Why do fighters (not) attack???

[Maraxus]

I do not understand by which rules fighters sometimes attack and sometimes not.

I'm not even complaining, that something is unfair because it plays to my advantage as often as to my disadvantage.

Yet, I see a lot of times, when one fighter who normally acts once or twice a turn has two or three turns in which he does not act, despite not being stunned or "must defend"-ed.
However I also see a lot of times, when one fighter is successfully stunned, yet he acts in the next round.


Speculations:
- Getting hit can always incur a random speed penalty, not only when you are stunned.
- One round of stun is actually just 10 seconds of stun, so for example if fighter A has an attack speed of once every 7 seconds attacks at second 12 and is stunned at 15 he will attack again at 29 nevertheless. (So at second 12 he acted in round 1 and at 29 in round 2)


This does not explain everything, for example in the fight I just had, I stun my enemy in round 6 yet in round 7 he attacks me (glancing blow only) and I do not attack at all, even though I am set to full activity and attack once or twice per turn (two weapons, speed 1.75 and 1.4). And in round 8, he attacks again first despite having only a single 1.45 speed weapon.
- So basically it will probably not be agility, my agility is good and such things happen way to often.
- It's not the activity setting, unless you can somehow unlock levels above 10, I'm at max
- It's not weapon speed, mine are faster.

As I said, it happened the other way around, too, where I had series of rounds where I could just bash the enemy silly, despite the fact, that I did not stun him or force him to defend. It's just that it seams so random, so confusing.

[Kreegan]

Initiative. If one of the gladiators has it significantly higher than the other, the actions of the latter will be delayed to the next round, even beyond that. Weapon type plays big part in this - 2H Wars are very slow to act while dagger-armed gladiators are very fast, just for example. Armour reduces initiative where heavy armour is especially penalizing. Activity is also important - the higher it is, the more often the fighter will act. Getting hamstrung may delay the attacks of the affected gladiator too. And so on. The factors are many.

[Maraxus]

As far as I see, initiative only plays a role in the beginning, doesn't it? Because the fact that one side has a lot more attacks in the first 1-2 rounds: Yes, this I attributed to initiative and considered already

I have read that being on low health and/or endurance has some bad effect. Could this affect attack speed too - with some randomness involved maybe? Because then I'm definitely going to get this "Never say die" skill on my warrior

[Kreegan]

Nope, initiative plays part throughout the entire fight.

Yes, when health and endurance drop below certain thresholds, your fighter becomes slower and weaker overall. The penalties do not affect everything - for example you can often see a Rage at 1 endurance dealing 1.5k Rampage hit - but in general their effect is quite visible.

[Adoede]

Kreegan is right about the initiative issue. It is a lot more complicated than at first appears.

Weapon type and weight do play a big role in initiative and first strike speed, but how you build your glads stats and skills also makes a big impact. For instance, attack power is also linked to initiative and is influenced by a number of stats. Skills like "overwhelming presence" and "blazing speed" also influence initiative.

An under-looked dimension on this is how the stats you emphasize have a big effect on your initiative in battle.
Obviously, agility plays a role in base initiative
Presence plays a role in suppressing your opponent's initiative (by default increasing the effectiveness of your own)
People swear Chi does something to mysteriously help your glad in many areas
Stamina helps determine how long you can keep up your optimal initiative effectiveness
And intelligence seems to play a role in how effective you are with your initiative
Not sure if strength or size influences initiative, but let's just mention them here for good measure.

I've seen gladiators who have excellent initiative prevent the opposing glad from attacking for 6-8 straight rounds! Yes, that means they didn't even get in a single attack - not even a blocked or dodged or fumbled attack.

Initiative is one of the most important sub-categories in the game. Understand how to harness it and you will dominate your opponents in truly embarrassing fashion. Ignore it and you will wonder why your glad seems to move in molasses - barely able to even raise his arms to defend against the barrage of blows from the opposition. Needless to say, that gets old really fast, so it's worth investing some time to experiment on things to see how they effect initiative.

Good luck in the pits!

[Maraxus]

Kreegan: The first part makes the confusion only bigger.
I tracked together 3 random fights from the Pits:
1a 2ba 3b 4ba 5ba 6b 7b 8a 9 10ba
1ab 2b 3a 4ab 5a 6ab 7ab 8ab 9a 10b 11ba 12 13a 14b
1bba 2bab 3abab 4abb 5abb 6a 7ab 8ab 9a 10a

No stuns or cannot-attacks were involved.
a is an attack by myself, b is the opponent. Due to randomized equipment in different presence-attributes, the fights can not be compared with another but what happens during the fight is interesting:

In fight 1 I have the first attack, the opponent does not act at all during round one, yet afterwards, he attacks once a round for 6 rounds and then he pauses two rounds straight. I too miss two rounds (6 and 7) straight although before I attacked two rounds straight.

In fight 2, my opponent increases his speed, attacking only once in rounds 3-5 but three times in rounds 6-8, then we both tire a bit.

And in fight 3, I am attacking like a clockwork, while my opponent rampages with awesome speed before virtually stopping dead after round 5 no, he did not switch tactics. The "tired down" effect here seamed to be massively stronger then in the previous fights.




I try to analyze and understand it and can only end with "There is a large randomness coming with everything so we can not be sure that anything does anything specific at all"
Sure throughout long term studies it becomes clear, that certain thinks are better then others, so they must be different but since you can't really make long term studies under controlled situations, exactly how stuff works will elude me. I kind of find that disappointing, especially when all the descriptions read "this is a super brutal skill", I feel like I can not make an educated decision, which super brutal skill is right for me.


Adoede: My character is level 11, the opponents also in the general range, so likely no special skills except maybe one or two levels of the first tier of non-weapon skills.



Edit: I should take two-weapon fighters out of the equation for now. That seams to complicate stuff more then anything else. It seams, the two weapons are on separate times, yet slowing each other down in some unspecific way, probably.

[Nate]

Hi Maraxus and welcome to the Pits!

There are so many factors that go into each fight it is truly amazing. A gladiator's performance is not only based on his own build and strategy but on his opponent's as well. A huge part of the fun of Pit of War is figuring out all these factors and then using them to your advantage. In your specific case regarding how often a gladiator attacks, here are a small handful of the many factors that go into that calculation: Your gladiator's activity level, their fighting style, the weight of their equipment in relation to their attributes and encumbrance. The weapon they are using, the type of weapon your opponent is using (if your gladiator is using a short weapon and your opponent is using a longer weapon it will be much harder to get inside to deliver a hit). Skills that boost or suppress attacks, their condition, and on and on. :)

There is a lot less randomness in the fights than you might think. Pay careful attention to your fights and keep fighting in the pits and arena and as much as possible and you'll learn the nuances of the game and quickly be on your way to dominating the arena! One important point to keep in mind as well, is to always click on the little green squares to see what is affecting each gladiator at that time.

Good luck in the Pit!

-Nate-