Description
Known Bugs and Incompatibilities (still looking into these)
Charm's bat bucket module must be disabled for offhand attacks to work properly, I do know why this one happens, but it's on their side.
Primitive Mobs seem to break parrying if you attack the enemy once first. I don't know why, it doesn't look like there's a conflict anywhere.
Dynamic Stealth makes staggering impossible and you need to aim at a very specific part of an entity to successfully parry. Again, no idea why.
Thank you DarkMega for making the first known spotlight on Taoism! Dark makes cool modpacks, check out Timeless Technician!
A work in progress mod that currently adds 36 weapons from around the world. These weapons are unique in the sense that they:
1. have no durability
2. have interactions with posture and chi of you and the opponent
3. can be wielded in the offhand, leading to combinatorial explosion
4. have true AoE. These weapons emulate the initial strike on all nearby targets, applying enchants, potions and effects from other mods, to those caught in the radius, even if you're not actually aiming at anything
5. have various stats and perks that shape their style of combat
They have very cheap recipes because this is a skill-based and not a stat-based mod, but all are specialized for certain styles of combat and can swiftly kill when used correctly.
When you are attacked, posture is deducted. The precise amount of posture taken depends on attack power and the multipliers of each weapon. When holding any weapon from Taoism (and additionally any weapon defined in the config) and facing your attacker, you automatically block incoming melee attacks, hereby referred to as "idle parrying". Idle parrying may cost more or less posture, with less effective weapons (for instance, a dagger is worse than an axe for the purpose) costing more posture. Taking the hit head-on also deals posture damage, so parrying is very much encouraged. Arrows and other projectiles may also be parried, but one must have a high enough chi to slap them down from midair. Both sides will be knocked back after an idle parry, with the max posture of each entity reducing knockback taken. You (and most other mobs) have 10 posture initially, and can gain more by equipping armor, up to 20. Beware, however, as armor also decreases your posture regeneration rate, down to half at full armor. Low health also will negatively impact posture regeneration. When your posture is not full, it displays in a bar at the bottom of your screen. If it's not red or yellow, there's little need to worry. When you are mounted, since you do not take knockback, the knockback will instead be distributed as posture damage to you and your steed.
If posture is reduced to zero, then the entity is staggered until its posture recovers. When staggered it cannot move, and damage dealt to it ignores 9 points of armor. This generally means death, don't let this happen to you. This applies to mobs, too, so you can dispatch heavily armored monsters with well-placed strikes.
The saving grace to this system is sudden stagger prevention (SSP). When you have more than 1/4 of your max posture still remaining, any hit will only cause your posture to drop to slightly above zero instead of staggering you. In a small amount of time after SSP activates you are immune from staggers, and it only recharges once you are at full posture again. This allows one who has miscalculated a creature's attack strength or their own defense posture percentage to recover. You can disable this in the config, for yourself or mobs, if you want. Your posture bar will be temporarily overridden to show how much time you have to run away from more posture damage.
Chi (or qi) is a simple mechanic. It goes up when you attack with this mod's weapons and goes down over time. There is a (configurable) grace period after gaining chi and losing a level during which you do not lose chi, so very long fights (such as the enderdragon) won't have to be interspersed with chi recharge breaks. The rate of decrease also decreases the less chi you have, so the first level lasts longer than the fifth. It's generally used as a gate for mechanics in most weapons.
When above certain amounts of chi, you unlock mobility moves, detailed below:
0+
-Your jump height is increased and fall speed is decreased; you become immune to fall damage. Slow fall can be disabled by sneaking. While sprinting, you also jump further. This feature, due to popular demand, now requires you to toggle combat mode on with a keybind (default backslash)
-Double tapping strafe or back twice on the ground will execute a dodge, during which time you are invulnerable to both melee and projectile attacks. Use this to quickly make distance between you and the opponent. There is a slight cooldown, so don't spam it.
-When sprinting, sneak to slide a small distance. This counts as a dodge forwards.
-While airborne, you can double jump once.
-If you are about to collide into an entity while airborne, press jump to kick them for a good chunk of their posture and jump again. You can do this any number of times.
2+
-You can dodge in midair. Dodging forwards is possible when airborne, and you travel further when doing so. After such an aerial dash, your fall is greatly slowed to allow chaining, detailed below.
3+
-You can now alternate between dodging and double jumping for great aerial mobility bootleg flying. A trail of smoke will indicate when this is active.
-When sprinting or dodging into a wall while airborne, you cling onto it and begin wall running. You may run up by looking into the wall and down by looking away from the wall, and you will be prevented from running away from the wall. Jumping or dodging will end this state and propel you slightly away from the wall, ready to kick a mob some distance away or cling onto another wall. Unless, of course, you're looking into the wall, in which case you are propelled straight up so you can climb to the top.
The mechanics are (hopefully) easy to understand (they're literally written in the tooltips) but (hopefully) harder to master compared to the average sword. I will be listing the primary traits of these weapons in the spoiler below to conserve space:
Jian: Chinese sword equipped by gentlemen. Closest to a vanilla sword and centered around combos; you can almost continuously attack with its cooldown refresh perk.
Kampilan: Filipino blade that keeps enemies close. Less combo power than the jian, but makes up for it in its larger sweep area, additionally transforming all knockback into even more damage.
Cestus: Roman gladiatorial gloves worn by pugilists. Centers around defense, using status effects from high combo counters to quickly immobilize single opponents.
Sapper's Axe (Ban Fu): heavy axes carried by auxiliary units worldwide. Cleaves through armor and carries enough weight behind it to knock enemies down.
Balisong: Tagalog daggers that capitalize on trickery and combos. Has different attack patterns in main hand and offhand, and deals massive ambush damage.
Karambit: Indonesian knives that curve like a tiger's claw. Ambush enemies to bleed them out, reducing both health and healing ability.
Spherical Mace (Chui): Chinese maces wielded by strong soldiers. Inflicts great posture damage, and brutally crushes downed targets for 1.5x damage.
Tassel Spear (Qiang): flexible Chinese spears wielded by martial artists. Boasting a great attack range, it becomes more effective the more you keep your distance.
Tonfa: Okinawan clubs with incredible defensive capabilities. Unpredictable in its attack, it can debilitate opponents with its blocks and parries.
Chicken Sickle: obscure Chinese martial pick. Unassuming and even meek at first, it can quickly rip off great chunks of flesh for long-term bleeding and percentage damage.
Cat o' Nine Tails: European whip dealing out corporeal punishment. Lacerating the skin to cause grievous bleeding, it wraps around blocks and parries but can do little against armored foes.
Pollaxe: Versatile dueling axe carried by knights. Relentlessly punish the enemy for remaining in your attack range with its grapples, chops and stabs, while you remain impervious to theirs.
Halberd: European war axe not unlike its smaller cousins. Boasting great reach and burst, it can either cripple targets with its cleave or choose to detonate it for massive armor piercing damage.
Maul: A huge hammer pounding in barricades and skulls alike. Nail enemies into the wall or ground with its powerful smashes.
Hooked Spear (Goulian Qiang): A deceptive spear that hooks and trips enemies, inflicting great damage to staggered foes; perfect for outlaws looking to ambush cavalry.
Qing Long Ji: "halberd of the jade dragon". A spear more punishing in its combo pattern, but more rewarding with its bleed affliction and power bonuses for successive strikes.
Quarterstaff: literally a long stick. Flick enemies into the air and follow them up for an epic aerial duel, or mercilessly pummel them into the ground for fall damage.
Guan Dao: a long-handled falchion. Spin to gain momentum and perform wide slashes that cut wide swathes through encircling enemies.
Ghiavarina: a central European spear with two lugs that prevent the spear from piercing too deep. Controls enemies at a range, leaving you all but unscathed in the heat of battle.
Nunchaku: a fast hand weapon that can quickly alternate between four attacks, catching the enemy off guard at every strike.
Rope Dart: a throwing weapon known for its grace and unpredictability. Wind it up for trick shots to hit faraway foes, while nearby enemies taste the power of your kicks and punches.
Iron Whip: a well balanced mace designed to counter medium armor. Continuously wear down your target with enfeebling pain.
Rapier: a slender and quick stabbing sword made for duelists. Lull enemies into an attack, then riposte with your superior reach and speed for critical damage.
Bullwhip: long whip made for herding cattle. Go full Indiana Jones with disorienting cracks and disarming pulls.
Blacksnake: shot-loaded flexible short whip. While the crack is painful enough, one may pull in the enemy and follow up with a dazing blackjack strike.
Kusarigama: a sickle linked to a weighted chain. Wear down your enemies with weakening parries and throws, then entangle them and engage in close-range combat.
Deer Horn Knife: exotic hand weapon wielded by masters of Baguazhang. Parry a strike to lock the weapon into a bind, then draw in to deliver critical slashes.
Horse Slayer: better known as zhanmadao, a very long saber made to counter cavalry. Alternate heavy overhead chops and wide horizontal swings for continuous critical hits.
Willow-Leaf Saber: a sleek, reckless slashing sword. Plow through enemy defenses with well-timed, relentless attacks.
Bec de Corbin: Old French for "raven's beak". Leave your opponent for the crows with jabs and smashes that grow more painful the more they hit.
Lance: incredibly long horseback spear. Charge when mounted to pierce all who stand in your way.
Monk Spade: large shovels carried by traveling Buddhist and Taoist priests. While useful as a general tool for pushing away enemies and terraforming, its true power lies in its ability to bury and exorcise undead.
Emeici: spinning naval spikes once used to sink ships. Continuously circle around your opponent to jab at their weak points.
Executioner's Sword: High Medieval beheading swords. Reveal the crimes of your opponent in a race for evidence, then cast your judgement and decapitate the sinner.
Misericorde: a slender dagger of mercy carried by knights. Honorably end the suffering of a staggered and dying target.
Judge's Pen: an iron brush devoid of thread and bias. Attack pressure points to cause and lengthen enervating sentences.
Oh, did I mention that mobs can use these as well? Finally, a worthy zombie opponent! As compensation, mobs have an enforced attack cooldown that defaults to 0.5 seconds. This can be changed in the config as well.
That's all folks, have fun and be safe! Everything is unbalanced, please report anything you don't think is legit! I am a sucker for balance, but I am also a sucker for modularity. Historically these rarely go together, but I'm trying my best to make each branch (tinker, fighter, ghostkeeper, etc.) of traditional Chinese culture balanced around each other without resorting to "skills" that actually inhibit rather than increase a player's potential. Of course, this means lots of customisation: variable drive speed:power ratio for the mechanists following real physics, freely customisable weapons that derive stats off of these modifications, elixirs factoring in environment and cooking heat to determine effects, and ghosts that have different AI according to their personality and their possessed body (if any) are all planned. This is obviously a lot of work, so we're recruiting. Please contact us over Discord if interested.
Official Discord server here. Suggest anything on the game document here.