Door Block

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Gwain

Door Block

Post by Gwain » Thu Apr 15, 2004 5:23 am

The idea that a person with sufficient strength and constitutioon should be able to lean a shoulder against a door and keep it from being opened or block an exit much like a door buy standing in front of it. Such would add a great deal of rp to a situation like holding back hordes and keeping a thief or criminal or individual boxed in. The more the chars with this skill in one area or grouped together the stronger the block or restraint becomes.
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Post by Glim » Thu Apr 15, 2004 1:07 pm

I think this would be nice, perhaps with an opposed strength check with the door blocker and the one trying to open it? Perhaps others who doing it, the door opening would have to make a strength check with them as well? Or bonuses could be added for anyone helping? Sounds good.

Though Im afraid for those people who would just type the command to open the door over and over again until they get a good roll...
Glim asks Gwain 'Can I be on the watch?!?'
Gwain raises an eyebrow.
Gwain seems to display a look of complete horror for a second...
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Post by Jerigo » Tue Apr 20, 2004 10:26 pm

Maybe to avoid the situation Glim mentioned with someone just spamming the open command, it could be made so that if someone is using the door block command then the only way to open the door would be to use the door bash skill.

It also might be good to make it so that a character who is blocking a door is limited in what he/she can do. I would think that the character should probably be limited to only speaking commands since I would imagine that all the character's physical energy would be focused on pushing against the door.

The way I see it, it could be implemented like the mount skill. When you use it, you attempt to brace yourself against the door, like attempting to mount a horse. Then you would have to use the command again to pull away from the door before you could flee the room or draw a sword to ready yourself for battle if it looks like the door won't hold much longer.

It might be possible to make varieties of battering rams, too, that could be used to combine the power of several people into one bash of the door rather than having several people each try individually.

Another idea that popped into my mind from my Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic days is the possibility of attacking doors to open them. I think to make it fair in the game and keep a skill like door blocking useful it would have to be made so that breaking open a door by attacking it would take a very long time and a whole lot of stamina points. That way it would not be practical for a single person to try to destroy a door. But it would be the sort of thing that would allow for if a large army of people were trying to break down a door (ie the assault on Helm's Deep in Lord of the Rings) then they could attack the door as a group to make it a worthwhile strategy. For practicality's sake, maybe it could be made so that only a limited number of people could attack a door at one. Because even if you have a thousand people, there's only room enough on the door for maybe three to attack it without being cramped for space.

Sorry that this got so long, but the more I typed, the more ideas came to me. Good suggestion, Gwain.

EDIT: I almost forgot to mention, but I realize that my suggestions would probably be very time-consuming to code, but I figured I'd toss them out onto the table and see what people thought.
Rhelian

Post by Rhelian » Tue Apr 20, 2004 10:45 pm

Look east

You see UnkillableMonsterA nearby to the east
You see TryingToFleePlayer nearby to the east

Doorblock east
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Post by Jerigo » Tue Apr 20, 2004 10:59 pm

I see that a situation like that could allow for abuse, but I think that a situation like that could also be....well, for lack of a better word, good. Sure, it might mean that TryingToFleePlayer would wind up angry at the end of the day, but isn't that also possible with the murder command? When all is said in done, I don't know that the situation you described is objectively bad; I don't think it's that black and white. What you described could be a level 50 player shoving a newbie into a room with a huge monster and blocking him from leaving. But it could also be a caniving evil character luring a much more powerful good character to his doom. It could be a spy trying to secretly kill an enemy with a built-in cause of death (the monster).

The point is, as long as a situation like that were roleplayed well, then I don't see it as such a bad thing. I do think that if a player uses the skill for that purpose though, then he/she should be held as responsible for the death as if he/she had been using the murder command.
Rhelian

Post by Rhelian » Wed Apr 21, 2004 12:22 am

That's the problem - you could indirectly cause someone to die and it couldn't really be monitored - and invisibility adds it's own complications there as well.

However, if the idea was developed, I would hope bashing or knock spells would send a door flying open, dealing significant damage to all blockees. The rub is, not everyone has knock, or doorbash. Fighters and some wizards would be alright, but it leaves other classes without a hope.
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Post by Jerigo » Wed Apr 21, 2004 2:38 am

As I understand it, transportation spells are logged so there can be a record of any possible abuse. The same might be possible here. If doorblocking were a logged skill, then if someone died as a result of being stuck in a room with an aggressive monster, and they thought that the situation was truly illegitimate in terms of roleplay, then I guess they could appeal it like any PK could be right now. And there would be a log of the devious character using the doorblock skill to keep a person stuck in the room.

The main thing I'm trying to suggest here to avoid the situation Rhelian described in the above post is that it wouldn't be a problem (or at least wouldn't be as much of a problem) if there were a way to ensure accountability for using the skill. And I think making it a logged command would help accomplish that. Making commands logged might be more complicated than I am envisioning, but it's just a suggestion.

I guess I really don't see indirectly causing someone to die as a problem, at least in this instance, because for that to happen, the person blocking the door would be fully conscious of what he/she is doing. And as I said above, if that's a level 50 player trapping a newbie in a death room (which I seriously doubt would happen in the first place), then yes that is a problem but I think it could be dealt with if the skill were logged. But it could also be the weaker evil character trapping a stronger good character in a room with a monster because the evil character is not capable of taking on the good one in one-on-one combat. I think this skill would allow for better roleplay there and would allow the characters to be more strategic in their plans rather than just letting dice roll in an all-out fight. Or it could be the spy who needs to eliminate an enemy while making it look like an accident. This skill opens up new possibilities for all those situations, and if it were used properly then I think it would be a good suppliment to the roleplay.

Of course, all that is addressing the PK potential of the skill, which I think unfairly overlooks the original scenarios that Gwain suggested. Wouldn't it be great if an adventuring party were being chased and had the option of barricading themselves in a room with the warrior characters holding the door shut while the wizards or priests recovered enough for another round of fighting? There's also Gwain's suggestion of using the skill to keep a criminal trapped in a room. Both of those suggestions show great uses of the skill that would actually reduce player death instead of inflicting it. Would you rather have your only options be facing impending doom in battle or fleeing for your life? Or would you rather have the option of finding refuge and trying to hold out in relative safety for a short time to contact help? What if you could have this option of blocking a criminal into a room? This creates another way to restrain enemy characters short of flat out killing them.

To sum this up, yes there is abuse potential, but there's probably abuse potential in a lot of skills when they aren't used properly. Would it be better to assume that players will immediately find dishonest ways of abusing the new skill and therefore not explore the possibilities of it? Or would it be better to look for the potential abuse in a skill but then find ways to reduce it to the point that the skill becomes a valuable addition to the game?

Again, sorry that it wound up being this long.
Rhelian

Post by Rhelian » Wed Apr 21, 2004 2:59 am

Re: Battering rams

http://pub88.ezboard.com/fforgottenking ... =358.topic

I hate ezboard searches. Yay for the new forums!
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Post by Cyric » Wed Apr 21, 2004 2:07 pm

I'd rather see a way to block an exit coded. Too many times have I seen a paladin corner the guilty thief, only to say "Stop! I wish to question you on the eve--"; Thief walks east.

Or a gang of orcs corner a ranger, only to see the ranger dash away to get reinforcements.
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Post by Jerigo » Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:51 pm

Quick question in relation to that, do you mean like blocking an exit that does not already have a door?
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Post by Belose » Wed Apr 21, 2004 11:07 pm

I like the idea of doorblock myself....as long as it was for a PHYSICAL door.. think it would be harder to try and block a portcullis.. unless you jammed a piece of wood into the works..anyways...Holding shut doors and such like that is a good RP idea. What bothers me is the blockin an exit idea... I mean, really, unless you are of a very large size, or it's a small door, you can be got around... even if you have a staff or polearm...I can just see Belose intimidating a mob of orcs from entering Golden Oaks all on his lonesome...then again, Gond could be standing behind him without him knowing it.. hehehe... One never knows in the game, do we? :wink:
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Rhelian

Post by Rhelian » Wed Apr 21, 2004 11:46 pm

If there's going to be a way of blocking doors with your body, perhaps magic too? If you're coding one, might as well tack on the other :)

http://www.forgottenkingdoms.com/board/ ... php?t=1525

Similar ideas there - where a door has to be present for it to be (b)locked.
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Post by Legault » Mon Feb 21, 2005 4:23 pm

Hmmmmm, but then like Gwain said, a horde trying to get though a door? Maybe perhaps, a rather large door, might have to have two or more people bracing it? Because I really can't see one person blocking a door against a horde of hungry orcs :twisted:
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Guard

Post by Isolrem » Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:31 am

SYNTAX Guard <direction> <peaceful/hostile>
Based on strength, this allows the character to make a guard check against any character trying to enter the room from that direction. Success retrains the character. Failure in peaceful means the character is allowed to enter, character in hostile has the user automatically attack the intruding character.
Chars: Aryvael et all.
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Post by Hviti » Sat Jul 02, 2005 3:21 am

A similar skill was discussed here.

Doorblock:

http://www.forgottenkingdoms.com/board/ ... php?t=1908

It would make more sense with a door, as discussed in the topic lined to below-how can one person guard a whole entrance? Take the market square, which is at -least- a couple of dozen feet wide (probably more like hundreds IC). No way any one person can guard/block that from another who wants to enter without engaging him/her in combat. And coding 'narrow' exits would take up plenty of time. So all in all, I think it would be better to have Doorblock than guard.

I don't think that it should auto attack because that could lead to a no RP Pkill easily (Just blocking an orc, he makes it in and there is an auto attack, rather than talking/insults/etc. first)
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