Combat and martial arts

Martial Arts

Martial Arts are combat styles that characters can learn and use in-game (illegally or non illegally) which grants them special combat abilities that are usually done through a certain action combo, but can also be passive abilities or action based.

These abilities can range from new defensive measures such as deflecting projectiles to combo attacks that can quickly incapacitate an assailant or deal significant damage in comparison to standard punches.

How to acquire martial arts are just as variable as the forms that are available, some martial arts are only available to traitors, others are used by certain jobs.

One can know multiple martial arts and are allowed to pick and choose which martial art to utilize. Some characters like changelings for example are unable to use martial arts at all.

Intents

As said before. most martial arts rely on performing a certain action combo on the opponent. There are essentially 4 types of "actions" in the game (most martial arts only use three), which will be referred as intents from now on. Intents are a concept from SS13, where instead of just one combat mod players would have 4 modes to choose the type of interaction from. SS14 only has one mode, the combat one, but it utilizes other buttons to compensate for that. The intents themselves are available to use for everyone, but martial artists can perform combos using them, comboed intents will disappear if you switch to another opponent. Intents are:

Help Intent

To perform help, simply press Left Mouse Button on someone with Harm Mode turned OFF.

Usually, if your target is a humanoid and your hands are free, this would make you hug them. If your hand is occupied, this would make you interact with the target with your held item. This can be useful in combat with items like the Heretic's Mansus Grasp, but is rarely used in martial art combos, and where it is, only unarmed actions (hugs) count.

Harm Intent

To perform harm, press Left Mouse Button with Harm Mode turned ON. Usually, you will attempt to punch at the place of your cursor, be it with your bare hands or with a held item. If you are holding a gun, you will shoot at the place of your cursor with it. Attacking with a melee weapon or shooting a gun does not count as a successful Harm action for combo purposes.

Disarm Intent

To perform disarm, press Right Mouse Button with Harm Mode turned ON. If you are unarmed, you will try to shove at the place of your cursor. Shoving will push affected characters, dealing some Stamina damage. If you are armed with a melee weapon, you will swing it, attacking everyone you hit and taking some stamina damage yourself. Swinging a weapon is not a real "Disarm", and does not count as a successful Disarm action for combo purposes.

Grab Intent

To perform grab, Grab someone with Harm Mode turned ON.

If you have a free hand, you will start grabbing the target. If you've already grabbed them, this will reinforce the grab. Your chances of escaping from the grab rely on your and your opponent's weights. There are three stages of grabs: Soft grab is easy to escape from and works similar to regular pulling for the most part.

Hard grab is relatively hard to escape. Martial artists will instantly hard grab you if you're knocked down. You can throw someone you're holding in a hard grab the same way throw a regular item, dealing some stamina damage.

Choke harm takes both your hands (you can still punch the opponent with your head), but mutes, and prevents the opponent from breathing and is ver yhard to escape. You can table-slam someone you're holding in a choke grab by performing a harm intent on a nearby table.