Combat is one of the most important areas of Avalon and although the likes of the pacifist and duellist can opt out part or completely from interplayer conflict, most elect to risk themselves in the challenging battlefield of Avalon life. Those who are noteworthy as fighters are given, as a purely honourary status, the 'true fighter' accolade. See HELP FIGHTERS for a list of those. There is a constantly updated, real combat ranking league table you can view by typing RANKS. This is based on successful kills versus times slain: combat ratio being the raw number of kills vs number of deaths, attack rating being the number of skills vs number of deaths judged by relative skillworth. Attaining a top ten position in both combat ratio and attack rating ranks automatically bestows the 'true fighter' accolade.
Here are some of the useful commands for use in a combat situation:
CONCENTRATE - Concentrates only on fights which involve you.
RELAX - Relaxes so that you will see all local combat.
FIGHTBRIEF - Brief fight messages for the large fight.
FIGHTVERBOSE - Fleshy fight messages for the duel.
FVB - Very brief, terse fight messages for heavy fighting.
ENTOURAGE OFF - To disable entourage following messages.
ENTOURAGE ON - To enable entourage following messages.
FIGHTING ON/OFF - Declares you will or will not enjoy bloodlust protections.
Remember that both SHOOT and THROW can be done from long distance, providing you
Remember that you need to check the range of an opponent not in your location and the easiest way to check you are near enough is to type LOOK or SQUINT <direction> - see if your target is visible. Then append this <direction> to the distance/projectile attack or move quickly that way before your enemy disappears, initiating melee as soon as you are within range.
See also: HELP FIGHTING for overall concept, HELP BLOODLUST for bloodlust and combat/automated combat protections and HELP FIGHTERS for a list of "True Fighters" of active repute.
