[RMVX ACE] THE CASE FOR 'LUCK'

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So, the infamous 'Luck' stat we see so often in games. It's in many, many RPGs (and some non RPGs), but unlike many other stats that are either intuitive, or derivative, the Luck stat often goes unexplained, and the function of the Luck stat is often very different in each game. Ace allows us to have a stat for Luck by default, and in this case, as in other games, it can determine Critical Hits and the like.

But what else can the Luck stat be used for? What cool ideas do you have for the stat (assuming it's used), and what interesting ideas have you seen with it before?
My love life.

Seriously this is a good question. I'll have to think about it. Did you have any cool ideas in mind?

EDIT: The first example that comes to mind is Luck's fancy cousin, Risk Management.

The board game Formula D deals with this a lot:

Formula D

Every turn you can choose to shift your gear forward or backward one. Different gears require the roll of different-sided dice. If you are in the highest gear you have the potential to move the most spaces. But the game has a mechanic where you essentially need to stop within certain ranges on the board or else you'll suffer a penalty. (In the theme of the game you are meant to "slow" around corners or else you might bust a tire or something.)

In this instance you basically have control over your range of luck, and luck has a direct effect on mobility. It's a good idea that takes luck and makes it feel somewhat like you can control it, and is a well-themed game in general.
iirc, Luck is used almost nowhere in Ace and the difference it makes in the systems its used for is fairly minimal unless you edit it.

The most interesting systems I've seen with Luck are systems that happen outside of the battle system. Lotteries, minigames, random things that can happen as you explore, etc.

One of my favorites uses was in EarthBound, where there's an item called Lucky Sandwich that has a chance to trigger a better healing effect depending on your luck stat. Nevermind I guess it's just RNG. Still a cool idea though.
author=SgtMettool
One of my favorites uses was in EarthBound, where there's an item called Lucky Sandwich that has a chance to trigger a better healing effect depending on your luck stat.Nevermind I guess it's just RNG. Still a cool idea though.


That brings up a good point in framing.

Let's say you have an item that can heal anywhere from 100 to 200 HP randomly. If an item says "HEALS 150HP +/-50" you tend to curse at it for being RNG. But if it says "HEALS 100HP OR MORE" the item seems better even though it gives you less information about how it fully works.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
I've seen Luck affecting the encounter rate and the likelihood of finding rare loot in a few games.
author=Feldschlacht IV
the Luck stat often goes unexplained


No kidding. I love Guardian Heroes' description: After telling you exactly what all the other stats do, Luck is just described with "brightens up your day". There is, thankfully, a separate topic in the help section that explains it further. Namely, it influences how much damage you deal and take, and how much HP/MP you recover between scenes. There might have been some other things, but I forget what.

The oddest use for the Luck stat in that game, though, is when playing as Nicole. She has a spell where the attack is random (chooses between three), and your Luck stat influences how likely it is you get the useful attacks. Or something like that. It would have been hilarious if Luck affected her random tripping, but I don't think it does.


I wonder if there are any games where literally every RNG calculation takes a Luck stat into effect.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
author=turkeyDawg
I wonder if there are any games where literally every RNG calculation takes a Luck stat into effect.


That would be p. boss.
author=Sooz
author=turkeyDawg
I wonder if there are any games where literally every RNG calculation takes a Luck stat into effect.
That would be p. boss.


It's a board game called Monopoly.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
author=SgtMettool
iirc, Luck is used almost nowhere in Ace and the difference it makes in the systems its used for is fairly minimal unless you edit it.

From what I recall, there is some manner of formula involved with LUCK in regards to how successful applying a status condition is. LUCK is not referenced anywhere else. Though, one could also argue that STR/DEF/INT/WILL aren't specifically defined at all unless a skill uses them, so...

*Edit: More to the point of the OP, I'm not really sure what to do with a LUCK stat! I'd almost rather have accuracy and evasion be "main" stats that are included in some formula to determine hit-rate. Of course, I'd also rather have HP and MP be derived stats based on level and an appropriate stat (DEF for HP, WILL for MP?), but, that kinda sounds like a different topic.
My most common use for luck is to rename and re-purpose it to dexterity.

One idea I've had is to make the stat more powerful. One effect would be that it modifies minimum or maximum random variance in damage up or down with one percentile point per point of difference of luck. Say you have five points of luck more than an enemy and standard attacks randomly deal 80%-120% damage. You will deal 85%-120% and the enemy 80%-115%. Not that much, but a 20 point of difference would matter quite a bit.

The other effect is to modify the accuracy of status attacks also with one percentile point up or down per point of difference in luck. It goes all the way down to zero, but is capped at doubled chance to land no matter the difference. This effect would apply last, after all resistances have been accounted for.

With that system, luck can not grow from 20 to 200 like other stats, it has to stay fairly static and only change when the player somehow invest in it.
I like using it to affect bonuses, rather than base systems. Like, increasing your chances of a critical hit. The player can reliably predict that X attack will do roughly Y damage, but getting a crit is a nice unexpected bonus.

LUCK should feel "lucky" - unanticipated and unexpected but beneficial outcomes
I like the idea of Luck making the character (and the player) feel lucky via critical hits or evasion, or perhaps setting critical status, but one thing I want to prevent is luck being crazy powerful and malleable at the same time, making it a game of frantically basing your stats around luck.

(Oh, and how would you set it so that Status Effects are partially based on Luck? Is that built in?)

If luck is static, what do you think about the progression of luck? What should change it; accessories, stat up items, rare events? Wild Arms, if you remember has an interesting thing where your Luck changes from day to day via resting in Inns.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Straight from the VX Ace Help-file...

The change in states and debuff effectiveness due to luck is as shown below. Note, however, that 0 is the lower limit.

Chance (%) = 100 + (user's luck - target's luck) ÷ 10
I just remembered about the 'Stache stat in the Mario and Luigi games (love those games). Pretty cool in that it affects buying and selling items as well as "Lucky" hits (critical hits).

I think the real awesome-ness-itude is that not only do you cover the negativity of the term "luck" by naming it "'stache," but this renaming also allows for non-"lucky" things to make sense. Being able to sell things for a higher price consistently isn't luck, it's more like charm or haggling skill, which as everyone knows is a trademark of having a mustache.
author=Marrend
Straight from the VX Ace Help-file...

The change in states and debuff effectiveness due to luck is as shown below. Note, however, that 0 is the lower limit.

Chance (%) = 100 + (user's luck - target's luck) ÷ 10

Oops, accidentally double posted. XD

So 10% is the minimum? Not bad. Better than 0%. Still a lot of RNG for a debuff to be viable.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
Stats should all be renamed to "LUCK1," "LUCK2," etc.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
turkeyDawg
I wonder if there are any games where literally every RNG calculation takes a Luck stat into effect.


TES: Oblivion. The Luck stat raises all skill levels except Athletics and Acrobatics equal to 0.4(Luck - 50) (so 40% of the Luck stat over 50). The player starts with 50 Luck, so it's only a negative effect when you have a Luck debuff applied, or a custom race mod.

Personally? I really like RNG, but I don't like Luck that much. Some games execute it well, but... eh. Mostly because, like others have said, I always have to google what the hell it does in a lot of games. It just annoys me!

I think the best way is to have it be totally not related to damage effects, and just affect drops or preemptive strikes or whatever. If it's gonna affect crits or anything else, I'd pick a different name solely based on how obfuscated the name "Luck" has become for a stat over time.
I find it useless, and in fact, it can be critically broken in some cases. I had a game in which status effects and debuffs almost universally had 100% success rates. Sadly, the luck stat mucked that up and sometimes, it would make a debuff fail for no reason when it was a 100% hit. >_<

So now my plan is to "neuter" the luck stat in all my games so it affects nothing and replace it with some other effect. I'm toying with the idea of making it an "armor/shield" stat in my current game, which is used to determine how much HP you recover after each fight.
Rhyme
Tear Harvester Rhyme
7582
How many of you rename Luck to another stat in your projects? (And repurpose it?)
author=Aegix_Drakan
I find it useless, and in fact, it can be critically broken in some cases. I had a game in which status effects and debuffs almost universally had 100% success rates. Sadly, the luck stat mucked that up and sometimes, it would make a debuff fail for no reason when it was a 100% hit. >_<

For no reason? It's exactly what luck does, it modifies the chance for a status effect to land (unless the hit type is "Certain Hit", then luck has no effect). If the skill has 100% infliction chance, but the target has more luck than the attacker, then the luck difference will modify that chance to below 100%.

But yeah, luck is more often a problem than something useful for the game if you use Ace's default formula. It's even dumber than XP's dexterity.
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