New Idea for a "Hit-And-Run" ability...

Alweth · Post by **Alweth** » February 17th, 2008, 4:51 am

Hi guys. I recently started playing Wesnoth, and I think it's really fun. My brother also plays and he came up with this idea for a unit ability. I think it's good enough that I thought I would suggest it here.

Hit-And-Run (needs a better name):
When a unit with "hit-and-run" attacks, the battle ends after it has made all of its attacks, regardless of whether the defending unit has any more attacks to make back. The concept is that units like rogues would jump out, stab their victims a few times and then run away.

Now, I read the frequently suggested ideas post, and it mentioned that they don't want to implement any ideas involving "Limited reprisal attacks for defenders," but I wasn't sure if it applied to this idea.

Anyhow, I think this idea has merit because it's very simple and easy to understand, but adds a new level of tactical interaction for the units that have it. It adds another way in which attack versus defense potentially differ, tactically, and makes the number of attacks units get matter. Plus, it just really makes sense for certain units--it's "flavorful."

DDR · Post by **DDR** » February 17th, 2008, 8:25 am

I think there is actually a known bug that would prevent this from working. I am not sure if it has been fixed yet, but, if a battle is ended in the middle, the game crashes bad.

Something to keep in mind for an add-on, this sounds fun.

Post by **zookeeper** » February 17th, 2008, 9:08 am

Yeah, it's a decent idea. I think it might be doable with WML, but can't really say for sure. I might try implementing it if I get bored enough with other things.

http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/User:Ken_Oh · Post by **Ken_Oh** » February 17th, 2008, 12:38 pm

This is exactly the Storm ability (weapon special, technically) of the Knight Stormer in the Abilities Era. The Storm attack has only one strike, so you'd have to scale the ability to the number of attacks of the unit.

Chris NS · Post by **Chris NS** » February 17th, 2008, 4:53 pm

This is an interesting idea, but I'm not sure how effective it would actually be as a hit and run tactic. The danger to your attacking units isn't so much the other unit hitting back during your turn, but the dastardly revenge your opponent can wreak during his turn.

I always though an ability more fitting of hit and run would be allowing a unit to move after an attack has been made. Don't know whether that can be done without coding changes though.

Aethaeryn (User Page) · Post by **Aethaeryn** » February 17th, 2008, 5:08 pm

Chris NS wrote:This is an interesting idea, but I'm not sure how effective it would actually be as a hit and run tactic. The danger to your attacking units isn't so much the other unit hitting back during your turn, but the dastardly revenge your opponent can wreak during his turn.

I always though an ability more fitting of hit and run would be allowing a unit to move after an attack has been made. Don't know whether that can be done without coding changes though.

It can be done. It's the "Dash" ability in Ken Oh's Abilities Era.

Lorbi · Post by **Lorbi** » February 17th, 2008, 5:20 pm

Chris NS wrote: I always though an ability more fitting of hit and run would be allowing a unit to move after an attack has been made. Don't know whether that can be done without coding changes though.

One can do this with WML, so no problem to code it but it results in a very significant and hard to resolve balancing problem and alters the gameplay of wesnoth a lot.

Alweth · Post by **Alweth** » February 18th, 2008, 12:32 am

Chris NS wrote:This is an interesting idea, but I'm not sure how effective it would actually be as a hit and run tactic. The danger to your attacking units isn't so much the other unit hitting back during your turn, but the dastardly revenge your opponent can wreak during his turn.

Don't get hung up on the name--the point is the ability.

It could be called "quickstrike" or who knows what.