FERALIXby nanonixBurrowers beat brawlers.
A burrower wins about three bouts in four against an aggressive fighter or a tank.
The Pit
Sent in.
Left to it.
The Pit is where creatures fight. Nobody presses a button during a bout. The creature chooses every move itself, from what it is and what it has learnt, and the result goes on its record.
01 / A bout
How a fight runs.
- A snapshot. Each fighter's stats, conditions, injuries, fatigue and skills are taken as they stand when the bout begins.
- Turn order. The faster creature acts first.
- Before each move. Wounds bleed, poisons bite and stuns hold. A badly traumatised creature may hesitate.
- The move. Each skill it knows has a weight from its training and proficiency. Skills take turns in proportion to their weights, so a well-trained bite is used often and a half-learnt one now and then.
- The hit. Accuracy, dodging and critical hits come from the two creatures' stats. Buffs, shields, debuffs and both fighters' styles then scale the damage.
- The cost. Every turn costs energy. A tired creature fights worse.
- The end. One fighter cannot go on, or a hundred turns pass. Young creatures rarely last more than a handful.
The same two creatures in the same state fight the same fight. There is no dice roll hiding behind the result.
02 / Fight styles
Sixteen ways
to settle it.
A creature learns a style by training, or falls into one by temperament. Every style sets the pace of a fight: how much harder it hits, and is hit, than a balanced fighter. Pace alone does not win; an aggressive creature takes as much extra as it deals. Six styles add rules of their own.
| Style | Pace | Its own rule |
|---|---|---|
| Ambush Predator | 1.24 | Its first turn hits half as hard again. After that it hits at 85% and tires faster. |
| Pack Hunter | 1.00 | Each living ally beside it adds a fifth to its damage and takes some off what it receives. |
| Burrower | 0.91 | Underground every second turn, taking a fifth less; the turn it surfaces, it hits harder. |
| Grappler | 1.05 | Each unbroken hit on the same target tightens the hold, up to nearly half as much again. A miss loses it. |
| Endurance Hunter | 0.90 | Starts soft, builds every turn, and gains more as the opponent tires. |
| Territorial Defender | 1.04 | On home ground, in its own zone, it hits harder and is harder to hurt. |
| Aggressive | 1.13 | None. Faster, bloodier fights. |
| Swarm | 1.14 | None. |
| Jet Slash | 1.19 | None. The squid's own. |
| Hit and Run | 1.05 | None. |
| Balanced | 1.00 | None. Where every creature starts. |
| Tactical | 1.00 | None. |
| Venomous Fighter | 1.00 | None. |
| Grapple Ambush | 0.96 | None. The octopus's own. |
| Defensive | 0.83 | None. Longer, slower fights. |
| Tank | 0.74 | None. |
Pace is the factor on damage dealt and damage taken alike. All the figures come from the game's combat pack.
Grapplers beat the slow.
A grappler wins about seven in ten against an endurance hunter, and two in three against a tank.
Territory counts.
A territorial creature fighting in its own zone wins about six bouts in ten against a balanced one. Away, it is merely ordinary.
Packs are packs.
A pack hunter is average alone and a little better in pairs, where it won 55 bouts in a hundred against balanced pairs.
03 / Balance
No best style.
Every style was set against every other with identical fighters, the only difference being the style, over forty seeded bouts each, fought both ways round. No style wins more than about three bouts in four of any pairing, and every style with a rule of its own has a pairing it wins.
In a game with no dice, a small edge becomes a reliable one. The numbers are kept small for that reason.
04 / Training
Fourteen programmes.
Each fight style except the cephalopods' two has a training programme. Completing one raises the creature's skill in that style, makes it the preferred style once it is the strongest, improves a stat or two, and unlocks a move.
| Programme | Style | Improves |
|---|---|---|
| Ambush Drills | Ambush Predator | Attack, speed |
| Pack Hunting | Pack Hunter | Attack, defence, speed |
| Burrowing Evasion | Burrower | Defence, speed |
| Grappling | Grappler | Attack, health |
| Endurance Running | Endurance Hunter | Health, defence |
| Holding Ground | Territorial Defender | Attack, defence |
| Aggressive Combat | Aggressive | Attack |
| Defensive Tactics | Defensive | Defence |
| Tactical Training | Tactical | Speed, defence |
| Swarm Tactics | Swarm | Speed, attack |
| Balanced Training | Balanced | Attack, defence |
| Tank Training | Tank | Defence, health |
| Hit and Run Tactics | Hit and Run | Speed |
| Venomous Tactics | Venomous Fighter | Attack, defence |