Battle Tactics -Code update [a] [h]

[Pi dArtois]

For going against NPCs.

So, I was having a look around at Pi's stats for Battle Tactics. There are powers that looks really handy in a fight. but only once, every fight. Is it a thing? For the power to only active... once? Or to allocate in Battle Tactics for any power used, to be only activated once per fight?

And while I expanded on this thought process for battle tactics. We all know the level of anima our characters have right?

Would an improvement to battle tactics being able to allocate how many times, and what powers are used EVERY fight.

So, Pi has 17 anima. Seems it would be beneficial if we could allocate in battle tactics more specifically;

Like:
Use first Poison 4 anima (13 left over)
Use second Poison 4 anima (9 left over)
Use Summon Sidhe 3 anima (6 left over)
Use Shadow Strike 3 anima (3 left over)
Use Summon Sidhe 3 anima (0 left over)

Powers depleted. Commence gun fight, sword *** kickings.

It seems more efficient than those vaguely obscure when anima is high, when it's low and all the time. Sometimes you have those set and it's like.. ummm k, why the HELL did it just do three hyper perceptions? That's just balls and not what I set. Or celerity a cazillion times but no Shadowstrike.

And if you have the relic that sets you to using powers first (very handy that) then you'd think you could like go like a crazy powah vampire and bang out all those powers before you go dirty Harry on the NPC?

Now, qualifier. I'm a crap gamer, but that's what my brain came up with. Thoughts?

Seems the battle tactics like they are - are way to weighted towards randomness. I don't mind the randomness as far as 'powers working against NPC' but Pi wouldn't activate a cazillion celerities... >.> That's just not efficient. But she WOULD activate Kick *** feral in battle and she'd activate another once before bringing down the mighty Sidhe

[Mircea]

Those things - throwing 15 poisons in a row (to go to exaggeration for the sake of example) don't take into account the NPC's reaction and actions in return. Say, you had it set for Deadeye and you got into a fight - are you going to Deadeye while at melee range? The current set of tactics options, while not without room for improvement, does allow room for adaptation within a fight. You're not going to be able to poison/poison/sidhe/sidhe/sidhe/enter melee in every fight you go into - particularly against enemies that do give you a run for your money. I imagine that these powers aren't instant castings, for a slow; not necessarily slow, but that they take a bit of time at least and focus which can be hard to come by in the mess of battle. So, would you keep trying to focus on a casting while getting sliced open or shot at? Unlikely. You'd fire/fight back and go again when an opportunity to do so opened up - hence the 'whenever possible' tactic option.

A prioritisation would be nifty. I've got a few set to whenever possible or use sometimes, but within that there are some I'd rather have used than others. So being able to set as whenever possible/priority 1/2/3 would be nice so that, should the circumstances of the battle allow, it would try to use my preferred power first, then the next best option for my tactical ideas and so on.

For feral mutation, etc, I find having them set to when anima is high to be helpful in not using them thrice in a fight. Those sort of one shot powers, however, it would be good to have it just... Built into the fight code that they only get used once... Though are we 100% sure that they don't stack bonuses if used repeatedly? I'm not sure what a monstrous monster would look like, mind...

[Mooncalf]

Isn't this a suggestion?

[Pi dArtois]

Well, it might be later depending in answers to questions, like as Cash asked, does Feral mutation stack? So by it activating twice mean Pi gets more? Cause if it doesn't stack, Pi just wasted 4 anima.

Is it possible to have an activate once setting?

This is more thinking out loud, which I would have done in chats last night to talk to people, but no one was around, so thread ness happened. These are questions a non-gamer RPer asks when trying to figure out grid side efficiencies :).

Might turn it into a suggestion later though. Depends. But I'm looking for people to poke holes in my logic first, like acash did, so I can let my brains percolate on it more.

What do you think David? (Oh and can you answer question please? )

(Thanks Cash, that's what I was looking for - let percolating commence)

[Remington Rothfelder]

The only issue I have with allocating things more specifically is that David knows the game better than us, and he could do the same with the NPCs, which could potentially make them more difficult to fight. Not less ( SorryDavid). I mean I get that it makes sense from an RP point of view, but since the changes would apply globally - it just seems like a pointless modification possibly until post-beta.

But to answer the question: No, you cannot specify that an ability is just used once. I generally set it to 'Use when Anima is High' if I only want an ability used once (though that's not a 100% guarantee). I would honestly just turn this into a suggestion though since that does seem to be what this topic is looking to do? I only say that because the question is easily answered by setting one's Battle Tactics to 'Full Reports' and then analyzing the readout. Unless I'm not understanding the premise properly (in which case, I apologize for derping).

Another thing you might do to get more powers in, is buy the tier 2 versions of those powers, which usually cost less anima to activate, leaving you more anima overall for either repeats (if you want to repeat) or other abilities.

[Pi dArtois]

Hrm before a suggestion though. The vital question is, do Powers used multiple times stack? Cause one answer would guarantee a suggestion, the other answer would guarantee not.

And the feedback about the other bits (like yours) would also help dictate the content of the suggestion too.

I came by this analysing the battle logs, just watching as Pi fought different Lionelli and thinking at the screen, NOOOOOo.. Why did you just use that power again! Then My brains started asking questions. And yes, good point about future NPCs. Hrm Hrm.

[Mordechai]

I use very few powers, 3 on everything, 4 against undead things feral mutation i have set to use only when anima high, as no one knows if it stacks, i figure getting at least one is good, shadowstrike and summon sihde i have set all the time, as they usually hit, and do real damage. against undead i add rigor mortise.

[Mooncalf]

Some powers do stack, yes, but maybe some of those logically shouldn't. Others, on the other hand, like Deadeye, don't stack. So yeah, the code could use some altering and new tactics should be added. It might be better to move this to bugs and treat it as something wrong with the code, as it'd get done sooner that way.

[Pi dArtois]

Moved as suggested

[Pi dArtois]

Just had another look at this, and I think Warlock Glove isn't doing what it's meant to do either. >.>