Something we've worked to avoid in Ultima X:Odyssey is a phenomenon we refer to as "sandwich combat." You've all probably experienced this before - we mean the type of combat where you run into a monster, hit the attack key, run downstairs to grab a sandwich, and come back a few minutes later to discover whether or not you won.

Combat in UXO is about as far from "sandwich combat" as you can get - not only will you be actively involved in every swing of your weapon, but you'll be able to defend, interrupt, pull off special attacks and combination moves, and more!

Targeting
Selecting your target is fast and easy - no need to worry about clicking on a specific monster that's moving too fast, or trying to distinguish between a friendly or hostile target. Instead, your character has a cone-shaped area, called a "targeting cone," in front of it, which determines whether or not something is within your attack range.

As your character moves, the creature closest to the center of your targeting cone will always be the designated target, allowing you to target different creatures simply by turning back and forth.

Strategy Tip: Use the targeting cone when in a massive battle to keep the action going. Killed off one foe? One quick turn of the mouse switches you to the next one without requiring you to exit combat!

Players can also target friendly characters with the targeting cone, although enemies found within the cone will always take precedence. Note that you can't hurt friendly targets with aggressive spells or combat moves, so there's no need to worry about accidents.

Since targets can change quickly, it's important to be able to determine at a glance exactly which creature is your current target. To accomplish this, we've added two methods of identifying your target. First, a small portrait of the targeted creature or character will appear just above your character portrait, along with your target's health and power bars, allowing you to see at any time how you're doing in the fight. And second, a targeting circle will appear on the ground around your target. This circle will appear red for enemy targets, green for friendly targets, and yellow for invulnerable targets.

Of course, there will be times when you'll want to select one target and stick with it. Pressing the "Tab" key will lock onto your current hostile target, enabling you to maneuver without changing your target. You'll also be able to lock onto beneficial targets as well, using the "F" key. Once you're locked onto a target, all your attacks (or beneficial spells like buffs or heals, if it's a friendly target) will go to that target, as long as they remain within range.

If you don't currently have a target when you use the target lock key, you'll automatically lock onto the nearest available target, if there is one. The target lock keys can also be used to cycle through all nearby targets - either friendly or hostile, depending on which targeting key you're pressing.

Once you're locked onto a target, your character will automatically turn to face your target, even if your target is moving. Your movement keys will also work a bit differently while you're locked onto a target. For example, running forward will cause you to run directly toward your target, and running backward will make you back directly away from your target. Pressing either of the sideways keys will make you strafe in a circle around your target. You can also cancel your locked target quickly by pressing the "escape" key.

Strategy Tip: Locking onto a target gives you great freedom to move while fighting. Try using the right or left movement keys once you have your target locked - you'll keep circling your target, attacking all the while!

Friendly Targets
If you're the type of character who casts beneficial abilities or spells (such as heals and buffs), you'll love Friendly Targeting! To set your friendly target to a party member, just use the corresponding function key or click directly on their portrait icon. To set a friendly target outside your party, just click directly on the character. Once selected, the party member portrait icon will highlight green if they're in your party, or if they're not, you'll see a green targeting circle around the character's feet. (Remember that enemy targets highlight red.)

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Once you've set a friendly target, you can use beneficial abilities on that target without losing your current enemy target. To avoid confusion, we've also color-coded the icons for our Special Abilities, making it easy to tell which target type (enemy or friendly) will be affected by that ability. Offensive abilities will appear with a red background, while beneficial abilities will feature a green background.

Strategy Tip: Ever been a healer in a fight? If so, you'll know that it usually involves standing around and doing nothing, since most games require that you lose your hostile target in order to heal. But in UXO, you can heal and buff to your heart's desire, and keep whacking on the enemy in the process!

Attacking
Now that you have a target, attacking couldn't be easier - just left-click anywhere on the screen once you're in range, and you'll attack your target (provided it's an enemy, of course). Once you're in combat, keep pressing the left mouse button to attack. A property called "Attack Delay," found on your weapon, will determine how fast you can swing. There is no power cost associated with standard attacks, which means you can swing as much as you want without growing too tired to fight or needing to rest - and every character type in the game, including spellcasters, has their own standard attack. Keep in mind, however, that all standard attacks will require a weapon, meaning that characters in UXO won't be able to enter into combat with nothing in their hands.

You'll find strategic elements in almost every facet of UXO's combat - even down to how fast you click your mouse button! To increase your chance to successfully hit your target, you can wait a short time between attacks (the time to wait between attacks is equal to the Attack Delay property on your weapon). If you wish, you can wait even longer, and your chance to hit will improve further.

Strategy Tip: Let's say you're wielding a sword with an Attack Delay of 1, meaning you can attack once per second. In an easy fight, you may choose to click rapidly, swinging your weapon every second. But in a more challenging match, you'll want to make every swing count! Maybe you'll wait an extra second between each swing, increasing your chance to successfully hit your target. Or maybe you'll decide to wait an extra 2 seconds between each swing, which will increase your chance to hit even further! In UXO, every fight will be different, depending on the pace you set for yourself.

Of course, you'll want your attacks to hit as often as possible - not only because they'll deal damage to your enemy, but also because every successful hit will cause your character to gain "momentum," which we'll discuss in more detail below.

Defending
At any time during a fight, you can click and hold the right mouse button, which will put your character into defensive mode. While in this mode, your character will adopt a defensive stance, gaining a significant defensive bonus against standard attacks, as well as a chance to block certain Special Abilities. The combat stance indicator (see screen shot) will switch from an arrow to a shield icon while your character is in defensive mode. However, you won't be able to move or swing your weapon while in defensive mode.

Strategy Tip: Defensive mode is the only way to block against Special Abilities - so don't forget about it!

In addition to being able to block attacks, defensive mode also provides another way for your character to gain momentum. Every time an enemy's attack misses while you're in defensive mode, you'll gain a "Momentum Gem."

Gaining and Spending Momentum
If you're hoping to perform awesome fighting moves and exciting combination attacks, then you'll need to pay special attention to momentum. There are two ways to gain momentum - attacking successfully, and defending successfully. The more momentum you have, the more spectacular your fighting moves will be!

Once you've gained momentum, you can spend it in a couple ways, such as stringing together special abilities to perform breathtaking combos, or increasing the effectiveness of some of your other moves. Once you've gained momentum, it stays there until you either spend it or the fight ends, whichever comes first.

Special Abilities
The Path that you choose determines the Special Abilities your character will be able to learn. These abilities can be used in combat to achieve a variety of effects, such as raising defense or offense, stunning an opponent, or damaging multiple opponents simultaneously. Special Abilities cannot be blocked unless the enemy is in defensive mode.

There are two kinds of abilities: active and passive. Passive Abilities are always in effect once you learn them, and don't need to be activated in combat, or at any other time. Examples of these might include an ability that raises your resistance to certain types of attacks, or increases the effectiveness of other types of abilities. Since Passive Abilities are in effect at all times, they don't consume any power.

To use Active Abilities, on the other hand, you'll need to drag the ability icon into the area to the right of your character portrait (called the "hotbar"). The icon will stay there, and from that point on, you'll be able to use that ability with a single keypress. If there's a specific ability that can't be used in a given situation, the icon will appear gray. Note that Passive Abilities cannot be dragged onto your hotbar, since they don't need to be activated in the same manner as Active Abilities.

Active Special Abilities in UXO consume power, which is shown as the blue half-circle on the right side of your character portrait.

Strategy Tip: Ever played a game where mages and warriors had totally different kinds of power costs? Or where some classes had to worry about spell ingredients and others didn't? In UXO, there are no required ingredients, and there's no distinction between power costs for melee vs. magic in combat. Whether you're a warrior performing a spectacular move with your weapon, or you're a mage casting a terrifying summon spell, all of your Special Abilities - with the exception of passive abilities - will cost power. Simple, eh?

Each Active Special Ability has a "windup timer," which determines how long you'll need to wait from the point when you first press the ability key to when the ability actually goes into action. During this period, you won't be able to attack, defend, or use any other abilities (with the exception of combo moves, which we'll talk about later). This is also the time when you can choose to spend momentum to make the ability even more powerful!

We already mentioned that your Path would influence which Special Abilities you can learn, but it's also important to note that your currently equipped weapon will determine which abilities you can use. For example, even though your Path may allow you to learn the Shield Bash ability, it won't work unless you're holding a shield.

Interrupting Attacks
Standard attacks in UXO cannot be interrupted, but it is possible for some Special Abilities to be interrupted if an opponent uses a Special Ability that has the "Interrupt" function. Most interrupts occur during the windup phase, but if the ability takes a long time to play out (for example, let's say an ability causes a whirlwind that lasts for 20 seconds), it's still possible to be interrupted after the ability actually starts.

If you need to change tactics quickly, you can also cancel an ability yourself by pressing the escape key, which acts exactly as if you'd been interrupted by another player.

Using Momentum to Enhance Abilities
When you use an ability, a "Momentum Charge" icon may appear above it. This means that if you have the momentum to spend, you can choose to hold down the ability key to spend momentum and increase the ability's effectiveness. The longer you hold down the key, the more momentum is spent, and the stronger the ability will be. (This increase only applies to that specific usage of the ability - if you wish to use it again with that same strength, you'll have to power it up with momentum each time). Once the key is released, the ability is performed. Note that using momentum to increase the effectiveness of an ability does not change the power cost of that ability!

Activation and Execution Effects
Special Abilities can have two different kinds of effects - Activation Effects, which occur as soon as the ability is used, and Execution Effects, which occur only after the windup has completed. Since Activation Effects take effect immediately, they cannot be interrupted. However, Execution Effects can be interrupted.

Strategy Tip: Let's say a mage has a Fire Shield ability that casts a wall of fire that lasts for 30 seconds. However, that ability also comes with an Activation Effect that lowers the mage's Cold Resistance by 10% for 10 seconds. When the mage uses this ability, his Cold Resistance is instantly lowered, while the Fire Shield effect doesn't actually start until the full windup has completed. If you can interrupt his ability before his Fire Shield starts, the wall of fire effect will be cancelled, but the Activation Effect of -10% Cold Resist remains in effect until its duration is complete!

Finishing Move Effects
Once a target is near death, it enters what's called a "Finishing Move" state. This means that the next hit, whatever it is, will finish off the opponent. Certain Special Abilities have a "Finishing Move" effect listed in their ability description, which means these moves may gain a bonus or amplified effect when used as the killing blow.

Strategy Tip: Pay close attention to your target's health, because using one of these Finishing Move effects might grant you bonuses that make it well worth choosing a low damage attack or debuff over a high damage attack! For example, the ability Siphon Life normally drains hit points from your target slowly. But when used as a Finishing Move, Siphon Life can instantly regenerate a large portion of your maximum hit points.

Ability Combos
Certain Special Abilities can be used in combination with each other, forming a string of moves that work together to increase each others' effects. However, only moves within the same Discipline can combo to each other!

Strategy Tip: As your character grows, you can choose to select abilities from across several Disciplines, giving you a great array of powers to choose from, or you can select moves from within the same Discipline, allowing you to pull off fast, combinatory effects by combining multiple abilities in rapid succession.

Whenever you perform an ability that can combo into another ability, there's a chance that you'll start a combo. If that chance is successful, you'll have four seconds after activating the first ability to select another move. All moves that are capable of working in that combo will be highlighted in gold - although all other abilities will still be listed as unavailable for use until the first ability has completed.

Strategy Tip: Your chance of starting a combo is directly affected by the level of the abilities you're using, so you'll want to plan your character accordingly. Will you spend your ability points to gain a large variety of separate abilities? Or spend them by raising the levels of abilities you already have? The higher the level of the ability, the better chance you'll have of starting a combo!

Once you've selected the second move in your combo, it will go off immediately after the first ability is completed, requiring no windup phase, and the effects will be enhanced (or sometimes additional effects, like a Stun effect, may be added). If you get lucky, and you continue to use moves that can combo to each other, you could even string together several combos in a row!

Using any ability other than a combo ability will cause a combo to end, and the new ability's effects will proceed as normal. Likewise, if your target interrupts one of your combo moves, your combo will end.

Ranged Combat (spells and bows)
As with melee weapons, every ranged attack type (spells, bows, etc.) will have a standard attack that costs no power. And, like other weapons, these attacks cannot be interrupted, unless you're hit by an attack that causes you to be stunned.

If you're using a ranged weapon, you'll need to be standing still to attack. This also applies to the windup phase of Special Abilities - and yes, there are Special Abilities for those using ranged weapons! Now, keep in mind that by "standing still to attack," we don't mean that you have to stand and wait for your shot to hit the target, or stand still for long periods while aiming. All that means is that the game will freeze you in place momentarily while the attack animation is playing, and then you'll be able to move again. Afraid that the enemy will catch up to you? Don't be too afraid - you can still fire a bow in close combat, and spellcasters can still cast their spells at close range.

Strategy Tip: Go ahead, plunk those arrows into a mass of enemies! You can't accidentally shoot a friendly target with a ranged attack.

Summary
Combat in UXO is no afterthought - we've taken the time to design the most engaging, strategic and interactive combat you'll find in any MMORPG to date. So whether you plan to play a battle-hardened warrior who lives for the thrill of battle, or perhaps a peace-loving devotee of the Virtue of Compassion fighting to further the noble cause of the Avatar, you'll want to keep your wits sharp, and your fighting equipment at the ready!