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title: Combat Bearing, Hitting the Deck to Aviod Projectiles (Itseasytosee)
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# Combat Bearing, Hitting the Deck to Aviod Projectiles (Itseasytosee)

## Abstract

Combat Bearing is an expansion to gun-based combat that allows players to take up a tactical or defensive position by going prone without being exceedingly annoying, exploitable, or unrealistic. Going prone or falling down via the rest action allows projectiles to pass over you that were not directly aimed at you by clicking on your sprite. However, moving while prone will put you into a crawling state in which you do not gain the benefit of bullets passing over you. This option makes combat more dynamic, without being as big of a decider in combat as skill, equipment, and position are. Finally, this feature fixes a thematic discontinuity in which bullets will arbitrarily pass over unmoving people in critical conditions, and those who are not in crit.

## Goals

- Add a situational option during combat.
- Improve the game's thematic consistency
- Give noncombatants a way of defending themselves when bullets are flying.
- Allow for badass story moments.
- Make a system that can be used to add more depth to other combat scenarios
(such as dealing more damage with melee weapons to prone opponents.)

## Non-Goals

- Allow for the creation of a foolproof tactic or overpowered strategy.
- Lead to moments that feel unfair or unsatisfying.
- Cause items like barricades or other forms of cover to become obsolete
- Create useless bloat that no one will utilize.
- Confuse players about how bullets work.

## How does it work?

Well, its simple.

You will start out:
### Standing Upright
- Bullets will hit you if they cross your path.
- You will be doing this 99% of the time.

If you press the rest button or are knocked down you will go:

### Prone
- Unless your sprite was clicked by the attacker directly, bullets will pass over you.
- Might happen be done accident via banana peel, or purpose in anticipation of incoming fire.

If you start moving (by method of your own body) you will start:

### Crawling
- Bullets will hit you if they cross your path.
- If you stop moving for a considerable amount of time, you will return to being prone.

Crawling durring a gunfight will likely leave you:

### in Critical Condition / Incapacitated / Dead
- Unless your sprite was clicked by the attacker directly, bullets will pass over you.

## Example
Here is a quick hypothetical example of this feature in action.

*Randy Redshirt* the security guard has found *Tommy Traitor* in maintenance with a freshly gunned-down botanist.
Randy draws his disabler with intent to shoot at Tommy to bring the traitor to justice, while Tommy draws his revolver.
Randy lets loose a volley of disabler lasers while *not clicking directly* on Tommy the first shot hits and Tommy presses the rest button and drops *prone*
Because of this the remaining shots *Pass Over* Tommy
Without moving, Tommy shoots Randy and lands a direct hit.
Randy, terrified, goes *prone* in an attempt to further shots but no more come because Tommy is busy reloading.
Randy begins moving away in retreat changing his state to *crawling* he fires some shots to cover his retreat but they miss because *crawling* gives an accuracy debuff.
Tommy fires off multiple shots wildly which hit his *crawling* opponent.
Randy is now *dead* but Tommy is going to need to stand up and start running before reinforcements arrive.

## Alternatives

- One simpler alternative to this is to have a player who rests get a second or two of bullet pass over as a representation of them hitting the deck for cover this solution would be simpler and have less opportunity for abuse.
- Lock the ability to tactically go prone to manually resting combat mode and stop normal knockdowns (such as slipping on a banana peel) to grant this benefit.

## Closing Statement / Addendum

I really like the ability to dodge incoming shots, I think it’s cool. I am a big advocate of both flavor and consistency, and I was truly upset when the fix that originally removed this functionality arbitrarily (from a logical standpoint, not a balanced one) let bullets fly over dead bodies but hit those at the same level just because their hp was above 0. That being said I think that original fix was entirely necessary. I hope to re-add this in a cool and not broken way.
Thanks for reading,
-Itseasytosee