Mostly MA is waiting on a few of us to finish the messages on some different styles...
We want to release them all at once or something so that there's a variety. Right now Ninjitsu is the only MA, if we put MA back in now only those who chose Ninjitsu for their final MA would have MA skill and that wouldn't be fair either.
I'll let Rastus post it on project list...
Probably comparable damage though.
And asking 'what is the point' really dissapoints me. You're thinking of it in the sense, "What do I need to have for stats and skills to beat the game."
There is brawling and MA and different weapons to give people options. Perhaps my character had a history where having the option to learn MA would be just rediculous. So what if Brawling is not as good as MA offensively...perhaps a brawler would be more able to take hits?? It's not about which is better, it's about what suits your character.
Now, there, the bit about the differences between brawling and MA, that's what I was thinking about.
For instance, in CP2020, different Martial Arts have Improvement Point modifiers, making them harder to learn than Brawling - the more bonuses the MA confers, the higher the IP modifier. But such a system would be silly here, where so many people have already gained their MA as a regular skill.
The rules of a true RPG (like SinDome, Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles, CP2020) as opposed to a hack n' slash game (most MUDs, and DnD, Twilight 2k, et cetera) are most useful in the background, and not at the forefront - here, the way things worked are not explained, it's all mostly common sense and that encourages RP as opposed to PGing - but, for such a system to work properly, the needed element is balance.
Maybe something like, the Brawler would be able to 'play dirty' and improvise where the martial artist has predetermined 'moves' and has a more effective but more limited scope of action. Sort of like comparing a submachine gun to a high-precision rifle. The difference between MA's would be like a Moisin-Nagant rifle w/6x scope versus a Mauser 98k Kar with a 4x. Now, how this could be incorporated into a game like SD, well, that's up to you guys. My job as a player is to play (when I can) and annoy you admin people with forum posts.
Buuuuut, thats not what I going to do. Guns and fists are different things, completely. The way I see brawling vs. MA? MA is a skill based system, Brawling you beat the shit out of someone.
MA is, in my mind, actually MORE improvision than brawling. Brawling your throw some punches, MA, you'd fight, see an open spot, and launch into a combo that would leave an opponent bleeding and perhaps with a few broken bones.
The problem. Code vs realism.
We want Sindome to be real... but some things have to take a backseat to 'PKing' or code limitations. For instance, who on the damned planet could take a .45 bullet to the eye and keep on chugging? No one.
The same applies to MA and brawling.
Now... I see it as RP based mostly, but as for code? I see brawling as a slower person who can dish out a ton. A street fighter (Fight Club anyone?) and take hits. Maybe they can get a mod to how much damage they take when using the skill in combat, as well as how much they dish. On the flip side, MA would do less damage per hit, but would get better mods when using certain postures and would have a slightly greater chance of a crit hit... Thats one possible way.
Its all a matter of how we end up doing it though... we'll make it work.
Brawling your throw some punches
Actually, it isn't quite like that - I've been beaten up often enough (honestly, most of the time I'm really asking for it, heh), and I've beat up on occasion - it's more like (real situation here, happened a few years ago):
Guy punches me in the face, I turn and end up face to the fall - the dork jumps on my back to make me fall. Doesn't work. I spin around and slam him agains the wall a couple times, he falls down, I turn around to kick him in the gut but he trips me and then we start trying to strangle each other..
See, me and my bro didn't get along very well till we stopped living in the same house *hehe*
But see, in this case, there were no set moves, no training involved, no roundhouse kicks or sweeps, it was visceral, it was instinct. MA aim for efficiency, and instinct is relegated to tactical thinking. Or so I've heard. I can't claim I've had a real fight using martial arts to compare to, though, but I did try Kajukenbo for a few months, and we mainly practiced the same four punches, three kicks, and two blocks over and over and over, when it came to sparring, we were dissuaded from improvising any moves. I stopped when Jay (the teacher) left. I still use the stretches they showed us. Haven't had a leg cramp since.
But like I said, MA is 100% improv... like brawling, only you have moves that can be put in there.
You give a brawler an opening, he'll give you a fat lip. You give a martial artist an opening, you are hit 20 times to sunday with broken bones and a comatose state....
Go pick a fight, you'll soon learn things aren't as black and white as you seem to think Wren.
Someone needs to dismiss the popular misconception that learning martial arts give you magic powers and super strength.
Best martial arts to use in a real situation, not competition, not sparring, real, broken bottles in the carpark stuff, are grappling arts, like Judo and Akido.
On that note, It'd be cool if, if you had a drink in your hand when you attacked someone, you could glass or bottle them!
then it'd break and be useless, but might cut them or something.
That sort of stuff is what brawling's all about. Doing whatever it takes to put the most hurt on the fucker that spilt your pint, or looked at ya funny or whatever.
I
Martial Arts learned by characters in the dome are /assumed/ to have been learnt for combat reasons or at least the scripts are written to simulate combatative knowledge, not competion art forms. I know this isn't necessarily realistic, but from the point of view of the game it's the approach we need to take.
Brawling vs MA at roughly the same skill level, I hope to balance so that they are comparable in combat. MA will -not- give you uber-advantages.
BUT.
MA at higher levels, which will take significantly more UE to get to than the same levels for brawling, will do more damage than the brawling options. This is where weapon specialization will come in. Skill will effect your chance of hitting with any combat skill/weapon combo, weapon specialization will control WHICH attacks you have to choose from, the more damaging attacks only become available to those with a given level of specialization.
We already added code to support all objects as weapons, converting bottles to something that can be used to slice up someones face is simply a matter of writing the custom script for the object instead of it using the default RP object script.
*goes to work*
