Combat Mechanics

A Fight (Arena League and Tournaments)

The fights are always 1 vs 1 and all gladiators start with their full stamina that is derived from their constitution value. In the early stages of the closed Alpha and Beta we might employ a compensation factor on the player's stamina to make up for character development differences. The fight is held in fight rounds and whenever at the end of a round a gladiator reaches 0 stamina, he has lost the fight. If both players reach 0 stamina in the same round the fight ends in a draw. All players return recovered and healthy from their fights - the gladiators will not die in regular battles.

Before the fight is starting, the players have already chosen which gladiators they use. They are being presented the opponent gladiator (stats, skills and last class choices) and then both players decide secretly in which available class they want to face the new opponent. This is already an important tactical element to probably gain an early advantage countering the class the opponent might chose.

At the beginning of a round each players secretly chooses a skill. Most skills come with a stamina cost. This is dependent on the level the player has leveled the skill (see: Skill System). The skills stats are fixed, but the skill costs increase below level 3 and decrease above level 3. Simple skills, as most of the classless skills, cost quite few stamina. So do blocks and evasion skills. This incentivizes players to predict costly moves from their opponents and let them drain their stamina doing so.

Skill Modifiers

There are two modifiers involved:

1. Skill Difficulty Modifier
2. Skill Damage Modifier

Both modifiers default to 100 and are set in percent. The skill difficulty modifier changes how easy or difficult it is to execute a skill while the skill damage modifier is changing the damage applied.

Damage Mitigation and Prevention

The are four ways of mitigation and prevention of damage:

1. Evading

If a player is executing an evasion skill and succeeds, there is no damage and no harmful condition applied to the evading player. 

Horizontally attacking skills counter evasion and cannot be evaded at all. They bear the keyword: horizontal.

2. Blocking

If a player is executing a blocking skill and succeeds, the damage mitigation of the blocking skill is applied. The block's effectiveness is given in percent. Multiple origins of damage mitigation can add up and are cumulative. Most blocking skills block much less than 100%, so some of the damage usually gets through.

Vertical attacking skills counter blocking and prevent any damage mitigation through blocking. They have the keyword: vertical

3. Initiative

When two players both use an attack skill and both succeed, an Initiative roll is performed. The roll is dependent on both players speed values. If a player has twice the speed than his opponent he is twice likely to win the initiative roll. The player that looses the initiative roll is still attacking but receives a 30% damage reduction (applied as damage mitigation for the other player).

4. Armor

The armor is dependent on the wearer's class and gives an absolute damage prevention coming into account after other damage calculations are applied. At the early stages of the game the armor will be the same for every class. At later stage the armor will also be dependent on items equipped. The Murmillo generally has the most armor - the Retiarus the least.

Skill Rolls

Every time a skill is executed the game makes a random roll for a number between 1 and 100 to and compares it with the player's target value. If it is lower or the same than the player's target value the skill is executed successfully. In case of an attack skill, the attack definitely hits.

Non-Attack Skills

Every skill that is not using a weapon is a non-Attack skill. As any other skill activation a roll (1-100) is performed and compared against the target value.

To calculate the Target Value the primary attribute value is taken and multiplied by the Skill Difficulty Modifier. If the skill has a secondary attribute the first and second values are taken into account in a 60% / 40% ratio. That means:

 Target Value = Primary Skill Value * Skill Difficulty Modifier

 Target Value = (60% * Primary Skill Value  + 40% * Secondary Skill Value ) * Skill Difficulty Modifier

 Example: Gladiator has 70 Strength and 60 Agility, the skill executed has a Skill Difficulty Modifier of 130%.

 The equation is:

 Target Value = (60% * 70 + 40% * 60) * 130% = 85,8 %

 That is the chance of activating the skill.

Attack Skills

If the executed skill is an attack skill the weapons proficiency skill of that weapon used is taken into account and multiplied with the previous term.

Target Value = Primary Skill Value * Skill Difficulty Modifier * Weapon Skill Value

and vice versa with the secondary skill.

Lets take the example from above and give the gladiator a weapon skill of 70. The example would be:

Target Value = (60% * 70 + 40% * 60) * 130% * 70% = 60 %

Status Effects

There are many status effects present in the game. There are positive effects "Buffs" and negative effects "Debuffs". Most status effects have a default number of rounds that they apply.

Negative effects:

• On the ground (-75% Speed, -50% Agility, 1 round)
• Bleeding (-4 Stamina / round, 3 rounds)
• Dizzy (-50% Agility, 2 rounds)
• Stunned (-50% Speed, -50% Agility, 2 rounds)
• Blinded (-50% Agility, -30% Strength, -30% Speed)
• Surprised (-50% Strength, -50% Speed, 1 round)
• Out of Breath (-40% Strength, -40% Speed, 1 round)
• Hopeless (-30% Speed, -30% Willpower, -30% Agility, 1 round)
• Captured (-80% Speed, -80% Agility)
• On a platform (Retiarius only)

Positive Effects

• Enraged (-20% Agility, +40% Strength, 2 rounds)
• Focused (+50% Agility)
• In Flow (+50% Speed)
• Strengthened (+50% Strength)

Status Effects Application

Some skills have a percentage of applying a status effect on successful completion to oneself (buff) or an enemy (debuff). Most buffs are applied with a 100% chance on successful skill activation. Many attack skills have secondary effects that have a designated chance of also applying any negative effects to the opponent.

In Partum the management of status effects is a very important game aspect: to find the right moment when to apply a buff - or to react when the opponent is in a buffed state.

Morale

Morale is another factor players need to account. The Morale value is matched based from 0-200. The battle starts at 100 Morale and is the same value for both players. Each time a player makes a successful attack that is not evaded he gains + x Morale (that is equivalent to -x for the other player).

As long as the Morale is <= 30 the affected player gains the negative effect Hopeless. If the Morale drops to 10 and beyond the players gains instead Enraged which is a last resort (de)buff, having positive and negative effects.

This game mechanic punishes players who only block for a long time. Note that, the Provocateur class makes heavy use of the morale principle to gain an advantage over his enemy.
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