Finally finished a damage formula that works in all realistic cases. It has been a long time in the making, and this is most certainly post-worthy.
-Nick
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Now! While we have the upper hand!
Dimensionists were the hardests class to design a skill set that felt complete and unique.
Back when I first put together the list of skills that seemed to fit the summoner hat, there were two that I was kicking around for a while: Power Link and Armor Link. These skills would combine the Dimensionist's power and the power of another target, and then evenly divide it amongst the two. As far as the universe was concerned, it seemed fine. The problem arised when I put that into numbers.
Since Dimensionists can't attack, they have very little use for attack power. Their magic stat does control how powerful their summons are, but we'll ignore that at this point.
Let's say we have Emily, king of defense, and Martin... well not so much. They split defense, and the result is?
Emily @ 100 Defense
Martin @ 40 Defense
= 70 Defense each
This is a great buff for Martin, but Emily stops being an epic tank and starts sinking to the realm of average.
So what if the difference isn't so great?
Hannah @ 60 Defense
Martin @ 40 Defense
= 50 Defense each
+10/-10 is... hardly noticable.
Another problem with the link skills is a lack of means by which to remove them. Ultimately, the skills were too complex for too little of a debatably existent gain.
So they were scrapped.
I turned my attention back to rule 3 of end.earth skills: it must fit the playstyle of the class. Dimensionists summon minions, buff them and send them off into combat to either defend the non-expendable allies or fight the enemy. Between Infighter buffs and the ones already written for Dimensionists, there wasn't any stats left to up... except speed.
Speed is a tricky stat, though. It determines a lot of factors: attack speed, accuracy, as well as avoidability. For that reason, messing with SPD has always been on my list of things to try to avoid. But there was a way to affect only attack speed, and that was with the Quick Draw token.
I toyed with the idea of a skill that gives allies one turn of quick-draw speed. It worked beautifully, and I moved on to filling up the next missing slot.
As far as defenses go, dimensionists seemed very binary. They are inherently very killable, since they can turn a 3v3 into a 6v3 given a few turns. With proper protection, though, they may never see a single hit, making their health nearly useless. From such was born Spirit Heal, which trades some of the Dimensionist's health to heal a summoned creature. In a way, things came full-circle. The dimensionist can still trade away some of its power, but now it is to a more direct and understandable gain.
Back when I first put together the list of skills that seemed to fit the summoner hat, there were two that I was kicking around for a while: Power Link and Armor Link. These skills would combine the Dimensionist's power and the power of another target, and then evenly divide it amongst the two. As far as the universe was concerned, it seemed fine. The problem arised when I put that into numbers.
Since Dimensionists can't attack, they have very little use for attack power. Their magic stat does control how powerful their summons are, but we'll ignore that at this point.
Let's say we have Emily, king of defense, and Martin... well not so much. They split defense, and the result is?
Emily @ 100 Defense
Martin @ 40 Defense
= 70 Defense each
This is a great buff for Martin, but Emily stops being an epic tank and starts sinking to the realm of average.
So what if the difference isn't so great?
Hannah @ 60 Defense
Martin @ 40 Defense
= 50 Defense each
+10/-10 is... hardly noticable.
Another problem with the link skills is a lack of means by which to remove them. Ultimately, the skills were too complex for too little of a debatably existent gain.
So they were scrapped.
I turned my attention back to rule 3 of end.earth skills: it must fit the playstyle of the class. Dimensionists summon minions, buff them and send them off into combat to either defend the non-expendable allies or fight the enemy. Between Infighter buffs and the ones already written for Dimensionists, there wasn't any stats left to up... except speed.
Speed is a tricky stat, though. It determines a lot of factors: attack speed, accuracy, as well as avoidability. For that reason, messing with SPD has always been on my list of things to try to avoid. But there was a way to affect only attack speed, and that was with the Quick Draw token.
I toyed with the idea of a skill that gives allies one turn of quick-draw speed. It worked beautifully, and I moved on to filling up the next missing slot.
As far as defenses go, dimensionists seemed very binary. They are inherently very killable, since they can turn a 3v3 into a 6v3 given a few turns. With proper protection, though, they may never see a single hit, making their health nearly useless. From such was born Spirit Heal, which trades some of the Dimensionist's health to heal a summoned creature. In a way, things came full-circle. The dimensionist can still trade away some of its power, but now it is to a more direct and understandable gain.
Labels:
balance
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Slow down, buddy!
When designing the various skills characters can use, I had three rules that I designed around.
1. The skill must be fun to use
2. The skill must be unique from all other skills
3. The skill must fit the playstyle of the class
Today I was running through the list again with rule 3 in mind. Specifically, with the Infighter class. As it stands, their primary function is to buff their allies, then themselves, and then wreck face with attacks that often induce the stun effect. This is to mimic the concept of knocking the wind out of someone.
Both Jill and Bruce have immense strength stats, and combined with their buffs they have the potential to be the most destructive physical attackers in the game. To keep this balanced, they were given a unique "stamina" counter, which drops as they deal damage. The lower their stamina, the less damage they would deal until they rest. Resting, being defined as not doing damage. While being on the offense is debatably more fun, there's something to be said for the enjoyment from clever planning and, consequently, efficiency. For this reason, I timed all buffs to last either (1-3) turns or (3-5) turns.
The 1-3 turn buffs are usually the game-changers; the ones that increase the power of an ally to the point of effectively having another ally (a power reserved by dimensionists). If one wants this effect constantly going, they are going to have to devote most of the source character's time to buffing.
The 3-5 turn buffs, however, were designed to keep battles on an even high-low-high-low tempo. The time it takes an infighter to rebuff the party is about the same time to recover their stamina.
Of course there are some who just won't stand for this buffing nonsense. I'd say they're missing out, but I won't argue with them. I gave them an ability to do nothing for a turn and recover their stamina completely.
1. The skill must be fun to use
2. The skill must be unique from all other skills
3. The skill must fit the playstyle of the class
Today I was running through the list again with rule 3 in mind. Specifically, with the Infighter class. As it stands, their primary function is to buff their allies, then themselves, and then wreck face with attacks that often induce the stun effect. This is to mimic the concept of knocking the wind out of someone.
Both Jill and Bruce have immense strength stats, and combined with their buffs they have the potential to be the most destructive physical attackers in the game. To keep this balanced, they were given a unique "stamina" counter, which drops as they deal damage. The lower their stamina, the less damage they would deal until they rest. Resting, being defined as not doing damage. While being on the offense is debatably more fun, there's something to be said for the enjoyment from clever planning and, consequently, efficiency. For this reason, I timed all buffs to last either (1-3) turns or (3-5) turns.
The 1-3 turn buffs are usually the game-changers; the ones that increase the power of an ally to the point of effectively having another ally (a power reserved by dimensionists). If one wants this effect constantly going, they are going to have to devote most of the source character's time to buffing.
The 3-5 turn buffs, however, were designed to keep battles on an even high-low-high-low tempo. The time it takes an infighter to rebuff the party is about the same time to recover their stamina.
Of course there are some who just won't stand for this buffing nonsense. I'd say they're missing out, but I won't argue with them. I gave them an ability to do nothing for a turn and recover their stamina completely.
Labels:
balance
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