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Dual-wielding: is it worth it?
- AubreyTheBard
- 05/02/2022 12:35 PM
- 336 views
Something I've been pondering lately is whether it's worthwhile to keep the capability to dual-wield weapons in the game. e.ea It presents a bit of a balancing problem. Simply put, the ability to do two attacks in a single turn is REALLY POWERFUL. No duh, right? X) That's double damage output! Why would you ever pass that up?!
Now, there are some other factors involved, of course. The weapons that can be dual-wielded are short, literally single-handed weapons by definition. That gives me a good excuse to set their damage relatively low, and unlike in standard RPG Maker games, Forgotten Gates weapons don't just simply add a bonus to the wielder's stats -- they control what proportion of the stats are actually used. If I want to, I can set the single-handed weapons' attack power to half or even less of what the analagous two-handed weapons' power would be -- that way, their damage per turn will still be lower than their counterparts' even though they're attacking twice.
However, there's also the targets' defense to consider. Hitting twice means that the defense is applied twice as well. For example, suppose a hero could use two weapons that deal 6 damage each, or one weapon that deals 10 damage. 6 X 2 = 12, and that's more than 10, so two weapons is better, right? But if the enemy absorbs 3 damage in defense for each hit, that would result in (6 - 3) X 2 = 6 for the two weapons and 10 - 3 = 7 for the one weapon. Right now very few enemies have strong enough defense for this sort of thing to matter, but that will probably change, and that's a good thing -- it gives players a reason to switch up their tactics in response to the situation. But it also creates a tricky design space, where I have to make sure the numbers line up with one more thing. Are there monsters that have enough defense to make the weaker weapons extremely ineffective, maybe even totally unable to inflict damage? And is that true of all the heroes who can use these weapons, or just the weaker ones?
Originally I had a couple of heroes planned (Rizzen and Drakler) who would dual-wield short swords, but they're now both relegated to 'legacy character' status and may not make it into the final game at all. That leaves the only dual-wielders those who have the choice between double daggers or a bow and arrows. Most of them are toward the lower end on the attack stat spectrum, yet as things currently stand, they outstrip their single-wielding compatriots in damage per time when they dual-wield. I'll have to either seriously nerf daggers or boost most other things to make the weak attackers, y'know, weak. c.c
The other major option, of course, would be to cut dual-wielding out of the game entirely. That would make balancing easier, but it would also make the choice between dagger or bow and arrows much less meaningful. It would probably also feel immersion-breaking and/or unfairly restrictive for some players -- "Why can't I use a dagger in each hand, huh?" :P I don't see a way to mitigate these issues, so it'd essentially be a price paid in game quality for simplicity of development.
For now, I think I'm going to keep dual-wielding, with the understanding that I could cut it out later if need be. Balance is a secondary concern at this stage, something to keep an eye on and adjust roughly to keep things fun, but not spend a lot of effort tuning. The factors going into it are going to change as I add more mechanics, after all.
Now, there are some other factors involved, of course. The weapons that can be dual-wielded are short, literally single-handed weapons by definition. That gives me a good excuse to set their damage relatively low, and unlike in standard RPG Maker games, Forgotten Gates weapons don't just simply add a bonus to the wielder's stats -- they control what proportion of the stats are actually used. If I want to, I can set the single-handed weapons' attack power to half or even less of what the analagous two-handed weapons' power would be -- that way, their damage per turn will still be lower than their counterparts' even though they're attacking twice.
However, there's also the targets' defense to consider. Hitting twice means that the defense is applied twice as well. For example, suppose a hero could use two weapons that deal 6 damage each, or one weapon that deals 10 damage. 6 X 2 = 12, and that's more than 10, so two weapons is better, right? But if the enemy absorbs 3 damage in defense for each hit, that would result in (6 - 3) X 2 = 6 for the two weapons and 10 - 3 = 7 for the one weapon. Right now very few enemies have strong enough defense for this sort of thing to matter, but that will probably change, and that's a good thing -- it gives players a reason to switch up their tactics in response to the situation. But it also creates a tricky design space, where I have to make sure the numbers line up with one more thing. Are there monsters that have enough defense to make the weaker weapons extremely ineffective, maybe even totally unable to inflict damage? And is that true of all the heroes who can use these weapons, or just the weaker ones?
Originally I had a couple of heroes planned (Rizzen and Drakler) who would dual-wield short swords, but they're now both relegated to 'legacy character' status and may not make it into the final game at all. That leaves the only dual-wielders those who have the choice between double daggers or a bow and arrows. Most of them are toward the lower end on the attack stat spectrum, yet as things currently stand, they outstrip their single-wielding compatriots in damage per time when they dual-wield. I'll have to either seriously nerf daggers or boost most other things to make the weak attackers, y'know, weak. c.c
The other major option, of course, would be to cut dual-wielding out of the game entirely. That would make balancing easier, but it would also make the choice between dagger or bow and arrows much less meaningful. It would probably also feel immersion-breaking and/or unfairly restrictive for some players -- "Why can't I use a dagger in each hand, huh?" :P I don't see a way to mitigate these issues, so it'd essentially be a price paid in game quality for simplicity of development.
For now, I think I'm going to keep dual-wielding, with the understanding that I could cut it out later if need be. Balance is a secondary concern at this stage, something to keep an eye on and adjust roughly to keep things fun, but not spend a lot of effort tuning. The factors going into it are going to change as I add more mechanics, after all.