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Rework polearms

PostPosted: Thursday, 9th February 2017, 16:02
by bel
I don't like polearms; they lead to all sorts of things which I consider undesirable, like poking at things from behind summons, mitigating movement costs for Nagas and chei characters, poking things from behind deep water or lava, having a spectral weapon attacking from behind you and so on. Here's an alternate mechanism, which is borrowed from Sil.

Any time some enemy moves into an adjacent position, a polearm gets a free (passive) attack.

Alternatively, evoking a polearm or resting will make you set up a defensive posture, so that you get a free attack against an enemy moving adjacent to you. Tab will work the same way as it does now; you evoke the polearm when pressing Tab against an enemy one square away.

We could also make the free attack happen if moving towards an enemy instead of (or in addition to) the enemy moving towards you (like a lunge with a rapier in Brogue, except that it's just a normal attack instead of triple damage which never misses). This will take care of monsters still using polearms effectively without changing their AI.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Thursday, 9th February 2017, 17:24
by Siegurt
FWIW I like polearms; they lead to all sorts of things which I consider desirable, like poking at things from behind summons, mitigating movement costs for Nagas and chei characters, poking things from behind deep water or lava, having a spectral weapon attacking from behind you and so on.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Thursday, 9th February 2017, 19:34
by lethediver
Maybe you should explain WE should also consider those things undesirable. Most people just think of them as tactics

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Thursday, 9th February 2017, 20:46
by bel
That's a fair request. I thought that most people were of the same opinion as me, so I didn't spell out my reasons.

The burden of proof should be on someone who thinks reaching should exist. Why is it an interesting ability? As far as I can see, it's just simulationism. However, in the rest of the post, I'll try to list reasons I consider them undesirable:

  • Ally play is already overpowered in Crawl; allowing polearm use together with allies simply exacerbates the situation.
  • It is kludgy - why do some monsters attack from one step away while others do it from adjacent to you? It also leads to weird interactions with stairs, since gnolls with polearms will not follow you upstairs even though they were attacking you from one step away.
  • Polearms are not a limited resource like spells/wands, so allowing a player to attack a monster in melee from afar is simply bad. Ranged combat suffers from this defect as well, but there's no easy solution to fix ranged combat.
  • It leads to degenerate tactics. For instance, a centaur kiting an enemy using a polearm, or anyone with flight kiting an enemy over water.
  • I consider spectral weapon together with polearms simply broken. It mitigates one of the main disadvantages of the spell, which is that your weapon needs to be adjacent to the monster while attacking, so that it can also take damage. (It can still take damage from AOE spells). I am not a big fan of spectral weapon anyway.
  • Positioning is much easier with polearms - a 3x3 square is much smaller than a 5x5 square. This mitigates a lot of the movement disadvantages of Nagas and Chei characters, with very little cost (polearms have less base damage than maces and long blades).

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Friday, 10th February 2017, 04:15
by huiren
bel wrote:That's a fair request. I thought that most people were of the same opinion as me, so I didn't spell out my reasons.

The burden of proof should be on someone who thinks reaching should exist. Why is it an interesting ability? As far as I can see, it's just simulationism. However, in the rest of the post, I'll try to list reasons I consider them undesirable:


I don't see why the burden of proof should be on the player who likes reaching. It changes your play style and adds new tactical options. What needs to be proven is that it does so in ways that make the game less interesting, which is not immediately evident.

bel wrote:Ally play is already overpowered in Crawl; allowing polearm use together with allies simply exacerbates the situation.

-This is subjective. What's more, Crawl is not a balanced game and features many play styles that are measurably better than others (Trog, heavy armor vs. everything else, ranged weapons, etc.). I don't think this can count as a reason by itself.
bel wrote:It is kludgy - why do some monsters attack from one step away while others do it from adjacent to you? It also leads to weird interactions with stairs, since gnolls with polearms will not follow you upstairs even though they were attacking you from one step away.

-I think the first point is very obvious -- because they're using polearms! Simulationism or an attempt to adhere to how things seem to make sense in the real world is not something that always must be eradicated. The gnoll can hit me from a tile away because he has a long, sharp stick. Problem solved. As for the second point, I can see the argument, but I think this is interesting and gives you ways to escape. I do think AI is problematic with polearms, though, and enemies shouldn't always prioritize hitting you with their reach attack.
bel wrote:Polearms are not a limited resource like spells/wands, so allowing a player to attack a monster in melee from afar is simply bad. Ranged combat suffers from this defect as well, but there's no easy solution to fix ranged combat.

-This is not a reason in itself. You give some reasons below that are tied to this, but there is nothing inherently wrong with being able to attack a short distance away an unlimited number of times. Polearms do not step on the toes of conjurations.
bel wrote:It leads to degenerate tactics. For instance, a centaur kiting an enemy using a polearm, or anyone with flight kiting an enemy over water.

-This is the only point here that I agree with completely. I don't think it's enough to remove an otherwise interesting ability.
bel wrote:I consider spectral weapon together with polearms simply broken. It mitigates one of the main disadvantages of the spell, which is that your weapon needs to be adjacent to the monster while attacking, so that it can also take damage. (It can still take damage from AOE spells). I am not a big fan of spectral weapon anyway.

-I like spectral weapon and think of this as a nice bonus, but I can understand the point. I still think removing reaching, or removing this interaction, would take away something interesting and fun for little gain.
bel wrote:Positioning is much easier with polearms - a 3x3 square is much smaller than a 5x5 square. This mitigates a lot of the movement disadvantages of Nagas and Chei characters, with very little cost (polearms have less base damage than maces and long blades).

-I fail to see how this is a reason to remove reaching and only see it as a reason to keep them.


I do think reaching is the strongest of the special abilities and can sometimes be problematic. But I've seen other people say riposte is better. And maces and flails might well still be the best weapon type overall. And plenty of people find cleaving a lot of fun. I think special weapon properties are in a good place right now in Crawl and don't need to be messed with, even if some aspects of reaching are not ideal.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Friday, 10th February 2017, 04:41
by phloomp
Mosty agree with everything in Bel's second post, although I find polearm-using cheinagas pleasantly convenient more than anything else. "tab to evoke defensive posture" might be weird if you are fighting a very slow enemy - what if you evoke reaching with a first tab, and have time for a second before the enemy moves? But if you can't tab to evoke defensive posture then defensive posture is bad.

Gnolls with reaching are good. They should be reflavoured as having really long arms, and should get reaching with any weapon.

(Incidentally, any simulationist should want reaching removed. A big spear would be impractical for one person in close quarters. It follows that spears in Crawl are really stubby.)

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Friday, 10th February 2017, 05:08
by Sar
The following weapons also have synergy with Chei: axes, because they allow you to hit everything around you (less repositioning) and you have good defenses; long blades, because they allow you to attack while moving and you have good EV; forms, because of Cheistats; arguably, short blades because of Cheistealth.

There's also stuff like axes having a really good synergy with health-on-kills. I thought that was the point of giving weapon class abilities, for those abilities to feel different and powerful? I guess I was wrong.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Friday, 10th February 2017, 05:54
by huiren
phloomp wrote:(Incidentally, any simulationist should want reaching removed. A big spear would be impractical for one person in close quarters. It follows that spears in Crawl are really stubby.)


Reach is incredibly important in considering the effectiveness any weapon. What's more, most spears can simply be held closer to the tip, and can be maneuvered far more quickly than swords or axes because of the leverage offered by the shaft. That's why polearms, from the spear to the halberd, the bill or the bayonet were almost universally accepted by soldiers and martial artists of all cultures and periods as overall the most effective weapon for close quarters fighting from the time of the ancients to the modern period. It's not uncommon to hear things like that one person with a staff weapon can handle 3-4 swordsmen or axemen of similar skill.

I think only pikes or similar, extremely long, weapons were too unwieldy to match a sword in close combat.

If you wanted to be a proper simulationist, not only would polearms do more damage and swing faster than other weapon types, they would hit enemies approaching and often block them from getting closer. I think reaching is a nice abstraction that goes along with the fact that polearms are long weapons.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Friday, 10th February 2017, 06:13
by Shard1697
I mean if you wanted to get really simulationist you would have varying reach on all weapons, but then you'd need like a Frozen Synapse-esque map and overview to have variable move distance(why doesn't this game exist tho)

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Friday, 10th February 2017, 09:06
by duvessa
tip: when you're about to call a melee weapon or plate armour or whatever too "cumbersome" or "unwieldy" for combat, consider that it was literally designed for combat
huiren wrote:It's not uncommon to hear things like that one person with a staff weapon can handle 3-4 swordsmen or axemen of similar skill.
Pole weapons are effective but not that effective. Even after the halberd was popularized, people continued making and using swords despite them being more expensive, and they weren't doing it just for status. The weapons have different purposes, and in any case, no melee weapon is going to let you hold off "3-4 armed attackers of similar skill" - if you want to do that you need something like an Uzi, not a medieval ages weapon.

PostPosted: Friday, 10th February 2017, 11:02
by Turukano
I'd like to add a link to a slightly related topic/poll from March 2015: Which Weapon Type is Best?

I personally voted for polearms.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Friday, 10th February 2017, 14:55
by Sar
duvessa wrote:when you're about to call a melee weapon or plate armour or whatever too "cumbersome" or "unwieldy" for combat, consider that it was literally designed for combat

Counterpoint: jousting armour.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Friday, 10th February 2017, 22:57
by Shard1697
well, that's more of highly specialized sports equipment than something designed for combat

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Friday, 10th February 2017, 23:07
by Sar
It's still armour, and people confuse it with actual plate armour occasionally, you sometimes see frog helmets in video games that don't even feature jousting. But mostly, I wanted to be a smartass.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Saturday, 11th February 2017, 00:12
by ONIchinchin
bel wrote:The burden of proof should be on someone who thinks X should exist


So, pretty much everything in Crawl then? I hope you can clarify this problematic part bel

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Saturday, 11th February 2017, 00:15
by bel
To several points raised here:

  • I'm not arguing for removing reaching (then polearms would have no reason to exist). I'm arguing for replacing one mechanic with another.
  • In my opinion, the burden of proof should always be on the person who wishes to add a feature, rather than the person who wishes to remove the feature. To argue about reaching, first we have to ask: why should it exist in the first place? "You can attack two steps away" sounds arbitrary and not very interesting to me. Why not three steps away? (by the way, "uber-reaching" or "polearms of reaching" was discussed when reaching was made intrinsic to all polearms).
  • I have given several cases where I tried to demonstrate that unlimited attacks monsters from afar is simply bad design. (I forgot to mention conjure flame). None of the things I mention are deal breakers by themselves, but all of them together are bad and they are all inherent in the mechanic. The game is already aware of this, therefore it tries to kludge this by making (a) your attacks over your summons' shoulder fail half the time (b) if you try to hit a monster over the shoulder of a hostile monster, you have a chance of hitting the closer monster instead.
  • I'm not against fun and I'm not saying that polearms are always the best weapon. I am saying that the mechanic of attacking one step away is bad.
  • I am not talking about nerfing polearms. The defensive posture can be extremely powerful as well: for instance - if you set up a defensive posture and 8 enemies move adjacent to you, you get a free attack on each of them.

By the way, I looked at some of the old IRC discussions at the time reaching was implemented on all polearms (September 2011). I got mostly the sense that they just thought "let's try to implement this and see how it goes". Elliptic literally says this here. I'm not criticizing it; that's the way most things are implemented. What I'm saying is that we should look at what is really achieved by reaching and what problems arise.

(One point about the interface was discussed at that point, which still remains: in console there's no way to indicate that an orc warrior is wielding a polearm. dpeg suggested making the glyph have an umlaut; but it wasn't accepted because not all terminals can handle it.)

Or to put it another way: suppose there was a choice between reaching and the mechanic I proposed. Why would you choose one over the other?

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Saturday, 11th February 2017, 00:54
by Shard1697
I like being able to reach over my friends and also being able to have my spectral weapon attack from behind me in a hallway.

It is definitely true that polearms having something bound to "evoke" is awkward. Is there even anything else which uses that now that rods are gone? If not, making polearms get an automatic passive attack on closing enemies would mean that the 'evoke' key could be euthanized, which is definitely a positive in my opinion(much the same way as not needing a separate "pray" key anymore). You could make it so you only get the attack if you didn't move last turn, and maybe limit the number of times it was done per turn, though I doubt that's needed.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Saturday, 11th February 2017, 08:20
by huiren
I think reaching changes the way you play the game and gives more options than what you propose would. I think what you suggest would mostly be like a passive bonus that only comes up sometimes and lets you do some extra damage, not something that informs how your character fights. I also think your proposed mechanic would amount to a significant nerf. Yes, it could work against multiple enemies, but you presumably very rarely want to just stand there and let eight enemies walk up to you.

I don't completely disagree with you. Reaching is flawed. But I don't think it's a trivial problem to substitute another ability that is both interesting and definitive of a polearm character's playstyle like reaching is. Sil's flanking or controlled retreat might meet those requirements, but flanking is already in IJC and doesn't make much sense thematically for polearms anyway. Controlled retreat really wouldn't work in crawl because of the fine grained speed system and the player's different relationship to level geometry (corridors are generally safe in crawl, but can be terrifying in Sil). Maybe something like a combination of an automatically activated polearm mastery and zone of control would work?

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Sunday, 12th February 2017, 18:26
by amaril
I rarely use polearms just because i hate hitting v and entering target mode when i could just be using a mace and the numpad. Balance/design aside i dislike polearms because they fall into the category of 'powerful w/ tediousness as a downside'

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Sunday, 12th February 2017, 19:01
by pedritolo
amaril wrote:I rarely use polearms just because i hate hitting v and entering target mode when i could just be using a mace and the numpad. Balance/design aside i dislike polearms because they fall into the category of 'powerful w/ tediousness as a downside'


Just macro some key to v+Enter, so you'll be attacking with the press of a key, much like a regular attack.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Sunday, 12th February 2017, 19:19
by amaril
The issue is the targeter though. Arguably im just lazy--i dont like animating every skeleton individually either.

Spears are especially miserable is you move fast, but then again dcss in general is miserable if you move fast.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Tuesday, 14th February 2017, 21:19
by tasonir
Tab already reaches when you have a polearm, so the only time you'd need to use v + select a monster is if there's multiple targets and tab is selecting the wrong one and they are dangerous enough to matter. It can cause an issue when a reaching monster is 3 spaces away (ie, two empty tiles between you) and tab will move you closer, then they get the first hit on you, when you should have rested and then you can attack first. But that's more of an issue with spamming tab than something I'd blame polearms for. I think polearms work quite well and reaching is a significant enough damage boost to make the loss of base damage worthwhile. The only real complaint I have was already mentioned - centaurs kiting things with polearms, but that's more the issue with fast races, not polearms. Centaurs have been doing that with bows ever since I've been playing crawl, anyways.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Tuesday, 14th February 2017, 21:33
by Siegurt
tasonir wrote:Tab already reaches when you have a polearm, so the only time you'd need to use v + select a monster is if there's multiple targets and tab is selecting the wrong one and they are dangerous enough to matter. It can cause an issue when a reaching monster is 3 spaces away (ie, two empty tiles between you) and tab will move you closer, then they get the first hit on you, when you should have rested and then you can attack first. But that's more of an issue with spamming tab than something I'd blame polearms for.


Also hit_closest_nomove exists, and is bound to shift-tab by default, there is even an option in your rc to make regular tab not move by default. (Really i am pretty convinced that nobody should ever use the version of the tab key that moves closer)

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Tuesday, 14th February 2017, 23:37
by tasonir
Maybe I should make that rcfile edit. Also worth pointing out this happens with regular, non-reaching weapons when the space is 1 tile, so really it isn't related to polearms much at all. I usually just step right up to monsters anyways unless I'm with chei and it's still early game, where the two free hits might actually be significant damage.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Wednesday, 15th February 2017, 20:10
by mattlistener
The burden of proof is always on the case for changing an aspect of the game, not on the case for leaving it as it is. Because you have to convince someone to code it and others to accept it.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Sunday, 5th March 2017, 06:56
by TonberryJam
I think every object should have at least one unique attribute. This can be demonstrated through the game calculations/text output, the spatial units or the imagery.

reach is valid to pole-arms b/c pole-arms can literally reach further than other weapons. I think reach for all weapons should be looked into more depth to make melee more interesting and maybe more independent to spells.

Do pole arms reach far enough? Do whips reach far enough? Do some 2-handers reach further then 1-handers?

Several spells and god abilities and races provide solid tactical use for reaching affects as well. I think it makes use of those things more wanted to hybrids.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Monday, 6th March 2017, 23:19
by tasonir
Shard1697 wrote:I mean if you wanted to get really simulationist you would have varying reach on all weapons, but then you'd need like a Frozen Synapse-esque map and overview to have variable move distance(why doesn't this game exist tho)

While I don't want to clutter the thread with the details, diablo 2 did this - melee weapons had a range from 1 to 5, and it made a significant difference to some builds.

Imho polearms having range 2 is a great thing.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Saturday, 6th July 2019, 09:34
by bel
Reaching is still bad. I was inspired to necro this thread when I saw that Brogue implemented reaching on polearms in its latest version.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Saturday, 6th July 2019, 16:58
by Aean
So basically all the same arguments still exist.

Pros:
Interesting mechanic
Changes tactical behavior

Cons:
Encourages tedious/degenerate behavior
Has a lot of weird, broken interactions (speed, flying, swimming, conjure flame, etc.)


I'd have to put myself in the "replace reaching with something else" group, at least in part because it's basically impossible to fix the problems with the current design without retooling tons of other mechanics.

Could give it the "free hit" mechanic mentioned above, but that could also lead to some degenerate behavior - e.g. use extra speed to retreat, then enemy moves forward giving you a free hit.

My suggestion: Give polearms a chance to "impale" an enemy. Impaled enemy has cannot move, and has reduced EV vs successive attacks. Impaled status remains until player moves away or attacks another target. Basically something between a single-target constrict and a deforming/corrosion mechanic.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Sunday, 7th July 2019, 04:42
by braveplatypus
I would be against any change that makes polearms less busted because axes are nearly always the wins most choice outside of 0 skill weapon use. I don't want another long blades situation where all it does is punish already weaker races cursed with aptitudes not suited for axe wielding by giving them worse weapons.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Tuesday, 9th July 2019, 01:15
by svendre
braveplatypus wrote:I would be against any change that makes polearms less busted because axes are nearly always the wins most choice outside of 0 skill weapon use. I don't want another long blades situation where all it does is punish already weaker races cursed with aptitudes not suited for axe wielding by giving them worse weapons.


This is so true. I get annoyed that weapons other than axes are so much inferior overall. If polearms must be fiddled with, they should be made more powerful (not less). The biggest issue I have with them is that to get all you can from them as-is, you have to use rest, then evoke when things are at range 3. It's not that the ability is bad, I think it's unique and nice that it is differentiated from other weapons, just that the interface can be tedious. I do not like tab (and it doesn't work perfectly with polearms either) due to the general lack of control/decision making and automatic movement that comes along with it, so sometimes just because I get sick of the rest/evoke/move repetition, I wind up just using the movement keys to move/attack and give up the extra attack at range. I can't think of an easy fix for this annoyance off the top of my head. The idea of giving an extra first strike is interesting, but not really at the expense of taking away their short range. Maybe there ought to be an extra first-strike if you move into a monster with movement keys and you didn't just previously evoke range, and leave the ability to strike at range intact.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Tuesday, 9th July 2019, 02:05
by Siegurt
svendre wrote:The biggest issue I have with them is that to get all you can from them as-is, you have to use rest, then evoke when things are at range 3. It's not that the ability is bad, I think it's unique and nice that it is differentiated from other weapons, just that the interface can be tedious.

Note that if you map a key to ===hit_closest_nomove with polearms (and ranged/thrown weapons for that matter) it works in 90% of cases, as long as you are drawing things back and want to hit the closest thing (if you want to reach over stuff, or pick which of more than one option, you still have to use v and the targeter, but you can eliminate a very large portion of the tedium as long as you get used to what hit_closest_nomove does). That way you can plink stuff at range to get it to walk towards you (you do have to use ' to swap weapons if you're using a launcher) and then start whacking it with your polearm all with one key press. Of course picking up ammo is annoying if you don't like to use 'o' too, so there's that.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Tuesday, 9th July 2019, 18:41
by bel
Weapon power is not directly dependent on weapon mechanics. If I make every mace do 100 base damage will you still use axes? I am not commenting on whether "Axes are the best weapon type" here.

The issues are:
  • For polearms, is the "interesting" aspect bigger than the "degenerate" aspect?
  • Can ways of differentiating polearms be found, which are still interesting but less degenerate?

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Wednesday, 10th July 2019, 05:24
by svendre
bel wrote:Weapon power is not directly dependent on weapon mechanics. If I make every mace do 100 base damage will you still use axes? I am not commenting on whether "Axes are the best weapon type" here.

The issues are:
  • For polearms, is the "interesting" aspect bigger than the "degenerate" aspect?
  • Can ways of differentiating polearms be found, which are still interesting but less degenerate?


Maces would be very attractive with 100 base damage for sure. They'd be for sure better to use for any 1v1 combat, but if the axe is already nearly killing 6 monsters in one swing with it's current base damage, I'm not sure that the mace would still always be the best choice for a number of tactical reasons, probably, but that I'd still question it even a tiny bit puts quite an emphasis on the importance of the mechanics for me. If someone were to suggest, hey let's nerf axes by making other weapons more extreme, it would be missing the real opportunity to fix things which lies at a lower level - for example, if 1v1 fights were more often critical fights where you were assured not being swarmed on all sides, it would tip the scales, but in a more indirect manner. Rarely are 1v1 fights as dangerous as being swarmed.

That aside, I understand that you're trying to improve the polearm mechanic, and I think it's good to try. There's no question that they suffer from some tedium issues. Even if there are some band-aids to get to 90% better, most of the time, if I tried to relearn some habits which don't apply to much of anything else, it's still tedium of one sort or another in the end.

* I think the interesting aspect is currently bigger than the degenerate aspect
* I think polearms can have their interesting aspect(s) improved in ways which reduce the degenerate aspects (which I think are the more minor issues), and more importantly reduce the tedious aspects without shredding their current functionality.

That only leaves the how to do it, but I think you've got a pretty tall order to figure that one out. I think the key is focusing on how they could be changed to gain back the advantage they potentially currently have under circumstances where they are used only in conjunction with normal movement/attacking. So, to me that means it has to be something like I previously mentioned: if you move into a monster, and you didn't use your ranged attack when you could, it translates into that they are somehow impaled once automatically, and then you still get an attack after that--just don't take away the ranged attack if the player wants to use it.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Thursday, 9th January 2020, 18:52
by b0rsuk
In some situations reaching is not powerful enough. I really tried to get a naga of Hep (the ancestor god) running, but was deeply disappointed. The idea was to skip defensive abilities altogether(all defensive aptitudes are bad), at least for a long while, and fight from behind a Knight ancestor.

It just doesn't work. 50% reaching failure might be okay for summoners, but when your allies have a hard limit of 1, reaching is simply not good enough. That, and monsters often ignore the knight and run at you in the open.

My conclusion: it's not the reaching that's broken(?), it's Summoning.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Friday, 10th January 2020, 12:12
by bel
Interesting experiment. But I do not see how your conclusion follows from your experiment. Let's take two scenarios, and in both cases, you stay behind your knight ally.

1. Without reaching: you don't do anything, just sit there.
2. With reaching: you do 50% damage.

So even if Scenario 2 does not work to the point that it's viable, it's still much better than Scenario 1; where you literally do nothing.

Finally, let me repeat what I said above:
bel wrote:I have given several cases where I tried to demonstrate that unlimited attacks [on] monsters from afar is simply bad design. (I forgot to mention conjure flame). None of the things I mention are deal breakers by themselves, but all of them together are bad and they are all inherent in the mechanic. The game is already aware of this, therefore it tries to kludge this [issue] by making (a) your attacks over your summons' shoulder fail half the time (b) if you try to hit a monster over the shoulder of a hostile monster, you have a chance of hitting the closer monster instead.


Spoiler: show
[Btw, it's completely fine for Nagas to train Shields. They are large, so need less training in Shields. I think someone (dynast? Berder?) streaked several Nagas by only training Shields for defence. I'm assuming that you did train Fighting, because that is also a partly defensive skill.]

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Saturday, 11th January 2020, 09:04
by b0rsuk
One way or another weapon length, reaching distance is the defining feature of polearms. It really needs to be about weapon length and monsters unable to damage you while you can damage them. We might disagree about the level of abstraction - should reaching be implemented in terms of tiles, or something more opaque, harder to see, like a status effect. In the second case it's hard to understand when can a monster successfully close the distance and when it can't. Tile-based approach is very fitting for a roguelike and easy to grasp. In general weapon length very rarely appears in games in a way that's balanced. One of games which admits weapons differ in length is Dominions series - soldiers and magic beings have a stat and must perform a morale check or the attack on the spearman fails.

As for Conjure Flame, I think monsters should either back away (even further if they see player can shoot) or charge right through. Patiently waiting is something no animal would do. I would go after the ways which let player to easily keep monsters at a distance. I don't think a single reaching attack before the clash is problematic.

Now something fun to watch: sword vs spear sparring (28:47)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afqhBODc_8U

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Saturday, 11th January 2020, 09:57
by Shtopit
I personally would modify reach because it's only OK if you tab, otherwise reach uses waaaay too many buttons to be enjoyable.

So let's automatise it. If you wield a polearm, you get a free attack against anything that moves into a square right next to you, or just one tile away. This means that you get two free attacks against monsters who want to melee you from up close. The number of attacks you perform could increase as your minimum delay decreases. If it's important that obstacles cause failure, add a failure chance based on the size of the monster between you and the target, and decrease it as skill and dexterity improve. No v.

Example:
  Code:
@.....g

@.g

the goblin enters spear range! You spear the goblin!

@g

the goblin enters melee distance! You spear the goblin!

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Sunday, 12th January 2020, 11:38
by bel
b0rsuk wrote:One way or another weapon length, reaching distance is the defining feature of polearms. It really needs to be about weapon length and monsters unable to damage you while you can damage them.

My first proposal in the OP does damage monsters when they cannot damage you. If the monster is one tile away and moves to a tile adjacent to you, it will not damage you, but you get a free passive attack with a polearm on this turn. The other proposals like "defensive posture" also accomplish the same objective.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Sunday, 12th January 2020, 11:45
by bel
Shtopit wrote:I personally would modify reach because it's only OK if you tab, otherwise reach uses waaaay too many buttons to be enjoyable.

So let's automatise it. If you wield a polearm, you get a free attack against anything that moves into a square right next to you, or just one tile away. This means that you get two free attacks against monsters who want to melee you from up close. The number of attacks you perform could increase as your minimum delay decreases. If it's important that obstacles cause failure, add a failure chance based on the size of the monster between you and the target, and decrease it as skill and dexterity improve. No v.

Example:
  Code:
@.....g

@.g

the goblin enters spear range! You spear the goblin!

@g

the goblin enters melee distance! You spear the goblin!

This seems weird because against a monster one tile away, you get 2 free attacks. Right now, you only get one. You also get one in the proposal in the OP.

I think one attack is better: it makes more sense and will be easier to balance using the current implementation.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Wednesday, 15th January 2020, 16:29
by damerell
bel wrote:This seems weird because against a monster one tile away, you get 2 free attacks.

More than that; you can kite a speed-10 monster and keep getting these free attacks indefinitely.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Wednesday, 15th January 2020, 21:37
by b0rsuk
bel,
Could you please list more specific examples of degenerate play with polearms?

I see a few examples which are worth concern, like completely safe attack from behind deep water or Conjure Flame. This is easy to fix by modifying monster AI: if it can't reach player, it should back away 1 square and wait. I think ranged weapons and spells are a much bigger problem in such situation with no easy fix, because it's not enough to move 1 square away. I haven't tried shooting a bow while swimming in Crawl, I don't know if it's possible.

As for centaurs and their speed advantage, I think they're beyond repair. Movement speed simply is a very big advantage in this game because you generally have to pay somehow for escape tools or they're limited in quantity. Centaurs have a built-in very simple escape tool. I think they should be extra easy to hit from distance because a horse is so big it can't dodge arrows well or hide itself behind a shield. Centaur is a nice creature many people have sentiment for (Greek mythology!) but as a gameplay option I think they were always broken. Maybe if they needed 2 potions of the same type per use (because they have such a big body) but that raises a question about trolls and ogres.

Gnolls not following because they were attacking from afar is a valid concern. It's odd.

A problem I found is that if you have two gnolls with spears in a corridor, only one will attack but if the gnoll closer to you was more brave two could.
----

An alternative implementation of polearms could be: free reaching, but deals less damage against enemies right next to you. I'm not sure it fixes anything. Just saying.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Thursday, 16th January 2020, 22:18
by Shtopit
bel wrote:This seems weird because against a monster one tile away, you get 2 free attacks. Right now, you only get one. You also get one in the proposal in the OP.

I think one attack is better: it makes more sense and will be easier to balance using the current implementation.


My reasoning for having 2 attacks instead of 1 is that Crawl asks for a massive number of attacks to kill your enemies*, and 1 would be hardly felt. Something else I thought about right now is that you would be giving up on the chance of hitting from behind your ally, so I'd power it up a little. Of course, this depends on how it multiplies when you are surrounded.

*which might be a problem in and of itself, although I don't have any solid data, just a feeling.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Friday, 17th January 2020, 14:31
by tealizard
edit: oh weird, this somehow posted to the wrong thread... sry folks...

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Friday, 17th January 2020, 15:26
by TheMeInTeam
As for centaurs and their speed advantage, I think they're beyond repair. Movement speed simply is a very big advantage in this game because you generally have to pay somehow for escape tools or they're limited in quantity. Centaurs have a built-in very simple escape tool. I think they should be extra easy to hit from distance because a horse is so big it can't dodge arrows well or hide itself behind a shield. Centaur is a nice creature many people have sentiment for (Greek mythology!) but as a gameplay option I think they were always broken. Maybe if they needed 2 potions of the same type per use (because they have such a big body) but that raises a question about trolls and ogres.


Basic movement speed is useful, but overrated in crawl. We have enough data to be very suspect that simple move speed is a major predictor of how likely a player is to win.

Centaurs do well in winrate, but felids and spriggans are average-to-below in that stat. Nagas are above average. Chei finished 5th in raw god wins in the tournament.

We can't make certain conclusions using that data, but it should make a blanket assumption of speed being as crucial as often stated suspect. When we look at situations that actually kill players in crawl, it should become even more apparent that speed is in the "useful but overrated" category. You can stab and back away from an ogre indefinitely as a spriggan. But it won't save you against massed range shots, poor movement choices (like autoexploring), dangerous downstair encounters, many traps, constraining abilities/spells, or much faster enemies. So the difference is usually a consumable or three across a run. Not bad, but the idea that a player with theoretical brand armor scroll should just gun for running every game (risking getting stealth/flying) is absurd.

Note that several low level spells open up kiting to standard speed species. Among starting books wizards are basically kiting the background, but summoner/FE/VM/IE/AE/En/Tm/AM/Wr/Ne all have legit kiting options in their starting books too, some of them quite spammable. Ranged attacks with any of these will mop most controlled encounters in the game, albeit with some tedium with a few of the backgrounds.

But players still die with these despite the "degenerate" options. Even if they pick centaur. Though centaurs do better than most species, because they have extra starting AC, more HP, and reasonable aptitudes (plus an amazing aptitude in one of the strongest weapon categories) all in addition to that speed. They already have heavily gimped EV too, not sure what you're on about with that one :p.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Saturday, 18th January 2020, 05:45
by Siegurt
While reading this a thought occurred to me, if the base movement speed bonus is too good, what if instead it was a swiftness-like intrinsic ability, with a breath cooldown (and the speed- that comes with current swiftness)

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Thursday, 30th January 2020, 15:48
by mattlistener
TheMeInTeam wrote:Basic movement speed is useful, but overrated in crawl. We have enough data to be very suspect that simple move speed is a major predictor of how likely a player is to win.

Centaurs do well in winrate, but felids and spriggans are average-to-below in that stat. Nagas are above average. Chei finished 5th in raw god wins in the tournament.


There's no conclusions about speed to draw from the above. These observations mean that overall character design for those races is within reason. Improved movement is balanced by massive downsides like missing armor slots.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Thursday, 30th January 2020, 16:29
by TheMeInTeam
mattlistener wrote:
TheMeInTeam wrote:Basic movement speed is useful, but overrated in crawl. We have enough data to be very suspect that simple move speed is a major predictor of how likely a player is to win.

Centaurs do well in winrate, but felids and spriggans are average-to-below in that stat. Nagas are above average. Chei finished 5th in raw god wins in the tournament.


There's no conclusions about speed to draw from the above. These observations mean that overall character design for those races is within reason. Improved movement is balanced by massive downsides like missing armor slots.


If there are no conclusions to draw about speed from the above, there are also no conclusions to draw about speed in favor of saying it's overpowered since there is even less competent evidence to support that than there is for what I've pointed out.

And apparently usage of stuff in tournaments is one of quite a few factors the devs use to make changes to the game.

If I claim that long blades are overpowered to the point of being a no brainer option, there should be some substantive basis provided for this for the claim to be taken seriously. This basis should be more than simple description of the benefits of using long blades...I need to demonstrate why the advantages conferred are disproportionately greater than other advantages to the point of noticeably impacting how likely someone is to win when choosing longblades. This is what would make them a "no brainer" choice.

We have weak data suggesting that speed is overrated, and even weaker/basically no data supporting that it's meaningfully improving win odds on average. Though it depends on how much speed just like it depends how much polearm reach/AC/damage/etc. Species moving at 0.1 per tile would be incredible, just like 100 AC would be incredible. Regardless, claiming something is "beyond repair" when there's no data to even suggest it's the strongest option per above is silly.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Thursday, 30th January 2020, 16:38
by b0rsuk
What bothers me a lot with current reaching is that it makes every orc/gnoll/vault guardian fight a chore because I need to manually examine them to figure out of there are any reachers among them. I play the text version.

Re: Rework polearms

PostPosted: Thursday, 30th January 2020, 16:45
by TheMeInTeam
b0rsuk wrote:What bothers me a lot with current reaching is that it makes every orc/gnoll/vault guardian fight a chore because I need to manually examine them to figure out of there are any reachers among them. I play the text version.


That's going to stay the same no matter what as long as reaching/damage on getting next to tile exists. Maybe the text version could have a better UI for this? I recall some text version players also missing out on the fact that the abyss rune vault has distinct tiles nearby that can be used to locate it more easily.

Same goes for enchanted weapons...webtiles presently lets you immediately identify whether a monster tile has an enchanted weapon or not, and I think distortion gets force_more'd by default (maybe it's just that I copied it from some rc at some point). However any enchanted weapon early is worth a quick look. It's usually a +0 dagger of freezing or cursed -2, but sometimes it's elec and you really don't want to find that out by surprise.