RPG Damage Formula

[ZayLong]

I need to come up with a formula for damage calculations in my ARPG

I have the Stats:
Attack
Defense
Heart
Spirit

Heart being magic attack power and Spirit being Magic defense.

any sudgestions?

[SEELE]

subtract (our)heart / (there)spirit ....?

[ZayLong]

Bump.

Im very sorry to bump my old thread but im still having trouble with this.

I tried having a formula like this:

(Attackers_Attack/Defenders_Defense)+(AttackBonusFromEquipment)

but this makes the blows too soft, beacuse im dividing by the defenders defense, so if the defenders defense was just 2, it would slice the offense damage even if the attack was 999. please ive been workin with this for a month now, any help at all.

[DavidN]

I think we need more of an idea of the range of values that each of your statistics are likely to be. You could possibly introduce some sort of random element as well, adding or subtracting a couple of points depending on each 'roll'. In the end, it's up to you to decide how you want to handle each value, but I would even simply subtract defence from attack to get a value for the "base damage" that an attack would cause - making sure that it's set to 0 if it becomes negative (though depending on the nature of the game, you might not want this to happen, especially for the magic attacks).

[ZayLong]

hmm, i think i see what your gettin at.

like subtract the attack and defense just to get the base minimum damage, then add in statistics like the attack itself power range is, and elements and stuff like that?

i never thought of it like that simply put.

[geothefaust]

I'd highly recommend checking out something such as the D20 system, or the D6 system, from tabletop RPGs. You can get books on them at just about any Gaming store, or online. I would generally recommend something from the Open Gaming License (OGL), good stuff, and I think you would find it helpful. Good luck.

[FungalGrowth]

Also, if you have any favourite RPGs, try searching for "____ damage formula". I found some information on the inner working of oblivions combat system. This is apparently Oblivion's damage formula:

BaseWeaponDamage * 0.5 *
( 0.75 + Strength * 0.005 ) *
( 0.2 + ModifiedSkill * 0.015 ) *
( WeaponHealth/MaxWeaponHealth + 1 )/2

The link I found this is below:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Weapons

EDIT: I found this forum link which has a bit of info:

http://gmc.yoyogames.com/lofiversion/index.php/t164161.html

[Random]

Attacker: Attack, Heart
Defender: Defense, Spirit

Simple:
damage = Max(0, Attack + Heart - Defense - Spirit)
or:
damage = Max(0, Attack * Heart - Defense * Spirit)

More complex:
hit = Attack - Defense
if hit > 0 then
damage = Max(0, Heart - Spirit)
this way attack would determine how good you are at hitting someone, defense how good you are at evading a hit. Heart and spirit then determine the amount of damage done and absorbed. Got more stats?

[ZayLong]

no i dont have more, but im thinking i should have more beacuse trying to make such a formula with just 4 stats is too much to ask.

So far all the stats are

Attack Heart Agility

Defense Spirit Luck

Element



Those are all the stats.

[Dynasoft]

ceil(0.5 * Attack * (Attack / Defence)) is good I think. If your attack is equal to your opponent's defence then you do half your attack value in damage, but no matter how high your opponent's defence gets you can do at least some damage. Very low opponent defence will cause you to massive amounts of damage though.
Attack and defence are including item (weapon/armour etc) effects of course. Switch for Heart/Spirit for magic attacks.
Use Agility vs agility to get a "to hit" chance before your damage, something like this:
50% * My agility / their agility. Having twice their agility means you can't miss, but there is always a small chance of hitting even against the worst opponent. Don't do agility checks for magic.
I'm not sure what you'd use luck for. Percentage chance of critical hits (double damage)?
What's "Element"?