The Art of War
Sentience is, at its core, a hack and slash game. Most things that you do will either involve attacking others (player or npcs), or working toward making yourself safe from harm. To that end, a lot of what you will be doing involves combat.
The most basic command to initiate combat is kill or attack. You can use kill <npc> to attack an npc with your currently equipped weapon, and combat will proceed on a round-by-round basis. By default, you and your opponent will attack once each per round. Note that every participant in combat will attack, so if you have two full groups fighting each other, there will be many lines of text per round.
Getting an Edge
There are many passive skills that can impact your performance in combat. Among these, the martial classes will have skills ranging from second attack to fourth attack. Dual Wielding will also provide an extra attack each round, as will the spell haste. If you wish to kill quickly, it may be in your interest to practice these skills, should they be available to you.
The various ‘style’ skills, such as ‘single weapon style’ will increase your chances of landing hits when using that combat style. Note that this is automatically done, so if you are using a shield alongside a weapon, ‘shield and weapon style’ would be the appropriate skill. This is not to say you cannot attack without these, but they will help you.
Among the active skills in combat are kick, bash, circle, and many others. These are executed by sending the appropriate command for the skill, take place in addition to the normal rounds of combat, and will typically have a cooldown of 1 or more rounds between uses. We advise reviewing your skill and spell lists, and consulting the help system for further details on their usage.
Staying Alive
In addition to skills that allow you to attack more frequently, you are advised to practice defensive skills. There are many passive skills, such as dodge and acrobatics as well as defensive spells you can cast. During combat, every attack is checked against your opponent’s defensive skills to see if they will be applied. The more defensives you have, and the higher your proficiency in them, the more likely it is that you will avoid being struck in combat.
A whole lot of text
If you find that you are being overwhelmed by the number of lines sent in combat, this can be somewhat mitigated by enabling the battlespam toggle (with toggle battlespam). This configuration setting will cause attacks that do no damage to be omitted from combat output.
A Magical Place
Magic is a very common thing in the world of Sentience. Everyone has some capacity to channel mana, and most turn it toward the same pursuits as the more martially inclined. If you are or have been playing a spellcasting class, you will have access to the spells command. This will show all spells available to you, along with their mana cost, and level to unlock, if appropriate. These are practiced the same as skills, and the same teachers will provide both arcane and physical training.
Many spells will apply affects to your character, which can modify your stats or lead to other unpredictable results. Checking the affects command often will help you know where you stand, both in terms of conditions to cleanse, as well as buffs which may soon need to be reapplied.
Not Actually Cheese
While most spells are in reach of anyone with the cast command, a few will exact a further toll. Around the world you can find scattered shards of black moonstone. These serve as foci for the astral energies needed for the most powerful spells. If you come across one of these, keep it safe against the day you need it in combat.