Damage formulas producing 0 damage

[tumsterfest]

Hi,

I'm having trouble figuring out why a few attacks of mine aren't causing damage:

First one: a.hp + atk - b.def * 2
Second one: a.mat * 5.5 - tp - b.mdf

I'm pretty decent at math, so it's definitely not an issue with that. My suspicion is that my issue has something to do with including two stat values the actor (i.e., an attack that is influenced by both the caster's current HP and his attack power).

Is there something structurally wrong with these formulas? Would using parentheses help?

Thanks!

 

[Ahuramazda]

You need to put a. or b. in front of atk (in the 1st) or tp (in the 2nd) so it knows who to pull the data from to make the calc work properly.

First one: a.hp + a.atk - b.def * 2
Second one: a.mat * 5.5 - a.tp - b.mdf

 

[Wavelength]

0 damage (no matter what the battler's current stats are) usually indicates the formula has an error in it. @Ahuramazda identified the errors perfectly, so no need for me to repeat the solution.

 

[tumsterfest]

You need to put a. or b. in front of atk (in the 1st) or tp (in the 2nd) so it knows who to pull the data from to make the calc work properly.

First one: a.hp + a.atk - b.def * 2
Second one: a.mat * 5.5 - a.tp - b.mdf

This worked. Thanks!

An offshoot question: I wanted one of these abilities hit 8 times at random. An example would be Cloud's Meteorain ability in Final Fantasy VII, or various other Meteor attacks in the FF series. Is there a workaround to bypass the limit of 4 when you select the "Enemies > Random" target option?

 

[estriole]

This worked. Thanks!

An offshoot question: I wanted one of these abilities hit 8 times at random. An example would be Cloud's Meteorain ability in Final Fantasy VII, or various other Meteor attacks in the FF series. Is there a workaround to bypass the limit of 4 when you select the "Enemies > Random" target option?

with or without plugins?

if without plugins maybe try linking it to another skill... call common event when using that skill that force action of the actor to use another skill... but it might not exactly what you want though...