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==Intents== | ==Intents== | ||
The square at the bottom right of your UI | The square at the bottom right of your UI is called the "intent wheel". It looks a bit like this [link goes here]. On this intent wheel, you have four possible intents to choose from: Help, Disarm, Grab, and Harm. You can freely switch intents by hitting 0 on your numberpad, using your 1-2-3-4 keys to jump to a specific intent, or clicking on the intent you want to move to. You'll know which intent you're on because the intent which you are on is brighter than the others. | ||
==Help intent== | |||
Help intent is the default intent that you start on and has a green icon at the top right of the intent wheel, this intent is (largely) passive. If you click on someone with nothing in their hand, you'll help them up or give them a hug. Most items will still attack whatever you click however. If you walk on the same tile as someone, you'll pass right through them and move them back a tile if they are also on help intent, however, if both of you try to walk on the same tile, you may start shuffling between each other and would require you to change intent or move. | |||
==Disarm intent== | |||
Disarm intent is the second intent on the intent wheel, and has a blue icon at the bottom right of the intent wheel. While on disarm intent, you can attempt to disarm them, this has a 60% chance to make them drop the item in their current hand, and a 20% chance to knock them over and leave them stunned for a very small amount of time. On this intent, people cannot walk past you. | |||
==Grab intent== | |||
Grab intent is the third intent on the intent wheel, and has a yellow icon at the bottom left of the intent wheel. While on grab intent you can click someone with an empty hand to enter a passive grab, while in this state, the person grabbed can freely escape the grab by moving away, or otherwise do most things they normally could. If you press the grab button again in your hand slot, you can attempt to enter an active grab, when attempting to enter an active grab, you are able to throw the person of which you have grabbed. After you fully grab them, they can no longer easily escape the grab, and would need to actively fight you to get out of it. After you fully enter the active grab, you can attempt to enter a aggressive grab, which allows you to either hold them in a fireman's carry, or just grab them. When in this state, they are unable to escape normally without outside help. Finally, you can enter a kill grab which starts strangleling them, in this state they take respitory damages, and are fully unable to do anything. On this intent, people cannot walk past you. | |||
==Harm intent== | |||
Harm intent is the fourth intent on the intent wheel,and has a red icon at the top left of the intent wheel. While on harm intent, almost every item used in this state will just attack the selected target. While in this state and holding no item, you can punch people and objects, although this does almost no damage. When pointing at someone on harm intent, you point your weapon at them. You also gain a small chance to weaken people using some weapons, which is a short stun. Finally, all ranged weapons can be fired at point blank, rather than hitting them with the gun. On this intent, people cannot walk past you. | |||
///Fat WIP, going to fix grammer and spelling at a later date (probably like an hour or so from now) | ///Fat WIP, going to fix grammer and spelling at a later date (probably like an hour or so from now) |
Revision as of 17:35, 4 April 2022
this is where I post pages I'm working on rewriting, either HMU on discord if you wanna talk about it or simply add me in a talk page
GUIDE TO COMBAT:
"Assistant (As Captain) robusted the Captain with a mechanical toolbox!"
Also known as Robust/Robusting, jargon for engaging in the combat system. It's an (somewhat)ironic description. The SS13 Combat System is pretty quirky and allows for extreme experimentation, lax metas, and multiple combat styles, while also allowing you to get hit with a stunprod and instantly lose.
Intents
Your intent specifies what you want to do when you click on another player/mob. You can switch between these by click on the segments of on your HUD, or by using CTRL+Q or CTRL+E.
- Help - The help intent is the default intent. You'll shake people or give someone a hug if you aren't holding an item in your hand, or perform CPR on them if they're suffocating. You'll still hit people with most items if you're holding one though. You also pass through other people when moving through them.
- Disarm - A defensive intent. You'll attempt to disarm someone of their weapon or push them over for a very short while. It's only about a 60% chance to disarm, and a 20% chance to push them over. People cannot run past you with this intent.
- Grab - You'll grab someone passively at first, as shown by . Moving will be slowed if you try to drag them around, so for transport, pulling is much faster. They can escape this at any time by simply walking away, so you might want to incapacitate them first. Clicking on them again will grab them aggressively, shown by . This will allow you to put them on a table to make them lie down (which will incapacitate them for a bit), it will also allow you to throw people or other gripable objects around around. After the grab bar fills, they'll be unable to escape this grab. After a short cool down, clicking again will grab them by the neck. After yet another cooldown, you can then click on the kill icon on your HUD once to start strangling them. The icon will start flashing, indicating you have started to strangle them. People whilst being strangled are fairly defenceless, so without outside intervention there's not much they can do. People cannot run past you with this intent. You can let go of someone at any time by using the drop button.
- Harm - This intent does NOT make you do more damage with weapons. If you have a baton (Ie, stun baton) however, you'll beat your target (causing damage) in addition to stunning them. With an empty hand you'll punch people for around 5 brute damage, and have a small chance to weaken people, which will stun them for quite a while. You'll also fire your weapons at point-blank, dealing much more damage.//this appears to be incorrect, and that you still just fucking punch them, need someone to clarify this People cannot run past you with this intent.
Melee vs Ranged
- Throwing some items to the target will deal damage, but you need to pick up the weapon once you've thrown it. Some weapons will also stick to the target. Some items, such as spears, deal more damage when thrown.
- Other ranged weapons such as firearms have a slight chance to miss //What? I'm pretty sure this isn't the case, I deadass looked in the code and it seems to be total bullshit//, but you can fire at at a range in which melee users can't attack. But certain items and abilities can block or even deflect the projectile that is fired from a firearm.
Ranged - Energy vs Ballistic
- There are two common types of firearms in this game, Energy weapons (Such as Laser Guns) that can deal Burn damage and Ballistic weapons (Such as the Riot Shotgun) that can deal brute damage. Choose the weapon needed for the current situation.
- Unlike Ballistic weapons, Lasers pass through glass, making it effective against targets taking cover on glass.
- But most Energy weapons require a charger to charge the weapon's internal cell, which is not flexible at some situations. A few energy weapons have an internal self-recharging cell, allowing it to recharge over time.
- Ballistic weapons on the other hand can be reloaded by inserting its respective clip/shell to the weapon, which can often be done in the middle of combat to keep up pressure.
Combat Tips
Attacking
- Aim for the head. Knock outs when aiming for the head last longer.
- If they have a helmet, aim for the chest. If they have body armor too, aim for the legs or arms.
- Click repeatedly, but don't spam. Try to make your clicks precise, like firing a semi-automatic rifle.
- Any object is usually better than your fists. Fire extinguishers especially.
- Screwdrivers and forks have a special blinding attack when aiming for the eyes, but it doesn't work if their face is covered. //guh, fuck this so bad
- Harm intent is probably your best bet, however making an opening move with disarm to get you a few seconds of free attacks will make the difference in an even matchup, and potentially end the combat early if you brought a strong weapon.
// I'M KEEPING THIS HERE CUZ I'M ANGRY, THIS IS HORRIBLE ADVICE, I WANT YOU ALL TO READ IT, AND UNDERSTAND WHY I'M GUTTING THIS
- Aim for the right body part for the right situation, sometimes you might want to aim for the legs if you need to slow someone down, or the hands if you need them to drop their weapon! Remember, you can always still hit a different body part, you are just more likely to hit the one you are targeting!
- It's good practice to aim for unarmored areas, that armor could make your damage weaker
- Intent matters, if you need to get out of an area extremely quickly, you might want to go to help intent so that you can walk by people, or maybe use harm intent if you need to push someone out of the way
Defending
- Run away.
- If they're too close, disarm, then run away.
- If you can't run, aim for the head to get a knock out and then run away.
- If they give chase, throw objects at them. Some objects, such as metal rods or floor tiles do extra damage when thrown.
- Stun them, or otherwise attempt to disable them.
- While running, click doors that you can open to try to trick them, making them think you ran a different way.
- Hiding in lockers sometimes works. If they fell for the point above, just find a locker in a corner and most people miss it.
- Wear armor that is weak to the opponent's weapon. If they're using a gun, wear a bulletproof vest.
// again fuck this, might as well take the controller away from them and just greentext for them
- Running away is always an option, you can lose the fight but win the war.
- There are many potent forms of armor you can wear to help you take less damage (Security armor for example), or something like shields, which give you a block chance against many forms of damage.
- Sometimes, you can trade blows while running away, try to slow them down so you can escape!
- There are plenty of good hiding spots around the station, see if you can use them to your advantage.
The Way of The Robust
Many spacemen dismiss themselves as "unrobust" and "weak" And, by all means, that's true, for you're unrobust when you believe you're unrobust with no way to improve, the ambition and cunning to improve, is robustness in its own right, and this may just help you.
- You know what a fair fight is? The one in which you a 50% chance of being thrown off an external airlock. Avoid fair fights, Things that would be considered as "advantages" that would make a fight "unfair" -to your side or the opposing party- shall be discussed below.
- You know what's more robust than one space man? two space men, but hey, what's even stronger? well, another member, safety is always in numbers, if you don't defeat your enemy, revel as he isn't able to constrict all of you, drag each other when you've lost the battle, or gank your opponent to submission. By all means possible, get numbers, changelings working together, security officers patrolling together. all double their combat capabilities.
- ENLARGE your game screen, resize it to be bigger, you want your enemies sprites LARGE that you can click them easier, also, your monitor may be able to support virtual resolutions or something, which may also help.
- Click and do not get Clicked, Combat in one sentence, you get clicked? you lost. It's here it must be said, moving randomly, and moving quickly, are all very strong traits to have, AVOID Duffel bags at all costs, they carry a motion debuff that's extremely oppressing, Eat and stay full, if possible, utilize chemicals like Hydrocodone, which destroy motion penalties incurred from damage.
- Play more, Fight more. It's a truth, that as of the date this is being written, it's second-nature to call people on Medium RP-High RP servers "Unrobust" but, why? Well, pretty straight-forward: Not much fights happen. You just can't engage in fights daily... HERE. Did you try Light RP servers? Their fights are way more eventful, with little RP needed to engage a non round-ending fist/toolbox fight, I suggest playing on other servers anyways, as it enriches your SS13 Experience overall. the diversity in this game is too large to not be explored. REMEMBER: READ THE RULES OF SERVERS YOU PLAY IN. this isn't an invitation to grief other servers, grief is not tolerated anywhere, read server rules. Always.
- Ranged Fighting- Is generally actually LESS fatal than melee fighting, the reason is: accuracy, when in range, it's easier to flee when shot at with lethal fire, it's also easier to dodge Disabler shots, but shooting other spacemen is hard, so you'd say, but in a nutshell, you "can" get good at it, to a degree, if you follow some of these tips:
* Lead your shots- If your opponent isn't static, ie, not moving, Do not shoot where he is, shoot in his general direction, UNLESS he just arrived to the point you're clicking him at, remember that projectile travelling time plays a factor, as a rule of thumb, unless very close to each other, your opponent can move one tile before being hit when you fire. * The Balance of Moving and shooting - Is hard to master, when you stay and shoot, you'll have more chances of hitting your opponent, but same goes for him, remember that if you both stay in front of each other counts as a type of Fair fighting, And you know from the first point that you shouldn't take part in this, but the question is: "I can't shoot while moving, but I'll get shot if I stay at one place, what do?" Well, you just take the gambit, you won't get better from being afraid of taking the risk anyways, and shooting and moving is a form of robustness, remember? and how would you acquire this without doing it a lot? Be bold. * Don't panic- A shot didn't land? Well, shooting another in the exact same second without changing your mouse cursor position? won't land either, Think of this: When would you be more likely to land the hit? When you've thought through your opponent's movement, When you shoot in the same moment, you're just more likely to miss, if you miss a shot, re-think the situation, and begin plotting another shot, Spraying and praying? doesn't work when the ammo in the game is generally constricting. * Shoot Vertical and Horizontal- Self Explanatory, Diagonal hits don't always... hit, they require what I've said above, your opponent is moving, and you'll have to change where you're pointing, but when shooting horizontal, it's just better, I also suggest that, when you get on the same tile column or row, you immediately shoot, giving your opponent to time to dodge such shot, Very robust when used.
- Know your weapons- straight forward, do you know the conditions in which a pepper spray downs your opponent? if not or if you're incorrect, you just don't use the pepper spray, you don't know how many shots are in a certain type of Energy gun? You try it before you use it, how quickly does an Advanced Energy Gun take to refill? you'd do well to know before using it... just saying... how much does a chainsaw deal in damage? Etc. etc. that examples are endless as weapons are, just know what you're using and this is a net edge if your opponent doesn't know his weapon.
- Stealth: 100- Crazy Idea: don't throw your grenades, activate it, put it in a spare box in your backpack (or Satchel if you're taking this section seriously) then drop the box, will most of the time get people who didn't see it before, nice, right? Well, that's how SS13 combat works, getting the jump on someone IS winning, Sleepy pens are one thing that can down anyone who's not an IPC, if your opponent is moving towards you and disarming you, move back and drop a slippery item, that's why clowns are robust, you just don't expect them to down you THIS easily, remember this: If your opponent doesn't know he's your opponent... he's going down easily, undercover cops have HUGE potential.
- Melee Combat- See this video to know how it works, it's sarcastic, yes, but this is actually how you should fight in melee... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRPBEC8hWhE
- Fight or Flight, let both be available, minimize the chances of you losing, but even more important, minimize the chances of losing AND not being able to leave, fights in places where you don't have access to? no. Fighting with a vampire who can stun you from a distance AND negate a stun immediately WITHOUT any numerical advantage? Hell no.
- Cycle intents- Very robust if you get this going, in hotkey mode you have buttons for intents, the numbers (not the numpad, though) from 1-4 correspond to intents, cycle between them and remember this
* Help intent is a must when a group, you don't want to push your mates away, do you? * Disarm intent is very robust, provided you have melee combat experience, seldom would anyone survive this, the greatest of officers got disarmed by assistants. * Grab intent... very peculiar, but there is one thing, you can get an instant aggressive grab in hotkey mode if you're fast enough to click your opponent and press the activation key (Either Z or Y) from here, you have good options, clicking a table applies a horrendous stun, Very good, tabling is generally regarded as one of the more robust unarmed moves that exist. OR you could throw them at another opponent, or literally anyone, this applies a short stun to both, enough to flee the battle, but also enough to take what they were holding in their hands, or generally having a second to think, look at the surroundings, and remember, most thing you can hold, deal more damage higher than your hand does. * Harm intent... Only useful when you've downed your enemy and have no weapon, Harmbatoning, but if doesn't increase damage dealt, it does block enemies paths, but then I'd suggest you take disarm intent instead, and then put your weapon (Quick Equip, E in hotkey mode) to put your weapon anywhere possible, and then engage in a "Fair" fight in disarm intent, down your opponent, they get your weapon back on and deal some damage.
- Stun first- Winners aren't the ones who dealt the most damage, nor are they the ones who took the least damage, if you're cuffed and someone is grabbing you, you're as good as dead, cuffing someone is almost always better than hitting them (Exceptions when your weapon STUNS while it hits, or has very high damage it drops people down from pain, like a chainsaw, and double-bladed energy sword, and the notorious .357 revolvers, Crippling them in the first shot, critting and dropping them on the second, and the third is just mercy at that point) But you get the point, your opponent is easier to beat down when he's ... down, you know what's better by this correct logic? Preventing your opponent from getting up or putting a fight. Cuffs? A godsend, just make sure your stun is long enough before cuffing the opponent, you know stun times of things.... right?
- Knowing the time- A very little detail, but very good, like the aforementioned point, do you know the time your opponent will be down in? the wiki lacks info on stun times (At the moment) So, the only way is by trial and error, a hard way with plenty of fallibilities. but.. it works.
- HOTKEY MODE IS A MUST, enable it by pressing the " Tab " Key, and look the guides to control, as they're crucial, knowing what to do is one thing, and doing it is entirely another thing, mainly speed is the factor here, and Hotkey mode helps with this.
- The Ethics of Robustness- There is a moral code That's unknown by us lesser beings, but it's believed robust entities have a certain code
* AFK players are the same as SSD players, maybe server rules don't always agree on this, but attacking someone who's AFK... is an evil act, and robust beings, are cunning, but by no means dishonorable. * Kill only when needed, but then don't prevent cloning, allowing lesser beings to play is just in itself. * Not all of the moral code is known, but mortals are free to ponder what may it contain.
//// I WILL REWRITE ALL OF THIS, IT'S FUCKING PAINFUL TO READ, SHIT FORMATTING A N D CRINGY
Expect to be the one to die.
Types of damage
Stuns
These are one of the common "damage" types you'll see in this game, a stun applies immediently on hit, knocks you down, and then renders you incapacitated for the durration of the stun. When stunned, you are unable to perform any actions for the durration of the stun, however, someone can help you up if you're on the floor stunned. Certain items can reduce this stun timer such as the adrenaline implants. Noteable items which cause a stun are turrets (which shoots [link the electrode section here] when set to nonlethal), stunbatons, and the syndicate chainsaw. Very few ranged stuns exist in this current state of the game, and of them, very few are accessable to the crew.
Stamina
This is the most common non-lethal damage type. Stamina projectiles (often characterized by a blue laser projectile) deal a certain amount of stamina damage based off the weapon firing them. When shot with a disabler, you'll notice your healthhud interface icon drop in health, however, you didn't actually take any permenate damage from that. When you are hit enough times with a weapon that deals stamina damage, you go into "stam crit (Stamina critical condition)". Stam crit is a state where you are fully incompacitated, and unlike a stun, people cannot help you up in this state, you must wait until you start automatically healing off your stamina damage through waiting to get out of stam crit, after you get out of stam crit, you will be slowed,eventually, you'll heal off the stamina damage to the point where you can walk normally. IMPORTANT, stamina damage does not actually deal temperary damages, you will need to still deal the damages you normally would to kill someone EVEN if they are in stamcrit. A noteable weapon that uses disabler beams would be the security [link disabler here].
Stamina VS. Stuns
It might seem odd, but stamina and stuns are two different effects, this will state the primary differences between them
STAMINA
- Damage is healed off at a fixed rate over time
- When in stamina crit, you cannot be helped up in any way
- Only effected by things that heal/deal stamina damage
- Disabler beams can go through windows
Stuns
- Healed off in "Stun cycles" (2 second intervals, the amount of cycles something stuns for is configureable)
- Only effected by things that heal specifically stuns
- Can be helped up by other people after being stunned
- Electrodes cannot go through solid but transparent objects
Lethal Damage Types
Brute
Brute damage is an extremely common damage type in this game, most melee items deal brute damage alongside balistics. Brute damage is seen as brusing when examining someone. This damage type can be fixed with a verity of healing chemical, such as saline glucose or have a brute automender applied to you. When you apply brute damage to someone, a veritiy of secondary effects can occure, there is a chance they can develop internal bleeding, break one of their bones, have one of their internal organs take damage, or have the targeted limb fall off entirely.
Burn
Burn damage is extremely common as well. Items such as a lit welding tool and energy guns deal burn damage. Most burn damage comes from lasers, which are a red beam that are fired out of energy guns. Burn damage can be fixed with a little bit of ointment or a burn automender. Burn has only one special effect, after someone takes 300 burn damage they enter a state called "husked", in this "husked" state they become signifigenty harder to revive, and lose all recogniseable traits on their body. Atmospheric conditions can also deal burn damage, such as when you are extreme cold, extremely hot, or are stuck in a firey area.
Toxin
Toxin damage is a bit rarer than the other damage types, and primary comes from sources of venom such as cyinide, or extreme alcahol posioning. Toxin damage can be fixed by taking a number of chems, such as charcoal. When you take toxin damage, your liver may slowly take damage itself, you'll probably notice this due to the sharp pain you feel in your groin, and you might even throw up, which stuns for a short while and causes you to drop your weapons. lots of biohazards have the ability to deal toxin damage, so it might be a good idea to grab a pill or two for yourself.
Respatory
Respatory damage is extremely common, but it shouldn't be if you are aware of how to combat it. Respatory damage is commonly accumulated through a lack of breathable air, often due to a breach in space or it being replaced with something else. In your bag you have an item called "the emergency box", this holds a epipen of ephedrine, which is helpful if someone is having a heart attack, a emergency oxgen tank, and a breath mask so that you can properly use the emergency oxygen tank, finally, it contains an emergency glowstick if you need some quick lights. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to go into an area with a lack of breathable air, just take that mask and tank out and use them. Respatory damage can be fixed by simply staying in an area with breathable air or taking a chemical such as salbutamol. When in critical condition, you take large amounts of respatory damage as well.
Cellular
Cellular damage is the rarest form of damage that you might encounter in this game. The main ways you can deal it is through xenobiology's slimes or through a decloner. Unlike all other forms of damage, there is no really accessable fix for someone outside of medical. The most common way to fix this damage type is through the use of a cryogenic pod in medical. Most of the time you will never see someone actually have Cellular damage outside of xenobio, and the decloner is general reserved for extreme situations.
What damage type should I use?
Every single damage type in the game has it's pros and cons, and it's largely dependent on the situation to choose to use one over the other, so it's good pratice to assess what you are going to be dealing with, and plan accordingly.
Brute damage
Pros
- Has a plethora of other effects that can occure, such as IB for slow damage over time or a broken bone making a limb useless.
- Often high damage output
- Normally uses mags or speedloaders for ammo, so swapping types on the go is helpful
- A little specific to heal
Cons
- You can (and probably will) run out of ammo
- Resisted by armor very well
- Often times costly to use effectively, and sometimes you just can't get more ammo
Burn damage
Pros
- Husking!
- Lasers pass through windows, so you can use them for cover against a brute damage user
- Resisted by armor very poorly
- Little cost to use, for most burn weapons, any recharger will recharge them
Cons
- You need to use a recharger to recharge most of these weapons, so if you don't have access to one it can be frusterating to recharge them
- The secondary effects are less useful than brute
- Generally easier to fix, someone with a few packs of ointment can easily fix the burns that they were caused
Toxins
Pros
- It takes time to fix effectively
- Mostly caused through reagents, so spreading it through food can be easy
- Pratically requires you take a trip to medical to have those reagents purged from you
Cons
- Tied to very few ranged weapons, so it can be extremely hard to actually get someone to take a poison
- Charcoal, although hard to get for the majority of the station (without hacking a vendor), is at excess in medical
- It's slow working, often it takes time for someone to die, which can prove to be a problem
Respatory
Pros
- Extremely easy to cause, simply breaking a window to space is enough
- It can rarely make revival extremely annoying
Cons
- Extremely fixable, salub can be found in some emergency oxygen lockers and everyone has a oxygen tank in their emergency box
- No easy way to cause it without affecting more than one person
Cellular
Pros
- Extremely hard to fix
Cons
- Extremely limited ways to cause it
- Really sucks for the person you are causing the damage to, it's seen as a last option for this
How do I take less damage?
Now, because we know what can damage you, lets see how we can prevent you from taking that damage
ARMOR
Armor is an extremely powerful tool for preventing damage and is rather accessable, let's use a peice of security armor for example
This armor has armor values of: MELEE = 30, BULLET = 30, LASER = 30, ENERGY = 10, BOMB = 25, BIO = 0, RAD = 0, FIRE = 50, ACID = 50
What this means is that the security armor only takes 70% damage from Melee, Balistics, and Lasers. It takes only 90% damage from electric attacks. This armor also makes you only take 50% damage from acid and fire and 75% from bomb damages. Finally, you get no defense against biological contaiments and radiation.
Security armor also only protects the upper body and lower body, so if someone aims for other areas of your body, the armor will not apply.
SHIELDS
Shields are a powerful way to play defensively, most shields have a passive 50% chance to block any incoming attack when held in your hand. These shields also often have secondary effects, such as being unable to be pushed while holding a riot shield. This doesn't make shields uncounterable however, items such as e-bolas go through shields. Remember! you still need to hold the shield, so you won't be able to use two handed weapons with one!
What are the most important parts of combat
Combat itself has three primary factors tied to it, Mechanical knowledge, Situational awareness, and Physical advantages.
What's Mechanical Knowledge?
Mechanical Knowledge of the games systems and how they interact with each other. It's the understanding of what items do, and how those items interact with other items. Mechanical Knowledge helps with preperation in combat and positioning, and is an extremely important part of combat.
How can I improve my Mechanical Knowledge?
Research is an excelent way to improve your Mechanical Knowledge, the wiki (You're on it!) is a great source, asking knowledgeable players in the community by reaching out through the paradise discord is also an excelent option, the SS13 paradise codebase is also open source, so you can also directly look at the code itself and learn through that. However, the most effective way to learn Mechanic Knowledge is to play the game and experiment, do something crazy and see if it works. You can always press F1 to Mhelp in game to ask for tips!
What's Situational Awareness?
Situational Awareness is the ability to understand a situation based off the provided context within that situation. Situational Awareness can drastically improve your positioning during combat (one of the most important parts of paracombat), improve your understanding of when and where to escilate, and when you should go for critical plays in combat. Without situational awarness, adaptaion becomes near impossible and you'll lose out on alot of possible advantages you could have gained.
How can I improve my Situational Awareness?
The most important thing to understand about Situational Awareness is to understand that it's *situational*. At no point are two situations going to be exactly the same, and it's up to you, the player, to fill in those gaps for yourself. The most effective way to improve your situational awareness is to play the game and be willing to branch out into new ideas, at no point should you feel that the best course of action is to just do the same plan over and over again (Hint: Not only is this thought process entirely incorrect, it's boring). Remember, it doesn't matter if you fail, it matters if you are able to assess your failulers and improve off them.
What's a Physical Advantage?
Physical advantages are often seen by (bad) players as what makes you robust or not, aside from this being totally false as it's just a part of combat, not all of it so if you can't keep up in this department, you're fine. Some Physical Advantages include good internet access also known as low ping, good physical health, and a good setup for playing SS13.
How can I improve my Physical Advantages?
First of all
Don't
It might seem odd, but Physical advantages can be almost entirely negated by being clever. Decently high ping? Buffer your inputs so that they occure at the first possible opertunity when you can move. Lack of a good setup? Assess what you lack and remap your controls accordingly (You can totally play this game with a trackpad, just takes a little practice). Health related issues? Find a playstyle that suits you (If you have hand pain, you can always just play a little slower, nobody needs to be a robustness god). MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, REMEMBER! This is an RP game, combat is part of it, but you are *never* forced into it, it's OK to not want to do combat, and most of the time you are never forced to.
Yeah but really important note here, you don't need to do some shit like buy a new PC or anything, I prefer to play with a trackball myself, weird stuff is fine.
Targeting interface
That funky little think at the bottom right of your UI is the targeting system, you click on a part of their body and well, it targets that part of the body when you attack. Targeting specific parts of someones body during combat can be quite helpful and have various uses. You have a random chance of missing that targeted part of their body, however, and just hitting another part.
Head: Damages organs and bones in the head, if you take too much damage to your head, you'll become unrecognizeable and require plastic surgery
Upper Body: Damages organs and bones in the upper body
Lower Body: Damages organs and bones in the lower body
Arms: Damages bones in the arms, if the bone breaks, when using items in their respective hands you take a small amount of damage
Hands: Damages bones in the hands, if the bone breaks in the hands, that hand with quickly drop anything picked up in that hand
Legs: Damages bones in the legs, if the bone breaks, slowdown is applied to movement
Feet: Damages bones in the feet, if the bone breaks, they are forced into a walk speed, after their other foot breaks, they are rendered immobile
Mouth: Damages bones in the head
Eyes: Damages bones in the head, damages eyes severely
There is another big bonus to targeting specific limbs, and that's armor. Some armor pieces like the security armor only covers certain parts of the body (Upper body and Lower body) so if you aim for a part of the body that isn't protected by armor, the damage you deal is not affected by that piece of armor.
Intents
The square at the bottom right of your UI is called the "intent wheel". It looks a bit like this [link goes here]. On this intent wheel, you have four possible intents to choose from: Help, Disarm, Grab, and Harm. You can freely switch intents by hitting 0 on your numberpad, using your 1-2-3-4 keys to jump to a specific intent, or clicking on the intent you want to move to. You'll know which intent you're on because the intent which you are on is brighter than the others.
Help intent
Help intent is the default intent that you start on and has a green icon at the top right of the intent wheel, this intent is (largely) passive. If you click on someone with nothing in their hand, you'll help them up or give them a hug. Most items will still attack whatever you click however. If you walk on the same tile as someone, you'll pass right through them and move them back a tile if they are also on help intent, however, if both of you try to walk on the same tile, you may start shuffling between each other and would require you to change intent or move.
Disarm intent
Disarm intent is the second intent on the intent wheel, and has a blue icon at the bottom right of the intent wheel. While on disarm intent, you can attempt to disarm them, this has a 60% chance to make them drop the item in their current hand, and a 20% chance to knock them over and leave them stunned for a very small amount of time. On this intent, people cannot walk past you.
Grab intent
Grab intent is the third intent on the intent wheel, and has a yellow icon at the bottom left of the intent wheel. While on grab intent you can click someone with an empty hand to enter a passive grab, while in this state, the person grabbed can freely escape the grab by moving away, or otherwise do most things they normally could. If you press the grab button again in your hand slot, you can attempt to enter an active grab, when attempting to enter an active grab, you are able to throw the person of which you have grabbed. After you fully grab them, they can no longer easily escape the grab, and would need to actively fight you to get out of it. After you fully enter the active grab, you can attempt to enter a aggressive grab, which allows you to either hold them in a fireman's carry, or just grab them. When in this state, they are unable to escape normally without outside help. Finally, you can enter a kill grab which starts strangleling them, in this state they take respitory damages, and are fully unable to do anything. On this intent, people cannot walk past you.
Harm intent
Harm intent is the fourth intent on the intent wheel,and has a red icon at the top left of the intent wheel. While on harm intent, almost every item used in this state will just attack the selected target. While in this state and holding no item, you can punch people and objects, although this does almost no damage. When pointing at someone on harm intent, you point your weapon at them. You also gain a small chance to weaken people using some weapons, which is a short stun. Finally, all ranged weapons can be fired at point blank, rather than hitting them with the gun. On this intent, people cannot walk past you.
///Fat WIP, going to fix grammer and spelling at a later date (probably like an hour or so from now)