[0.9.105-PUBLIC#5231] Flight & Trip

[Theron]

Tested with Rough Leash.

Spoiler: Milk Thief

Trip doesn't remove her Flight. (She starts Flying when hit with a Melee weapon.)

Spoiler: Shalin Shaman

Her Flight move doesn't remove Trip. Can Trip either Lower Body or Upper Body. Both keep Flying. Should it do 200 damage to Lower, like breaking the Wings? But not prevent her from Flying again.
Bonus:

The Shalin Shaman lifts herself from the floor and gets her fur-covered paws back under herself.

She very clearly has bird talons.
She drops a crazy amount of money because both parts have 20K+2.5K Credits. She's a difficult encounter, but is she worth that much?

Spoiler: Storm Lancer

Only Flies for 1 turn, now? Used to be indefinite, unless you shot his Jetpack. His Jetpack move does not clear Trip.

Spoiler: Krymhilde

Her Jetpack move doesn't clear Trip. If she's already Flying, Trip doesn't remove it.

Spoiler: Zil Male

Doesn't remove Zil Male Flight, either. Not really important, since anything that can Trip him would probably defat him, but I thought I'd mention it.
You'd probably have to write something to get him back in the air, since it's a key part of his identity as an encounter.

 

[Jacques00]

Hopefully all fixed for the next release.

Any time a flight effect is triggered, it should now clear the tripped status effects. Similarly, any flying opponent who is tripped should now lose their flying ability.

Using a weapon that applies trip should no longer work on enemies that have trip immunity. If a trip-chance weapon connects with a target, and if the target is flying and the attacker isn't, the target's chances of avoiding the trip are doubled (making it harder to trip the target).

For the Shalin Shaman, her upper body is now immune to trip and stagger, though her lower body isn't. While she is tripped, her lower body cannot attack. Also, if she is ever tripped, her flight ability will be weighted higher in her combat AI (so she can clear the trip as fast as possible).

The Stormguard Lancer was using the wrong effect value for the jetpack. The recent update for flight effect handling (when Levitation was introduced) was ending it prematurely. That has been corrected and the lancer should now fly for the intended duration.

For now, any zil who starts off flying should now be immune to getting tripped. I agree that a re-flight scene would be nice to have, but I also don't see anything wrong with having them permanently flying if they aren't already defeated.

I think that should cover everything, but there may still be edge cases of certain abilities or opponents not following this logic.

 

[Theron]

For the Shalin Shaman, her upper body is now immune to trip and stagger, though her lower body isn't. While she is tripped, her lower body cannot attack. Also, if she is ever tripped, her flight ability will be weighted higher in her combat AI (so she can clear the trip as fast as possible).

Does this potentially break Gravity Flux->Geothermal Spike on the Shaman?

 

[Jacques00]

Does this potentially break Gravity Flux->Geothermal Spike on the Shaman?

It's mainly her upper half that has changed, so her lower half would be affected by those attacks as normal, I suppose. If the abilities were to affect both, I would probably remove her trip immunity, but that would swing back to the issue of being able to trip both parts again. Another solution would be to make her immune to trip entirely.

 

[Theron]

I mean Flight priority, if she clears Trip immediately, you can't get the auto-Crit. It might depend on when moves are chosen. If the priority is bumped the round after, it's not an issue, since the PC goes first.

It's not too big a deal for one enemy, but I wouldn't like it to become a pattern.

 

[Jacques00]

I mean Flight priority, if she clears Trip immediately, you can't get the auto-Crit. It might depend on when moves are chosen. If the priority is bumped the round after, it's not an issue, since the PC goes first.

Ah, I see. In that case, I'll reduce the weighting. It'll still get a slight increase from her being tripped, but by 2x instead of 10x.

I don't think very many opponents are set up to clear trip instantly, if at all. A potential issue may be more that enemies are not reacting to certain effects, like trip, blind, disarmed (especially this), etc.--though most of it is automated by the combat system, some enemies may have specific details that might result in oversights.

 

[Theron]

A potential issue may be more that enemies are not reacting to certain effects, like trip, blind, disarmed (especially this), etc.--though most of it is automated by the combat system, some enemies may have specific details that might result in oversights.

Do you want a list of enemies that Disarm doesn't do much (or anything) to? I did some investigation a while ago and found it to be a very disappointing effect.

 

[Jacques00]

Do you want a list of enemies that Disarm doesn't do much (or anything) to? I did some investigation a while ago and found it to be a very disappointing effect.

If you want to post it in another forum topic, sure--this would be useful for outlining during weekly developer meetings. From what I can foresee, the main problem solving for disarms is to either give the enemy disarm immunity (easiest choice) or adjusting their combat logic for when they are disarmed and write re-arming actions, if needed (a bit more involved). If you do write a new topic, feel free to make suggestions for change and I'll try to bring it up with the team.

 

[Theron]

If a trip-chance weapon connects with a target, and if the target is flying and the attacker isn't, the target's chances of avoiding the trip are doubled (making it harder to trip the target).

The new code makes Tripping Flying enemies while grounded with Trip weapons essentially impossible. Unless there's a huge difference between Steele and the target.

10: Barely possible
5 + 20 vs 10 + 15

20: Need at least 10-point advantage.
10 + 20 vs 20 + 15

75 (Implant) vs 65: Need at least 45 points on top of the implant.
37.5 + 20 vs 65 + 15

Most Trip weapons are Melee, if Steele can Fly, they can hit Flying targets anyway.
As-is, Hailstorm can't be used to knock enemies down to deal with them via Melee instead of Flying. At least, I assume that's the point of having Trip on a Ranged weapon because Tripped enemies have bonus Evasion vs Ranged.

 

[Jacques00]

The new code makes Tripping Flying enemies while grounded with Trip weapons essentially impossible. Unless there's a huge difference between Steele and the target.

Okay I've reverted the change and the chances should be as they were previously, more or less. The change should appear in the next release.

 

[Theron]

Similarly, any flying opponent who is tripped should now lose their flying ability.

0.9.106-PUBLIC#5280
Reversion is in, but still can't Trip any Flying enemies.
On Dhaal, using Rough Leah and Hailstorm. Can Trip Milk Thieves when they're grounded, but not when they're Flying.
Couldn't Trip Shamans, either (different character).
Something to do with the conditions of hasTripImmunity? I don't think CHANCE_APPLY_TRIP qualifies for 'ignoreFlying'.

 

[Jacques00]

Ah, it seems so. I thought I had hasTripImmunity() to not ignore flying enemies, but apparently not. Hopefully fixed for the next release.

 

[Theron]

Another complication: hasTripImmunity() is supposed to make the PC immune to 'most ground-based trips'. (Like the Vanae Tail Swipe.) Some specifically bypass it.

 

[Jacques00]

Another complication: hasTripImmunity() is supposed to make the PC immune to 'most ground-based trips'. (Like the Vanae Tail Swipe.) Some specifically bypass it.

I'm sorry, can you clarify what you mean? I am aware that some attacks do override the check, so it may be context-based if so.

 

[Theron]

I'm wondering if exempting Flying from Trip Immunity will cause NPC Trip attacks that are supposed to auto-miss if the PC is Flying to hit anyway. Removing the distinction from attacks that are flagged as can hit Flying.
Or am I misunderstanding what you're saying?

Hopefully, there will be a hotfix for the Tracer Rounds crash, and I can test.

 

[Jacques00]

Ah, hasTripImmunity() has two variants, one for taking flight into consideration and one were flight isn't considered. For the change, I had enabled the check to ignore flying (so the attack will apply to flying enemies, otherwise, trip will not affect flying enemies).