Cover (no ontology)

From Mazeworld

Cover is a part of most rooms in Mazeworld. They are objects that serve as passive defense and is essential to maintain stealth in order for the contestant to attempt a stealth shot.

Taking cover

In order to take cover, a creature must first seek for available cover in the room. The contestant's player can do so by either typing @cover on their own, or being prompted to do so. Unless "No cover at all!" is returned, a piece of cover along with all details (resistance to damage, max health, resistance to overpenetration, etc) is displayed.

The piece of cover rolled is valid for everyone on the same side as the creature that has rolled for cover. For example, if the Contestant is flanked with an ally and another creature, and then rolls for cover, then that cover becomes what the Contestant, the ally and that other creature can use for cover.

In order to take cover, each creature wishing to do so must make the relevant roll (see gameplay mechanics on how to do so). This roll has a fixed FT 6. If successful, the cover-taking creature maintains stealth and can attack first during the turn. If not, they take cover, but stealth is broken for everyone on their side (they are seen), and their own turn ends immediately. Critical failures and critical successes are treated the same as their regular counterparts when taking cover; no additional benefits.

Exposure

When behind cover, encounters can find themselves in one of two states of exposure: Exposed and Hidden.

• When Hidden, the encounter's body is completely concealed by the cover; the encounter is hiding from sight and is fully using the cover as a shield, maximizing its defensive properties. However, while in this state, the encounter CANNOT attack, but consequently, cannot be targeted either, unless the enemies are within melee range.
• When Exposed, the encounter's body is PARTIALLY revealed and is allowed to attack normally, but since the body is partially exposed, these exposed body parts may be aimed at and fired upon without the cover's protection.
  • Exposed body groups: HEAD, UPPER BODY, LIMBS (Arms only) EXTREMITIES (Hands only)
• When first taking cover, the encounter may choose which exposure state they first want to assume. If the player specifies none when the Contestant is taking cover, Exposed is assumed by default.
• Switching between exposure states takes a full turn. Being a non-combat action, it is always resolved first. The reason it takes a full turn is to avoid "turtling".

Assuming enemies fire upon the Contestant's side...

• If the Contestant was Hidden and is switching to Exposed, he/she will do so at the start of the turn, but may not be targeted; it is only possible to aim at targets that are already exposed when the turn begins.
• If the Contestant was Exposed and is switching to Hidden, it is possible that enemies may have targeted that user, but as the switch will occur at the start of the turn, it will always be resolved before most attacks. In turn, the Contestant will not be hit directly as cover will

As such, switching between the two states constantly, turn after turn, is possible but impractical, as the user constantly switching can never get to attack due to wasting full turns. In other words, it is impossible to abuse exposure states to benefit from both Exposed's ability to attack and Hidden's total protection within a single turn.

NOTE: State of exposure has no effect on stealth. As long as stealth is maintained, the user will not be detected, even if they are Exposed.

Types of cover

Cover may be randomly generated in rooms that have an encounter inside, even those that are not hostile. When the contestant enters such a room, the player may type @cover to prompt the IRC bot to generate cover. Cover damage is regulated solely using LDV rather than Pain, making cover potentially more durable, with each type having a set health and LDV modifier, similar to how Armor Class works in regards to limb damage.

Overpenetration

Cover is not completely infallible, and generally speaking, the weaker a piece of cover is, the less "health" it will have until breaking down; but even then, covers react differently to attacks. Overpenetration is a concern; certain Bullet-type attacks have sufficient power to pass through and hit encounters hiding behind a piece of cover.

• In order for a pass-through to occur, covers now have a Pass-through Threshold ("PTT" on the table above). It details the minimum amount of limb damage required for a given Bullet-type attack to overpenetrate and pass-through the piece of cover.
• Every cover also has an AC equivalence ("AC Eqv." on the table above), which is relevant for certain bullet-types which apply damage bonuses depending on the AC of its target.
  • Example: A piece of cover with a Kevlar-3 AC equivalence will be considered to be a Kevlar-3 AC target if hit by an AP bullet - which have a bonus LDV+1 on Kevlar-2, -3, -4 and HEV targets.
• The amount of damage checked is the final amount, after all LDV modifiers have been applied; including that of the piece of cover. A piece of cover needing at least 8 damage to be overpenetrated requires a bullet that will do 8 or more damage even after applying the cover's LDV malus.
• Certain bullet types can NEVER perform a complete pass-through due to their nature: HP, XPD, TPD, Seg, and frag shrapnel such as from fragmentation grenades.
• Each piece of cover has a listed Pain modifier ("Pain mod." on the table above) which applies a multiplication (between x0.25 and x1) to the amount of Pain damage the bullet will deal after successfully overpenetrating.

In short: A bullet which successfully passes all of the requirements (can be passed through, correct bullet type, sufficient damage) will do the following: Hit one of the creatures behind the piece of cover at random (equal chances), on a random body part (@bodyaim), with Pain multiplied by the listed modifier, and LDV reduced by the same amount as the piece of cover's (if the cover hit had LDV-2, then the overpenetrating bullet will have a LDV-2 malus before hitting a victim). Note that two LDV rolls are done in total if overpenetration occurs; one for determining damage done to the cover, and another separate one for damage done to the victim.

Strategy

Cover is an essential aspect of combat in the Mazes, as it has many uses - stealth, speed, and protection from hits via passive defense. By providing passive defense, they can absorb hits from enemies, but are ineffective for non-ranged combat. It provides an exception to the is intrinsically tied to the Initiative system rules, by allowing combatants taking cover to be faster and more efficient during the turn they decide to take cover (see IS article about turn resolution for more information).

Cover can absorb damage intended for the encounters using it, unless said encounters are exposed and hit in exposed body parts; there is an innate sense of strategy - should one remain exposed in order to be able to keep returning fire, or be hidden so as to be fully protected, but unable to attack? The answer wholly depends on the situation, the context, and the personal strategy of the Contestant and the other combatants.

Cover provides passive protection to all the encounters using it, until it is destroyed, or unless explosives are used. In such cases, splash damage hits ALL encounters and anything damageable on the same side as the point of detonation, this includes cover and encounters taking cover, though this only applies for the blast; fragmentation, for example, will hit the cover.

When a contestant first enters a room and sees an encounter, he/she can attempt taking cover. Taking cover is subject to a dice roll, but not to the failure threshold; even with FT modifiers, a 7 or more is required to be successful in taking cover.

Should the contestant succeed the roll, he/she will successfully take cover, stealth will be preserved, and (in most cases) the enemy inside will not notice the contestant's presence.

However, should he/she fail the roll, the contestant will succeed in taking cover but will be noticed by the enemy, ending his/her turn; this leaves a window for the opponent to attack.
In case of a critical failure while rolling for cover, they don't take cover at all; the enemies will attack beforehand. They must also roll again to take cover next turn.

During combat, if a piece of cover is struck by a critically successful hit (rolling 12), rolling @critwin is not needed - cover is unaffected by the effects of critical successes and simply succeed as normal. In a way, cover provides protection from these random, and often crippling effects.

Cover becomes more interesting if the contestant is attempting a stealth shot.

As noted above, cover is only useful for ranged combat. If an encounter behind cover wishes to attack a target in melee, they will have to leave their side, and thus their piece of cover, to bypass their opponent's and attack them. However, nothing precludes going -back- behind cover afterwards; all that needs to be done is to roll to take cover once again. Just as if it was done on the first turn of a fight, all effects apply as normal.

See also

• Abilities
• Gameplay mechanics
• Stealth shot
• Scope mode