Description
Range is weapons' defensive characteristic, which determines the greatest distance from an opponent you can be without suffering an accuracy penalty. Range calculates your position within a room relative to your opponent's position. If your weapon's (or fists') range is equal to or greater than your opponents', then you can reach them and will not suffer a penalty. If your weapon's range is greater than your opponent's, your opponent will suffer reduced accuracy when fighting you. The penalty starts small (being 1 distance short incurs a 1 accuracy penalty) but increasingly grows as the distance increases.
If an axe-wielder fights an archer, the axe-wielder has a range of 1, but the archer's range of 11 sets them 9 distance apart. When attacking, the axe-wielder's range of 1 falls 10 short, causing their accuracy to be reduced by 30. All weapons of a given type have the same range, meaning it is beneficial to be prepared to fight with a variety of weapons at a variety of ranges. Distance is calculated differently for solo combatants and combatants in formations. If neither combatants is formed, and one wields a throwing spear (8 range) and the other wields a staff (4 range), then the spear-wielder sets the distance and the staff-wielder suffers a distance penalty of 4, resulting in -5 accuracy.
If both combatants are formed, their distance is calculated not by their weapons but by their position within their formations. If formation #1 is Sylvaer and Ardrigh in the Snare structure, and formation #2 is Eros and Raja in the Shield structure, their fight looks like:
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] [ ][ ][---][ ][ ] [ ][---][Syl][---][ ] [---][ ][ ][ ][---] [Ard][ ][ ][ ][---] [Ero][Raj][---][---][---] [ ][---][---][---][ ] [ ][ ][---][ ][ ] [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
The two formations are facing each other, with their respective structures. Sylvaer is in position cc; Ardrigh in ffl; Eros in ffl; Raja in fl. Both Ardrigh and Eros are in ffl in their respective forms, and face one another. Positions are mirrored, rather than rotated. To determine the distance between two people, count the distance between them, including their own spaces. Ardrigh and Eros are adjacent, so counting their own spaces, their distance is 2. Raja and Ardrigh are 1x1 apart from each other; the square root of (1^2+1^2) is 1.4 (rounded down), so they are also 1 apart from each other. Eros's position is 3 to the left and 4 below Sylvaer, so the square root of (3^2+4^2) sets them 5 distance apart from one another.