Martial Arts Rebalance for Scorpion Kung Fu

[Hymore246]

Summary

SUMMARY: Balance "Martial arts rebalance for Scorpion Kung Fu"

Purpose of change

Partially implements #32422
Update for the martial art: Scorpion Kung Fu

Describe the solution

One of the Five Deadly Venoms, used by Gao Ji. Scorpion Style is a mysterious art which uses pincer-like hands and a stinger kick.

Current Buffs, Techniques, and Special Abilities

Name	Level Available	Type	Effect
Arm Block	Unarmed 3
Scorpion Venom	Unarmed 0	Static Buff	+2 Bash damage
Stinger Strike	Unarmed 0	Unarmed Crit Tech	+100% Bash damage, Stun duration: 3, Knockback distance: 3
Pincer Strike	Unarmed 4	Unarmed Tech	+25% Bash damage, stun duration: 2

Scorpion Kung Fu likes to hype up Stinger Strike as one of the strongest attack in the game. Stinger Strike does have the largest knockback distance of any tech but that isn't always useful.

Problems and issues

• It's really easy to stunlock opponents.
  Pincer Strike allows you to easily stun with a normal attack. Stringer Strike has a high amount of stun but it's offset by the huge amount of knockback it does (unles you force the opponent into a wall). Either way, it's easier than it should be to stunlock an opponent.

• The style is pretty limited.
  Stringer Strike is strong and so is Pincer Strike. But that's pretty much it for the style. The style should have more to make it more interesting.

• Large knockback isn't always a good thing.
  Stinger Strike can be really useful for break up small groups but in a lot of cases, Stinger Strike's large knockback just means you have to move more to continue attacking. Pinning an opponent against a wall is the best best way to avoid this problem.

Rebalance Goal
Stinger Strike should be the main focus of the style but Pincer Strike's stunning needs to be restricted. Aside from that, the style needs additional content to be more interesting. Adding a lot of new techniques wouldn't help because that reduces the chance of performing a Stinger Strike. Also, most buffs would wear off while trying to re-engage an opponent after a crit due to the high amount of knockback caused by a Stringer Strike.

New Buffs, Techniques, and Special Abilities

Name	Level Available	Type	Effect
Arm Block	Unarmed 3
Scorpion's Venom	Unarmed 0	Static Buff	+2 Bash damage
Roundhouse Kick	Unarmed 0	Unarmed Tech	+20% Bash damage
Scorpion's Intimidation	Unarmed 1	OnAttack Buff	+1 Dodge attempt
Scorpion's Charge	Unarmed 2	OnMove Buff	Enables "Pincer Strike", +10% damage. Stacks 2 times, lasts 2 turns.
Pincer Strike	Unarmed 4	Unarmed Tech	Requires "Scorpion's Charge", +25% Bash damage, stun duration: 1
Stinger Kick	Unarmed 5	Unarmed Crit Tech	+100% Bash damage, Stun duration: 2, Knockback distance: 3, Powerful Knockback

Important Changes

• Added Roundhouse Kick technique.
  Scorpion Kung Fu is a style that focuses on kicking and needed something as a default normal attack. Roundhouse Kick fit that role and I added it to round out the technique list.

• Added Scorpion's Intimidation OnAttack buff.
  The Scorpion (Gao Ji) demonstrated that he was able to fight both the Lizard (Meng Tianxia) and Yang Tieh effectively by attacking very quickly to prevent them from ganging up on him. In CDDA, this can be translated to an OnAttack buff that give the user an extra dodge chance. Also, real life scorpions are pretty intimidating so this fits thematically too.

• Added Scorpion's Charge OnMove buff.
  This new buff services two purposes:

1. It is the required buff that Pincer Strike needs
   in order to be usable. This prevents Pincer Strike for constantly stunlocking opponents.
2. It helps reduce the damage lose caused by Stinger Kick's large knockback. If you need to pursue an opponent to continue the fight, Scorpion's Charge will make it more worth your while.

New technique attribute: "powerful_knockback"
"powerful_knockback" is a technique attribute that when set to true, will calculate knockback using the "game::knockback" code instead of using the normal technique knockback code. What this means is that the knockbacked opponent will take more damage if it collides with a wall or another creature and if it collides with another creature, that creature will be knocked back as well!

If a creature is knocked back into a wall, the creature will take additional bash damage equal to the remaining amount of knockback that wasn't used. This also generates noise equal to the same amount. For example, you Stinger Kick (knockback: 3) a zombie that was standing 1 tiles away from the wall into the wall. The zombie would be moved next to the wall and take 2 extra bash damage and generate 2 noise.

If an opponent is knocked back into another opponent, the above extra damage and noise will occur. In addition, when the first opponent collides with the second opponent, the first opponent will stop moving and any remaining knockback will be applied to the second opponent. Depending on the technique's knockback_dist, it's possible to affect multiple opponents in this way.

Lastly, "stun_duration" is handled differently on a "powerful_knockback" technique. Instead of being stunned the normal way, the "game::knockback" code will handle stunning. The first opponent will be stunned if hit and if the opponent collides with any other opponents from the knockback, those other opponents will also be stunned. There is no diminishing returns for the stun due to knockback distance, every opponent will be stunned for the same amount as indicated by "stun_duration".

Advantages

• Stinger Kick is extremely strong and in open areas, it can provide a way to fight again groups.
• Scorpion's Charge and Scorpion's Venom can provide a powerful boost to damage.

Disadvantages

• Stinger Kick is the focus of the style. If you don't like knockback, this isn't the style for you.
• Stinger Kick is gained at Unarmed 5. Scorpion Kung Fu will be lacking until then.

Describe alternatives you've considered

If the style is too strong...

• Reduce the damage on Pincer Strike.
• Do not allow Scorpion's Charge to stack.

If the style is too weak...

• Increase the damage on Stinger Kick.
• Increase the duration on Scorpion's Charge or Scorpion's Intimidation

Additional context

References:
Five Deadly Venoms wikipedia page
Five Deadly Venoms - The Five Fighting Styles
Last battle in Five Deadly Venoms