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Old 09-15-2010, 09:57 PM   #1
Kitriel
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Skill/Spell Damage

Hello all.

I'm making this post to gather some results from you game developers out there that have made a mud(or any game for that matter) from scratch.

My question/thoughts are more along the lines of how you came up with a skill or spells damage/healing. Did you create a random number and run with it, changing it as the game evolved. Did you base it off of the mob table you had previously set up? Did you have various ranks(such as what WoW does)? Or did you base the value off of another value, perhaps a percentage of said value? Did the value scale as you leveled or did it become obsolete after a certain level/obtaining a bigger/better skill/spell?

Just some thoughts of mine I had banging around my head and I was wondering what you all did or thought of doing. (Keep in mind this is for non-weapon related skills/spells, as if the ability is based off of a weapon it should use the weapons damage as the variable )

Thanks for taking your time to read this(and hopefully respond),

-Kitriel
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Old 09-16-2010, 03:45 AM   #2
Davairus
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Re: Skill/Spell Damage

Coming from a rom derivative, we used the damage done by "kick" as a guide for damage to apply with other skills. Obviously weapon damage was used instead when skills were performed with weapons... but for everything else I go off kick as a guide. Well, not everything does kick damage, heh, but kick damage is the baseline we went with. Nothing gets worse than kick. In any event, it is always based on experience and seeing whether you feel its right .. youre blind without that.
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Old 09-16-2010, 06:47 AM   #3
KaVir
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Re: Skill/Spell Damage

I assigned point values to each bonus type, and used that as a guide for deciding which bonuses a particular power, talent, spell or combat technique should have. As the number of abilities increased, I got a better feel for the balance, and started to rely more on instinct.

Making older abilities obsolete as you progress is a pet peeve of mine though. What's the point in having a dozen fireball spells if each is just a stronger version of the last? Rather than padding out a class with redundant abilities, I prefer to have abilities that can be upgraded, and make an effort to ensure that each one offers something unique.
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Old 09-16-2010, 06:55 AM   #4
MudMann
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Re: Skill/Spell Damage

Godwars II has amazing upgrades. I think the way that everything is upgradable, and can be further boosted by extra skills making them even stronger or function differently is astonishing and very refreshing. Dunno how you keep track of what does what.
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Old 09-17-2010, 05:26 AM   #5
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Re: Skill/Spell Damage

I balance systems based on the values that are already in the system and the intended use.

For example, if I want players to have a kick skill at level 10, I look at the amount of health a typical opponent has at level 10 and up, and more importantly the amount of damage a player is typically dealing to such an opponent. Then I can choose how much extra damage the kick should do. I would then also look at the equivalent values for levels 15, 20, 25, to see how these change over the levels, and therefore can consider how I want the kick skill to change as a player levels up.
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Old 09-18-2010, 05:53 AM   #6
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Re: Skill/Spell Damage

This is mostly used in components and the like on Star Conquest, but it's still somewhat relevant here.

After setting up a baseline, we generally create algorithms that determine the 'level' of something automatically. After that, reasonable statistics are assigned. After playtesting, if balance issues (or other, similar issues) arise, the statistics are reevaluated and the algorithm is (potentially) refined.

Now, on other (more relevent) things, we generally go down to a more generic metric that can be used between a variety of things. (for example, weapons, damaging spells, healing spells, regeneration, damage over time, and so on) These are also algorithmically balanced, and we have a number of fine tuning measures. (and, if need be, explicit overrides in all cases)

Most of this is relatively transparent to players, and I think it works fairly elegantly. In short, we solve our problems with mathematics.
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