PROTECT, SHELL, AND MORE IN RM2K3

So here's the problem: the defense formulas in RM2K3 are kind of lame, and status effects are limited to halving or doubling stats. Doubling the player's defense stat doesn't halve the physical damage they take. Halving an enemy's attack power also doesn't halve the damage the player takes. Here's why.

The formula for physical damage from a normal attack is:

Damage = Att/2 - Def/4

If you make a physical skill, you can set it to be a percentage of this. So if you set a skill to be 60% physical, the formula becomes:

Damage = (Att/2 - Def/4) * 0.6

In skills, you can also add a flat number to this damage. This number is not affected by anything at all. So if you make a skill that's 60% physical and has a damage value of 300, the formula becomes:

Damage = 300 + ((Att/2 - Def/4) * 0.6)


Magical skills work the same way, but the base formula is different. The base formula for magic skills is:

Damage = Mag/4 - Mag/8

The fact that the magic stat only has half as big of an effect is designed to make up for the fact that it acts as both magical attack and magical defense.

If you actually want someone to take half or double damage, you can't use status effects. You can't use the defense, attack, or magic stats at all. You have to use elements.

Now that I've explained the problem, I'll explain the solution.

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RM2K and RM2K3 use two types of elements: "weapon" elements and "magic" elements. The difference is that if a skill has a certain weapon element, then for a character to use that skill, the character's equipped weapon must also have the same element.

The point of using weapon elements is this: If an attack or skill has multiple magic elements, only the highest number among those magic elements is used. If an attack or skill has multiple weapon elements, only the highest number among those weapon elements is used. The highest magic and weapon elements are multiplied together.

So imagine a skill is fire, ice, and sword elemental, and fire and ice are magic elements while sword is a weapon element. The target takes 150% damage from fire, 0% damage from ice, and 50% damage from sword. But fire and ice are both magic elements, so only the higher one - fire - is used. The fact that the target is immune to ice is totally ignored. Fire and sword elements are multiplied together, and the target takes 75% damage from the attack.

OK, now that I've explained it, let's move on to the crazy hack.

Stuff to do on the "attributes" page of your database:
- Make sure all your existing standard elements are magic elements. Fire, ice, lightning, etc. should all be magic elements. The percentages on these can be whatever you want.
- Add another magic element: non-elemental. Every skill that's not another element should be non-elemental. Make all five of the percentages on it be 100%.
- Add three weapon elements: Physical, Magical, and WeapnFix.
- The percentages on Physical and Magical should be, from top to bottom: 0, 100, 100, 70, 70. The 70% is the amount of damage that a protected or shelled character will take. If you think that's too high or too low, adjust accordingly.
- The percentages on WeapnFix should all be 100.
- Add two more magic elements, Deprotct and Deshell.
- The percentages on both of these should be, from top to bottom: 130, 130, 0, 0, 0. The 130% is the amount of damage that a deprotected or deshelled character will take. If you think that's too high or too low, adjust accordingly.
- If you want to actually use weapon elements the way God intended, to limit the skills players can use depending on their equipped weapon, you'll need to add additional weapon elements for each type of weapon. Make sure all their percentages are 100 or higher. You won't be able to make enemies that resist certain weapon types, sorry, but you can make them weak to certain weapon types.

Stuff to do to equipment:
- Every weapon needs to have all three weapon elements. Physical, Magical, and WeapnFix.
- Every weapon also needs to have the Deprotect element.
- If you want a weapon to do elemental damage, like a fire sword, you can give it a magical element like fire no problem. Otherwise, give all your weapons the non-elemental element.
- If you want to actually use weapon elements the way God intended, to limit the skills players can use depending on their equipped weapon, give weapons the weapon elements you want.

Stuff to do to monsters:
- If you want a monster to be naturally immune to physical attacks, give it A resistance to physical.
- If you want a monster to be naturally immune to magical attacks, give it A resistance to magical.
- If you want a monster to be immune to deprotect, give it D or E resistance to deprotct.
- If you want a monster to be immune to deshell, give it D or E resistance to deshell.
- Otherwise, all monsters should have C resistance to all the weird elements we made.
- Monsters can have whatever resistance you want to the "normal" elements (fire, ice, etc.). If you want a monster to be weak to fire, make it weak to fire. It'll work normally.

Stuff to do to damage spells:
- Every magic spell should have three elements. The first two are magical and deshell. The third one is either the spell's real element (fire, ice, etc.) or non-elemental if the spell doesn't do elemental damage.
- Every physical skill should have three elements. The first two are physical and deprotect. The third one is either the skill's real element (fire, ice, etc.) or non-elemental if the skill doesn't do elemental damage.
- If you want to actually use weapon elements the way God intended, to limit the skills players can use depending on their equipped weapon, give these skills the weapon elements you want.

Creating Protect, shell, deprotect, and deshell spells:
- Make a spell called Protect that increases resistance to physical elemental.
- Make a spell called Shell that increases resistance to magical elemental.
- Make a spell called Deprotect that decreases resistance to deprotct elemental.
- Make a spell called Deshell that decreases resistance to deshell elemental.
- Make a spell called Armor Buster that does damage. Give it two elements: deprotct and non-elemental. Make it decrease resistance to these elements. This spell is now a version of Deprotect that also does damage.
- Make a spell called Faith Buster that does damage. Give it two elements: deshell and non-elemental. Make it decrease resistance to these elements. This spell is now a version of Deshell that also does damage.