Nightblade: Assassin's Mark

Peerless warriors of varying types, from hulking armored dreadnoughts to stealthy light-footed nightblades.
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Rias
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Nightblade: Assassin's Mark

Post by Rias »

Nightblades can now learn the Assassin's Mark ability! Hopefully this helps take their silent-but-violent game to the next level.
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Acarin
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Re: Nightblade: Assassin's Mark

Post by Acarin »

Well this is exciting... time to test. Thanks for all the very cool updates, Rias!
You reach toward ((DEV Rias)) ... Pull(d225([1]x)):214 vs Mark(d1100):714 = -500 (-222%)
You notice ((DEV Rias)) glance your way, causing you to quickly withdraw your hand from his wool
drawstring pouch (open).
Roundtime: 5 seconds.
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Re: Nightblade: Assassin's Mark

Post by Acarin »

I'm loving this ability so far from the limited testing I've done (It's always amusing when the message pops up and even more so when you miss your opportunity and have to keep stalking), but had a question about something in the description that I can't quite figure out.

The description states that it "attempts to automatically strike the target's most vulnerable vital hit location."

How is this location determined or what exactly does this mean? Is this the location with highest chance of killing (most severe wound or lowest damage req for a mortal wound)? Or the hit location that is least armored?

The reason I ask is because it seems to target hands and arms a lot (tested on vagrants and laborers) which are locations that I probably would not go for if I wanted a vital strike. I'm rarely going after head/neck/eyes which I assume are easier to get a kill shot on. Also, I don't seem to be going after already wounded locations... just wondering about this. It may just be that my melee is too low to hit the location that was targeted though...
You reach toward ((DEV Rias)) ... Pull(d225([1]x)):214 vs Mark(d1100):714 = -500 (-222%)
You notice ((DEV Rias)) glance your way, causing you to quickly withdraw your hand from his wool
drawstring pouch (open).
Roundtime: 5 seconds.
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Rias
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Re: Nightblade: Assassin's Mark

Post by Rias »

Glad you're enjoying it!

It will check for any hit locations on the target, considering whether they are vital and their armor levels. There's still an aiming skill check based on your Melee skill, so it's not a guarantee you'll hit one of these locations. For all the vital hit locations you pass the skill check on, it will pick the one with the lowest armor level. I do think I forgot to put in a bonus for the aim skill check though, so I'll let you know when I throw that in and we'll see if you get fewer hits to non-vital hit locations.

I do like the idea of targeting already-damaged vital hit locations, hmmm ... I'll have to see if I can come up with a good way for it to prioritize that vs armor level.

Thanks for the feedback. If you or anyone else has any other thoughts, let me know so we can tweak this ability to the point it feels just the right level of effective.
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Re: Nightblade: Assassin's Mark

Post by Rias »

Okay, there we go. It now has a bonus to successfully aiming at a vital hit location, which will be more noticeable at lower skill levels.
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Karjus
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Re: Nightblade: Assassin's Mark

Post by Karjus »

Maybe a way to set it, instead of defaulting to picking by itself?
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Re: Nightblade: Assassin's Mark

Post by Acarin »

Thanks Rias. I do like how it picks a location for you...it's really fun to see where it lands so wouldnt make the player aim it.

The 4 factors I could see coming into play are how vital the area is (meaning whether a mortal blow can occur at that location... preference would be to target an area where you can get the fastest kill), the armor level, how hard that location would actually be to target (meaning head might be picked over eyes if minimal chance of actually hitting an eye) and pre-existing damage to a body part.

It would be cool to have multiple factors in play so that the part you target may change depending on the situation, not just the enemy type.
You reach toward ((DEV Rias)) ... Pull(d225([1]x)):214 vs Mark(d1100):714 = -500 (-222%)
You notice ((DEV Rias)) glance your way, causing you to quickly withdraw your hand from his wool
drawstring pouch (open).
Roundtime: 5 seconds.
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Maina
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Re: Nightblade: Assassin's Mark

Post by Maina »

I'm not sure if it's better to make a new post or necro this one, but I opted to avoid cluttering the forum with repetitive topics.

I'm glad to see already-damaged locations should be prioritized; it hasn't felt like it, I admit, and I was going to suggest just that.

I also have another suggestion?

Nightblades can feel particularly rewarding fighting solo and less useful in a group, where the setup to stalk -> mark often results in the enemy dying before you get a strike in, so you ignore this ability you spent points on when fighting in a group.

Sometimes, people will ICly say something like 'jump in when I knock it over' or the like. Which you can certainly do without Makr, but...

Perhaps Mark could have a chance to proc early if a group member staggers or knocks over or otherwise provides an opening? Maybe a minimum time it needs to be active first (since you still have to check for weaknesses) and only a chance to happen (though I'd hope it would be a fairly high one?) in case the opportunity isn't a good one, but this would make it feel more rewarding to be a nightblade in a group, I think.
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Re: Nightblade: Assassin's Mark

Post by Gorth »

Maina wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 4:07 pm Perhaps Mark could have a chance to proc early if a group member staggers or knocks over or otherwise provides an opening? Maybe a minimum time it needs to be active first (since you still have to check for weaknesses) and only a chance to happen (though I'd hope it would be a fairly high one?) in case the opportunity isn't a good one, but this would make it feel more rewarding to be a nightblade in a group, I think.
Yes, yes, a thousand percent yes. Playing a Nightblade for a little bit now, I've determined that Assassin's Mark's startup is way long. I haven't played the character in every area, and I'm not even sure offhand if mobs move at different speeds (I know it's random but I'm unsure if it's weighted differently for different mobs or not) but in the areas I've been in, I almost never, ever get to mark. It's awesome when I do, but, I never even try anymore because I end up wasting so much time.

I've seen it PROC after stalking to another room a few times, but I've also waited like fifty seconds after stalking a move and not gotten it, so I'm a little confused. I assume it rolls a check every tick to see if it should PROC, but I'm unsure what it rolls because there is nothing listed on the BBS. My suggestion would be to generally lower the time/likelyhood of Mark, and or allow other factors to increase it. Problem is, my assumption of how assassinations would work (I've never assassinated someone in real life, at least with a blade) is that it might struggle when there are group fights going on, ala a lot of moving bodies, so I'm unsure what factors those might be.
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Re: Nightblade: Assassin's Mark

Post by Serity »

Maina wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 4:07 pmPerhaps Mark could have a chance to proc early if a group member staggers or knocks over or otherwise provides an opening? Maybe a minimum time it needs to be active first (since you still have to check for weaknesses) and only a chance to happen (though I'd hope it would be a fairly high one?) in case the opportunity isn't a good one, but this would make it feel more rewarding to be a nightblade in a group, I think.
This got implemented, and I have to say, it's really, really nice. Kudos for that.

I'd request a small quality of life change from Rias to help facilitate teamwork though. Right now, mark isn't on the stealth whitelist (and it shouldn't be, we don't want the victim to notice!), which means if I want people to know that I'm getting in position for the mark, I have to first signal them (all of them, if I'm in a group!) and then use mark. Signal won't execute in roundtime, either, so I have to do it in advance. This ends up looking like:
Some movement catches your eye, drawing your attention to ASSASSIN_NAME who is waving at you from a hiding spot.

ASSASSIN_NAME appears to be watching TARGET_NAME very carefully, slowly creeping ever closer.
Now, I'm using an alias for this, because typing out 'mark mobname' after 'signal' (perhaps multiple signals) is a large reduction in efficiency, but I don't think everyone should have to do that, or scramble to rapid-fire out several commands every mark if they want to be efficient, so I have a few different suggestions that might alleviate this pain point, in most-to-least order of preference to solve this particular problem.
  • Mark could echo to all of your group-mates in the same room, regardless of if they can see you or not. A message indicating 'Catching ASSASSIN_NAME in your sight for only a brief moment, he/she/they appear to be watching...' or similar to distinguish that you cannot see them otherwise may be useful.
  • Mark could automatically signal to all your group-mates in the same room, revealing your position to them, before it echoes.
  • signal group could signal everyone in your group at once, though it'd still require/encourage alias use.
  • signal could be removed from the roundtime queue, so you can use it during the five seconds of roundtime when lining up the mark - not great for indicating to your entire group, but it would alleviate it a little at least.
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