Combat means killing monsters. There are countless beings in the realm, ranging
from the smallest worm to gods. Killing a worm does not yield much experience,
nor does it bear any loot, and only takes a few seoncds. On the other end, slaying
gods require full party of seasoned elite fighters, can take hours or fail alltogether,
but bears great rewards.
Killing (i.e. making damage)
Harming monsters can be done in various ways. This guide will cover the basics, e.g.
melee damage, skills and spells.
In ZombieMUD, combat is done in rounds. Each round lasts four seconds. During this,
all combatants hit with melee damage, use skills and cast spells.
Melee
Melee damage means hitting with your fists, or currently wielded weapon(s). Spellcasters
need not bother their heads with this as they are unable to hit a tree in a forest, but
for fighter types melee damage is important.
Do not confuse melee damage with skills and spells. Melee damage will happen once every round
even if you are concentrating on a spell or skill.
You can hit a monster with up to three times per round with one weapon, or six with two.
The amount of hits are based on skills 'attack', 'doublehit' and 'whirlwind attack'.
A seasoned member of the Fighter's guild can hit up to four or seven.
To hit an enemy, you murst first succeed in the 'attack' skill. To hit a second time,
you must succeed in the 'doublehit' skill. Third time, 'whirlwind attack'. It is also
important to have the respective weapon skill (e.g. 'weapon skill 1h sword' if you
are using a one-handed sword) and the 'leftwield' skill, if you are wielding two weapons.
You can set the verbosity of battle (how much text you receive from melee damage)
with the 'battle' command, type 'help battle' in the game.
Making damage with melee will drain your fatigue. More on this below.
Skills
Offensive skills can be used against monsters to harm them. Skills vary from newbie skills
such as 'kick' to complex skills such as archery. Certain types of skills require
certain types of weapons, i.e., you can not 'slash' with a weapon of type blugeon.
To use an offensive skill against a monster, e.g. 'kick', type 'use kick at <monster>'.
If you are already in combat, it will suffice to type 'use kick', and you will automatically
target the current opponent with your skill.
Typing 'help skill <skillname>' will show you details of the skill.
Skill usage can take several rounds depending on the skill and your skill percent. For some
skills the duration can be random.
A skill's effectiveness is based on your stats. You can see the affecting attributes
in the skill help.
Often a skill's effectiveness is also based on other skills. For instance, the sword skill 'slash'
will gain effectiveness if its user has knowledge of the skills 'bladed fury' and 'whirlwind slash'.
All skills can fail. The lower the skill percent, the higher chance it will fail. Even skills
over 100% can fail at times.
You can stop a skill usage by typing 'cast stop'. Also moving around will break you skill attempt.
Skill usage can be interrupted in various ways, such as stunning, or spells and other specials.
The damage type of skills is usually dependent on the weapon you are wielding. See more on damage types
and resistances in the Advanced topics section.
Fatigue
Dealing damage will drain your stamina and cause fatigue. The lower your stamina, the less damage your skills and melee
will deal. Note that stamina is drained only by melee damage and skills, spells do not affect it.
Stamina can be gained by regenerating between battles. You can see your current fatigue by typing 'fatigue'
or 'score'.
You can have fatigue automatially reported by typing 'set report_fatigue on'.
The affecting stat for stamina regeneration is constitution.
Spells
Casting spells works just like using skills. You can cast an offensive spell at a monster
by typing 'cast <spellname> at <monster>'. Casting a spell requires you to have enough
spell points available.
Typing 'help spell <spellname>' will give you details about a spell.
Spellcasting can take several rounds. For some spells the duration can be random.
A spell's effectiveness is based on your attributes, spell percent and knowledge of other spells or skills
the spell being casted might be dependent on.
All spells can fail. The lower the spell percent, the higher chance it will fail. Even spells over 100%
can fail at times.
You can stop casting by typing 'cast stop'. Also moving around will break your casting attempt.
Spellcasting can be interrupted in various ways, such as stunning, spells or other specials.
When you possess enough knowledge of a spell, you can 'try' to cast it faster. Respectively, you can 'try'
to cast a spell with lower percent slower. Fast spellcasting will reduce the chance of successful cast,
while slower will increase it.
Spells deal damage of different types. Usually the type is described in the spell's help text. See more
on resistances and damage types in the Advanced topics section.
Spellcasting does not affect your stamina and vice versa.
Chaining
It is not feasible to write 'use kick' over and over again, so ZombieMUD has a system called 'chain'.
It allows you to start a skill usage automatically after the previous skill has finished.
The syntax for chains is 'chain <item1>:<item2>', where item1 and item2 can be any skill or spell
you possess knowledge of. This means when item1 (spell or skill) is finished, you will start
using or casting item2. Basic newbie example would be 'chain kick:kick'.
To see chains more in depth (such as using arguments), see 'chain'.
Looting
When the monster is dead, it will bear some money, and possibly some loot you could sell
to a shop in ZombieCity.
To automatically take everyting from all the corpses on the ground, type 'loot'.
You can set automatic looting on by typing 'set autoloot on'.
If you are unable to carry the items due to their weight, they will not be moved to your
inventory.
Corpses
Killing a monster will leave its corpse on the ground. Corpses should be disposed of, there is a
chance that a corpse, after taken its time rotting, will come back to life as an undead being.
You can bury a corpse by typing 'dig grave' or 'dg' for short.
Some races are able to eat corpses, if you are a member of such race simply 'eat corpse' to get rid of it.
Wimpy
Wimpy is a setting, a percentage of your total health points. When your health drops below
this percentage in combat, your character will automatically flee from the room, possibly
saving you from death.
To see your current wimpy setting, type 'wimpy'. To set the percentage at which your character
will attempt to flee, type 'wimpy <number from 0-100>'.
Death
Sooner or later, your character will die. This means you have to find means to resurrect yourself.
Utter newbies:
When your total worth ( total accumulated experience ) is less than or equal to 50M (50,000,000),
Father Kalidan in the ZombieCity church (3 north, 4 west, enter from ZombieCity's Central Square)
will resurrect you for free. Type 'ress_me' when you see him.
Resurrection:
Basic resurrection can be done by members of the Cleric guild. Resurrection will cost you about 50%
of the unspent experience you had when you died.
You can find unidle clerics by typing 'who cleric'. There are also often clerics hanging inside
Tinker's Tool Shop (east, south from ZombieCity's Central Square). You can also ask for a ress
in the mud or newbie channels.
When you are dead, and can't find a way back to the city, it is safe to 'quit' the game even if you have
equipment on. Your equpiment is safe. When you re-login you will start back at the ZombieCity church.
Prayer:
Another means to get alive is 'prayer'. You can pray at the alter in ZombieCity church. Prayer will
cost you about 75% of the unspent exp you had when you were dead.
Death will leave your body scarred. You can see the scars by looking at yourself. You can have a maximum
of ten scars. Praying with too many scars on can cause you to lose a level or even several levels. It is good to have
someone occasionally remove your scars, usually a Cleric.
Consider:
ZombieMUD has a skill named 'consider'. When used at a monster, it will give you a rough estimate how
tough the monster is. If your skill percent is low, your judgement might not be that accurate so the skill
might give you misleading information.
As a general rule of thumb, explicitly named monsters are tough and should be avoided by newbies. E.g.
'a rat' is probably killable, but 'John the fisherman' is not.
» Move on to party system.
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