Combat mechanic
Does anyone have any idea how techniques actually work?
There seem to be 4 relevant numbers:
- Base damage
- Relevant stat
- + power
- Defense
It would be nice to know the formula for choosing equipment…
Combat mechanic
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Summary:
What's the formula for how much damage a technique deals?
The other relevant number would be RAND. :P
I'm pretty sure there's some random component in the damage dealt. But yeah, nobody really knows the exact formula.
The only public spading attempt was my long-ago investigation of Dive for Cover here:
http://wiki.metroplexity.com/forum/t-146581/testing-dive-for-cover
I didn't go any further with it though. All I found out was that increasing your Reflexes doesn't have a huge effect on the skill's effectiveness, which I found odd. I only tested from ~2-12 reflexes, but it was still surprising to me that I blocked around 4-6 damage no matter what.
In the beginning, men were mortal.
We really need to get a hardcore spader up in here. I know I'm certainly not up for the task.
Once I break out of "ronin" again I'll have a go at figuring this out.
Basic strategy is simple: Use the same technique repeatedly, until some idea of the damage range/distribubtion is found. (This can probably vary from monster to monster.)
Then repeat for various values of the 3 variables under our control.
I think I've at least partially cracked this. Damage is a seemingly flat range between a min and max value, determined by
Min damage = Power
Max damage = Power + MIN(Power, Stat)
Power is just the base power of the technique plus modifiers.
There might be some additional effect at play; I haven't looked much at higher powers except to see that it seems to fit this formula. I also never noticed any difference from monster to monster, but there are probably some monsters with special defenses. All spading was done against monsters in Southside Park, mostly while non-etheric. (So gangers and 3rd eye gangers.)
In the best case scenario raising your power adds 1.5 average damage, worst case it adds +1.
Raising your stat adds at best +0.5 avg damage, but for low power techniques won't help at all.
Good work, I'll add my results (starting 'tomorrow' in 15 minutes) on the high-powered end of things if you'd like to confirm the formula.
Edit: here goes
+15 Melee power
31(37) Strength
(melee Strength techniques)
Ocean Sight active
southside park
| Technique | Base Damage | Damage Dealt vs. Third Eye ganger | vs. Trash Heap | vs. Insane Bum |
| Power Strike | 8 | 29, 33 | 26 | 35 |
| Crushing Punch | 5 | 31, 35 | 29, 31 | 39 |
| Cruel Slash | 6 | 40 | 20, 24 | 42 |
| Beatdown | 3 | 30 | ||
| Primitive Attack | 5 | 25 | 18, 20 |
Uh, slightly distracted by gamebreaking bug. :P
Hope this helps.
Okay, so subtracting 15 melee power and the attack's base damage, the highest additional damage I got (presumably from 37 strength) was +19. Defense clearly plays a role as well, however, since the trash heap clearly took less damage from all my attacks.
In the beginning, men were mortal.
It occurs to me that PvP would be useful for spading this, since you can look at the defender's equipment and get a good idea of their defenses (and if they cooperate you can ask them what their exact bonuses are including effects).
so very preliminary investigations:
11 base damage, 24 etheric power, and 36 will.
JTN had visible 5 etheric defense and 7 reactive defense.
Hex - 11 base - 31-47
Evil Eye - 8 base - 36
Necrotic Vial - 10 base - 29
In the beginning, men were mortal.
/forum/t-160169/combat-mechanic#post-