I find it interesting that the dominant component of this discussion has been around the RNG mechanics of unarmed combat. That wasn't something that I reintroduced into the system. And I suspect what has happened here is that the whole unarmed combat system has a degree of, well, let's just call it misunderstanding and misinterpretation as to what is happening. The Toolbox Tournament featuring it prominently definitely caused a stir, even though I suspect it wasn't the Brawlening that resulted in what happened in the tournament.
It's a very soulful system, and also very obtuse. Why do you think people still think aiming for the mouth has a higher knockdown chance?
(it doesn't)
Before the Brawlening,
this PR by PKPenguin had defined a large portion of our unarmed combat for a bit. It's a bit messy to read, so take your time. It isn't particularly that involved, however.
I believe this was before knockdowns were no longer full stuns (as in, losing all hand use and movement). So, when it says knockdown here, I believe this is actually a hard stun. He introduced more involved accuracy mechanics, for one, and made it so that accuracy was separate from damage (you would miss on a roll of 0 our of 0-9 for humans, for clarity on how this worked). He retained critical hits being attached to damage, however. So, a max roll would result in a knockdown. For normal humans, that's a 10% probability. We have had this particular set of mechanics for about 5 years, with the mechanics around it changing the effects of a critical punch from a stun to a knockdown, as it is today. Entirely RNG.
What I introduced was the opposite of RNG. I added
deterministic mechanics based around the staggered status effect (which shoves apply). Namely, if an opponent has been staggered before being punched (such as from being shoved), your punch cannot miss (but the damage still rolls between your normal values), and if they hit a damage threshold of combined brute and stamina of 40, they will be knocked down. This means you have to string shoves and punches to take advantage of this mechanic. You punch less, but you punch more reliably. That's what I introduced.
If in any instance you've landed a lucky knockdown on a few swings after having not staggered an opponent in any way, you did not actually utilize the Brawlening mechanics at all. You're using much older mechanics that I haven't altered beyond introducing more granularity. That is PKPenguin's five year old mechanics that still very much exist in the current version in the form of
unarmed effectiveness. Which, for humans at a baseline, is a value of 10%. That's used as the probability for a knockdown punch, separated out from damage. Notice that it is basically the same probability as PKP's version. Baseline humans do now deal more stamina damage overall, so the raw force of unarmed attacks are higher (and less swingy), but that does not influence the RNG probability of a knockdown under normal circumstances.
The Cyberbrawlening introduced some ways to increase your unarmed effectiveness and make you more likely to get those RNG blows and suffer less of a accuracy malus from your own damage, but I feel as though fewer people engage with that content, as it is all attached to robotics. Much in the same way people avoid utilizing cybernetics, few people are looking to get their limbs upgraded to advanced cyberlimbs.
What I didn't touch in the Brawlening;
The RNG probability of grabbing: I did touch this in a PR a long time ago, but it wasn't as part of the Brawlening. That PR made it less reliable, not more reliable, because at the time the mechanics combined too strongly with shovestunning to allow someone to restrain anyone very reliably so long as they landed that shovestun. If you think currently shoestunning is too strong, it was much stronger at the time. The Brawlening did introduce a mechanic for when you have to resist. Namely, you will have to resist passive grabs if you are staggered you have taken 30 stamina damage or more. Ostensibly, the same process of shove > some other attack combination that my other changes in the Brawlening introduced. And even then, you can't just do it to anyone who isn't already fatigued (such as from having been shot by a disabler, hint hint).
Shoving: It's the same as ever, and it is as effective as ever. Whenever someone is knocked down, you shove them and they are stunned. You have no idea how much unarmed combat is focused around shovestunning and not shoving in of itself. Namely, waiting out those shovestun timers of about 3 seconds before you can re-apply the shove stun and combining other stuns while doing so. So you usually see people weave grabs and tabling during a shove stun if they don't outright cuff you off the first shovestun. Shovestunning is really the old RNG disarm stun on crack once you get good at it. The main reason I didn't touch shovestunning was because I suspected there would be a good deal of politicizing around it, and that's too annoying to bother with. I'm just trying to help pave the way towards its removal by adding more nonlethal/less-than-lethal methods of restraining people besides shovestunning. Which is what the Brawlening was about.
(seriously, nervere is gone we can get rid of shovestuns now)
What Probably Happened in the Toolbox Tournament
So, some Manual players already sussed this one out, but hitting someone with a toolbox on the chest has an RNG chance of knocking you down. That probability is based on the force of the object in question. For a toolbox, that's 12%. Higher than a punch. Hitting someone in the head does
not cause this knockdown. Instead, it causes brain damage, and maybe a concussion. The only way to avoid these effects is to be wearing armor on the hit location of 50% or higher. AKA, riot suits. People in the tournament were not wearing riot suits.
Players were probably aiming for the head, because everyone is taught early on 'aiming at the head does more damage', even though blunt force trauma to the chest has a chance to cause a knockdown, and some kind of disabling effect is what will actually push you closer to a victory.
If a bunch of people all gang up on one person, the numbers game is a bit of a crapshoot. Even the mechanics I introduced, where the effects were reliant on hitting thresholds, are only really balanced around a 1v1. If three or even two people are beating down on someone, even if they don't shove that person to get the more reliable punches, they're probably going to get a knockdown much sooner than attacking one person at a time and not ganging up on a single individual. It doesn't matter whether they were using their fists or a toolbox; hit them enough times and aiming for the chest, they will get a knockdown. It has always
been there. You just didn't know it existed and you probably weren't exploiting it enough until right this moment when you've come to discover it.
