Change spear techniques from impaling strike to penetrating strike

[ampersand55]

Summary

Balance "Change spear techniques from impaling strike to penetrating strike"

Purpose of change

The AoE effect to "Attack target and another one behind it" with spears is a of a old fantasy game trope that doesn't fit with the current more grounded version of the game.

It's obviously unrealistic to skewer a monster and without losing thrust do the same damage to the monster behind it. It was also the least useful of the AoE techniques and I don't think it will be missed.

Describe the solution

Replace "Impaling Strike" in all spears with a new technique called "Penetrating Strike" that has 30 % increased armor penetration on crit. I think it fits with the theme of stab weapons/spears and would be applicable to all weapons currently using the impale technique. It also gives spears some additional identity besides being reach weapons.

Some things I would appreciate feedback on:

• deprecate the IMPALE technique?
• add Penetrating Strike to all similar melee spears. Is there a reason why pipe spear has Impaling Strike but steel spear does not?
• exclude some monster groups that doesn't have armor.
• some additional info to convey to the player that it also applies to natural armor.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Testing

Works in game

Additional context

[github-actions]

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[RedMisao]

Regarding deprecating it:
Yeah I can't defend impale (the aoe, not just IMPALE the technique). It would even be worse to do that in a combat situation with more than one enemy that's not in the same axis as the main target, as you could get the weapon stuck, or causing the main target to be potentially closer to you thus nullifying the advantage of using a long weapon.
Not only that, but if you are fighting more than one enemy, to impale it you require the second to be in a line relative to you and the main target, unlike wide and spin. This should be rare, as both targets should be trying to hit you however they can, not necessarily waiting for their turn.
The code seems to have been virtually not updated except for NPC-related behavior (link), so it does seem like the old paradigm.

Regarding excluding monstergroups without armor:
If you mean blacklisting the technique from them, I don't think it's worth the job, given the technique should do nothing extra, but this is my lazy opinion.
Also, to make the process require less maintenance, you could instead check for "n_armor(blabla) > 0" as a condition on the target, if it applies to monsters.

[ampersand55]

If you mean blacklisting the technique from them, I don't think it's worth the job, given the technique should do nothing extra, but this is my lazy opinion.

I'm of the same opinion. The defenses of a mechanized CROWS, an insect with carapace and a humanoid wearing armor would be different, but I can't think of a monster that wouldn't have a weak point, such as joints or eyes.

After checking all the in-game spears, I've seen nothing that would indicate that they would be used differently from each other so I added the PENETRATE flag to all similar spears.

I'll defer the matter of deprecation to someone more experienced in this project.

I marked this ready, but I'm still open to feedback.