COMBAT

General

Q. Will the game offer turn-based combat?
A. (I.B. 2/12) Yes!

Q. Will there be an option for real-time combat as well as turn-based?
A. (S.M. 2/11) There is no real time [combat].

Q. How tactical will combat be?
A1. (S.M. 2/11) It should be nearly as tactical as 3rd ed.

A2. (H.N. 2/13) with the game currently, a simple example of something that is tactical is setting up your characters in a formation such that when a monster walks by (presumably to get at a target that is at the top of its shitlist), all your PC's get an AoO (or multiple, depending on Combat Reflexes)! yay!

A3. (H.N. 2/14) [In a PnP session] my character had a mirror image spell going, and I just went around past all the enemies drawing their respective AoO's for that "round"... then the rest of my party was able to move freely (the enemies didn't have Combat Reflexes) ...and I don't see why that wouldn't work in ToEE

Q. How long will combat take?
A. (T.C. - Game Banshee - 2/3) The length of combat in ToEE is really dependent on the number of opponents and your relative power. We are sensitive to the issue of slow down in turn-based combat, so we are working on a way to allow NPC's to take simultaneous turns when their initiative rolls allow it. For example, if PC A goes, followed by three zombies and then PC B, we will allow the three zombies to all move at once. We still allow you to make any possible attacks of opportunity on them, and it really speeds up play.

Q. Is there a time-limit per turn in combat?
A. (S.M. 2/15) Nope, snooze away... finish combat the next morning, or take a pee break right before killing a bugbear.

Q. Will there be an auto-combat feature to resolve easy battles?
A. (H.N. 3/5) [I lobbied briefly for a combat "Auto-Resolve" similar to one I last saw in Jagged Alliance 2.] what becomes of that is up in the air. but one thing that has always been considered from the start is turning on Computer Control for any PC (therefore, you can set your entire party on computer control for those battles you are confident the AI can win for you with no hassle :P). so that's covered, at least

Q. Can we modify the AI combat scripts for our characters?
A. (H.N. 3/14) the nature of turn-based combat is such that you shouldn't need AI-scripting for your PCs. there will hopefully be a "set your PC's on computer-control" mode, and that will use AI. whether that scripting will be made available to players to edit hasn't been decided...

Q. Will combat be initiated if your sneaking character gets near an unsuspecting hostile? If not, will there be a surprise round?
A. (T.C. 2/5) You can initiate combat to attack someone who has not spotted you. They are flat footed and you attack first.

Q. Will proper movement speeds be used during combat? (racial, encumbrance, armour).
A. (S.M. 2/3) Outside of combat they are ignored, but in combat they all applied. I think currently encumbrance isn't factored in but that I think is on this or next months milestone list.

Q. Can we perform combat actions or feats while we're not engaged with an enemy?
A. (H.N. 2/11) you can do "combat" oriented actions "outside" of combat

Q. Will your ranged attackers have a chance to nail the teammate they are standing behind?
A. (T.C. 2/5) No.

Basic Attack Rules and Options

Q. Can we wield a one-handed weapon with both hands?
A. (S.M. 3/30) I think the way one handed weapon attacks are done right now assume that if you have nothing in your other hand that you are using it two handed. We thought and thought and thought (for hours, or maybe minutes, we started playing Hungry, Hungry Hippos after a few minutes) and could not come up with a reason why you'd NOT want to wield a one handed weapon two handed if you have a spare hand (you get 1.5x strength bonus).

Q. Will switching hands or putting a weapon away to cast a spell count as a free action?
A. (S.C. 3/31) At some point you have make allowances for how the game is actually played. It would be a pain in the butt if you had to go into your inventory and put away your two handed sword every time your wizard/fighter wanted to cast a spell. So in our game it's assumed you can switch as a free action. We go past that, actually - even if you've got a dagger in each hand you can cast spells. You put your weapons away, cast the spell, and then pull the weapons back out again as a single standard action. This might seem unrealistic but believe me, it's better than the alternative. Similarly, we're not requiring an empty hand for Weapon Finesse or Deflect Arrows.

Q. How will two-handed wielding of one-handed weapons work with weapon finesse or deflect arrows?
A. (S.M. 3/30) Currently, [the game] does render you with one hand holding it and Weapon Finesse is only used if the damage it will produce is higher than the damage that not using would produce (IIRC). However, Deflect Arrows does provide an interesting issue. I think the way it is right now is kinda cheating because you will be switching from 1 handed to 2 handed during the same round (if you were to deflect arrows). I don't know how big of an issue it may be. Perhaps balance and playtesting will show whether or not we should have a option for changing it. I'll ask Sean if we can add an option to Attack /w Two Hands to the Standard Attack action.

Q. How are reach & threatened areas determined in combat?
A1. (S.C. 3/4) You threaten monsters in a certain radius around you. If you hover over an opponent, you will be able to see which areas they threaten. Also, if you consider moving through a threatened area, you get feedback informing you of the consequences (AoO).

A2. (S.M. 3/13) Our implementation is very similar to 3rd edition in that most weapons threaten from 0-5 feet (seeing as we're not on a grid), most reach weapons threaten from 5-10 feet, and certain special reach weapons threaten 0-10 feet (e.g. spiked-chain, although it still is uncertain whether or not it will go in due to animation issues).

Q. Is there a grid to see exactly what areas are threatened?
A1. (M.M. 3/4) No grid. Works in PnP but doesn't look right when playing a computer game. The size of the characters made grids look dumb.

A2. (S.M. 3/4) We've eliminated the grid and base things off of distance. So you threaten a radius around you based upon the amount of reach your weapon has. As Mike said the grid helps when you are playing pen and paper, but when the computer can calculate the distance between players exactly you don't need a grid.

Q. Will there be attacks of opportunity?

[I.B.: Attacks of opportunity occur when an enemy is in your "threat area" (i.e. standing next to you) and tries to perform an action such as moving, casting spells, and attacking with a ranged weapon.]

A. (H.N. 2/14) AoO's are in and working. one difference in ToEE and PnP is that you *always* take your AOO if it's possible, you can't decide to not take it.

Q. Can we use cover and elevation to our advantage?
A1. (I.B. 2/12) Since the maps are flat, there's no elevation.

A2. (H.N. 2/13) as of right now, terrain is either blocking or not, cover bonuses due to terrain/walls are not in yet. Steve mentioned that there is no "real" height in the game (only visual height), so I don't believe there will be height bonuses for attacks.

Q. Can our PCs lie down to increase their defense against ranged attacks?
A1. (S.M. 2/11) You can drop to prone to lose dex bonus to AC but gain +4 vs. ranged attacks.

A2. (T.C. 2/11) You can make use of cover too.

Q. Will there be penalties for firing ranged weapons at creatures in melee combat?
A. (T.C. 3/28) Yes, the firing into melee penalty is already in, and the cover penalties [caused by the melee combater's opponent] are going in soon.

Q. Can we delay a PC's turn in the initiative order?
A1. (S.M. 2/5) This should be in and should work per the ruleset.

A2. (S.C. 2/6) As Steve said, this is in.

Q. Can we drop an equipped weapon to the ground as a free action?
A. (S.M. 2/5) Nope moving anything around in those slots needs a move equiv. action. Unless you have quickdraw.

Q. Is subdual damage implemented?
A. (T.C. 2/5) Yes.

Q. Will flanking be properly implemented?
A. (S.M. 2/3) Yup. Otherwise there would be beatings.

Special Attack Rules and Options

Q. Will the monk ability "flurry of blows" be implemented?
A. (H.N. 4/1) flurry of blows is in. sean can tell you more about its intricacies and implementation - help him out (i.e. bug him) and ask about the special cases! attack bonuses per, wielding weapons, etc (some of which have already been mentioned, I think) ....mwahahahah! hehe, I don't think you'll fluster him at all - he's got it all handled ...I just flurried one of my own PC's and wasted her a*se!

Q. Will there be any house rules like massive damage or damage to specific areas?
A. (S.M. 2/11) Um, we hated the massive damage rules and called shots (which happen to be one of Tim's favorite things in the world) weren't things we thought would add value to the game for the time we'd need to implement.

Q. Can we make readied actions?
A1. (S.M. 2/5) We are hoping for this to work in a way that is fun. The interface and system has been a bit of a pain to setup but some form of readied actions should be available.

A2. (S.C. 2/6) This is about 50% in now. We're supporting ready vs. opponent entering threatened area (or hittable area in the case of ranged weapons since they don't threaten), ready vs. opponent leaving threatened area (for those pesky archers who like to take a 5 foot step away and then attack), ready vs. spellcast, and ready for counterspell. In all options but the last one you get to choose your action _after_ the trigger condition gets met; a slight rule change which IMHO makes the game much more playable for a CRPG.

Q. Is the feat quickdraw planned to be in?
A. (S.M. 2/5) In combat you may enter your inventory for free, however you may only move items in your primary/secondary/shield/ammo slot if you have a move equivalent action free (or, if you have the quickdraw feat). In which case it is free to move items in/out of those slots. There are also equipment combinations that you can toggle between.

Q. Can drawing a weapon be combined with a move as a move equivalent action if your [BASE ATTACK BONUS] is at least +1?
A. (S.M. 2/5) We are hoping to incorporate this into quickdraw.

Q. Can we use quickdraw to sheathe a drawn weapon as a free action?
A. (S.M. 2/5) In our system yes, because for us Quick Draw allows you to switch anything into/out of the specified slots. This is a departure from the ruleset but we think it makes quickdraw more useful and the CRPG more playable.

Q. Will the cleave feat be implemented?
A. (S.C. 1/8) Cleave, and Great Cleave are all implemented as per the core rules. Great Cleave rocks. Perfect for mowing down huge groups of goblins.

Q. Can we use the bluff skill to feint in combat?
A. (S.M. 2/5) We do not think we are supporting bluff as a combat option at this time. Bluff is in as a dialog skill however. There is possibility of combat bluff options but do not get your hopes up.

Q. Is bullrushing in?
A. (S.M. 2/5) It is. Currently the animation part of it is messed up. We will see if it starts looking any better.

Q. Can we charge or run during combat?
A1. (S.M. 2/5) [You] should be able to charge, and/or run. I didn't implement it (Sean did), I thought you got a two hit bonus (not a damage bonus) at an AC penalty. I fairly certain that's in.

A2. (S.C. 2/6) Charge is in.

Q. Is there grappling? Pinning? The option to try and use escape artist to wriggle free?
A1. (S.M. 2/5) We originally were not planning on implementing grappling, but some monster attacks depended on it. So most of the rules are in, we are still not certain if we are going to allow it as player combat options. I'll try and keep you guys posted (so ask again later).

A2. (S.C. 2/6) Even though the rules for grappling are in, we don't have the animations to support it for all the players vs. all the monsters so it doesn't seem likely to go in as a player option this time around unfortunately.

A3. (T.C. 3/28) We have unarmed combat, but grappling and some of the more specialized weapons are out.

Q. Will disarm and trip be attack options?
A1. (S.M. 2/3) We specifically left out disarm because we felt it was rather unfun. Because of the ratio of players (5) to monsters (many) players would end up being disarmed way more than the monsters would. This seemed unfun, additionally some monsters are specifically made with their weapons as part of their art, and thus we would have to make them special in that they would never get disarmed. We felt that inconsistency was unfun as well. So we decided to eliminate disarming, and sunder. We do support being prone, although I do not know the current state of trip attacks. We would like to support them but it is a matter of time. I do not believe our original design had them implemented, but some of our programmers like to go beyond the call of duty.

A2. (H.N. 2/3) Trip attack is in

A3. (S.C. 2/4) Trip attack is in, and works great and is lots of fun.

A4. (T.C. 2/17) Weapon breaking seemed too easy and not fun, but disarm really caused problems. If all of our hill giants (for example) used clubs, then we only need the animation for club swinging. But if you disarm them, now we need punching too. That doesn't seem like a lot of work, but we did a LOT of monsters, and many of them use only one or two weapon types, so adding an additional animation to each one was significant.

A5. (H.N. 2/20) I would have liked to have to do it, since disarm is a nice option to use appropriately in PnP, but I do have to agree that when you lose an item AND don't know about it, it sucks real bad when you're 1+ hrs into the game later, and overwrote your save games :P

Q. Can we combine trip as an [attack of opportunity] or cleave attack? Or even as part of whirl wind attack?
A. (S.C. 2/4) As it is currently implemented, you can't make a trip attack as part of a cleave, whirlwind attack, or attack of opportunity. The main reason for this is interface; can you imagine what a pain in the butt it would be if you had a trip attack/ not trip attack dialog box every time you had the option? It would become very tedious very quickly. Once we get prestige classes fully implemented I might take another look at it; maybe a preferences checkbox or key combo.

Weapons

Q. Do flaming weapons have to have their Flaming affect activated with a command word?
A. (S.M. 2/18) I didn't know the flame and frost enhancements needed to be activated. I thought they were always on. Right now they are always on... hmm... I'll have to double check the rules.

Q. Will there be Reach Weapons, such as the Glaive? What about the spiked chain, which has a range of 10 feet AND 5 feet?
A1. (S.M. 2/3) Yes, there are reach weapons, and they obey the reach rules. Spiked chain is on our cool stuff list because it is a difficult thing to make look good, and any animations for it could really only be used with the spiked chain.

A2. (S.M. 2/11) Steve Moret: Its entirely art related, code wise [spike chains] can go in.

A3. (M.M. 3/4) Chains might go in. It would be doable, just hard. I want them in. I will do it we have time. If they go in, they will look cool. I mean "if" we have the time.

A4. (S.M. 3/4) Mike likes the fact that the game looks good and he wants to keep it that way. I think he feels that if the chains don't look awesome and real then he doesn't want them in. I say throw them in anyway.

Q. Will non-humanoid monsters have their proper attacks? i.e., 2 claw slashes and a bite attack as their full attack?
A. (S.M. 2/3) We're trying our best to make sure monster attacks are as close to 3rd edition as possible. Due to time constraints and the EXTREME variety in monster attacks some compromises may have to be made. We will give more info when these compromises are made.

Q. Will there be any exotic weapons?
A. (H.N. 1/20) Truly exotic weapons (I say 'truly' to refer to weapons that require extra coding and art to pull off) are being taken on a case by case basis. some exotic weapons have already been thrown out, others are still being considered, etc Steve was commenting about shuriken the other day, about the special (number of) attack rules governing throwing shuriken. whether its thrown out, or in and implemented, or just "in" as a thrown/weapon, I'm not sure yet

Battles

Q. Will enemies be pre-placed on the map?
A. (T.C. 2/5) Yes.

Q. Will enemies respawn?
A. (T.C. 3/1) No.

Q. Will there be any random battles?
A. (T.C. 2/5) Yes.

Q. Will enemies in random battles sometimes surround/ambush you?
A. (T.C. 2/6) We have implemented scout types, whose job it is to watch for enemies and run off to warn its friends. Its friends may then come and attack, or wait in a ready state (i.e. no surprise), or in the case of their scouts, run off and tell even more baddies.

Q. Can you catch a roaming band of enemies unaware?
A. (T.C. 2/6) Yes, and then get all the advantages of flat-footed enemies.

Q. Can you prevent random encounters in some way?
A. (T.C. 2/6) Yes. You can avoid random encounters using the Wilderness Lore. The more ranks in this skill, the more successful you are at avoiding random encounters.

Q. Will there be any special random encounters?
A. (T.C. 2/6) Yes.

Enemies & Tactics

Q. Does the AI have any strategy tricks up its sleeve?
A. (T.C. 3/29) We've added several cool new AI features. One is scouting, which I have mentioned before. Some monsters, upon seeing you, do NOT run to attack you. Instead, they run back to a group of their friends and alert them, and then they ALL come for you. We also have alert points, which are like day and night stand points, but they represent where the NPC will stand if the area is on alert. So if you screw up and trip an alarm or otherwise tip off that you are in a secure area, the NPC's will all head to their alert points, which are usually crucial places like stairs and staging areas.

Q. Will enemies avoid pathing options that lead them into ambushes?
A. (H.N. 2/13) we are hoping to get the AI to a state where "smarter" monsters will recognize a path that incurs a multitude of AoO's and choose to do/go something different.

Q. Will melee enemies be smart enough not to chase after your fastest moving character, who is running in circles?
A. (S.M. 2/6) Kinda, the AI will pays attention to who is threatening it the most. This usually lessens the strength of kiting techniques, however I'm sure certain strategies are better than others.

Q. Will enemies be smart enough to open a closed door?
A. (S.M. 2/6) Only if they have attached thumbs, and the brain power to operate those thumbs.

Q. Will Monsters have random HP?
A. (Gamespy - 2/7) Yes.