Modus Operandi Combat
(Or: Tackling Criminals the Hard Way)

I. INTRODUCTION
There are criminals (usually called "perps") all around Morada that are up to no good, and more than willing to pick a fight with the local citizens and tourists. Soon after your arrival, you'll probably come across Brawlers in West End, for example. These criminals will attempt to attack you on sight!

II. RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
There are two forms of combat, melee range and missile range. Melee range refers to the use of hand weapons such as billy clubs, brass knuckles, knives, swords, punches, kicks and so on. Missile range refers to firearms, bows/crossbows and thrown weapons. A few unarmed attacks such as flying kicks may be performed from missile range also!

To attack in melee range, you have to be close up to the target. You may ADVANCE or ENGAGE them to get up close. Once you're in range, you can begin your assault. If you find you're engaged in melee combat and need to back off and run, you can use RETREAT or DISENGAGE to back away. The higher your agility is, the more likely you are to be successful in retreating. If you're good at Prowling, you can also HIDE, which makes retreating much easier. Missile weapons don't require you to engage, and can be used either up close or far away.

To see who is engaged to whom, you can use the ASSESS command. You can be engaged in melee combat with up to three combatants at once and ASSESS will show your three engagement "slots" accordingly.

III. ATTACK COMMANDS
To use most hand weapons you will use ATTACK, such as ATTACK THUG. You can also DISARM a perp to knock its weapon away. If you want to attack with a ranged weapon, you can THROW it, such as if you have a knife and want to throw it at a thug, you can do THROW THUG. If you're using a firearm or bow, you can use SHOOT THUG to shoot it. You'll need to LOAD your weapon (such as LOAD RIFLE) periodically. You can use AMMO to see how much ammunition is in your weapon.

There are also an array of unarmed attacks available to you, spread across the four unarmed skills: Grappling, Kicking, Punching, and Throwing. Some of the moves available are:

Grappling: Bearhug, Choke, Head Butt, Pile Driver, Power Bomb, Reverse Slam, Reverse Suplex, Sleeper Hold, Suplex, Tackle

Kicking: Crescent Kick, Flying Kick, Jump Kick, Kick, Knee, Reverse Kick, Roundhouse, Side Kick, Snap Kick, Sweep

Punching: Punch, Jab, Uppercut, Hook, Elbow, Reverse Punch, Scissor Punch, Hammer Strike, Spearhand, Lunge Punch

Throwing: Throw, Slam, Hip Throw, Foot Wheel, Scissor Throw, Shoulder Throw, Scoop Throw, Valley Drop, Side Drop, Corner Drop

IV. DEATH AND DYING
As you fight in combat, you may be injured. While players do not die in Modus Operandi, they do get injured badly enough to require emergency care at a medical facility, as well a lesser wounds that may be treated at a medical facility or by themselves with the proper supplies.

Typing HEALTH shows your current injuries and body points. As you are hurt, bleed from severe injuries, or are affected by poisons, you will lose body points. If your body points fall below 1, you will become unconscious and will need to be rescued by a life-saving medical team. Note: As you gain levels (described in the notoriety section above), you will gain more maximum body points, which will allow you to take more damage before becoming unconscious.

Treatment at medical facilities is not cheap, especially should you need to be rescued by paramedics and brought into the Emergency Room! Also, being brought into the ER has a bit of recovery time. While you could go back out and fight within a couple minutes, you'll probably need several minutes (6, 7, maybe more) to completely recover, and it's suggested you give yourself time to recover before rushing out to fight again.

You may also visit the ER of your own accord, to be healed. Simply go inside and go through the doors to the ER. There are other locations on Morada where tables, cots and other such items are available for you to rest on and receive treatment, as well.

When you are healed in a medical facility, you will incur a cost for their services. If you do not have sufficent funds on-hand to pay, the amount will be placed in your medical debt. You should keep up with this debt by checking INFO often, and go to the Lobby and PAY your debt. Failure to pay debts causes them to accumulate, and eventually a warrant for your arrest may be issued if you let the debt climb too high.

You may also heal yourself or others with first-aid kits. Simply purchase one in the Gizmogoria, in the Emporium, and hold it in hand while you use TEND to heal yourself or others. You can TEND ME or TEND <name> to heal body points, TEND MY <location> or TEND <name> <location> (such as TEND MY LEFT ARM or TEND JOE SMITH LEFT ARM) to heal wounds on a body part, or staunch bleeding. More severe wounds may require high levels of First Aid skill. You can also TEND a fallen friend to bring him or her out of unconsciousness before they are whisked away to the ER.

V. THE NUMBERS
An example attack:

>shoot thug You fire a sawed-off shotgun with triple titanium short-barrels at an angry thug! ------------------------------------------------ Attacker: Power = 670 Mod = 75% Sum = 1172 Defender: Power = 178 Mod = 0% Sum = 178 ------------------------------------------------ Hit! Difference = 994 You land a critical hit to the left arm, as she fails to roll from the attack! An angry thug appears to be dead! An angry thug drops to her knees, falling to the ground in a heap. Roundtime: 3 sec.

Let's break this down a bit, to explain the numbers and information.

1. Attacker: Power = 670 Mod = 75% Sum = 1172
The "Power" rating is a combination of your skill with the weapon used or attack performed, your dexterity, a random roll, and other factors.

The "Mod" is a modifier, a percentage, added or subtracted to/from the Power. In this example, the Mod is 75%, so 75% of 670 was added to the attacker's score. The Mod is made up of bonuses for your equipment, stance, and other factors. Being hurt, blinded and so on can lower your Mod.

The "Sum" is the total attack after the Mod is added to the Power. 670 plus 75% is 1172.

2. Defender: Power = 178 Mod = 0% Sum = 178
The "Power" here is the defender's skill, agility, random roll and other factors.

The "Mod" is again a percentage added or subtracted to/from the Power. In this case 0% is added. Mod is affected by armor and weapon bonuses, stance and other factors.

The "Sum" is again the Power plus the Mod percentage. 178 plus 0% is 178.

3. Hit! Difference = 994
If the difference between the attacker and defender score is over 0, the hit lands. The greater the difference, the more damage is done to the target.

4. You land a critical hit to the left arm, as she fails to roll from the attack!
Here we see that the thug tried to roll from the attack but failed and was hit for a critical-level hit to the left arm. With such an enormous difference, the thug took a massive amount of damage to the arm, and surely lost a lot of body points.

5. Roundtime: 3 sec.
A "roundtime" is the time it took to perform the action. During a roundtime you cannot take certain actions. For example, you cannot attack, change stance or move to another room while in roundtime. Different weapons and attacks carry different roundtimes.

VI. HOW TO USE STANCES
Stances allow you to select your posture, and determine how aggressive or defensive you wish to be in combat. You can also designate how you will defend yourself. To change stances, use the STANCE command. Normally you can vary your attack and defense by +30% to -30%. Attack and defense counter-balance each other, so if you use STANCE 30 to increase your attack by 30%, you will incur a penalty of -30% to defense. Likewise, if you use STANCE -30 to lower your attack by 30%, your defense will receive a bonus of +30%

To set a stance, use STANCE <number>, such as STANCE 30, or you may use STANCE <level> where level is one of the following:

- Berserk (+30% attack, -30% defense)
- Aggressive (+20% attack, -20% defense)
- Belligerent (+10% attack, -10% defense)
- Relaxed (+0% attack, -0% defense)
- Wary (-10% attack, +10% defense)
- Defensive (-20% attack, +20% defense)
- Retreating (-30% attack, +30% defense)

Additionally, you can use STANCE to designate how you will defend yourself. The three options are:

- STANCE EVASION (use your Evasion skill to dodge attacks)
- STANCE ROLL (use your Acrobatics skill to roll away from attacks)
- STANCE PARRY (use your weapon and weapon skill to block attacks)

If you use STANCE PARRY but have no weapon in hand, you will use an unarmed skill. Normally, this will be your highest available unarmed skill, but you can choose a specific skill as follows:

- STANCE UNARMED HIGHEST (use the highest unarmed skill available)
- STANCE UNARMED GRAPPLING (use your grappling skill)
- STANCE UNARMED KICKING (use your kicking skill)
- STANCE UNARMED PUNCHING (use your punching skill)
- STANCE UNARMED THROWING (use your throwing skill)

Note: You can't parry thrown, firearms and archery attacks! If you are set to STANCE PARRY, you will instead use Evasion or Acrobatics, whichever is higher.

VII. THE STANCING SKILL
The Stancing skill allows you to beef up your ability to use the STANCE command to get more power and flexibility. As your Stancing skill improves, you can go STANCE outside of the normal +30% to -30% range, eventually going as high as +50% to -50%!

Additionally, the Stancing skill reduces your "penalty" for stancing. For example, normally if you use STANCE 30, you will be +30% to attack and -30% to defend. However, you can cut that -30% penalty to as low as one-half, or -15%. This allows you to stance more offensively or defensively with less of a penalty.

To stance to your most offensive posture available, use STANCE MAX. To stance to your most defensive stance available, use STANCE MIN.

To practice and learn the Stancing skill, type STANCE PRACTICE. You will also train your weapon or unarmed skills and Evasion, at the same time.

VIII. PAIRED AND TWO-HANDED WEAPONS
Some weapons may be used in pairs together. For example, you may use a pair of knives, a pair of handguns, or perhaps a whip and a one-handed sword at the same time. To use paired weapons, just hold a pairable weapon in each hand and attack normally. Your success in attacking will be based on both your weapon skill and your Paired Weapons skill.

Some weapons, on the other hand, are two-handed and require both hands to use. To use these weapons, you will need to hold the weapon in your right hand and have the left hand free.

Paired weapons and Two-Handed weapons give the attacker a bonus when used against an opponent wielding a single, one-handed weapon.

IX. BOUNTY HUNTING
Moradian regulations allow bounty hunters to confiscate belongings from criminals killed in combat. If you strike down an opponent, you may SEARCH them and take their items and cash. If you hunt in a group with others, you may want to SHARE the cash with them. Typing SHARE will share the amount you last searched from a perp. You can also use SHARE <amount>, such as SHARE 100 to share $100 with your group. To make life even easier, you can use the SET command to turn on AutoShare, which will allow you to share cash with group automatically when you search a perp! To turn on AutoShare, just type SET AUTOSHARE. If you later wish to turn off AutoShare, use SET !AUTOSHARE.

X. CHARACTER VS. CHARACTER (CVC) COMBAT
Players may wish to fight each other in combat. Currently, this can only be done by joining special organizations. There are two rival organizations, the Cape Marassas Police Department (CMPD) and Ghent's Force, headed up by Chandler Ghent, a famous "businessman" who promotes a revolutionary theme against the government. Members of the CMPD may fight against Ghent's Force and vice-versa. However, note, attacking innocents is strictly forbidden and will be met with a severe fine, starting at $100,000 and doubling with each occurrence!

There are events from time to time that allow players to freely fight also, such as the Rumble in the Jungle and the Gladiator Games usually held at the RenFaire event each year. During these events, players may join a list to fight each other for sport, if they wish.

Under no circumstance can a player be attacked if they do not choose to join a CvC organization or event. Additionally, theft from players is also not possible.

• APPRAISE your weapons, armor and opponents to receive information about them.
• Use the STANCE verb wisely and learn the Stancing skill well!
• Keep an eye on your health, don't fight if you're badly hurt!
• Don't fight while badly encumbered! Use the ENCUMBRANCE verb to see how badly you're affected by encumbrance. Try to stay light.
• Keep your weapons and armor in good condition. If they become damaged, either see a repair merchant (such as in the Armory), or repair them yourself with maintenance kits, whetstones and so on, which are available in the Gizmogoria, in the Emporium.
• If you are hurt so badly that you're carried off to the ER, give yourself several minutes before hunting again!
• Consider learning either the paranormal abilities (i.e. PSI) or anti-paranormal abilities (i.e. FOCUS SELF) to give you an extra edge in combat.
• Learn to hide! A hidden attacker is more deadly and a hidden defender can retreat more easily.
• Work on your Economics skill by appraising items. This will lower your maintenance and repair costs, and increase the value of items you find and sell.
• Work on your Security skill, so that you can pick the locks on boxes and containers you find. To pick a lock, acquire a lockpick (they're available at the Gizmogoria) and PICK <item> WITH MY LOCKPICK, such as PICK BRIEFCASE WITH MY LOCKPICK.
• Work on your First Aid skill, it may save you and your friends a lot of trips to the ER.