Automatic Attack and Zone of Control

[hruza]

Auto attack by enemy when leaving his zone of control is one of the most defining points of the combat system in Battle Brothers. Yet I find it utterly unrealistic and cant understand what aspect of real combat it is supposed to represent.

Now at the superficial level, it seems to be pretty reasonable. Except in reality it isn’t. If one of the combatants decides to leg it out of the engagement, there’s nothing the other side can do to prevent it and it certainly can’t try to land a hit on him. Why? Because in a real fight people don’t tend to stand in a direct strike distance. Basic position in almost any combat is just outside of the striking distance of the opponent. You can see it in boxing or fencing, but it also apply to group fights in formations. Attacking the opponent requires to actually step in to the opponent, you can’t just move your weapon. Of course that exposes attacker to the counter strike and whole point of the fight is to create conditions for letting you to strike the opponent while he can’t strike you. This usually involves tricking him in to doing something stupid which can be exploited.

So if one opponent involved in a fight decides to move away or flee, there’s no way the other opponent can somehow attack him, unless he can predict what the other side will do at what exact moment. Moving away from the opponent is actually very safe thing to do in a melee fight. In fact the most easiest and common defense against attack is to step out of it -that is to essentially move away, even if in this case it’s not with intention of leaving the fight.

What do you think?

[Anonymous]

I think there are a lot of games with this (or similar) mechanic. From Dungeons and Dragons, to BloodBowl.

From a realistic point of view, when you engage, you are prepared: you are paying attention to your opponent, and so. When you disengage, usually you need to pay attention to other things, so the oponent have an oportunity over you.

Perks like footwork or rotation represents the hability of a character to pay attention to the opponent and whatever else needed (as terrain) to disengage safely, or fake an attak while really disengaging.

If you see any fight-sport (boxing, mma, whatever) you will notice something like this actually happens: when engagins, both cmbatants land their hits, protect themselves and maneuver in safe. If one try to JUST disengage, his opponent gets an oportunity to land a hit or two.

In the other hand, in the game is a feature that favours the melee and thinking about your plan before you commit it. And there are mechanics so you dont get hit, even when you dont have a dedicated perk for it (like footwork). If you want to disengage safely (like in real live), try to rise your shield or push away the enemy.

[hruza]

Anonymous wrote:

From a realistic point of view, when you engage, you are prepared: you are paying attention to your opponent, and so. When you disengage, usually you need to pay attention to other things, so the oponent have an oportunity over you.

What other things you need to pay attention to? Other then ones you need to pay during the fight itself?

Anonymous wrote:

If you see any fight-sport (boxing, mma, whatever) you will notice something like this actually happens: when engagins, both cmbatants land their hits, protect themselves and maneuver in safe. If one try to JUST disengage, his opponent gets an oportunity to land a hit or two.

Boxing, mma and other such sports take place in a very confined arenas -for a specific purpose of preventing disengagement. However in real fight where there is no space limit, there really is no way opponent can hit you if you decide to disengage and flee. Only option there is for him is to try to run you down. If he’s faster that is. But unless you do something stupid, like deciding to flee in the middle of his attack, there’s no way he can land a hit on you simply because he doesn’t have a reach and given you have initiated the action, you will also have a lead on him.

There are few specific situations I can think of when above might not be the case, like for example if guy with a knife faces guy with the spear and he managed to close the distance to the knife range. But in that case he basically won the fight, spear posses no danger for him since he is beyond inside effective range of the spear and it’s the spear guy which should think about running away. Or at last increasing the distance again.

In most other usual situation, fighters position themselves just at the edge of the effective strike distance of the opponents weapon (might be fist in a fist fight). Which is what basic stance one tile away from an enemy in the game more or less represents (obviously in very simplified form). Initiating move away in such a position is very safe, unless you trip over or do something incredibly clumsy.

Now I am obviously not talking about situation when two opponents are grappling each other. Then moving away is not an option unless you ungrapple first.

[Anonymous]

It’s not going away.
So … what’s the point of this ?

[hruza]

Anonymous wrote:

It’s not going away.
So … what’s the point of this ?

What’s not going away?

[Author]

Posts