In Depth Psynergy Damage Formula Discussion

[Rolina]

This topic is meant to have an in depth discussion about the three types of Damaging Psynergy, as well as a proposed fourth type, called "Focused Power".  Discussions here not only are based on the damage formulas, but also on formulas to determine power and cost of said psynergy in relation to the Range, AoE Type, and level learned.  Note that there is not going to be one set of "Catch all" formulas - a huge determining factor is going to be the approach used in the game itself.  What works for one game may not necessarily work for another.  As such, the goals of the formula being discussed must be stated in the post they are introduced.  It is also suggested that you label said formula type.

Try to remember to be respectful, and to remember what the goal of a particular formula is.  Formulas will be added to first post upon proposal.


For ease of analysis, I've included an XLS file that will allow you to plug in and work on your formulas.  It includes info for the main cast of TBS and TLA, the max, average, and minimum values for all eight, for just the warriors, and for just the mages.  Further notes and instructions are written down on Isaac's page, which is the first book in the spreadsheet.



Role's Base Damage Formula - for any GS-style game where you want some degree of growth for Base Damage spells

[Rolina]

Proposal: Role's Base Damage Formula

The basic idea of this is to introduce growth into base damage.  Not too much so as to overtake attack power, though.  The spirit here is that feeling of disappointment you get when you visit an old area at a much higher level and use a weaker spell... only to have it do diddly squat, rather than the expected/desired increase in power.  To achieve this, a set amount of the character's Max PP is added to the base value.  Furthermore, to help balance spells at lower levels, the lowest target damage value has been reduced from 12 to 10, and other spells have been modified to compensate.

Here, the goal is to have a spell at equal power to the "goal power" you'd have for the average adept using it.  While the formula hasn't yet been perfected, an example is available.

Isaac, at level 2, learns Quake.  Ignoring equipment and djinn, when looking at what's expected for him at this level, you have the following target stats:

MHP:  46
MPP:  26
ATK:  20
DEF:   9
AGL:  16
LUK:   3

Accounting for the expected class of Squire, this is modified to:

MHP:  50
MPP:  20
ATK:  22
DEF:   9
AGL:  17
LUK:   3

The formula being looked at is: Floor{[Base + (Max PP / 6)] * [1 + (Caster Power-Target Resist) / 200]}.  For the sake of simplicity, the power and resist part of the formula are going to be ignored, just as equipment and set djinn bonuses.

Quake's target base value is 10, so to attain that level 2 target, the value is given as 7.  Plugging the values in, you get:

Floor[7+(20/6)]
Floor[7+(3.333)]
Floor[10.333]
=10

Now, let's change this.  Let's fast forward to when he learns Grand Gaia, at level 54 in the expected Slayer Class

Here, his target stats look like:

MHP:  448
MPP:  160
ATK:  218
DEF:   93
AGL:  221
LUK:    3

When the expected class for this level, Slayer, is applied:

MHP:  851
MPP:  192
ATK:  327
DEF:  130
AGL:  331
LUK:    3

When looking at quake, it then becomes this:

Floor[7+(192/6)]
Floor[7+(32)]
Floor[39]
=39

For kicks, we'll do Grand Gaia as well, which has a target value of 200:

Floor[168+(192/6)]
Floor[168+(32)]
Floor[200]
=200

Now let's raise that to level 99.  His target stats are now the following:

MHP:  790
MPP:  250
ATK:  388
DEF:  166
AGL:  396
LUK:    3

Using the Slayer class for the class modifier, we get:

MHP:  1501
MPP:   300
ATK:   582
DEF:   232
AGL:   594
LUK:     3

At level 99, quake would have the following power:

Floor[7+(300/6)]
Floor[7+(50)]
Floor[57]
=57

And Gaia would have:

Floor[168+(300/6)]
Floor[168+(50)]
Floor[218]
=218

To push Gaia to the limit, let's change his class to War Adept, the class that gives him the highest PP multiplier, as well as the Grand Gaia spell.  His expected stats here are:

MHP:  1501
MPP:   425
ATK:   582
DEF:   232
AGL:   673
LUK:     2

Thus bringing Grand Gaia to:

Floor[168+(425/6)]
Floor[168+(70.833)]
Floor[238.833]
=238


As you can see, it's never enough to overcome an Added Damage or Multiplier attack, but it is enough to at least get the feeling of growth.  Now, obviously this isn't an entirely accurate example.  For that, we'll need to take a true average of all the adept's growths, and use a flat average value for expected class.  However, this does do what I had desired to show - and that being the intent of the idea, and how it would work.  I don't have a particular style of game in mind, so this formula would be for any GS-style game where you want some degree of growth for Base Damage spells.