Venting about the grab system (Salt Posting)

[Colfer]

I hate grabs and its system because as I've been told its broken on purpose to not make it too powerful but this is terrible.

I've been a golem ordered to grab a changeling spider form and kill it, and when grabbing and upgrading to aggressive IMMEDIATELY, it still allows 6 tiles of movement before it kicks in and stops the spider from moving, and at that point, the grab also checks for range, and breaks the grab! This is an awful system!

What this encourages is beating the living hell out of someone until they are twitching and unmoving on the ground before you can do any grabs on them, and for antagonists this is bad because you cant grab someone to start a roleplay, and beating the shit out of someone before roleplay is discouraged. If I grab someone after typing out how I pick them up by their shirt, 9/10 times they'll panic and step away before reading the emote, which is the mechanical equivalent of doing "/dodges", yet this is treated as an okay system and it should remain as broken and useless as it is because it'd be too powerful if it was working as intended, the system IS very powerful if it was working correctly but, nerfs exist don't they? Just look at AI

I could go on about how throat slicing shouldn't require a neck grab because why do I have to get someone in a choke hold to cut their throat or making it so it doesn't drop items out of the opponents hand on aggressive grip, or making ranged weapons have randomized firing angles when grabbed, but this isnt really a suggestion as much as it is just upset venting about a system

If theres anything to take away from this: PSA, don't use grabs to disable your opponent, always make a stunprod and handcuffs or batter their legs/feet until they cant walk you'll find infinitely more success doing that.

Do note, I haven't USED this system personally in the last year or so, but from what I've OBSERVED none of this has changed, people are still fully able to just walk out of grabs and run away without any issue, and grabs still leave the AGGRESSOR at a disadvantage which encourages click until horizontal 

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[Evandorf]

My experience recently has been very different. I’m not sure what resist mods the golems have but I was in melee against a baseline frame and breaking those grabs was incredibly difficult.

There are a lot of other mitigating factors like pain, stamina, ect but grabbing is more reliable the more tired your opponent is. And after the other day I will never attempt grappling with an IPC again. EMPs forever. 

[Lmwevil]

Note that grabbing simplemobs like a changeling spider are far less er stable than grabbing humanoid mobs

Grabs I've found to be incredibly effective, having been grabbed and utterly unable to break the grab with 20+ resists as a Tajara being grabbed by a g2. 

Gotta agree with Evan tho

[Butterrobber202]

Grabs actually got updated in a recent PR to calm this sort of behavior down. Typically, weaker species will have a harder time both maintaining and escaping grabs. The only expectation I think is Skrell, who can't maintain a grab for anything are incredibly slippery and escape them easier.