Knockback against opponents with Flight, Clinging, Catfall

[nerfninja]

[edit] double post, woops [edit]

And thanks for all the great replies. This forum is a credit to the internet.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

...In the real world, when you 'just kind of skid along the ground' you're probably going to suffer a lot of superficial injuries, and potentially worse.

Oh I know. I've wiped out on my motorcycle at highway speed. But it was nothing like what hitting a wall would have been like, and even slight armour was enough to protect me from lasting injury.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Oh I know. I've wiped out on my motorcycle at highway speed. But it was nothing like what hitting a wall would have been like, and even slight armour was enough to protect me from lasting injury.

Proper MC gear is excelent for taking the damage from something like that, but normal, non-protective clothing would have left you with lasting damage at that speed.

[Handsome Paul]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

"in time" for knockback purposes is instant. You can't counter knockback any time your ground move is higher than the knockback, I don't see why air move would be any different.

This is true, but if I read the OP correctly, the knockback in question is 28 yards for an average goon. That's considerably more than one move. I certainly think that if a character with flight had an action while still flying through the air, they could simply right themselves.

EDIT: And while I'm at it...

I think this would probably apply to catfall and clinging too. If you're knocked back less than your move, you have no time to act. If you're knocked back more than your move, you have an action before you hit the ground and can say something like "I'd like to make an acrobatics roll and use catfall to land softly" or "I'm looking for a tree/wall/buddy to cling to mid flight".

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Handsome Paul

This is true, but if I read the OP correctly, the knockback in question is 28 yards for an average goon. That's considerably more than one move. I certainly think that if a character with flight had an action while still flying through the air, they could simply right themselves.

The goons ground Move has nothing to do with the speed he's flying through the air - that's why he takes collision damage based on 28 yards of move, not based on his ground move. He flies through the air, travelling 28 yards in a second.

There's no time for a character with a movement power to check this movement.

[Handsome Paul]

Derp, it's early. That makes complete sense Bruno.

So then the aforementioned powers don't effect knockback at all?

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Bruno

The goons ground Move has nothing to do with the speed he's flying through the air - that's why he takes collision damage based on 28 yards of move, not based on his ground move. He flies through the air, travelling 28 yards in a second.

Within a second, certainly, but probably in far less than a second. Assuming that the knockback and ground are horizontal he travels 28 yards in the time it takes him to fall to the ground from standing, which is probably less than half a second. 57 miles per hour. Ouch!

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by nerfninja

Halve Damage from collision or halve damage from knockback?

Collision. Knockback is an instantaneous impulse. Collision (with ground) is you tumbling across the ground, which can be reduced by reducing your speed in mid-air via flight. I'd let any applicable talent help with the aerobatics roll, and allow the same thing even if they were headed for a tree or wall, but with some eyeballed penalties to the roll for having less time to react.

[benz72]

I'm confused now.
Does knockback imply that regardless of distance the victim will travel that far before their next turn (<1 sec)?

If so, then at what point should we start looking at acceleration effects(brownout, tunnel vision, blackout) or damage (accelrating at 100 g is going to have some hellacious effects, granted, you'd need supers to do that, but we can model supers)

If not, why would the victim be unable to take action when their turn comes around? If they can fly and they are in the 2nd second of a 5 second knockback induced journey why wouldn't they be able to affect their velocity?

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by benz72

I'm confused now.
Does knockback imply that regardless of distance the victim will travel that far before their next turn (<1 sec)?

Realistically, someone who was knocked back would continue to travel for several seconds if hit with sufficient force (the attack in question would be capable of this). GURPS does not model this.

So yes, the knockback in GURPS is how far a target flies immedately after being hit and before anything else happens. It's part of making combat simpler to resolve (which avoids your last two points).