The combat system governs how you go about fighting things in New Moon and is one of the main ways of gaining experience points (xps) that can later be spent on training in your guild skills. All living things in New Moon (including you the player) have factors attributed to them that will help to determine the outcome of fights - factors such as strength, offensive and defensive combat skills, endurance (hit points) and so on. You can initiate combat by typing kill <thing> or by casting an offensive spell or command at the monster, if you have such spells and commands in your repertoire of course. You can attempt to kill any monster or non player character (npc) in the game if you wish, but do beware because sometimes there are consequences not always obviously apparent. Always use the 'consider'command before attacking something you aren't sure about. You can even attack other players if you are a registered Player Killer and this brings and extra dimension to the game. Of course, so that it is fair, your intended victim must also be a fully registered Player Killer.
When you are in combat, you will automatically get an attack every 2 seconds which is how often your 'heartbeat' happens. Your 'heartbeat' is the basic pulse of the game, the base unit of time. If for some reason, the monsters hit you, but you do not hit back, try typing 'restart' which is the command to restart your heartbeat. Occasionally things go wrong and this will happen but it isn't a common occurence so please tell a creator if you find a way of making it happen.
Each guild has its own advantages and disadvantages in combat. Mages and priests have spells which will help them, fighter and thieves will have combat commands. As a novice adventurer the range of spells and commands available to you is small, but as you grow in stature, so does your repertoire.
During combat, you can cast spells at the rate of 1 per heartbeat. You may find some spells that can be cast instantaneously and don't happen on the heartbeat, but these spells will usually not be damage spells and there will be no real problem in casting lots of them at once. For a list of the spells you know, type 'spells' and to use them type 'cast spell target'.
Some guilds will also give players special combat commands that allow them to do extra things not possible in standard combat. A fighter might gain special attacks like frenzy, shield bash or berserk, or more tactical commands like disarm or psyche. A ranger might learn how to surprise opponents or a thief might learn how to backstab. For a list of the commands you know, type 'commands'.
The object of a combat of course is to be alive at the end of it, standing over the corpse of the person you were fighting. The less desirable outcome is being made to have a brief chat to Death. These things happen and you will be bound to die sooner or later. Life's a lump of stale Cheddar sometimes ...
Commands and Spells in Combat
As you develop your character in the world of New Moon you will learn a wide variety of spells (if you are in a magic-using guild) and/or fighting commands. These will greatly aid you in your quest to defeat ever more powerful opponents. There isn't room here to discuss the huge range of spells and commands we have available on New Moon, but some examples are the fireball spell, cause serious wounds spell, backstab, surprise, frenzy, berserk and lots lots more. Some spells and commands can only be used once already in combat, others can initiate combat (like backstab and surprise). The use of commands and spells in combat (or indeed outside of combat) uses up special points called 'guild points' (gps). You start off with limited guild points as a new adventurer but will gain plenty more in time. For fighters, guild points are represented as 'tactics' points, for mages 'mana', for priests 'faith' and for thieves 'slyness'. Depending on the power/complexity of the spell or command being attempted a variable amount of gps will be used up. But not to worry, your guild points are replenished quite quickly with time and you are soon able to attempt another spell or command.
cast - Spell casting
Syntax: cast <spell> [[at] target]
Description
Cast is used when you want to cast a spell that you have learned in your travels and adventures. Most spells are the rewards of training or quests. You must type cast followed by the spell you wish to cast followed by any information that is appropriate to the spell (eg. a target).
Examples
- cast fireball at goblin
- cast cure light wounds on krondal
- cast light
See also: spells, kill
consider - Consider how worthwhile it is to attack something
Syntax: consider [thing]
Description
Consider is the command used to see if the monster you are thinking about attacking is too high or too low a level for you. Of course we know all of you are insane. But don't complain if the dragon kills you ok?
Examples
- consider dragon
You would have to be insane to attack the dragon! - consider rat
The rat is slightly weaker than you are.
Sometimes you may also be informed that the monster you considered is 'tougher than it seems'. Beware, this often means that the monster or npc has hidden powers not immediately detectable.
kill - Start killing a monster
Syntax: kill <target(s) or mall or all>
Description
Kill is the command used to initiate combat with monsters and other players. Once combat has started, you will hit the monsters automatically and be able to use commands and spells given to you by your guild. If a monster starts a fight with you, there is probably little you can do other than kill it or run for your life.
Note that to try to kill another player you must first register to become a 'player killer' and your would-be opponent must also be a registered 'player killer'. See further help for details.
See also: stop, flee, cast, spells, consider, player killer
monitor - Hit point monitor
Syntax: monitor [on/off]
Description
Monitor is a hit point monitor that goes on during combat. This tells you the current state of your hit points and guild points. Whilst you have monitor on you will lose one (1) guild point per round during a battle. Monitor by itself will toggle states.
Examples
monitor on
Your hit point monitor is now on.
monitor off
Your hit point monitor is now off.
See also: prompt, score.
protect - Protect a person
Syntax: protect [person]
Description
This makes you protect the person. Protecting someone means that you will step in front of some attacks that are made on that person. How many attacks you will intercept will depend on your skill in "combat.special.protection".
See also: kill, stop, protectors, unprotect.
protectors - List the people protecting you
Syntax: protectors
Description
This lists the people that are protecting you.
unprotect - Stop protecting a person
Syntax: unprotect [person]
Description
This makes you stop protecting the person.
See also: kill, stop, protectors, protect.
restart - Restart your heartbeat
Syntax: restart
Description
Restarts your heartbeat. Occasionally a bug in the game will stop a players heartbeat. This means that you cannot take part in fights. If this happens just type restart and it will restart your heartbeat for you. This command exists solely as a safety measure for the players.
stop - Stop!!
Syntax: stop
Description
Stop is used to both stop you beating up poor helpless monsters, to stop the current command being executed and to clear all queued commands. For instance if you are in a battle and you find that it is taking you too long to pick all this junk off your friends corpse, stop will stop you picking up the stuff so you can run away.
wimpy - Set wimpy mode on or off
Syntax: wimpy [num]
Description
You can set the percentage of your hit points at which you run away. If you have set the number to zero (default) you are in brave mode and won't run away even if you are almost dead (in fact even if you are dead). Warning, however, the experience points you receive for doing damage to a monster will be lower, the higher your wimpy. If you set your wimpy to 100% you will loose 100% of your xp. Bing!
See also: verbose, brief, follow, lose
Death
There are a few things that you can always seem to count on in life. One of them is taxes and the other is of course death.
You will come across this situation more than once no doubt, and if you do, there really is no reason to panic. When you expire, you will be visited by Death himself. Now Death has a busy schedule, and so you may have to wait on occassion, but don't worry, he never misses an appointment.
When he finally gets around to you, he'll likely lecture you on your stupidity on dying in the first place, but will kindly release you from your last remaining mortal ties, so you can wander about in your ghostly form.
Now, what do you do as a ghost? Well, you may have asked that question, and if you had not asked it? Well you should have. Being a ghost is not the best thing to be. Now it is true you cannot die while a ghost, but you cannot do a lot of things while being a ghost either. If you want to resume a normal life, the best thing to do is to go get yourself resurrected.
Resurrection
There are many ways to get resurrected. The first is to visit one of the various temples in New Moon. They cater to very selective company, so you may have to try more than one to find one to service you, or you can always seek out a cleric player of high level and the appropriate spells to help you out. Now, be prepared to pay through the nose for such efforts, because resurrecting is a highly tiring thing for a cleric, and if they're not of the nice variety you may have to repay them.
What happens to you when you die? Well, you lose all your stuff, because it's with your corpse, so when you die, after you get raised you will have to trek all the way back to your corpse to retrieve your stuff.
In addition to losing your gear, you will lose all the experience you have accumulated but have not spent. This is one of the few penalties for dying, so it is best you don't hoarde experience, but spend it after gaining a fair amount.
Note: If you die (and you are a registered Player Stealer or Player Killer), and someone comes around and loots your corpse while you are busy being raised, don't complain. The Creators will not replace your inventory. This is a fact of the game. You registered for the more interactive version of the game and this is one of the potential consequences. Often it is wise to ask a friend to guard your corpse while you are away getting raised. If you are not registered for PS/PK, you can give your friend permission to get the stuff from your corpse with the command 'consent corpse-loot'.
Is there a limit to the amount of times that you can be resurrected? You better believe it! To start, players have a maximum of 7 times they can be resurrected. There are of course a variety of ways to gain extra 'reincarnations' to extend this initial limit of 7, but you'll need to discover them.
What happens if I lose my last life? If you lose your last life, you will unfortunately not be able to be resurrected. If there is no cleric around, or you dont want to gain a new life, there is really only one thing to do. That is to 'refresh'. Of course, in the future there are plans for players to wander the abyss to seek resurrection, but until then, you dont have many options.
How do I gain these extra incarnations? To not be blantantly obvious about it, the logical places to look for such things would be where you would expect people to deal with the very matters of life and death. Be prepared to either work hard for your rewards or pay a high price.
Player Killing
Before we begin one thing should be made clear: Player Killer (PK) status on New Moon is OPTIONAL. No one is forced to become a Player Killer here. We like to think this enhances the atmosphere of the game as it means only those people who are interested in this form of role-play are bound into the consequences of being PK. It is your choice and your choice alone.
The only way to become a Player Killer is by registering at the Town Hall for Player Killer status.
Before you become a player killer you should make sure you understand the consequences of your decision to undergo this transformation from a regular player to player killer. This decision, while it broadens your range of potential targets, also brings with it a set of strict guidelines which must be carefully followed by the player killer in all his/her dealings with fellow players and creators.
Once you undergo this transformation, there will be no acceptable excuses to revert back to normal player status. No creator will accept any reasons as it will be assumed that you have full knowledge of the consequences before you had made the decision anyway. The only way you will be able to revert back to the normality of a regular player will be to refresh, which will unfortunately set you back to newbie status, and any previous accomplishments or deeds will be forgotten.
Player Killing is not looked down upon by the creators of New Moon and so you will in no way meet any resistance from the creators, for any actions pertaining to player-player conflicts. The system has been designed, to give players of all types a controllable dimension to their character, but at the same time, exclude those who do not wish to partake in a dimension of role playing that they do not approve of or agree with.
As a player killer you will not be able to harm any player who has not registered, only other players who have registered as player killers will be able to be attacked by you, or able to attack you. Also in no way will you be able to be helped by non-player killers in a combat situation with another player killer. Therefore 'protecting' or 'grouping' with a group of non-player killers and then attacking a player killer will in no way help you. As a player killer you will be susceptible to all the spells, attacks and other abuse of other player killers. You will also be susceptible to the stealing, curses and hindering spells of players stealers (PSers), but PSer's will not be able to do direct damage to you. And if you were to register as both, PKing takes precedence over the two.
To register as a player killer you simply have to go to the town hall and sign your name in blood to the tome of player killing. This book is made from the skin and bones of ancient New Moon champions, and once you have signed it in your own blood, there is no turning back from your fate. This action is PERMANENT (see refresh) and you will have to live with it. In no way will you be compensated by any creator, for any repercussions you attain from this decision (ie: if you get killed and that other player killer takes your money....that's too bad). And once again to emphasize this point, no creator will turn you back to a normal player.
If you should also die at the hands of a player killer, you WILL lose a life. You start with only seven lives so you don't really want to lose them to high level player killers at the start, so it is probably best that you wait at least a while, before you register. Lives lost by player killing will in no way be restored to you by a creator. To regain that life you will have to find a high level NPC or PC cleric to restore it to you.