Combat Mechanics: Power, Damage, Healing

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Re: Combat Mechanics: Power, Damage, Healing

Postby Ferret » Mon Jan 16, 2017 6:43 am

They do: they go up to 125% of the listed power (just slightly over 100.) I should probably indicate this somewhere other than a forum post though. :)

Especially since MaxHP% works the exact opposite way and always uses your current MaxHP%, including bonus/lost MaxHP. :P

But.. given I don't really want them to work differently, I'm more than half tempted to go ahead and just pump breath weapons to 0-100 Power, but have them use % of SP and not raw (i.e.: Tireless won't help all that much.) But, if I do that, the cooldowns and/or SP costs will have to go up... and there will be a lot of very considerably more deadly low-mid Tower encounters. :) To say nothing of the horror that will be 100 Power Consume Life and Consume Vigor (the new HP drain and Max-HP breath weapons... and yes, one of them will be available as a new starting element on a relic. :P )

Then again, I could just edit them to say 0-100 Power, 100 Power at 125 SP. That'd make it clear and keep it sort of consistent (mostly by making SP checks clearly a raw amount and not %, and making MaxHP checks a %.) That's probably easier.. I think I feel more comfortable if 100 Power breath weapons require a passive to get there.

But on the other hand... 100 Power breath weapons might be just what the doctor orders for Dragon summoners.

I'll think on this one some. At the very least: whatever solution I pivot to will be better documented than what we've got currently. Thanks. :D If nothing else, this thread is good for keeping me honest when I've gotten too cute on various mechanics and/or too sloppy in my documentation.
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Re: Combat Mechanics: Power, Damage, Healing

Postby Ferret » Tue Jan 17, 2017 2:47 pm

Ended up going with keeping them 0-85 Power, and scaling them off SP% instead of SP, so Tireless no longer boosts them above 85. The tooltips have been clarified a bit too.

0-100 Power was a cute idea, but 100 Power and "cannot miss", even if it is attenuated, just can't mix for balance reasons, since attenuation's 0 for the dead-center targets. (There are exceptions, but the exceptions are usually things that are either not repeatable or limited to targets who can take it. examples: Humble/Exorcism)
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Re: Combat Mechanics: Power, Damage, Healing

Postby Ferret » Thu Jan 19, 2017 6:35 pm

I've expanded the ability section of the manual a bit to touch on some of the topics we've talked about in this thread. Lemme know if I've left anything important out, but I should note that it is not my intent to put a bunch of the specific formulas in the manual: I don't mind telling people what they are, or that veteran players ask about them to learn more details about gameplay, but it is my hope that specifics to that degree aren't necessary for success. If it starts to feel like that they are, I'd still rather fix that than start plugging a bunch of algebra into the manual :D

Thank you to everyone who's asked questions in here so far, this thread has been a big help for identifying obtuse mechanics and, when necessary, poking me into making them a bit more clear. :P

Code: Select all
#highlight
Attacks and Abilities

In terms of direct action, you can perform basic attacks by simply 'moving'
into an enemy character using the movement controls, but this tends to be
rather underwhelming in terms of results.

Abilities provide much better options during combat, and most can be used by
pressing the corresponding number (1-8) on the main keyboard and then
selecting a target using the movement keys, followed by Enter to confirm
the target and execute the ability.

All abilities have a single elemental type (Slash, Fire, Buff, etc.) which is
listed in their tooltip. When other effects refer to the element of ability,
this is the element they mean, even if the ability in question deals damage
or applies other effects that are of different elements. For example, the
Fiery Claw ability is a Slash ability that deals Slash and Fire damage:
it can be Blocked with the Block Slash ability, since it is a Slash element
ability, but Flame Ward has no effect since it is not a Fire element ability,
despite dealing Fire damage.

Most abilities have Stamina costs (represented in their mouseover toolips
as "20 SP", for example): you must have the listed amount of Stamina
available to use the ability.

Abilities may have special conditions that must be met for their use: these
will be spelled out in the tooltip for an ability. These conditions usually
relate to the state of the caster (example: caster at half health or less),
the state of the target (example: the target has the Infection status effect),
or the environment over all (example: four or more enemies in fight.)

Some abilities are passive (and always in effect), or reactive (and thus
automatically take effect under certain conditions): these do not need to
be directly used, nor can they be. Passive and Reactive abilities have
circular icons, rather than the square icons of active abilities that may
be used at will.

Finally, ability descriptions use a number of terms that are worth giving
brief definitions of:

#highlight
Attenuated
This attack cannot miss or be Parried, but damage and chance to inflict
status effects drops off the further away from the center of the blast the
target in question is. Off-center targets with high Agility will take still
less damage and have even lower chances to be affected by status effects.
Note that the user's Agility is irrelevant for aiming or dealing damage
with an Attenuated attack (though Cunning still applies for inflicting
any status effects.)

#highlight
Block
A supplemental defense that provides a chance to cancel an attack that would
otherwise have hit. Block bonuses are usually element-specific. Block can
trigger against attenuated attacks, but the chance will be reduced the closer
to the center of the blast you are.

#highlight
Bonus MaxHP
Some rare abilities have the ability to temporarily increase your MaxHP, often
by draining it from enemies. Bonus MaxHP is limited to 33% of your base MaxHP,
and will be slowly shed as you take damage. Bonus MaxHP can also cancel out
MaxHP damage, should you have any accumulated.

#highlight
Cannot Miss
This attack cannot miss, be Blocked, be Dodged, or be Parried.

#highlight
Chance
When an ability refers to a chance of something happening, it is giving the
base chance, before modifiers from stat bonuses and other sources. For
example, the user's Cunning bonus and the target's Vitality bonus modify the
chance of an ability inflicting a negative status effect.

#highlight
Delay
Some abilities refer to a chance, or even multiple chances, to delay the next
turn of their target(s). These work mostly as you'd expect, but it is worth
noting consecutive turn delays have diminishing returns until the target
actually gets to take a turn.

#highlight
Dodge
A supplemental defense that provides a chance to cancel an attack that would
otherwise have hit. Dodge can trigger against attenuated attacks, but the
chance will be reduced the closer to the center of the blast you are.

#highlight
Free Action
This ability does not take any time to execute: it will still be your turn
after using it.

#highlight
Last Action
Some abilities reference the last action of the user and/or target(s), usually
as a condition for their use. Your last action is the non-reactive ability
you used last. Note that any status effect that completely prevents you from
taking actions (Shock, Stun, Sleep) will clear out your last action as well
when applied.

#highlight
MaxHP Damage
Some particularly unpleasant attacks deal damage to the target's MaxHP. Lost
MaxHP is recovered automatically by earning experience points, but you can
speed the process along by using Pure Stones or Pure Gems, or by using
abilities that drain MaxHP from targets.

#highlight
Movement Ability / Not a Movement Ability
Some abilities indicate they count as a 'movement ability'. This allows them
to benefit from any bonuses (or penalties!) movement abilities may receive,
even though the ability does not actually cause movement. Conversely, if
an ability says it is 'not a movement ability', it does not benefit from
such adjustments despite the fact it does actually cause movement.

#highlight
Parry
A supplemental defense that provides a chance to cancel an attack that would
otherwise have hit. Parry bonuses tend to be large, but are only available
in limited circumstances. Unlike Block and Dodge, Parry cannot trigger
against attenuated attacks.

#highlight
Power
A relative, linear measurement of the damage an attack deals. For example,
a 40 Power attack does half the damage of a 80 Power attack. Also used as a
equivalent measurement of healing: a 60 Power attack deals the same amount
of damage a 60 Power healing ability heals
.
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Re: Combat Mechanics: Power, Damage, Healing

Postby Gaswafers » Mon Feb 06, 2017 6:41 am

I want to believe I asked this before, but I can't seem to find a post with me doing it.

How does Snuff Out interact with Diehard?

Also, I just noticed that Share Pain is a mind-type ability. The bonus wouldn't happen to be affected by enemy mind resistance, would it? Because that would be double dipping in resistances.
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Re: Combat Mechanics: Power, Damage, Healing

Postby Ferret » Mon Feb 06, 2017 2:20 pm

Diehard can allow you to survive a successful Snuff Out. It interacts with it pretty much the same way it does any other instance of fatal damage.

Share Pain is Mind type, but by default resistances only apply to damage and status effect application rates. If a mechanic other than those is affected by resistance, it will always be called out in the ability itself (such as Oppressor, Innocence, and Mind Reader do.) (Share Pain's Mind type is pretty much purely assigned in case some future ability checks how many Mind abilities you have, or some such thing.)
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Re: Combat Mechanics: Power, Damage, Healing

Postby Gaswafers » Tue Feb 14, 2017 11:35 pm

Exhausting Bite and Desiccation don't mention being affected by body resistance in their descriptions, is that right?
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Re: Combat Mechanics: Power, Damage, Healing

Postby Ferret » Wed Feb 15, 2017 12:27 am

Exhausting Bite's SP reduction is affected by Body resistance and will say so in the next build.

Desiccation in fact, does not care about Body resistance: it applies using whatever resistance type the original drain uses. This will be corrected in the next build, by setting Desiccation's resistance type display to None.

Also fixed the misspelling in the name of Desiccation. :)

Thanks for the report!
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Re: Combat Mechanics: Power, Damage, Healing

Postby Gaswafers » Wed Feb 15, 2017 12:32 am

Well if you go by the logic behind Share Pain being Mind type, then Desiccation being Body type makes sense.

How does poison stacking work? I've seen poison applications refresh the duration instead of going to the next level. Does there have to be a certain amount of time remaining on the poison debuff to jump to the next level?
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Re: Combat Mechanics: Power, Damage, Healing

Postby Ferret » Wed Feb 15, 2017 4:34 am

Share Pain however, only affects Mind abilities, so it makes sense for it to have a Mind type. SP draining can come multiple elements, so it's a little trickier to assign it to just one element.

Poison stacking is currently a flat % chance: 50% chance when re-applying Poison 1 to get Poison 2 instead, 25% chance when re-applying Poison 2 to get Poison 3 instead. Any failed reapply refreshes duration instead. A certain passive being added in the next build will alter these mechanics if you have it. :D
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Re: Combat Mechanics: Power, Damage, Healing

Postby Gaswafers » Tue Feb 21, 2017 11:22 pm

Does Sadist's Mien work with Agony? It seems like it shouldn't, but that would make it the only miracle that doesn't work with its corresponding mien.

Why does Healing Factor need a cooldown?
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