Saber dueling

There are many forms of dueling, but the type discussed here is the variety that uses special dueling sabers that can be obtained in the Sable Arena. This type of dueling is very exciting and requires practice, quick thinking, and good strategy. Here is how dueling basically works:

1. You get a dueling saber from the dueling chamber inside the Sable Arena.
2. Wield your saber.
3. Select your guarding and parry locations. You may also want to change your riposte tactic.
4. You find an opponent(s) and engage.
5. Using slashes and stabs, you try to defeat your opponent.
6. During the battle, you will probably want to change your guard and parry strategies as well as your riposte tactic depending on what you observe in your foe's tactics. You can change them as often as you wish.
7. If you are victorious: rejoice! If you are defeated: practice!

There are 9 locations that represent your body and the angles of attack that can be made towards your body.

Locations of Attack

1	2	3
4	5	6
7	8	9

Your actual body is at locations 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8. Thus, these are the only locations where you can be stabbed. Slashing attacks, however, can come from any angle except location number 5. As you read on you will see that these are important facts to bear in mind for planning your attack and defense. You continue fighting as long as you have dueling energy remaining. This is separate from your real hit points but it functions in a very similar manner. It gets set the first time you wield a new saber and as foes strike you successfully you lose dueling energy (until you are defeated).

Guarding/Parrying: There are 6 choices for guarding and parrying. They are high, middle, low, left, center, and right. Whenever you make a selection, an entire row or column is protected either by a guard or a parry. If your foe strikes you in a location you are guarding, your foe's attack will be blocked. If your foe strikes you in a location you are parrying, then the attack will be blocked and there will be a chance that you deliver an instant riposte. You can change your guarding and parrying locations during a fight but this will delay when you can attack again. You can change your guard faster than you can change your parry. The locations are: high = locations 1, 2, and 3 middle = locations 4, 5, and 6 low = locations 7, 8, and 9 left = locations 1, 4, and 7 center = location 2, 5, and 8 right = locations 3, 6, and 9

Riposte: You have a chance of making a riposte if you parry your foe's attack. Whatever you have set as your riposte tactic is the kind of attack you will make in retaliation.

Slash/stab: These are the two attack forms. you can slash every location except number 5, and you can stab the locations where the body exists (numbers 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8). Stabbing attacks are faster and take less time to recover from (which means you can attack again sooner). Stabs are also a bit more damaging.

Engage: You must engage your foe before you can execute any attacks against them. Keep in mind someone can attack you even if you have not engaged them.

As for the rest, you will have to learn through practice, practice, practice. Dueling can be very exciting and fun as you will discover soon after you experience your first bout!

Summary of Commands engage <foe> - select your opponent (example: engage foo) guard <high/middle/low/left/center/right> (example: guard high) parry <high/middle/low/left/center/right> (example: parry low) riposte <slash/stab> <location> (example: riposte stab 5)

slash <location> (example: slash 1) stab <location> (example: stab 5)

duel - check your dueling settings and status duel who - who is currently dueling