To compare, here are the old and current defense values characters used to have at varying levels of Strength/level:
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Defense Values
STR/Lvl 0/Lvl 1/Lvl 2/Lvl 3/Lvl 4/Lvl 5/Lvl
Old 100 100 100 100 100 100
Curr 75 100 125 150 175 200
I think his was the right direction for the most part, but some adjustments need to be made. Working to improve melee was the right idea, but nerfing magic-user defense probably wasn't. It's also looking like the adjustment for melee defense was too high in general.
Still, that's to be expected, my usual approach to fixing balance issues is to swing for the fences and see what happens. It usually helps me get to the right place faster than trying lots of tiny incremental adjustments.
The proposed values for the next build will be:
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Defense Values
STR/Lvl 0/Lvl 1/Lvl 2/Lvl 3/Lvl 4/Lvl 5/Lvl
Old 100 100 100 100 100 100
Curr 75 100 125 150 175 200
New 100 112 125 137 150 162
That will put mage defense back where it was before, and will smoosh the curve (that's a technical term) for melee defense, both reducing the maximum amount while also making it start giving benefits a bit earlier: even just 1 Str/Level will be enough to see some benefit. 2/lvl will be unchanged from how it is right now, only Str levels greater than that will see an actual reduction.
Based on this, I probably will hold off on any adjustments to magic melee abilities themselves for this build: Magic still has the advantage of also having easy access to healing and ranged attacks, and with that and defense being set back to where it was, they might be running even with melee's newly adjusted defense bonus now. We'll see.
Thank you everyone for the feedback I've received on the changes so far. It's been a big help.