Post by Crom Cruach on Jan 16, 2011 13:14:39 GMT -6
I had an idea to make the skill system more interesting and to introduce a feature from the books that we've missed so far: the combat forms.
Basically, the damage calculation would still be mostly random, but it would also be affected by what forms are performed by the attacker and the defender turn by turn.
The concept there is that a defensive form works well against some offensive forms and not so well against some others. In the books, many duels are decided by a character’s ability to anticipate the opponent’s form. In GoS, we couldn’t chose our forms turn by turn, but let the system chose randomly among a set that we decide before battling.
Now, retrieving Tim’s explaination of how damage is calculated…
Damage calculation:
1) Get your straight damage for the turn.
2) Multiply your damage by (your damage%-your opponents defense %, taking poison levels into account)
3) Subtract your opponent's straight defense
4) Apply the 'how critical' hit effect (calcuated using your accuracy- opponent's dodge+random)
…the change would occur during point 4. Instead of randomly creating the critical score, this is determined by comparing the attacking form and the defending one.
Here’s how I’d do it:
1) Skills would be limited to the passive ones. Forms would replace active skills. Weapon focus and starting classes would still give 2 passive skills each, but only 2 forms (in place of 3 active skills).
Subclasses would give 1 passive skill and 2 forms each.
2) There'd be offensive forms and defensive forms, and each kind could be bold or wary . Every turn, a form is randomly chosen for the attacker, and the same for the defender (among their active ones).
A wary defensive form would best counter a bold attacking form, whereas it would do poorly against a wary attacking form. On the contrary, a bold defensive form would best counter a wary attacking form, but poorly defend against a bold attacking form.
To clarify, I’ll try and set some values:
Offensive forms would have a fixed effectiveness value, plus they'd give a couple of stat bonuses like the active skills do now. Bold offensive forms have a 175% effectiveness, wary offensive forms have 150%.
Defensive forms would have an effectiveness modifier that is to be subtracted to the offensive form’s effectiveness value. These modifier vary within a range, and accordingly to the offensive form they have to counter.
Wary defensive forms give between –175% and –75% against bold forms; they give between –50% and 0% against wary forms.
Bold defensive forms give between –100% and 0% against bold forms; they give between –125% and –75% against wary forms.
(Subclasses' forms could perhaps have a slightly higher effectiveness)
3) The 'How Critical' hit score would be determined by the form's effectiveness rather than randomly. As I said, every turn a form is randomly chosen for the attacker, and the same for the defender. The defender's effectiveness modifier is randomly determined, according to the rule set above, then it is subtracted to the attacker's form's effectiveness value. X% is then added for every attacker’s accuracy point, and X% subtracted for every defender’s dodge point (I’m not sure how much X should be)
The result is the % of damage to be applied.
4) Every weapon focus/class/subclass would give 1 offensive form and 1 defensive form. Weapon focus and starting classes would give different combinations of bold and wary forms.
Activating forms would work the same way as with active skills. Every player would start with 4 form slots: 2 offensive and 2 defensive. He'd gain 2 more slots at level 10, then again at levels 20, 40, 80, etc.
Skill points would still be gained the same way, but they'd have to be spared between skills and forms. To activate a form you'd need to spend at least 1 point in it (just like the active skills now). New players should start with 1 point in an offensive form and 1 point in a defensive one.
Adding more points to offensive forms would increase their stat bonuses (as they do now), but wouldn't affect their effectiveness value.
I'm not sure what way to improve defensive forms, maybe their effectiveness could increase by X every additional point spent.
(I’ve limited the forms differentiation to bold and wary, but a more complex system could be created)
Basically, the damage calculation would still be mostly random, but it would also be affected by what forms are performed by the attacker and the defender turn by turn.
The concept there is that a defensive form works well against some offensive forms and not so well against some others. In the books, many duels are decided by a character’s ability to anticipate the opponent’s form. In GoS, we couldn’t chose our forms turn by turn, but let the system chose randomly among a set that we decide before battling.
Now, retrieving Tim’s explaination of how damage is calculated…
Damage calculation:
1) Get your straight damage for the turn.
2) Multiply your damage by (your damage%-your opponents defense %, taking poison levels into account)
3) Subtract your opponent's straight defense
4) Apply the 'how critical' hit effect (calcuated using your accuracy- opponent's dodge+random)
…the change would occur during point 4. Instead of randomly creating the critical score, this is determined by comparing the attacking form and the defending one.
Here’s how I’d do it:
1) Skills would be limited to the passive ones. Forms would replace active skills. Weapon focus and starting classes would still give 2 passive skills each, but only 2 forms (in place of 3 active skills).
Subclasses would give 1 passive skill and 2 forms each.
2) There'd be offensive forms and defensive forms, and each kind could be bold or wary . Every turn, a form is randomly chosen for the attacker, and the same for the defender (among their active ones).
A wary defensive form would best counter a bold attacking form, whereas it would do poorly against a wary attacking form. On the contrary, a bold defensive form would best counter a wary attacking form, but poorly defend against a bold attacking form.
To clarify, I’ll try and set some values:
Offensive forms would have a fixed effectiveness value, plus they'd give a couple of stat bonuses like the active skills do now. Bold offensive forms have a 175% effectiveness, wary offensive forms have 150%.
Defensive forms would have an effectiveness modifier that is to be subtracted to the offensive form’s effectiveness value. These modifier vary within a range, and accordingly to the offensive form they have to counter.
Wary defensive forms give between –175% and –75% against bold forms; they give between –50% and 0% against wary forms.
Bold defensive forms give between –100% and 0% against bold forms; they give between –125% and –75% against wary forms.
(Subclasses' forms could perhaps have a slightly higher effectiveness)
3) The 'How Critical' hit score would be determined by the form's effectiveness rather than randomly. As I said, every turn a form is randomly chosen for the attacker, and the same for the defender. The defender's effectiveness modifier is randomly determined, according to the rule set above, then it is subtracted to the attacker's form's effectiveness value. X% is then added for every attacker’s accuracy point, and X% subtracted for every defender’s dodge point (I’m not sure how much X should be)
The result is the % of damage to be applied.
4) Every weapon focus/class/subclass would give 1 offensive form and 1 defensive form. Weapon focus and starting classes would give different combinations of bold and wary forms.
Activating forms would work the same way as with active skills. Every player would start with 4 form slots: 2 offensive and 2 defensive. He'd gain 2 more slots at level 10, then again at levels 20, 40, 80, etc.
Skill points would still be gained the same way, but they'd have to be spared between skills and forms. To activate a form you'd need to spend at least 1 point in it (just like the active skills now). New players should start with 1 point in an offensive form and 1 point in a defensive one.
Adding more points to offensive forms would increase their stat bonuses (as they do now), but wouldn't affect their effectiveness value.
I'm not sure what way to improve defensive forms, maybe their effectiveness could increase by X every additional point spent.
(I’ve limited the forms differentiation to bold and wary, but a more complex system could be created)