull out your biggest attack, weaken 'em in the opening salvo ... then clean them up with lesser attacks? Or maybe try that devestating disintegrate attack upgrade you just got pushed through? From a traditional standpoint, I'd say no to both of those suggestions.

Usually it's a good idea to open up with a global 1 or 2 leveled attack. It's not overly offensive, no. But who wants to end something before it starts? If you open up with your 'bread and butter', then the person you're fighting is only going to escalate the conflict his/her turn, then you're kinda stuck in an arms race from square one. Think of combat like a dance, you want to ease in pretty smoothly and pad your big moves with nice little frilly ones. This is why I suggest a plain and simple global 1-2 attack, usually keep it to 3 at max.

Maintaining Combat
How does one pull out their 'show stoppers' you might be asking, if you only start out with a punch or a laser? Easily, it's called gradual escalation. Example: Joebot attacks Bobcon with a level 3 attack, Bobcon responds with a level 4 attack. From personal experience, I've found it's good to go by the 'Two Rule'. Either two above, two below, or the same level. That's how one should respond. So, utilizing the 'Two Rule' ... Joecon's recourse could be a level 2-6 attack. It's also good to go low (levels 1-2) right before or after your big hitter (level 5 and up), that way you're not only varying attack levels but you can conserve on energon.

Attack Costs
Figuring attack costs, that's important as well. Something I find useful is adding effects into the level of the attack, giving a very rough estimate of what real 'level' it is.

Example: Level 1 Blind + Shatter

Level 1 = 1

Blind = 2

Shatter = 3

Level Estimate: Level 6

Keep in mind you can also pull attacks and cancel effects to get the desired levels or attack 'feel' (+help !attack & +help !cancel).

Area Attacks
When dealing with area attacks ... try to ask OOCly first if the participants wouldn't mind taking one. When asking, try to state the level of the attack along with desired targets and/or basic description. Most of the time people aren't going to mind at all, but it's better to ask first before proceeding. Just make sure if you don't ask, that everyone targeted with the area is already in combat ie currently fighting someone.

Group Combat
If in combat with a group of players, it's usually fine to 'switch' or 'gang up' but either try to ask the person currently engaging them or the player you're targeting. If not, you both could end up hitting them too hard too fast ... making the remainder of the fight unbalanced.

Attack Combos
Combinations. Is it kosher to always start off by sneaking or cloaking? Is that combo of the Hidden flag + !analyze + Booster + level 8 attack fair?

No and -hell- no, might does not equal right. Keep in mind the combinations you've got going for you. I'm not saying -never- utilize abilities in conjunction together ... but please be aware of their lethalness. Doing 50% END damage in one round will actually KO an opponent, and it's quite easy to pull off with some of these combinations. Also, if you !analyze and miss ... keep in mind you keep your analysis target data until you do manage to land a hit. A good suggestion is going into a training room and either hitting the drone at different levels or yourself, keeping note of just how much your attacks do with certain combinations (!analyze, !sneak, & Booster Packs).


 * -DO NOT- engage in combat with someone who hasn't given OOC permission beforehand, this is not negotiable. ICA = ICC, but you can not impose combat on someone who isn't willing to participate.

Making Mistakes
Forget to pull or cancel something from that attack? Pose something you actually cannot do with the code constraints? Forget to transform before attacking?

If you find yourself in a bind, sometimes you just plain forget about something you posed ... try either asking OOCly or paging the opponent directly involved. Often time, they won't mind if you transform into the mode you were -supposed- to be in or re-posing if restrained by code. The real thing here is open communication with others in the scene.

Ending Combat
Do I shoot, should I save energon, is it worth it? After !retreat spits out it's automated message, it'll list out who is allowed a parting shot at the character leaving. You have a couple of choices before you now, what should you do?

Quite honestly, it's usually a good idea for Autobots to not shoot off a parting shot. They are the good guys of the MU, and like it or not ... it's more in character for them to verbally chastise them upon retreat rather than blast away. Decepticons on the other hand, it's totally up their alley. If you want to placate the team evil feeling, but don't want to chance KOing the guy? Try utilizing !miss, it'll help you keep your bad boy personna and help your fellow player stay in one piece (+help !miss). It goes with saying though that if the scene requires or justifies a good parting shot, say he insulted your motherboard ... try to stay within the 1-3 level range. A sidenote for retreaters, try actually sticking around for the next round or until anyone who could have shot has taken their actions.

In Closing
After all is said and done, the combat system here at TF2k5 is a tool ... not a replacement for interactions. Try playing out a combat scene with grab attacks only or utilizing the +roll, !check, and !compare commands. At the end of the day, you should be enjoying yourself without hampering other people's fun, open communication is key to success here. I cannot stress that enough, not only will it prevent nasty flare-ups or feelings being hurt but it'll also assure that the other person is enjoying themself. Thanks for reading up on the Combat Etiquette Guide, now go out there and kick some tail!