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0003778Dwarf FortressAdventure Mode -- Combatpublic2010-12-05 14:442015-12-03 06:39
maanahr 
Dwarfu 
normalminoralways
assignedopen 
0.31.18 
 
0003778: Charges rarely get dodged even at high skill levels
When one creature charges you, two things seem to happen. First, the creature charges, and then it makes an attack. The combat preferences suggest that it should be possible to dodge the charge, but this never happens in practice.

The only case where a charge fails is if you happen to jump out of the way of the attack that comes after the charge. Once you get a high enough dodging skill, this will happen less and less since you will instead simply dodge the attack and stay in the same square.
Create an adventurer with high dodging skill.
Find a creature larger than you.
Set combat preferences to 'Dodge Preference: Stand Ground', 'Charge Defense: Dodge Away'.

You will never dodge away from the charge attack. With a dodge preference set to Move Around, you will still only dodge a charge attack when you happen to jump away to another square.
Fixed in 0.40.01?
related to 0001600new  Troll dies dodging into wall 
Issue History
2010-12-05 14:44maanahrNew Issue
2010-12-05 15:43FootkerchiefSummaryDodging charges doesn't work. => "Charge Defense: Dodge Away" doesn't work
2010-12-06 08:29maanahrNote Added: 0014425
2010-12-06 08:31maanahrNote Edited: 0014425bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0014425#r5480
2010-12-06 11:32FootkerchiefNote Added: 0014428
2010-12-06 11:45maanahrNote Added: 0014429
2010-12-06 12:18maanahrNote Edited: 0014429bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0014429#r5484
2010-12-06 20:04FootkerchiefSummary"Charge Defense: Dodge Away" doesn't work => "Charge Defense: Dodge Away" works only rarely
2010-12-06 20:05FootkerchiefSummary"Charge Defense: Dodge Away" works only rarely => Charges rarely get dodged even at high skill levels
2012-02-10 05:24FootkerchiefRelationship addedrelated to 0001600
2014-03-30 12:25DwarfuTag Attached: Fixed in 0.34.12?
2014-03-30 12:26DwarfuNote Added: 0024659
2014-03-30 12:26DwarfuAssigned To => Dwarfu
2014-03-30 12:26DwarfuStatusnew => needs feedback
2014-03-30 22:24agNote Added: 0024660
2014-03-30 22:25agIssue Monitored: ag
2014-04-27 13:37UristDaVinciNote Added: 0024737
2014-05-24 16:02UristDaVinciNote Edited: 0024737bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0024737#r9268
2014-07-07 22:23FootkerchiefTag RenamedFixed in 0.34.12? => Fixed in 0.40.01?
2015-12-03 06:39maanahrNote Added: 0033339
2015-12-03 06:39maanahrStatusneeds feedback => assigned

Notes
(0014425)
maanahr   
2010-12-06 08:29   
(edited on: 2010-12-06 08:31)
Actually, looks like I was wrong.
I set 'Dodge Preference: Stand Ground' and 'Charge Defense: Dodge Away', and had a Sasquatch charge 200 times at an adventurer with superelven agility, spacial sense and kinesthetic sense, high focus, and legendary dodging and observer skills. I dodged out of the way 5 times. A 2.5% chance seems very low with such stats, but apparently it does happen.
I guess my skills were too low and my sample size too small before.

(0014428)
Footkerchief   
2010-12-06 11:32   
Does that percentage go up if you increase the Fighter skill as well?
(0014429)
maanahr   
2010-12-06 11:45   
(edited on: 2010-12-06 12:18)
I don't know, but it was already with legendary fighter +23, I think.

Edit: with 5 more levels in fighter, and wrestling to legendary (was only somewhere below proficient before) I still only dodged 7 out of 260 charges, fighting another Sasquatch with the same combat settings.

(0024659)
Dwarfu   
2014-03-30 12:26   
Lots of changes to adventure/combat moves/etc. This needs to be reviewed in the new version.
(0024660)
ag   
2014-03-30 22:24   
On a similar note, I remember that when I was trying to understand how sparring works, I found that the fighter skill check for counterstrike appeared to be backwards, and arena testing seemed to confirm it - i.e. low fighter skill led to more counterstrikes.
(0024737)
UristDaVinci   
2014-04-27 13:37   
(edited on: 2014-05-24 16:02)
[EDIT]

The bug reporter's assertion that "you will still only dodge a charge attack when you happen to jump away to another square" appears to be correct. I studied the game with some debugging tools.

It appears that a creature being attacked rolls a dodge skill check vs the attacker's attacking skill. If the attack roll is less than 50% of the dodge roll, the attack will be announced as a "miss" and the defender does not move from the tile, even if a massive or tiny creature is charging. If the attack roll is between 50% and 99% of the dodge roll, the defender will "jump" to another tile (if you are trying to dodge). If the attack roll is equal or greater than the dodge roll, the attack is not dodgeable and the defender will stay put (and try to block/parry).

There appears to be no feature implemented that would cause you to move out of the way of a charging creature if its attack was going to miss. Both high and low dodge skill can penalize your ability to sidestep a charge, depending on the skill of the attacker.

(0033339)
maanahr   
2015-12-03 06:39   
Tested in arena with high master dodger dwarf vs. sasquatch and bronze colossus.
Seems to work fine now.