[Psitticine]

Originally posted by PvK:
I think I've mentioned the following idea before and it was well-received. I tend to think the scatter should be greatly reduced, but then the chance to avoid getting hurt when it lands in the right place should probably be increased to compensate somewhat and not make ranged attacks too sure of success. The result would be:

1) It would look a lot less silly.
2) Friendly fire would be less common.*
3) If tweaked properly, even inaccurate ranged attacks would have a fair chance of having an effect, especially against dense Groups.
4) If tweaked properly, even accurate spells, and fire into a dense group, wouldn't have too certain a chance of hitting someone without a shield.

(* Friendly fire would still be bad, though - again, my only real complaint with the game is units killing their friends by firing at targets near their friends.)

PvK

I agree wtih this 100%. Increased chance of hitting a square, combined with an decreased chance of hitting someBODY in that square, would make for a lot of improvements.

Increasing spell percision can handle the first, but what would make a good mechanism for the second? Right now, shields give a form of defense roll but most armor doesn't help. Possibly all units should have a chance to defend against missiles, with that chance increased by possession of a shield? Are units assumed to be able to dodge incoming shots as is, or would that make a good addition, possibly with encumberence levels cutting it down. (I don't think size should be a factor as size is already factored in the way larger units have a larger chance of being "chosen" as the target for an incoming missile since they occupy more of a square.)

Any kind of addition should be able to be auto-calculated by the system, since editing all those units to add unique Dodge stats or some such would be undoable.