Need help with Damage Formula for a Game with "Very Low Numbers"

[Black Pagan]

I have been working on very low numbers for Stats in my game which has just 5 Levels, To keep it very simple. The Default formula doesn't seem so good for it. Does anyone have ideas to replace the "Default" Damage Formula with something better suited to make it work around very low numbers ?

Stats like Luck, M.Atk or M.Def doesn't matter since i don't use them. Now Generally speaking 3 Tiers of Weapons would have stats like : 2 Atk, 5 Atk, 12 Atk and 3 Tiers of Defensive Armor would have stats like : 1 Def, 3 Def, 5 Def. Characters only gain minimal Stats (Negligible) on Level Up.

An Example of what i mean by "Very Low Numbers" :
(Min Value at Start of Game, Excluding Weapon and Armor Stats)

HP = 50 (Gain 25 HP every Level)
Atk = 3 (Gain 1 Atk every Level)
Def = 1 (Gain 1 Def every 3 Levels)
Agi = 1 (Gain 1 Agi every 2 Levels)

 

[Soulrender]

I "borrowed" some solutions from warcraft 3 with damage formulas and they might suit you too, but in case of RPG Maker MV I would use
following formula:

125 + (Math.floor(Math.random()*100))

and set skill Variance to 33% with no critical hits.

Formula explanation:
to number 125 I add random number between 0 and 100 wich total damage this skill will be between 125 and 225. Adding variance of 33% will
extend that range from 167 to 299 (if I correctly calculate in mind).

Edit:
If you want to have simple, but progressive damage then why not to try:

65 + (a.level * 15)

This means each level you hero gain the skill will be +15 more stronger than was on previous level.

This topic should give more ideas how to "develop" own and unique damage formula

Good luck.

 

[NinjaKittyProductions]

I try to user Pathfinder rules when using low numbers for my games.
Most of my abilities use 6 sided dice for their damage that usually go up in damage by an additional d6 per 2 or 3 levels... depending on the ability.

This old post might be of some help:
https://www.rpgmakercentral.com/topic/18196-low-numbers/

 

[Aoi Ninami]

Soulrender's suggestion is essentially to remove the DEF stat, which is a possible route but may not be the one you want to go down.

The difficulty about low numbers (without removing DEF) is that it's especially easy to run into the problem where as your character improves, old enemies do zero damage. To get round this, I recommend (after seeing this suggested in other, similar topics) using a formula based on multiplication, rather than addition.

The formula I use is (2 * a.atk * a.atk) / (a.atk + 2 * b.def).

This works very well for my game, where the numbers are low but not quite as low as yours. Erika starts with 32 HP, 12 ATK (14 with +2 from her initial weapon) and 10 DEF. The first monster (Dungeon Roach) has 40 HP, 10 ATK and 2 DEF. Therefore, Erika's damage is (2 * 196) / (14 + 4) = 392/18 = 21. The Roach's damage is (2 * 100) / (10 + 20) = 200 / 30 = 6. Erika will kill the roach in two hits, and it gets to take out a chunk of her HP that's noticeable but not threatening.

Let's see what happens if we apply this formula directly to your game Your Level 1 character has 5 ATK (with weapon) and 2 DEF. You haven't given an example of monster stats, but let's say 3 ATK and 1 DEF. Your character does (2 * 25) / (5 + 2) = 50 / 7 = 7 damage to the monster, who does (2 * 9) / (3 + 4) = 18 / 7 = 2 damage to the player. If you want more damage, just increase the monster's ATK.

Also, you don't have to use this exact formula; you could vary it by changing either of the 2s to a different number. Play around until you have something that's just right for your game!

 

[Soulrender]

@Aoi Ninami Your formula looks quite interesting.
Topic:

On purpouse i skipped DEF parameters in formula, because I mentioned I "borrowed" some solutions from Warcraft3: The Frozen Throne.
In that game Heroes and units have def parameter but it is used to calculate damage from melee attacks and melee attacks have several sub-types. Magic skills there completly ignore any kind of magical defense with 1 exception, when spell's target unit have passive ability of spell immunity. I spend few years mastering this game (with some bigger successes) and Blizzard made actually good work with skill/units damages.
That's why I also use their calculations in my project But it doesn't mean others must too. I only suggested what's in my opinion the best

 

[bgillisp]

Formula explanation:
to number 125 I add random number between 0 and 100 wich total damage this skill will be between 125 and 225. Adding variance of 33% will
extend that range from 167 to 299 (if I correctly calculate in mind).

That unfortunately is incorrect, as 33% variance means the engine will roll a random % between -33% and 33%, which means you can also do lower than what you list too. So if you have 125 as you rminimun and 33% as variance, you can end up doing 125 - (125 *0.33) = 125 - 41.25 or 84 damage as your lowest.

And yes this does mean 100% variance you can do 0 damage, as the variance can also take away all of your damage.

 

[Oddball]

((a.atk*2.5))*((b.mhp*a.atk/150+1))/((b.def/2+a.agi/2+1 ))
That's the kind of formula i use in my games, and i use small numbers too. The "+1"s are to make sure the formula doesn't multiply or divide by 0

Edit: forgot a 0

Edit: After some tinkering with my charecters and enemies stats, you might want to make the ((b.mhp*a.atk)) part divide by 25 instead of 150 if you use this method. Sense my games stats wern't as small as yours until now

 

[Calvynne]

I would go with a very bog standard (a.atk - b.def/2), and put in roughly 50% variance.
Without knowing exactly how you want to map out your Hits To Kill, and your encounter rate it's a bit tough, but keeping your damage formula simple often works best with low numbers.

Keeping it very simple to start will also let you map out how often you want combat to be paused for healing, and what the risk of death is.

"That enemy hit me for big numbers, I must need more gear or levels before I go there." is a very clear message for the player, provided you give them the resources they need to survive the encounter appropriately.

"All these monsters hit me for low numbers, I think I'm fine." is a good message for players if you want them to risk over extending themselves. If healing is very rare, even small hits start to matter. Being hit for 2 or 3 damage eventually is life threatening if you're not consistently one-hit-killing monsters.