Howdy Everyone!
I'm working on designing some new-ish combat mechanics, or more specifically trying to refine some previous ideas I've used in other projects.
I could really use some solid feedback and additional thoughts on the design so please let me know what you think. I will be including a poll to get a general idea of your thoughts on the topic. I do want to warn that this will be a pretty long read, but please bare with me as I really do need some solid feedback before I proceed with the design.
Read below for more details!
The combat mechanics in question are the Character's damage and defense stats and how they relate to one another. The main goal of this system is to simplify and clarify the combat and what your character is capable of. In other words I'm trying to minimize the L in LCS.
Here's the specifics:
Evasion:
This is the most basic form of damage reduction and as such comes in high quantities but with some drawbacks. Evasion will allow the player to avoid incoming attacks and is the least reliable of the three defense mechanics. Firstly, the player's level compared to an attacker's will be a factor in the total avoidance chance which can reduce or enhance its effectiveness. Secondly enemy spells will bypass this mechanic, making it extra important to watch out for monster specials.
In summary;
Evasion...
...avoids attacks, but will not reduce the damage taken from any hits taken.
...will be much less effective against higher level enemies.
...doesn't work against enemy magic.
...is the easiest to accumulate of the three types.
Evasion is basically the same as defense is vanilla and functions using the same mechanic, albeit with some tweaks. Noteworthy is that defense while running will be enabled as this is just a silly "feature".
Armor:
Armor is the most effective way to reduce damage taken as it will reduce the damage of not only physical attacks but magic attacks as well. Armor provides a percentage reduction in all damage taken regardless of monster or player level and thus effectively magnifies your health total. Each point of armor will reduce the effectiveness of Evasion.
In summary;
Armor...
...is effective against all types of incoming damage.
...enhances your health pool, making each hit point more powerful.
...is standard on armor equipment.
...but suffers from diminishing returns.
...reduces the effectiveness of Evasion.
Armor will be a new rendition of damageresist based on a formula for the accumulated "armor" stat which allows a hyperbolic growth rather than linear growth, this also prevents the need for hard caps on the stat as it will never reach undesirable amounts of damage reduction. Noteworthy is that armor will lump together the damageresist stat with each elemental resistance to increase damage resistance across the board.
Protection:
This is the most potent defensive stat in combination with Armor. Protection will reduce all damage from a single attack by a static value, essentially subtracting its value from the damage taken. The primary advantage of Protection is that it is factored after the reduction from armor. Its only drawback is that against heavy hitters, the relative amount reduced by Protection will be much less dramatic.
In summary;
Protection...
...reduces damage by a flat amount.
...is greatly enhanced by a high Armor total.
...is less effective versus high damage attacks.
...reduces the effectiveness of Armor.
Using the same mechanics as "normaldamagereduction" and "magicdamagereduction" combined this will be available in much lower quantities than the other two defensive stats. Also of note is that it will come with a rebalance of the "damagerate" fields in missile.txt to improve the consistency with rapid damage, or ticking damage.
For anyone interested I've included the equations I will be using for the accrument of these stats if you are inclined to work out the math.
Also important that as much data will be included in the character sheet as is necessary for players to get a solid understanding of what their stats are and how they accrue, making it clear how much change any given stat increase or decrease will affect.
Equations:
Evasion, aka Defense (built into code)
Total chance to be hit = 100 * Ar / (Ar + Dr) * 2 * alvl / (alvl + dlvl)
Effective Evasion Rating = 100 / (100+Armor) * Evasion
Armor
Total damage taken = 100 / (100+Armor)
Effective Armor Rating = 25 / (25+Protection) * Armor
Protection
Total protection value = Pr / (1-DR%)
As previously noted, any and all feedback will be helpful and I will be uploading another thread with the offensive stats summary, although they are still very incomplete.
Thank you,
-k0r3l1k
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