Newbie Guide to the MUME Combat System by Petrel Chapter 1 - Introductory Topics Chapter 2 - Solo Combat Chapter 3 - Combat with Multiple Opponents Chapter 4 - Group Combat Chapter 1 - Introductory Topics =============================== Chapter 1. Introduction Introductory note: the ALIAS command Introductory note: Be Prepared Introductory note: How to Observe Your Fight The MUME combat system is, in significant respects, different from combat systems in other worlds. Survival and advancement will depend MORE on your developing a good understanding of this system than on your stats, your having top-of-the-line equipment, or anything else. The MUME combat system enables you to make decisions before and during a fight which will help you win victories over fierce beasts and gain lots of experience. If you don't know how to do this, you are sort of fighting with one hand tied behind you. [The first edition of the following guide was written from a Warrior's perspective, before the author left the mortal realms. Since that time, some aspects of the combat system have changed, and I have attempted to update it some, with new text in brackets. However, the old text, and mortal viewpoint, are mainly intact.] This guide is largely oriented toward the warrior, and does not focus so much on the special tactics used by magicians and thieves. Still, people of all professions have to know what basic combat is like. We all use our weapons, after all. This guide is also oriented toward the newbie, who - it is assumed - has had little time to learn much more combatwise than the basics of weaponskill, dodge, and parry. Therefore it leaves out some of the more advanced techniques, like bash-and-slash and hack-and-flee. It also doesn't take up War tactics, like going aggressive against *humans*, because it assumes that the average reader will run like hell from *humans*. This is NOT, therefore, a COMPLETE guide. But I believe it's better than nothing. Introductory note: the ALIAS command This command is one of the real hidden treasures of MUME; it's amazing how many get to level 10 without ever learning how to use it. Read HELP ALIAS if you haven't already... Although ALIAS has lots of uses outside of combat, having a good set of aliases makes the difference between a skilled and a clumsy fighter. In the paragraphs below, I will run through a number of commands which can be issued during a fight. But if you actually have to type (for example) CHANGE MOOD AGGRESSIVE, or even some abbreviations, in the middle of the scroll of battle, you are likely to get an irritating 'Argle-bargle' response a lot more often than you would like. If, however, you have (at least once) typed ALIAS CA CHANGE MOOD AGGRESSIVE , things will be a lot easier for you. Anyone of low level who has gone out with me to get experience knows that before I leave town (ideally) I generally say 'Wait, setting aliases.' This should give you a sense of well-being, if you are along, since the aliases I am setting are generally things like ALIAS AN ASSIST NEWBIE and ALIAS RN RESCUE NEWBIE. If your name is something impossible like LoIIipop or Arghharghhag, I'm sure you would MUCH rather not wait for rescue until I can figure out how to spell your name at top speed in battle. A two-character rescue is a lot more likely to work. Introductory Note: Be Prepared Many fights are won or lost long before the fight starts, because you have - or have not - taken care of your basic adventuring needs before you leave town. - Is your weapon [brand new], or do you have to mend it? - Do you have a weapon and clothing/armour that are appropriate to your needs? (Saying what that means is beyond the scope of this work) - Do you have food? (Eat till full before you leave town, then take an extra day's supply at least) - Do you have water? (Same deal) - Do you have a lantern? Do you have an EXTRA lantern for when your lantern burns out? Do you know how to change lanterns in the dark? - Have you planned to find a horse? If not, are you going to watch to make sure you don't run out of moves at an inconvenient time? - What's the weather? Is there snow (cuts moves a LOT)? Is there fog (has to be seen to be believed; potentially very dangerous)? - You aren't carrying a whole lot of heavy and useless junk like one or two water barrels, are you? Type STAT to see how much stuff you're carrying. If it says "90 kg. Every move is sheer torture...", then drop some stuff. Otherwise you'll run out of moves FAST, and probably get left on the road somewhere. - Do you know where you're going? If not, are you prepared to take a little time to map the area, instead of wandering around aimlessly and then yelling "Help! I'm lost! Transfer me!" - If you aren't leading the group, it is legitimate to ask questions like: where are we going? What are we after? What level is it? Do you have RESCUE ? If you lose your link, do you have some idea of how to get back to town? etc. - You are listening to Narrate for orc and troll reports, aren't you? There haven't just BEEN any in your area, have there? (Yet it's amazing how, when everyone is narrating "Trolls W of Bree!" "Ack!" "I'm dead!", there'll always be someone in Bree Central Square narrating "Can someone help a newbie get some experience, PLEEEZ??" :) ) - Please don't forget to DRAW or WIELD your weapon :) (particularly if you've been renting in a town where you are not a citizen, or if you've been butchering animals.) With this out of the way, on to battle itself. But first: Introductory note: How to observe your fights The MUME fight system gives you a lot of information on how the fight is going, but not everybody knows how to use it. Let's start with the basics. Here's a sample fight. You are level 1, walking around on the Fornost road, and this happens: A bandit has arrived from the north. [ok, how tough is this guy? let's see.... I could narrate "What level is the bandit????" like clueless people, or I could use the "consider" command....] *>con bandit Do you feel lucky, punk? [Doesn't seem good, does it? This means that the bandit is four or five levels above me. In fact, it's level 6.] [The reports from the CON command go like this, more or less: Now where did that chicken go? - six or more levels below you You could do it with a needle! - four or five " " " Easy two or three " " " Fairly easy one " " " The perfect match! Your level, of course You would need some luck! Your level plus one You would need a lot of luck! Your level plus two You would need a lot of luck and great equipment! Your level plus three Do you feel lucky, punk? " " " four or five Are you mad?! " " " six or seven You ARE mad!! " " " eight or more] This is not a substitute for thinking, of course!! If you DO in fact have great equipment and good skills, then you can sometimes beat that beast which gives you some fearful message. On the other hand, if you are naked and weaponless for some reason, the 'easy' beast will rip you apart; and there are some creatures [the vines come to mind] which are notorious overachievers, beating even well-armed fighters who con them as "needly". Meanwhile, the bandit makes his move: A bandit pierces your right arm and shatters it. [This is the beginning of the fight and it tells me a LOT. A fight message like this has two parts. The part on the left tells how much damage is being done, -objectively-. "Pierces" is sort of in the middle of the range. This sentence could read: A bandit barely pierces... lightly pierces... pierces... strongly pierces... pierces hard.... pierces extremely hard..... The part on the RIGHT tells how much damage is being done RELATIVE to the target (to the target's hit points, that is). This could read: ... and barely tickles it. ... and tickles it. . ... and shatter it. Now, it is the RIGHT side that tells you who is winning the fight. If you are fighting a tiny toad with six hit points or so, you might get a message like: You barely pierce the toad's hind leg and shatter it. You may have done only 1 hp damage on the toad, but you have still moved the toad a lot closer to death. Furthermore, the right side of the message is dependent on your current hit points. Suppose you normally have 100 HP, but you have done badly in a fight and are in Awful Condition, with only 5 HP left. You are fleeing away, and trip over a slithering snake: The snake barely hits your head and shatters it to pieces. If you read a message like this and say 'Hee hee it's only barely hitting me', your future is short. Anything that is shattering you is killing you, and if you are not shattering it back you should get out right away. The fight continues: Your attempt to pierce a bandit fails. * HP:Fine a bandit:Healthy> Okay, here is a prompt telling you how you and the bandit are doing. You are still in fine shape, but if you are being shattered that can change fast enough! In another few rounds it will be: * HP:Hurt a bandit:Fine> * HP:Wounded a bandit:Fine> * HP:Bad a bandit: Hurt> Next comes Awful, next comes dead. You try to pierce a bandit, but he parries successfully. * HP:Fine a bandit:Healthy>f flee You flee head over heels. Yep, time to get out of that fight and find a more promising opponent! Now, suppose you find that the fight messages are scrolling by too fast for you to read them, especially if there are narrates going on? Well, you can minimize this by using 'nospam' mode. Among other things, 'nospam' eliminates all the fight messages about parrying and dodging, and leaves you with only the hits by either side. That makes things simpler sometimes: If all the messages are The bandit... The bandit... The bandit... Then the bandit is hitting you, you are not hitting him, and it's time to leave. To go into the nospam mode, type 'spam' (it's a toggle). You may also want to use 'change colour fight', which puts the bandit's hit messages in red and your hit messages in blue. OK, on to the fighting itself! Chapter 2 - Solo Combat ======================= A. Killing, fleeing, and avoiding Principle 1: Get out of a bad fight as soon as you know it's a bad fight. Principle 2: The beginning of the fight tells you what the end of the fight will be. B. The Wimpy option Principle 3: Autoflee at the hp level at which you would not -start- a fight. C. Changing your mood Principle 4: Wimpy for tough monsters, Normal for easy ones, Aggressive for nuisances A. Killing, fleeing, and avoiding Starting a fight is easy. Just KILL (monster). Or, in the case of most of the interesting evil wildlife, just stand there.. It's getting out of the fight that's difficult. Fleeing is a very important skill. FL will abbreviate FLEE, but I prefer the one- character alias F . The most common single cause of death in Arda is not death traps, rampaging orcs or trolls, or even Isaldren. [Isaldren was a famous murderous mage at the time of this writing.] It is **staying in a bad fight too long.** If you have the idea that "I really hate to flee.. it's the coward's way.. let's see what happens.." then you will probably get killed a lot. Flee as SOON as you realize that you have a good chance of losing. Principle 1: Get out of a bad fight as soon as you know it's a bad fight. You are NOT morally obliged to wait until you reach your wimpy level, reach wounded, etc. When you know it's a bust, get out. I know there are disadvantages to fleeing.. you don't know where you'll end up, there might be a worse monster there, etc. The disadvantages will be even WORSE if you insist on waiting until you have 20 hp left. How do you know it's a bad fight? Keep your eyes open. If the first few rounds of the fight go like this:-- You miss the beast with your slash. The beast massacres your arm to fragments with its hit. You: Fine> Ravening beast: Healthy> The beast skillfully dodges your attempt to slash it. The beast hits your head very hard. You: Fine> Ravening beast: Healthy> Your slash tickles the beast's head. The beast hits your left foot. You: Hurt> Ravening beast: Fine> -- hit the F key! NOW! "Maybe things will turn around." NO! Things will just go on like this, which is that you're getting killed. Principle 2: "The beginning of the fight tells you what the end of the fight will be." Of course if you don't know the level of the beast, you can and should CON BEAST, either as soon as you see it or right after the fight starts. (By the way, if you're under level 10, you should assume that ANY *orc* or *troll* you see is WAY too much for you. Don't stop to look, just depart the scene.) A good many bad fights can simply be *avoided* if you stay alert and have fast finger reflexes. Don't go poking slowly around like a tourist. If you are level 1 and taking your first trip outside Bree, and you go east into the Chetwood, where you see: A huge black wolf is here, snarling at you. Hit the W key right away. Don't stand there asking yourself the questions: what manner of beast is this? Is it likely to attack me? What are the possible- YIPE! OUCH! Awful> (Halls of Mandos). No, learn to move fast, running past monsters or doubling back on your path. If you are on the OER and: An *orc* arrives from the east. Then the safest direction might be east. The orc will have to turn around, and (if you're unfamiliar with the area) at least you know there IS an exit to the east, since the orc came from there.. Then you have a decent chance of running for shelter, assuming you know the way and can just bang out the moves without watching the feedback room by room. If you are exploring a completely unfamiliar area, and are curions as to what awaits in that Ruined House to the north, don't just plonk yourself down in there and see what awaits (not at 2400 anyway!) Bang out N (enter) S (enter) as fast as you can. After the following lines have scrolled by: Ruined House A strange dark shadow turns in your direction. A strange dark shadow turns in your direction. A ferocious warg is here, snarling at you. *Healthy> Peaceful Road *Healthy> .. you will be pleased with yourself for having ducked in and out for a quick look, rather than blundering into a fearsome situation. Of course if you are still curious you can alias CON SHADOW to C and then hit N (enter) C (enter) S (enter) real fast.. slightly more risky.. B. The Wimpy option This feature, also known as Autoflee, is found in other worlds. It allows you to set a hp level, below which you will automatically flee from any combat. Do NOT confuse the WIMPY OPTION (set with the command CHANGE WIMPY n) with the WIMPY MOOD to be discussed below. If you have perfect reflexes, a lagless link, and a 9600-baud modem, you may be better off setting your wimpy level to 0 and making your own decisions about when to flee and when to stay. Everyone else should probably have a wimpy level set. Your wimpy level is your only defense against lag in combat. Nothing is more disheartening than typing FLEE in a bad fight, watching three or four combat rounds scroll by as you drop through Wounded to Bad, and then seeing: PANIC! You couldn't quit the fight. Try to flee again- good luck! You're probably already dead. Actually there is something -more- upsetting: banging out FLEE (enter) FLEE (enter) over and over so as to try and get away, and then finding out that you fled OUT of the fight and then back INTO it. Having autoflee set is better. (In fact, *everybody* should set wimpy in order to benefit from the fact that bash is bugged with respect to autoflee. If a *troll* is bashing you continually and successfully, you OUGHT to be pretty much doomed, but [at least the way I've heard it] once your wimpy level is triggered you can flee regardless of the fact that you have been bashed sprawling. Ordinarily I would not recommend taking advantage of a bug, but this is an old and chronic bug which you can't *help* but take advantage of if you are using wimpy at all.) The level to set wimpy at depends on the area you are in, the sort of creatures you are likely to encounter, and your own combat abilities. Remember that the wimpy level is not the level at which you WILL flee, it is the level *below which* you will *start trying* to flee. If it's at 30, the following scenario is entirely possible: (You're at 34, somewhere in the middle of the fight) The beast does 10 points worth of damage. (Now you're at 24 and you try to flee. PANIC! You can't escape.) The beast does another 10 points worth of damage. (Now you're at 14! Maybe you successfully flee. But you're fleeing for cover at 14, -not- 30.) Another Part of the Swamp A ferocious warg is here, snarling at you. A mewlip is here, faintly wailing at you. *Bad> If this gives you a little shudder, maybe it's an argument for setting the wimpy level a little higher to start with. Would you ATTACK a wolf if you were at Wounded, with 30 hp? No? Would you attack at 40? at 50? Principle 3: The hp level at which you would not want to START a fight is the hp level to which you should CHANGE WIMPY. The corollary is that if you don't want to start a certain kind of fight at ALL, you should set your wimpy level high enough to flee out of ANY fight. If you are traveling on the roads at night and you start to hear things like: Someone narrates: "Trolls on OER!" Someone narrates: "ACK!" then it may be a good idea to set your wimpy level at 100 or more. If you don't want to fight the trolls, then it follows that you DO want to flee out of the fight as soon as possible. Or you may want to be flexible. I have CHANGE WIMPY 200 aliased to AF (for "autoflee"). If I get attacked by two orcs while alone on the road, I can type AF and am guaranteed one Flee attempt per combat round. Are there any exceptions to the rule that you should keep a wimpy level set? There may be rare cases in which fleeing could be more dangerous than staying. I remember once I stumbled into a fight with a couple of wolves and was at Bad by the time I finished the first one off. I then issued the command CHANGE WIMPY 0 , during the fight with the second wolf. Why? Because the room just to the East was the ever-popular Deep Peat Hole, I had a one in three chance of fleeing that way, and if I had gone that way I would have faced a long and risky detour through the heart of the mewlip area. [This area has been changed a lot, but you see the point.] Also I was confident of finishing the wolf off at wimpy mood (see below). But this was a special case. I would suggest starting your wimpy level high.. maybe about 40 or 50.. and then you have the option of moving it down during a fight, if you feel confident of the outcome. If, during the fight, you find yourself wishing your wimpy level was higher, or even hoping to hit it, then you probably shouldn't even BE in the fight. C. Changing your mood Knowing about mood changes is ESSENTIAL to your survival and success. When you log in your mood is automatically set to Wimpy, but don't just LEAVE it there, for Varda's sake! Read the help files on MOOD and the part of VIEW ABOUT that refers to the combat system, if you haven't already... Basically, the system works like this. If you type STAT, you will find figures for an "Offensive Bonus" and a "Parry Bonus", which depend on your equipment, you skill with your weapon and at parry, and your level. The offensive bonus affects how likely you are to hit your opponent and how hard; the parry bonus affects your ability to avoid your opponent's blows. Now, a sizeable chunk of these "bonus points" are mobile: they can be shifted back and forth between the offensive bonus and the parry bonus depending on what you CHANGE MOOD to. From most defensive to most aggressive, the possible moods are: Wimpy, Prudent, Normal, Brave, Aggressive, and Berserk (but DON'T USE BERSERK unless you really know what you are doing.. see below). You can change your mood at any time, even during a fight. I have five aliases set: alias CA change mood aggressive alias CB change mood brave alias CN change mood normal alias CP change mood prudent alias CW change mood wimpy and I use them literally ALL the time. Please don't confuse the "wimpy" MOOD with the wimpy LEVEL. If you CHANGE MOOD WIMPY this does NOTHING to your wimpy level. Also, don't let the snide term "wimpy mood" discourage you from USING this mood; ALL great MUME fighters use "wimpy" mood frequently, and it ought more properly to be called "defensive" mood. The guiding principle here (Principle 4) is: Use wimpy for tough or unknown monsters, normal for easy ones, aggressive for minor nuisances. If you are exploring new territory, travel in wimpy mode. That way when you stumble over the werewolf, the spirit, or three wolves and a boar, they will do as little damage as possible before you get your wits together and flee. If you are fighting a monster close to your level, your best results will often come when using wimpy mood - the fight will take longer, but you will be at Hurt or even Fine when you win it, instead of in worse shape. And if things start to go badly for some reason, you have time to take note of the situation and flee. If you are fighting a creature much smaller than yourself, then you will probably want to save time by fighting more aggressively. You want to get the fight over with quickly, because the longer you stand there fighting the wolf, the greater chance that another wolf or two will come into the room and make things more difficult. If you have been fighting a monster near your level on wimpy mode, you have it down to Wounded or Bad, and you are getting impatient (it's getting dark out, for instance), you may which to change your mood to Aggressive in the hope of getting the fight over with in a few mighty strokes. Berserk is a very risky mood, because you CANNOT FLEE after you have gone Berserk. Furthermore, even after the fight is over it may take you three or four tries to change your mood back into something cooler. I have only used Berserk ONCE, and it merits a story: Kalten, a couple others, a charmed falcon, and I went out to fight the Spiny Bush, which is about level 20. Kalten was about lev 18 or so then, and I was about lev 12. The Bush hit me ONCE and took off about 80 Hp, at which point Kalten rescued me and started to Buffer it. The fight went on for a LONG time at Kalten:Fine / Bush:Fine, with me assisting at Aggressive. After a long while the Bush went to Hurt, and I said to myself: I'll speed things up a little bit, since we're winning: I'll go Berserk. So I did, and IMMEDIATELY thereafter Kalten went to Hurt. After a while, KALTEN went to Wounded, and I practically had a heart attack... Obviously if Kalten had to Flee and I couldn't, I would die in about two seconds. Kalten started ordering his falcon in with renewed vigor, and the Bush went to Wounded, and things stayed -really close-, and we finally won, with Kalten at Wounded or Bad... This story shows the double-edged nature of Berserk. If I hadn't gone to Berserk, the fight would have been a little closer even than it was, and we might not even have won. On the other hand, you see why it's not for the faint-hearted. I haven't used berserk since then, about a month ago RL. Chapter 3 - Combat with Multiple Opponents ========================================== Chapter 3. Fighting Multiple Opponents A. How Your Parry Bonus Is Cut Principle 5 (The Fundamental Principle of MUME Combat): One plus one is a lot greater than two. B. Switching Opponents Principle 6: Kill the small stuff first. A. How Your Parry Bonus is Cut Everyone eventually has this experience: you are fighting a monster that you can always defeat with no trouble; a large, grey wolf, say. Along comes another low-level nuisance monster like a slithering snake, which starts to attack you. Suddenly everything goes to hell! The wolf, whose blows you usually parry, starts to hit you very hard! From You: Fine / Wolf: Hurt, the battle deteriorates to You: Hurt / Wolf: Hurt; then you find yourself at Wounded! Now your autoflee kicks in and you find yourself wandering in the wilderness, frustrated and covered with wounds. How does this happen? In this example, the wolf and snake have unconsciously applied the ***MOST IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE** of MUME combat (Principle 5 in this work): One plus one is a LOT GREATER than two. When two fighters work together - like the snake and the wolf in this case - the damage they do is MUCH greater than the sum of the damage they would do individually. If you defeat a wolf, and then fight a snake, you end up in fine shape; if you fight them together, the outcome is a lot worse. How does this happen? Basically, when you are being hit by more than one opponent at the same time, the "parry bonus" (which determines how well you can ward off the opponent's blows) is -divided up- among the opponents. If you normally fight with a parry bonus of 70, when you take on two opponents at once you are -in effect- defending against each one with a parry bonus of 35 (I don't know the exact numbers for sure, but the principle remains the same). Not only are you being hit by both a wolf and a snake; both the wolf and the snake are hitting you more often, and harder, than they would do alone. Notice that this is bad for you -even if- the snake misses you each time. The chief contribution made by the snake is NOT the damage that it does itself. It is the fact that, because of the snake's participation, the WOLF has become much more dangerous to you and is doing more damage. This is why groups of wolves, boar, etc., are so dangerous. There are places in Arda where large crowds of dangerous animals collect; the names "White Sands" and "Dead-end Trail" come to mind, among others... I am level 14 at this writing, and for me all the common wolves and wargs CON as "You could do it with a needle!" or lower. But if I am attacked by a pack of four of these "needly" beasts while alone, I flee without hesitation. I cannot win that battle. Three of them at once are damn difficult, and I keep my finger near the F key throughout; even if I win I will wind up the fight near Wounded. You should think hard about these points, and NOT mainly because they help you understand why you should avoid packs of wolves. No, the main point is that the principle "1 + 1 >> 2" will work for **YOU** and your friends the same way it does for the evil forest animals. Better, in fact, because you can cooperate more intelligently than the animals. When you, as a level 4, go out hunting with a level 7, you are playing the part of the friendly snake. Both of you will do much better than you would separately. More on this below. B. Switching opponents If you are fighting multiple opponents, you can switch from one to another during the fight. In the wolf/snake example, after the snake pitches in, you can switch your blows from the wolf to the snake by typing KILL SNAKE. Why do you want to switch? Well, let's take the wolf/snake fight as an example. Let's say you are fighting the wolf on Wimpy mood, you are at Fine/Fine, and now the snake pitches in. Which scenario looks better for you: 1. You kill off the snake, then fight the wolf. Say it takes you A rounds to kill the snake, and B rounds after that to kill the wolf. For A rounds you are taking damage from the wolf AND the snake, and then for B rounds you are taking damage from the wolf alone. 2. You kill off the wolf, then fight the snake. Say it takes you C rounds to kill the wolf, and D rounds after that to kill the snake. For C rounds you are taking damage from the wolf AND the snake, and then for D rounds you are taking damage from the snake alone. Well? Bear in mind what we said above about how the snake and wolf work together to cut your parry bonus... Answer: Scenario 1 is much better for you. The most dangerous rounds for you, by FAR, are the rounds in which you face BOTH opponents. You should minimize this number. Since A (the number of rounds it would take to kill the snake) is less than C (the number of rounds it would take to kill the wolf), plan 1 is the better plan. The principle (number 6) is: Kill the small stuff first. Recover your parry bonus as quickly as possible. Often it works well to accompany the opponent shift with a mood shift. When I am faced with the wolf/snake problem, I issue the following commands: kill snake (changes the opponent) change mood aggressive (I want to get the snake out of the way as fast as possible! This cuts my parry bonus against the wolf some, but it's -already- been cut by the multiple opponents, so it doesn't make much difference) After the snake is dead: change mood normal (or wimpy) (whatever is appropriate for the amount of damage I have suffered). If you are being attacked by multiple wolves, you can switch by typing KILL 1.WOLF or KILL 2.WOLF. If you get a message like "you are already fighting", you have probably mixed up which is which. This sort of thing becomes important if you are fighting a wolf and have it to Wounded, another wolf comes in, you and/or the wolf fumbles, and suddenly you find yourself fighting a healthy wolf! You want to go back and finish off the one that was there first, so type KILL WOLF (which is interpreted as KILL 1.WOLF). Chapter 4 - Group Combat ======================== Chapter 4. Group Combat A. The Fundamental Principle Revisited B. Grouping, Assisting, Disengaging, and Rescuing: Basics C. Buffering and Following Principle 7: Wimpy buffer, Aggressive assistants D. Warrior/Caster Cooperation Principle 8: Warrior buffers, caster assistants E. Fleeing, and the Obligations of Junior and Senior Companions Principle 9: Sauve qui peut! (Everyone for him/herself) F. Wild Melees: Group vs. Group The features of the combat system decidely favor group combat over solo combat. If you can find someone you can work well with, you will gain experience, gold, etc., much more rapidly than you would do alone. Your group partner does not have to be close to your level for this to be true. A. The Fundamental Principle Revisited The fundamental principle of MUME combat is: 1 + 1 >> 2. When the one and the one are wolves, it is bad for you; when the one and the one (or more) are you and your partners in adventure, it is great for you. To recapitulate: when you fight a beast together, you are not just adding up the damage you would do separately; you will do MORE damage, because the beast's parry bonus has been cut and each of you is hitting harder and more often. This means that you will defeat the beast in LESS than half the time you would use individually, and therefore you will incur LESS than half the damage you would by yourself (ONE of you will probably incur NO damage :) - see below on Buffering). This parry bonus advantage accrues to you even if your partner or assistant is a lot weaker than you. Why do you think people buy those cats and pigeons and beagles, and then learn command and drag them around with them? Is it for companionship on the highway? No, it is so that they can be ordered to attack enemies and cut the parry bonus. The damage the cat does may be insignificant, but the additional damage the OWNER does when assisted by the cat can be crucial. Here is a practical example. The other day Gabriel, a promising 6th-level elf, and I went out for a bear hunt. After making short work of a couple of wolves, we found three bears in the local cave and killed them all. I attacked the sleeping bears in aggressive mood, then shifted to wimpy while Gabriel assisted with his pierce. When we were done with the three, I was at Hurt and had to head back to town. At this point Gabriel said something like: "Maybe someday I can be of more help." I chuckled and pointed out to him that he had already been plenty of help. When I, as a level 14 with "challenging" stats, solo a SINGLE brown bear, I generally win but am usually at Hurt or Wounded when the fight is over. By coming along and splitting the bears' parry bonus, Gabriel had made the difference between a one-bear hunt and a three-bear hunt, and had provided me with several thousand xp that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. This sort of thing happens whenever I go out with newbies. They pitch in and assist, and then after the fight they say: "Wow, Petrel, you were really fragging that bear! You're an awesome warrior!" (*BASK* *PREEN*) But then I have to admit that I'm not nearly as awesome when I don't have two or three newbies cutting up the parry for me. Obviously if your partner is near your own level, the benefits are even better; by fiddling with your respective moods, you can defeat fearsome opponents in a short time and get experience that would take a long time to get on your own. B. Grouping, Assisting, Disengaging, and Rescuing: Basics The GROUP command on MUME is very versatile. Nobody has to be following anybody; the object of GROUP doesn't have to be a player. If someone is bringing along charmed mobs or pets, *make sure they get grouped*. I remember once a large party of us when down to fight the Willow - that was before they jazzed it up to put everyone to sleep and then swallow them, but it was no easy kill even then. Well, someone had brought along a charmed goblin, and someone else said, "Make sure you group the goblin," and someone else said, "Naah, you worry too much..." ... Well, guess who made the finishing stroke on the Willow? Guess who didn't get any xp after this long fight? Guess what mob would have been elevated to level 10 or so if it had been a player? :) Anyway, group the charmies. ASSIST (name) brings you into the battle to attack whatever (name) is attacking at the time. If the person you are assisting switches to a new opponent, YOU won't switch unless you disengage. ASSIST doesn't cause anything to attack -you-, although the beast that you are attacking will switch to you after a fumble every once in a while, and of course if a new aggressive mob arrives in the room IT may attack you. If you are only ASSISTing, and are not actually being attacked by any opponent, then you can type DISENGAGE or DIS at any time, which withdraws you from combat and allows you to leave without fleeing in whatever direction you choose. When you are out in a group, there should GENERALLY be no reason for any more than one person to have to flee in panic. The rest should be able to disengage and retreat in an orderly manner. The strongest buffer in the group - that is, the person with the best resistance to attack - OUGHT, ideally, to have the skill of RESCUE at about 30% or 40%. Before going out of course this person will set up aliases to rescue each member of the group, and if anyone gets in serious trouble will bang out the alias six or eight times ensuring that the rescuee actually gets rescued. C. Buffering and Following If more than one of you are attacking a fierce creature, the creature can only attack one of you at a time. The one being attacked is said to be the "Buffer" (synonym in some worlds = "Tank"). The rest of you are "Assistants" to the Buffer. However, here as elsewhere, it often works out that the Assistants are really the ones doing most of the work. To be a successful Buffer, one does not have to be terribly strong or even able to do much damage to the creature. One doesn't even have to be as high a level as the creature; depending on how strong your assistants are, you can be two, three, even five levels lower. Good Parry and Dodge, however, are important. Assuming you are grouped with people of similar level, your main duty as a buffer is to *survive*, to divert the creature's attention and *Not Get Killed* while your assistants are doing the real work of slaying it. In order to avoid getting killed, the Buffer will most often fight in Wimpy mood, while the Assistants, who do not -need- to parry any blows, are fighting in Aggressive mood. This is Principle 7, if you're still counting: Wimpy Buffer, Aggressive Assistants. A group whose members can organize their moods in this way will be exceptionally successful, and can defeat monsters several levels higher than ANY of themselves, including the buffer, with little risk. Two or three level-sevens can take a ninth-level warg with some confidence, if the buffer has a decent shield and good parry. Of course the warg is killing the buffer, but because the buffer is fighting at wimpy, it will take the warg some time to finish the job. But the warg doesn't HAVE enough time, because its own parry has been cut down, and the aggressive assistant is doing too much damage to it. By the time the warg has the buffer down to Hurt, the assistant has the warg down to Dead. How does one arrange to be the Buffer? By (a) attacking the beast first; (b) rescuing the others; or (c) by leading the party, which causes aggressive beasts to attack you first. D. Warrior/Non-Warrior Cooperation If the main duty of the buffer is to survive, then Warriors - who have lots of Hps to play with, and learn parry as a basic skill - are natural buffers. And so are thieves. Of course we know that thieves spend much of their time sneaking around backstabbing things and then escaping as fast as they can, so it's easy to get out of the habit of thinking of thieves as buffers. But, with the huge dodge bonuses that a well-practiced thief can collect, it very often turns out that the best buffer in the group is a thief, who dodges and dances around, drawing the beast's attention, while everyone else hacks at it wildly and takes it out. Anyone who ever saw the Original Var buffer the White Worm knows what I am talking about. Furthermore, the non-fighter classes are natural assistants. Clerics and Mages learn aggressive spells which can do large amounts of damage, if they can use them; but if they are damaged while attempting to cast, they are stuck; if they find themselves buffering a creature close to their level, they are likely to be Hurt or Wounded very quickly because of their lower Hp total. In general, then, the principle (#8) is: Warrior buffers, Spellcaster/Thief assistants. (The corollary to this is : RESCUE the casters when they get attacked and free them to assist and cast spells.) (In this discussion I am assuming that it is not true that all aggressive spells suck. :) I know there is an argument about this. :) ) [*LAUGH* I have left that in as a historical note to show how things change!! Yes, there was a time when people thought that mages were UNDERPOWERED.] A good warrior/caster team can be VERY successful. Back in the days before DISPEL EVIL was cut down to size, Strider (as a lev. 15 cleric) and I (as a lev. 13 warrior) had lots of fun killing the Shade who lived in the tree trunk north of Bree. This foul creature is about level 19, give or take.. I would buffer, and Strider would blind, assist with his thorn, and start casting dispel. I would have about ten rounds before the shade got me to Bad, but Strider would have killed the shade by then. Lots of nice xp. The important point here is that two Striders, or two Petrels, would have done much less well. In the two-Strider case, the buffer-Strider would be in serious danger of death before the caster-Strider had had much chance to accomplish anything. In the two-Petrel case, the battle would take a few rounds longer but wind up the same way: the buffer-Petrel would be at Wounded or Bad while the shade was still at Fine. The assistant-Petrel just would not be able to kill a shade that fast, six levels his superior, even at aggressive. By working together and combining the cleric's powerful spells with the warrior's buffering ability, we were able to kill shades as a matter of routine while some other parties were getting cut up badly by it. Now that the spells have been altered, it may not still be possible for a lev 13 and a lev. 15 to kill a shade, but the principle of combining the warrior's and non-warrior's strengths is still a good one, I think. E. Fleeing, and the Obligations of Senior and Junior Companions Once in a while, or maybe even more often, all the plans just go to hell. You are methodically fighting a wolf, then TWO MORE enter the room.. You stumble into a room containing a boar, two mewlips, and a hummerhorn.. Or an *orc* runs in all of a sudden! Or the beast you're fighting just turns out to be WAY too much for you. So now what do you do? I said earlier in this treatise that the leading cause of death was staying in a bad fight too long. I will now argue that the SECOND leading cause of death is *bungling the retreat*. When the fight has gone to hell, each member has the right and duty to depart the scene in as safe a manner as possible. The SENIOR member of the group probably has a moral duty to rescue the JUNIOR members if possible, or at least to warn them that he or she is about to flee and that they should disengage. The JUNIOR members have **NO** duties to the senior members, and should get out the best way they can. But what do you see in practice? A and B are out hunting mewlips. They are about the same level. They have just finished off a mewlip. A is at wounded, and B is Hurt from an earlier encounter. All of a sudden another mewlip comes in and attacks A. What does B do? B assists A. Why???? It's not going to keep A from getting killed! B should just leave. Then A flees, of course! But then A feels guilty and "comes back for" B, even though what can A possibly do to help B? A arrives just about the time B flees! Then maybe B comes back! Now they are both running around the swamp on autoflee, and probably at least one of them gets killed, maybe by a hummerhorn in order to get maximum xp loss :( :( . Does this sound like a story from life? It IS. Unless you have fled by accident, because you forgot to reset your wimpy level or something, then once you have fled your part in that particular fight is done. You fled because you are too weak to get in a fight, so why go back into a fight? Furthermore, your flight gives the REST of the group an unmistakeable signal that THEY ought to retreat also. Principle #9 is: Sauve qui peut! (Everyone for him/herself.) This sounds cold-blooded, but it makes a lot more sense then everyone running around trying to assist or rescue each other and taking more damage by the second. When one flees, everyone else should disengage, depart, or flee. When that is done, maybe the group leader can make a pass through the area to scoop up everyone and get them back safe. F. Wild Melees: Group vs. Group So you and your friend have just wandered off the Road to Fornost into White Sands and stumbled over about four or five wolves. Your screen is scrolling like mad! The wolf dodges your slash, you dodge a wolf, a wolf hits you, a wolf dodges your friend, a wolf parries your friend, your friend parries a wolf, etc., etc., etc. What do you do in this situation? Is there any room for strategy in this? Do you just stare at the screen until your Wimpy kicks in? [You can make this 'Juicy Field' and four boar if you want.] This sort of thing can be pretty hard on the nerves, and nobody has all the answers to this kind of wild melee. But I think your first duty is sort of to figure out who is fighting who and whether or not it's a winning situation or a losing situation. Let's keep it simple: let's say you and your friend are level 8, you stumble over a pair of ferocious wargs (lev. 9, if I'm not mistaken), and somehow it works out that: You are fighting 1.warg 1.warg is fighting you Friend is fighting 2.warg 2.warg is fighting Friend Well, what do you think of this situation? It's bad! Your powers are not concentrated. Each of you is fighting a warg which is your superior by a level. If you stay on wimpy, you will get killed slowly; if you go more aggressive, you will get killed more quickly! If you can't fix things, then you will end up fleeing for your life sooner or later. What can you do to fix things? Well, suppose you RESCUE your Friend. And suppose your friend were to then ASSIST you. Now the situation is: You are fighting 1.warg Friend is fighting 1.warg 1.warg is fighting you 2.warg is fighting you Better, or worse? -Arguably- much better. Let's put in the moods here... remember that mobs always fight in Brave mood (unless they've been souped up even more than I think): You (Wimpy) are fighting 1.warg (Brave) Friend (Aggressive) is fighting 1.warg (Brave) 1.warg (Brave) is fighting you (Wimpy) 2.warg (Brave) is fighting you (Wimpy) OK, now, put it together. 1.warg's parry bonus has been cut way down, since it's already on Brave, and your Aggressive Friend is doing it some serious damage. 1.warg is getting killed rather fast. You are facing two Brave wargs, and your own parry bonus has been cut way down, but you are fighting at Wimpy and - I think - getting killed slower than 1.warg is. 1.warg will die first, while you are at wounded. That will take a lot of the pressure off you. Then maybe Friend can rescue you and buffer 2.warg while YOU assist. I think this fight is winnable. Suppose I'm wrong? You'll know it's unwinnable if you go to Hurt or Wounded before 1.warg does. Then at least Friend can disengage and walk away, and only one of you (You) will have to Flee. I won't attempt to elevate this kind of maneuver to a principle, because I'm not completely sure of the circumstances in which it works. But what I WILL say is: don't just sit in the fight waiting to see what happens without figuring the odds! It's amazing how many people get in the original configuration above - Lev 8 slowly getting killed by warg, multiplied by two - and just wait passively. "Are you going to flee?" "I don't know, how about you?" Nobody wants to be the first to flee and leave the other one with two wargs. But EVENTUALLY one of you will be the first to flee.. unless you both panic repeatedly and die on the spot! Better get it out of the way early than late. Is the current configuration a win, or a loss? If it's a loss, can you fix it with rescues, etc.? If not, then flee.