Saga of Denwyn Episode I: Apprenticeship

Hey everyone! shyAway here to talk about the new damage formulae I'm using to better understand the inner-workings of the game itself!

So let's talk about how it was originally set up (which admittedly is very, very basic):
MELEE: ATK * 4 - DEF
MAGIC: MATK * X - MDEF

Very straightforward equations. Actually the default damage formulae used by the RPGMaker MV engine. Originally I decided to stick with the default because, honestly, I liked the damage ratios presented for each party member's attacks (magic and melee). However, it would get to a point... somewhere around level 10 or 15 where the player would be able to simply melee attack nearly any enemy to death (mash A, and win) which kind of went against the entire spirit of the combat I was wanting - a very tactic-laden combat system where every enemy feels different and has different ways to triumph over the player. So here are the changes I've made so far with the damage formulae, and I really have to say I like what I'm seeing on screen!

MELEE: ATK * 1.75 + (2.75 * LVL) - (DEF + 0.5 * DEX + 0.5 * AGI)
MAGIC: MATK * (1.75 * INT - 0.25 * WIS) + 5 * LVL -(MDEF + 1.25 WIS)

So what does all of this mean?

Well, we decreased the amount of RAW damage that a melee attack deals based solely off of the ATK/STR stat, and instead leaned more in favor of the damage coming from player level, meaning that as you increase character level - your melee damage increases more and more up to appx. +250 based solely on player level. We did this so that the STR/ATK stat still plays a heavy part in damage ratio, yet the actual weapon(s) and elemental weakness exploiting will ultimately determine optimal damage output. In regards to melee damage recieved, I wanted the dexterity and agility of the enemy (and player) to play a bigger role. For example: Say an enemy has low armor, but is very fast and nimble - Well if you were to swing at the enemy and actually land your attack, wouldn't it be likely that the full-force of that swing would, in a way, be lessened by the enemy/player movement away from the attack (i.e. a glancing blow)? Well we wanted to simulate that in melee combat - hence - the direct contribution of agility and dexterity towards damage negation.

Now when we talk about magic damage, we have to take into account spells. Each spell in the game has its own damage ratio (which is what X is) to determine damage (an apprentice level spell would not deal as much innate/RAW damage as a novice or master level spell). So the MATK of the character is more of a "constant" in regards to damage output. The actual damage is heavily determined by which tier of spell the user is casting. I also HAD to use the WIS stat as a double-edged sword (it bolsters your MDEF, but also impacts your damage output) because - and this is as plain as I can be - with both the INT stat and the MATK stat combined with innate spell/tier damage and elemental weaknesses, the spells in the game dealt WAY TOO MUCH damage and the output HAD to be lessened while still maintaining the general feel of the sorcery in the game.

So there you have it! The explanation behind the, honestly, HUGE changes to combat dynamics both offensively and defensively. I did it to improve the feel of combat in the game so that when the player actually casts a spell that an enemy is weak towards, the enemy feels it... but not to the point of OVERKILL.

So thanks for reading and taking a continual interest in Tale of Aranath! We should have a patch out with the new combat fixes sometime this month - so stay posted!