I've been thinking about how high-level combat might work in Forge-verse and here's my thoughts:
Stances
Stunts
Battlefield Effects
tl;dr Strong cultivators that are fighting should have an explicit strategy, moves that fit into that particular strategy, and side effects that stem from their actions. Combat is about making sure everything on your side synergizes while making sure everything on your opponents' side does not.
Stances
Each cultivator starts off by assuming a stance. Stances dictate how they will attack others, defend themselves from attack, and the basic gist of their strategy. If you don't have any relevant stances then you can't act but that's really difficult to do to someone. Its basically guaranteed they'll be able to come up with something, even if that's LQ trying to punch someone.
LQ's default stance would be "I am a cloud of freezing mist filled with phantoms. I attack you by exhausting you. I defend by being difficult to get a solid strike on. This stance weakens opponents over time"
GG's would be "I am a general overseeing his men. I attack you through my subordinates. I defend by intercepting attacks with my golden hands. This stance counters stealth"
JR's is "I am a powerful brawler. I attack with lightning charged fists. I defend through being just that tough. This stance means I'm always able to hit you"
and so on. Some might be granted by the surrounding context instead of a technique, such as being in command of lesser cultivators or defending a fortress.
Naturally stances change over the course of a fight as well. The most obvious is Ji Rong's lightning form but GG shifting to personally beating up the Sunflower spirit is another example or us grappling someone through PLR are also examples. You can also be knocked out of your stance. CRX did this to us a bunch but our isolation effects could knock someone out of a group-based stance and our grapple knocked Ji Rong out of his lightning brawler stance in the tournament.
At its most simple level, high level combat would be about trying to get to use one of your strong stances while forcing your opponent to use one that they aren't good with.
LQ's default stance would be "I am a cloud of freezing mist filled with phantoms. I attack you by exhausting you. I defend by being difficult to get a solid strike on. This stance weakens opponents over time"
GG's would be "I am a general overseeing his men. I attack you through my subordinates. I defend by intercepting attacks with my golden hands. This stance counters stealth"
JR's is "I am a powerful brawler. I attack with lightning charged fists. I defend through being just that tough. This stance means I'm always able to hit you"
and so on. Some might be granted by the surrounding context instead of a technique, such as being in command of lesser cultivators or defending a fortress.
Naturally stances change over the course of a fight as well. The most obvious is Ji Rong's lightning form but GG shifting to personally beating up the Sunflower spirit is another example or us grappling someone through PLR are also examples. You can also be knocked out of your stance. CRX did this to us a bunch but our isolation effects could knock someone out of a group-based stance and our grapple knocked Ji Rong out of his lightning brawler stance in the tournament.
At its most simple level, high level combat would be about trying to get to use one of your strong stances while forcing your opponent to use one that they aren't good with.
Stunts
The specific actions that someone can take in a particular stance would be stunts (to borrow from the current system). This includes LQ charging up her next action with JT, teleporting allies around, vanishing into stealth in response to an attack, and so on and so forth. Blasts of lightning, punches that would level mountains are other examples of what might go in this category, these are all one and done effects. LQ has fairly few of these but they are the cornerstone of Ji Rong's and CRX's strategies.
Generally speaking stunt-level techniques are done in an exchange where A has the advantage and attacks, B defends, B attacks, A defends, and repeat. However a particularly effective exchange might stun the loser and give the other side another turn of being able to attack (ie A attacks, B defends, A attacks, B defends, B attacks ). Finishers always stun the attacker if the defender can withstand them (A uses a finisher, B defends, B attacks, A defends, B attacks...).
Generally speaking stunt-level techniques are done in an exchange where A has the advantage and attacks, B defends, B attacks, A defends, and repeat. However a particularly effective exchange might stun the loser and give the other side another turn of being able to attack (ie A attacks, B defends, A attacks, B defends, B attacks ). Finishers always stun the attacker if the defender can withstand them (A uses a finisher, B defends, B attacks, A defends, B attacks...).
Battlefield Effects
Finally there are battlefield effects. These are currently not terribly significant at our level (mostly representing collateral damage) but represent people creating lasting effects in the environment. Tearing apart the hills or turning the ground inert are generally not going to decide any fights but there might be some consequences. As we grow stronger, though, we might be tearing holes between the Liminal and physical reality to help with our dream techniques or causing a permanent blizzard.
Anyone can take advantage of a field effect but presumably you are trying to cause ones that will help you and your allies while hurting your opponents.
Unfortunately you don't have complete control over this as powerful cultivators will inherently warp the area around them as they fight. Preventing this from happening is the job of containment techniques. They can be imposed on an enemy to prevent them from building up beneficial field effects but are most frequently used to prevent anyone from doing so in order to limit collateral damage. Examples of containment techniques are Jiao's dream worlds and the generic "nothing happens to the surrounding area" thing the elders do for our spars.
Anyone can take advantage of a field effect but presumably you are trying to cause ones that will help you and your allies while hurting your opponents.
Unfortunately you don't have complete control over this as powerful cultivators will inherently warp the area around them as they fight. Preventing this from happening is the job of containment techniques. They can be imposed on an enemy to prevent them from building up beneficial field effects but are most frequently used to prevent anyone from doing so in order to limit collateral damage. Examples of containment techniques are Jiao's dream worlds and the generic "nothing happens to the surrounding area" thing the elders do for our spars.
tl;dr Strong cultivators that are fighting should have an explicit strategy, moves that fit into that particular strategy, and side effects that stem from their actions. Combat is about making sure everything on your side synergizes while making sure everything on your opponents' side does not.
