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Custom combat system

Started by Leonis, April 16, 2010, 10:28:56 PM

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Leonis

I designed a combat system for a roleplaying game, and was wondering if it would be practical for forum roleplays. It was made with a computer or video game RPG in mind, not a pencil & paper one. That wouldn't matter much, would it? Still, I was wondering what you think of the system. Here is a brief summary of the mechanics:

-There are 4 main stats that govern the secondary stats. They are Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Constitution (CON), and Wisdom (WIS). These four stats are themselves governed by Level (LV), which is governed by Experience Points (XP)
-The amount of XP needed to reach a given level from level 1 is LV^3.5, rounded to the nearest whole number, except for levels 1 and 100, where you subtract 1 from the total instead. The level cap is 100.
-A character starts with 67 points distributed among his 4 attributes at level 1, each attribute being between 11 and 22. At every level up he gains 7 more points that are distributed among the 4 stats. The highest any stat can go through levelling up is 255.
-When distributing the stat points upon a level up, every stat must go up by at least 1 point. This leaves the character with three possible stat-up patterns: 4/1/1/1, 3/2/1/1, and 2/2/2/1. Exceptions are made if one or two stats are already maxed out at 255.
-Maximum HP is determined by the formula CON^1.6 + (2LV)^1.5055. The final result of every formula is always rounded to the nearest whole number unless otherwise stated.
-The formula for maximum MP is 7+(WIS*LV)^0.68.
-Each of the four main attributes has a secondary attribute that is used in battles:
--Attack (ATK) is the sum of the character's STR, the power of his weapon and any other bonuses.
--Defense (DEF): See above, but substitute "CON" for "STR", and "armor" for "weapon".
--Resistance (RES): See above, but substitute "WIS" for "DEF".
-Weapons have a fixed power rating that adds to the character's ATK. Generally the power is between 1.7 and 2.5 times the level intended for the character to use it at. Armor adds to DEF and RES in the same way weapons add to ATK, but the DEF and RES bonuses are two separate ratings.
-Finally, any equipment/status bonuses/penalties that affect CON or WIS do not affect maximum HP or MP.
-Turn order is determined by each character's initiative score from highest to lowest. Initiative is equal to the character's DEX score times a random number between 0.8 and 1.2. After everyone has taken a turn, new initiative scores are rolled for everyone.
-The base amount of damage a character can do with a physical attack is determined by the formula ATK*(LV^0.5). For magical attacks the formula is (WIS*POW*(WIS+POW)) ^.53187. POW is a fixed number between 0 and 255, determined by the spell being cast.
-In the formula for hit rate, let DEX1 be the attacker's DEX and DEX2 be the target's DEX. The attacker has a [100-(DEX2/DEX1*EVA) ]% chance to hit his target. EVA, or Evasion, is an invisible value that is set to 10 by default and can only be affected by special status or equipment modifiers.
-The damage done to a target factors in the attacker's base damage (BASE) as well as his level, and the target's defense. The formula is BASE*(100+9LV-DEF*X) /(100+9LV). Use RES instead of DEF if this is a magical attack. X, like EVA, is an invisible value that defaults to 1 for player characters and 2 for monsters.
-Finally, take the value from the previous equation and multiply it by a random number between 0.8 and 1.2, and round the final result to the nearest whole number. If the result is 0 or less, the damage done will be 1 instead. If it's 10,000 or more, then the damage will instead be 9999.
-Note that magic attacks are not run through the hit% formula, so they will always hit. If the spell being cast is not a spell that does damage, then the target's RES is ignored.
-Every monster has a special XP score that determines how much XP a character will get for defeating it. Upon victory, this value is adjusted by the formula (XP * Monster's LV) / (Character's LV). This calculation is done for each individual monster XP value for every player character.


Status Effects

Positive
Unless otherwise noted, positive status effects tend to last 3-10 rounds, based on the caster's Wisdom score.
Status Up: Increases one of the target's stats (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, or Wisdom) by half the caster's Wisdom score.
Regeneration: Every round, the target restores HP equal to four times the caster's Wisdom score. Lasts twice as long as other positive status effects.
Haste: Increases the target's initiative rolls by 25%. Can be stacked up to four times.
Illusion: The target is surrounded by illusions of itself, adding 10 points to their evasion checks.
Precision: When the target attacks, its victims will only have half the chance of dodging than usual.
Berserk: The target's attack power is increased by an amount equal to the caster's WIS, but will lose control of itself, and will only attack random enemies decided by the dice.
Shield: The damage the target receives from physical attacks is reduced by 50%.
Shell: See above, except this applies to techniques and spells.
Barrier: All techniques or spells cast at the target will be deflected back at the caster. If the target uses a tech on itself, it will be reflected at a random enemy.
Auto-Revive: When KO'd, the target will automatically revive with an amount of HP equal to a healing spell used by the caster that has 34 power.
Lucky: For every action that the target is involved in that requires a roll of the dice, two numbers will be rolled, and the result that favors the target will be picked.

Negative

KO: The target has 0 HP remaining and is out of commission. A battle ends when all targets on either side are KOed.
Status Down: One of the target's stats (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom) is reduced by half the caster's Wisdom score for 1d8+2 rounds.
Poison: The target takes damage equal to four times the caster's Wisdom score for 1d5+7 rounds.
Sleep: The target is asleep and cannot act. Once a round, and every time it is attacked, the target has a 1d8 chance of waking up.
Paralysis: The target cannot act. Once a round it has a 1d5 chance of recovering.
Burning: The target takes 2^N damage each round, with N being the consecutive number of rounds it has been on fire plus the number of times the Burning effect has been stacked on it. This effect can be removed if the target is hit with a water or ice elemental move.
Frozen: The target is frozen in a block of ice. This can be removed if hit with a fire elemental attack. Failing that, the target will have a 1d16 chance to thaw out the first round, 1d15 chance the second, and so on.
Confusion: The target will lose control of itself, its actions and targets decided by the dice. There is a 1d4 chance the target will recover each time it is attacked.
Mind Control: The target is being manipulated by the caster. The caster can choose any action for the target to take. This effect can be broken if either the caster or his target are KOed.

Schrödinger

Best tip? Keep it simple, stupid - or KISS, a general rule of design, any design. In fact, why not run a forums game that can support this, most probably an action-type game. See if it works.

Make everything simple and easy to pick up on, streamline it in playing as is needed. All those crazy mathematics with no less than 4 decimals? See if you can further ease that out if such is needed. All for the sake of KISS. You will have to rewrite a whole lot of this stuff. You will have to start writing a 'for dummies' or pick-up-and-play sometime. Hell, you may even have to dump this in favor of something else entirely. Learn from it  :-)

    [li]
Schrödinger's O/O[/li]
[li]Plot ideas![/li][/list]

Leonis

But it's still a lot simpler than, say, D&D, for instance.

Paladin

DnD is a freak job exception to the KISS rule. I'd say simple it down even more.

Leonis

It's pretty simple as it is; any simpler and it would be unbalanced.

Schrödinger

Quote from: Leonis on April 17, 2010, 08:54:20 PM
It's pretty simple as it is; any simpler and it would be unbalanced.

Alright. Try and run it as is. You won't know balance until you've run several games - and from the looks of the system, you'll probably want to run them as straight-up roll the dice, action and fighting quickies, be it via forums or via RL gaming. Again, test it, go nuts. Hire folks, ask us to play it. Explain where is necessary.

    [li]
Schrödinger's O/O[/li]
[li]Plot ideas![/li][/list]

Leonis

#6
I posted the topic here: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=66510.0

But no one has even said anything about it so far...

It should(?) be noted that I designed this system with the intention of giving an old school RPG feel. If you'll notice:

-The level cap is 100.
-The four core stats are each capped at 255.
-No piece of equipment can provide a stat bonus greater than 255.
-A level 100 player with 255 CON will have 9999 HP.
-A level 100 player with 255 WIS will have 999 MP.
-A character with 255 WIS using a skill with the maximum 255 power will do 9999 damage before damage reduction & randomization is calculated.
-It takes 9,999,999 experience points to reach level 100.
-A level 100 character with a near-perfect STR score of 250 wielding a weapon with a near-perfect power of 250 will do 5000 damage before damage reduction & randomization is calculated.
-Following from the above, the physical and magical damage scale with each other at a nigh-constant 1:2 ratio at every level; the idea being that a magic user using up MP to cast spells balancing out the physical fighter who hits for half as much damage as the mage's most powerful spell without spending any MP at all.

If you're a programmer, you'll also understand why the numbers 255 and the rows of 9s are significant.

the taken

#7
If your game is anything like the digital RPG games, you are going to discover that the difference between characters at low levels is going to be amazing, while the higher you go, the less the difference in levels matters.  In those old games, a character with twice as many levels is twice as powerful.

So at the beginning of the game, you're going to be fighting rats, but then all of sudden, the rats are super easy, cause you leveled up. Then at, lets say, level 60, you're fighting rat-dragons, and it's a tough fight. You level up, and encounter another set of rat-dragons. Those extra points of power you just gained? Don't care.

Your massive amounts of levels increases granularity, but to the point where individual gains in levels don't actually matter. It's okay for video games to do this because the computer does all the accounting. But for a player to add 5 or 6 points to each stats, then recalculate his damage for every attack, his HP, it is a huge pain in the ass. Even keeping track of all that XP, after every single fight is too much.

Also, you'll have to come up with sets of monsters for every range of levels. If I can recall correctly, after the gimped training monsters, most RPGs tended to have a new set of monsters show up at every 15% increase in levels, with the final boss intended to be beaten at around Lvl50, and the bonus side quests giving you the necessary XP to reach Lvl80-ish. As the designer, you need a large underpaid staff of artists and number grunts to make these things up.

Also, in those games they added things like death effects that were supposed to make it possible for the monsters to challenge you, and phoenix downs to counter that, which completely undermined the whole concept of levelling up and inching your way to mega-stabbing.




You are seriously gonna want to curb the amount of levels down to something manageable for a PnP game, 'cause you don't have the automated calculations a computer provides to keep track of things. Accounting is not fun, that's why people are payed to do it.

In my attempt to create a Pokemon PnP, I reduced the number of levels down to 20.

Leonis

That's not necessarily true, taken. Levels still mean a lot at higher levels because HP, MP, and damage increase exponentially. And besides, I already did complete a bestiary of 400+ monsters for this system.

And there's not a big discrepancy between the lower levels, either. If you'll notice, your starting stats are around 16 or 17 each at level 1, and you only gain one or two or three more points for each stat. And because of the exponential HP/Damage growth, the linear increases will still mean something at the higher levels.

And for the game my RP is based on, I have intended for the players to be around level 70 to beat the final boss (gaining 3 levels per dungeon), and approaching level 100 for the bonus dungeon and bonus bosses.

But like I said, *I* will be calculating all the players' stats for them. All the players have to do is manage their items, decide what to do in battle, and allocate their primary stat points when they level up. I will take care of the rest.

the taken

Quote from: Leonis on April 20, 2010, 01:18:10 PMAll the players have to do is manage their items, decide what to do in battle, and allocate their primary stat points when they level up.

I will take care of the rest.

:o

I'm outta here.

Leonis


Leonis

Just so you know, I put all the formulas into a spreadsheet so that all I need to do is plug in the appropriate numbers and immediately get the results I need! How's that?

DrFier

I was thinking of doing this with a system I was making myself, (same kind of thing) but the reaction here didn't seem too good. Also, I don't think you need to be a programmer to understand that 256 = 100. :)
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Screen images simulated. Not an actual physician. Professional driver on a closed course, do not attempt. If you have an erection lasting more than four hours, contact your significant other.

Leonis

I tried to implement this system into a game I made with RPG Maker VX, but there doesn't seem to be a way to use the ^ operator or use a character's level as a variable or change the experience point growth chart...so the only things that made it into my system were the HP, MP, and damage numbers.

DrFier

I have VX but never really used it. There's the custom code section, the level function and variables should be in there, maybe you could simply replace it?
\
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Screen images simulated. Not an actual physician. Professional driver on a closed course, do not attempt. If you have an erection lasting more than four hours, contact your significant other.

Leonis

I updated the system to explain status effects!

DrFier

Are you using this for the tthread in your sig, or for something else?
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The Doctor is out.


Screen images simulated. Not an actual physician. Professional driver on a closed course, do not attempt. If you have an erection lasting more than four hours, contact your significant other.

Leonis

Yes, the first link in my signature leads to the signup topic.

DrFier

I think I may just see how things go, If that's ok with you.
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Ideas
The Doctor is out.


Screen images simulated. Not an actual physician. Professional driver on a closed course, do not attempt. If you have an erection lasting more than four hours, contact your significant other.