To attack, right click on a target to highlight them. When a red circle appears under them, they are highlighted. Then press the left control button on your keyboard. (It's one of two buttons, one on each side, usually labeled "Ctrl").

We aren't going to disclose exactly how combat is determined by the game software at this time. Part of the reason for that is that we are planning to change it anyway.

Please note that combat is often very fast. It is important to get in the first blow or at least start defending immediately. Switching to another target when the first one is down is not automatic. Sometimes you need to press the left control key more than once to keep fighting.

There are no restrictions on how many creatures can attack one target at one time. There are also currently no software-imposed restrictions on players killing other players or even ganging up on them. This may result in repercussions from other players, guilds, militias or even the gods, but the software allows it.

During combat, numbers appear above the combatants. These numbers indicate reductions of health points due to damage inflicted. Green numbers are damage your character inflicts, red numbers are damage your character is suffering.

When you run out of health points, your character will be dead. It is planned that death will be permanent and you will have lost your character. However, gods can resurrect the dead and someday maybe wizards and clerics will have this ability as well. In early sessions of the game, gods have routinely resurrected anyone who was killed, but do not expect this to continue indefinitely. It will probably become more difficult, not less, to be resurrected.

Upon death, characters drop all their items and money. (But not store credits.) The dead go to the Underworld where they can continue playing. There are places to explore and monsters to fight in the Underworld. Escape from the Underworld back to the land of the living is supposed to be impossible, but there are ways to do it.

We are planning on implementing a new combat system.  

Here are some ideas on how the new combat system might work.

First, the idea from D&D that combat experience gives you superhuman abilities to inflict and withstand damage is absurd and will not be used.

Instead, I'm thinking that some experience will make a great deal of difference, but once you are an experienced combat veteran, further experience doesn't matter all that much. (I mentioned this in a previous thread.) So warriors will reach a plateau in personal combat capabilities. Of course, warriors can still drastically enhance their abilities further, but they would have to use other means. Some obvious methods would be:

* use magic weapons and armor.

* have an army of other warriors helping you fight

* build a fort or castle to increase your defensive strength.

I envision a career path for warriors where they ultimately compete to see who can bring the largest, most capable army into a fight, not who has the highest level character. A bit more realistic. Real wars are fought by armies, not 200th level supersoldiers.

Another thing I'm thinking of changing is to make it so that characters who are badly wounded, wearing heavy armor or carrying heavy loads can't run. They can walk, but not run or not run far.

Another idea is that wounded characters continue to lose health for a while if bleeding, just like in real life. If you've been slashed open with a sword, the problem doesn't stop when the enemy stops cutting.

I'm also thinking of having it so that extremely badly wounded characters fall to the ground and can't move at all for a while. Basically this would be the same animation that is used now for death except that the character may not be dead and could possibly recover. If someone takes a lot of damage very fast, they might still fall dead instead of wounded. Anyone lying on the ground wounded could also be finished off by additional blows by enemies.

Ideally I would also come up with a better AI for NPCs, but that's not going to be easy.

Another thought is to have abilities that warriors can learn that will give them special advantages in battle. These would work similar to the cooking or fishing skills. They would be learned. An icon for each ability would appear on your ability list. You could drag and drop the icon onto the toolbar on the bottom of your screen. Clicking the icon would activate the ability. Abilities would have skill levels like fishing does now. More skill would make the ability more effective. Here are some ideas for what some of these abilities would be:

Low Blow - strikes an enemy's legs making it difficult for them to move or even continue standing up.

Backstab - inflicts severe injury if you can attack someone from behind, especially while they are already fighting someone else.

Disarm - knocks the enemy's weapon out of their hands. They might be able to pick it up quickly, but so could you. Or you can strike a blow while they pick up their weapon.

Unshielded - knocks an enemy's shield out of his hand.

Pierce Armor - requires a special weapon designed to penetrate armor or slip between armor plates. Minimizes the effects of armor.

Broken blade - technique for striking an enemy's weapon and damaging or destroying it, leaving him disarmed.

Bezerker rage - a frenzy of fast attacks that are more rapid and strike harder than normal attacks.

There could be a lot more, but you get the idea. One of the things this would do is make it so that combat is more than just clicking on the enemy and watching your character fight. Instead, your character's abilities and how you use them would likely determine the outcome of a fight as much as experience, weapons or armor.

This kind of combat system seems to me to vastly better than what we have now.