What do Critical Strikes represent for you?

[jonthefox]

If your game has critical strikes, what does it mean to you when either a player or enemy critically strikes? Was it the display of excellent combat skill that landed a precise blow? Was it a powerful swing that was able to hit really hard? Was it a "lucky" shot?

Do you give your players a way to avoid getting hit by a large critical strike from an enemy?

Why do you have them in your game? Do you want to just make the player feel good when he gets lucky and lands one? Do you want to punish a player who got lazy about healing up and thought he could withstand an extra hit? Do they add anything meaningful to your combat system?

I tend to not include critical strikes in my games - at least, not the way they're traditionally done. I usually have skills that automatically critically strike, either at the expensive of resources (mp/tp), based on a conditional (agility differential), or both. But, in the vast majority of rpg maker games I play, people use the traditional mechanics (+10% critical strike weapon) - and I'm curious what the design justification is.

 

[TheoAllen]

Critical strike is like a jackpot. I'm pretty satisfied on how they've been implemented it traditionally. Because it's feel satisfying when u suddenly got 3x damage jackpot out of the blue while doing normal attack. But it's not something you should rely for. Obviously u should use your usual thinking of using skill and actions. Because the proc rate is just too low to rely for.

No, it doesn't really add anything to my combat system (or at least mine). Just a trivia to make a player feels "wow". The game balancing should be balanced enough to make u not relying on critical luck at the first place. It just a RNG bonus to speed up things

 

[Philosophus Vagus]

In a general sense the way I've always looked at the standard tropes between Hit Points, hits, and crits is that a regular hitting attack (not counting magic and other more powerful variants of attacks, strictly speaking physical skills here) is that regular hits represent glancing blows generally, where maybe the target still parries the blow away or dodges the full arc/thrust of the attack but not perfectly and gets grazed, so cumulatively they could die from blood loss but not the wound itself. Whereas I like to look at crits as actually successful blows, like ramming your spear into an opponents ribs or slicing their stomach open with a sweep of the sword. Doesn't always work, especially where enemies are concerned in standard rpgs where you can end up with bosses that can take 50 crits worth of damage and still keep fighting but in general it works for disseminating the math of rpgs into more lifelike concepts to me at least.

As for my own game, I don't really have crits in the traditional sense, there isn't really magic in my game so I've turned mp into a sort of focus mechanic that is your main defense from taking damage from attacks, where most attacks require the target to be at 0 focus before you can damage their actual hitpoints. There's more to the system than that, but for the sake of this discussion it's unnecessary so I'll leave it at that. Certain attacks (90% firearm attacks, consuming ammunition, a resource so precious in the game world that a clip of bullets will normally cost the player more than purchasing the gun to shoot them out of would cost) can ignore the target's focus completely, which would be the closest equivalent the game has to crits as these attacks will generally put the target (enemy or ally) towards the brink of death if it doesn't kill them outright assuming it connects and said target doesn't have armor, with higher calibers being capable of putting even fully armored targets down in a couple of well-placed shots. So my way of handling them is fairly similar to yours OP, rather than relying on chance for critical hits they are a high cost skill that requires forethought on the players part (due to a formation system that not only lets you move your guys horizontally but also vertically on a battle map that's also littered in objects like trees, boulders and ruined buildings that can be used as cover making risking your resources for that easy kill even more of a gamble) in order to set them up to hit correctly but are guaranteed to proc assuming that the attack connects.

 

[MMMm]

I like the mechanic of a character who focuses on critical hits as exposing an enemy's weak spot and striking for massive damage. In that context, it would be like striking holes in armor or having knowledge of anatomy to make instant kills/excellent hits possible.

 

[TheoAllen]

I like the mechanic of a character who focuses on critical hits as exposing an enemy's weak spot and striking for massive damage. In that context, it would be like striking holes in armor or having knowledge of anatomy to make instant kills/excellent hits possible.

This reminds me of my idea to make a 'headshot' skill does more damage with enemies which has head. Because you can't headshot a slime

 

[Wavelength]

From a framing point of view, I tend to think of Critical Hits as hits on the most weak or vulnerable spots of a battler's body - a headshot or blow to a vital organ in a human, a hit to the inside rather than the shell of a turtle, shattering core circuitry of a machine, etc. Now, it's rather grisly to think about severing body parts of people and animals, so I prefer to use the more playful catch-all term of Critical Hits ("you scored a crit!") rather than anything more specific that could conjure up images of gore.

As far as the role of Crits in my game design, beyond additional damage, in one of my previous games scoring Crits filled up the gauge that would unlock a Limit Break/Over Limit kind of mode for characters, and I felt that worked fairly well, but in my current game I use Crits as a finer way to implement powerful secondary effects of skills that I don't want to inflict every time the skill is used. Instead of using the traditional "this skill has a 20% chance to Burn the enemy", a skill will "Burn the enemy if it Crits". Since there is a stat that directly influences the chance of Critting or being Crit, the player can build their characters to try to achieve these bonus Crit Effects more often, or build in favor of other stats instead if they don't want to rely on uncertain effects. There are also ways to guarantee a Crit, such as preparation skills and infrequent intra-battle microgames.

I don't bother to spell out the connection to the player of why a spell would Burn an enemy only if it hit that enemy in a vulnerable spot, because I feel it's a detail that's better ignored than handwaved. But if a story really wanted to show its work, something like Naruto's explanation of Chakra and Chakra Points seems like a really apropos inspiration for Critical Hits. The idea was that the body works by circulating chakra (focused energy) to a few hundred chakra nodes ("points") around the body. If a chakra node is severed, either by deep injury or by blasting it with external chakra (something many ninja can produce), certain functions of the body will be hampered or shut down. A standard blow could be seen as "regular damage", whereas hitting a chakra point could be seen as a "critical hit".

If you're using a battle system that isn't strictly turn-based, there are even more opportunities to make Crits something more than a random percentage chance. A true ATB could award Critical Hits for hitting an enemy that was about to hit you, for example, and an ABS could award Crits for attacking enemies from the back or for literally hitting visible weak points.

 

[trouble time]

For me, I used to consider hitpoints to be a bit like how in dragon ball z they can take damage until their ki runs out, but nowadays since I got into table top I think of them as a characters ability to mitigate an actual blow. A hit point lost is a blow blocked or dodged, it represents the energy used to do that, but a critical hit is when you actually get a clean hit.

I also like the idea of "on-crit" effects for abilites, especially if there's a way to increase or control critical hit chance. If there isn't a way to control the crit I'd prefer the effects be smaller "it's nice to have" or "this is a minor setback but I can deal with it." rather than game changers.

 

[SweetMeltyLove]

In my current game, which doesn't take itself too seriously, I break the fourth wall and say that crits are moments where you can bend the game's rules in your favor. It also brings in unpredictable effects with some skills

My initial inspiration for this was tabletop RPGs GMs. A GM could create a scenario like "roll for luck and maybe that goblin's spear will break in half when he attacks you". I feel like in computer RPGs that kind of unexpected behavior is gone in favor of tightly calculated damage numbers.

 

[Tai_MT]

If your game has critical strikes, what does it mean to you when either a player or enemy critically strikes? Was it the display of excellent combat skill that landed a precise blow? Was it a powerful swing that was able to hit really hard? Was it a "lucky" shot?

It's a strategy. An option in combat. I leave most standard critical hits at something like 5% (whatever the default of the system is) in order to accentuate the ways a player has of jacking that number up significantly. I have weapons that start with an extra 20% Critical Hit Rate. I have skills that increase an individuals' Critical Rate by 25, 50, 75, or even 100%. I have full party skills that increase it by 10, 20, 30, and 40%. I let them be a part of combat in which characters do exactly what the name implies: They hit an area that causes Critical Damage to an enemy. A vital organ. An artery. Something that handles fine motor skills. While I can't translate these effects well to an RPG Maker engine, like I would in D&D, I simply increase the rate. They are "aimed hits". They are precision strikes. Assassins trained in the art of killing will hit these areas easily and frequently. That's how I use Critical Strikes.

Do you give your players a way to avoid getting hit by a large critical strike from an enemy?

Yes, I do. There are certain armors that do this job. Even a few skills that do it. Some of my enemies will jack up their Critical Hit rates in combat and it would be a shame to not let the player protect themselves from these at all. I even have "Accessories" and "Relics" that can protect from Critical Hits. Though, the "Relics" come at a cost to something else for the highest protection bonuses.

Why do you have them in your game? Do you want to just make the player feel good when he gets lucky and lands one? Do you want to punish a player who got lazy about healing up and thought he could withstand an extra hit? Do they add anything meaningful to your combat system?

Why not have them? RPG Maker generally has a lot of wiggle room for interesting things to do in combat. The more options I have, the more I like to play around with them. The more I love to just include them. Why does everything have to strictly "Hit Hard"? Why is all combat DPS? I find that boring. I include options to improve your own chances of landing Critical Hits and to protect against enemies landing Critical Hits because they make combat feel less stagnant. Especially when I don't use traditional stats for dealing damage. Sure, you can equip the +102 Defense item, but it does little good when an enemy skill uses your Luck stat of 26 as your defense. That disparity between their attack power and whatever you're using for defense can be even more deadly if a foe can land a Critical Hit on you. Likewise, maybe you're using a weapon that doesn't add much in the way of Attack Power, but it adds a significant boost to your Agility stat that puts some of your skills over-the-top. Maybe, you can stack a Critical Hit skill on top of that damage your skills can do.

I use it because it's something else a player needs to watch out for. It's to minimize min/maxing. Or, in some cases, it helps aid in min/maxing and specializing a character or a player's play style.

I tend to not include critical strikes in my games - at least, not the way they're traditionally done. I usually have skills that automatically critically strike, either at the expensive of resources (mp/tp), based on a conditional (agility differential), or both. But, in the vast majority of rpg maker games I play, people use the traditional mechanics (+10% critical strike weapon) - and I'm curious what the design justification is.

The design justification for most anything in an RPG combat system is likely going to disappoint you... as it does me. And that justification is usually either, "I thought it might be cool" or "It's in there because I couldn't think of anything else to do". Namely, most people don't really plan out a combat system in RPGs. You'll find that's common across AAA games, Indie Games, and even down to our very own RPG Maker games. Most people don't think about it. The furthest they ever get is asking how you balance a combat system. Actually, you might find that's common for most aspects of any RPG. "It's in there because I think it's cool" or "I couldn't think of anything to do". Not a lot of people think, "Why is this in my game? What am I doing with it? What is its purpose? What am I hoping to accomplish by putting this into my game?". AAA developers are especially guilty of this.

To be fair, there are people who think about what their combat system will look like and why. But, the vast majority? Yeah... They don't think about it until they're already 30%+ done designing it.

My personal justification for anything in my game is that it adds something to the experience. Or, it changes how a player acts/reacts. I want X Effect, so I do Y Thing. I have a design philosophy of "What can the players do?". I then base all combat around everything the players can do. The more a player can do to "break the game" or "break combat", the more fun I get to have in turning those rules on their heads with weapons, armors, enemies, and enemy skills. So, the reason I have Critical Hits play a role in combat is two-fold. 1. Gives players more options in combat. 2. Gives me, as a dev, more options for messing with my players and trying to find ways to defeat them.

 

[mauvebutterfly]

In most games I see crits as a way the developer introduced more variability into the combat system. This can have the effect of making the player feel good when they get a critical hit, or forcing the player to pay attention in a fight they were otherwise winning, since an enemy critical could suddenly swing things in the favour of the enemy.

Honestly though, I'm not a huge fan of crits in games, since it mostly seems to just add RNG to combat in a way that either doesn't matter or can cause you to lose to RNG. Fight was too easy? Enemy got a crit but it doesn't really matter. Fight was too hard? Even getting a few crits won't be enough to win the battle. Fight had a good level of difficulty? Hopefully the RNG won't get you killed when there was nothing you could do about it.

Incidentally, all of the above also applies to miss chance.

Since I mostly do puzzle games, I tend not to use crit chance (or miss chance, or even variability) in my combat systems. When doing more of an RPG than a puzzle game I will have variability, but will think long and hard about crit and miss chance before using them.

One game that I thought did crits really well was Tales of Maj'Eyal. Here crits represented mastery, and there were lots of ways to affect your critical outcomes.
-dexterity reduced the damage you took from crits
-cunning increased your chance to crit
-items and skills could modify crit chance and crit evasion
-items and skills could modify the potency of crits up or down (150% damage by default)

My last character in ToME had a passive ability that did a bunch of extra damage every time I crit with a spell, and part of the build involved finding enough gear so that my crit chance got up to 100%.

 

[kirbwarrior]

In my current game, which doesn't take itself too seriously, I break the fourth wall and say that crits are moments where you can bend the game's rules in your favor.

I was working on a game (I believe in VX ace) where "criticals" were your ability to literally warp reality. All sorts of extra effects came from crits, from added states to gaining an extra turn. Only certain characters (the party and about ten bosses) had this ability because they actually had "Reality Control" as an ability (Control replaced Magic Attack).

I've played a specific roleplaying system quite a bit (GURPS) and crits in that were one of two things;
1) In combat, crits were expertly done attacks. In whatever way it worked out, the enemy doesn't get a chance to defend. There is a chance your attack does something extra (like 15% chance of extra damage, but there's a table of effects).
2) In general, crits signify you being on top of your game. You remembered every lyric while singing. You remembered that this lock can be jimmied with a specific angle, saving you 60% time.

Criticals mean that you, in that moment, did your skill masterfully. I enjoy it in games when I can max (or close to) crit with enough work. It really makes the character feels like an expert more than anything.

I will treat criticals in my games by giving the players a little passively (3-8%) and let them see what they can do to mess with it more. I also let anything crit; It feels amazing when your heal accidentally maxes you HP. As for enemies, I'll give them either 0 or some extreme amount (25, 50, 100) and absolutely let the player know. It lets them do cool things like "Guarding negates crits! I'll guard his attacks!" or "My amulet lets me ignore crits! I'll just take 1/3 damage from this boss!". I'd use smaller numbers if my game showed everything, like most TRPGs do.

 

[Frozen_Phoenix]

I like your approach better: If a certain condition is met, the attack critically strikes. It's better than just a dice roll for extra damage. Also, when doing the dice roll approach, I think it's better to stay away from very low success rate tied with very high extra damage, say a 5% crit chance to deal 5x damage, it would be pretty stupid because of the impact of randomness in the outcome of a battle (you could end it in 5 hits, or 1 hit if you get the crit).

 

[Titanhex]

It's a luck system. Plain and simple.

In board games, luck is used to eliminate high skill/knowledge curves and create a more even playing field.

A critical strike is just a means to overcome a difficult situation by pure luck.

It's an alternative solution.
A way to turn a bad situation around.
Or just a way to see big numbers on the screen.

There are many intelligent and creative ways to change the traditional critical strike system you mentioned into something more skill based or something more intuitive, but you lose the random element that might allow a less skilled/knowledgeable player to overcome a situation and move on.

 

[gstv87]

I have a set of damage types, debuffs and weapon classes.
weapons and damage types are related.
if you manage debuffs correctly, you lower the enemy's resistance to your weapon, bam, critical strike.

 

[Failivrin]

To me it can represent either a skillful strike to a vital area, or a blow so devastating it would break bones even through armor. I've been toying with ways to make Crit chance depend on either the characters ATK or AGI accordingly.

Two games that exploit crits well:

Pokemon series-Critical hits ignore buffs to opponent's defense. Variety of moderate-strength attacks have high crit chance; items and abilities can increase the chance further.

Jean D'Arc-Crit chance acts as flanking bonus. Surrounding an enemy and launching a succession of quick attacks massively increases crit chance.

 

[kirbwarrior]

I think it also largely has to do with how crits are mechanically done. There is a huge difference between "Final Damage x 3" and "Attack x 2", two of the most common crits I see.

 

[Lord Vectra]

I use criticals for some of my skills and then I have ways one can buff their CRI (and same with some enemies). For examples...

Clean Cut: If critical, the victim will die in one turn. If fail, "instinct" is inflicted on user. (instinct allows you to do two actions next turn only)

Soul Scrapper: Absorb HP equal to damage. If this attack lands a critical, inflict "instinct" on user.

The enemy who uses Soul Scrapper has Undead calling.
Undead Calling: Recovers the MP and buffs the CRI and ATK of all allies by 20%.

The one temporary ally (and on enemy boss) with clean cut has Juggernaut's Force.
Juggernaut Force:
Raise CRI rate (30%) and DEF (20%) for 3 turns.
Although Clean Cut has a limited use of 2 per battle (and a 7-turn cooldown).

So I use critical a little bit more than it just being there. I'm a personal that loves skill and ailment designing, so I see criticals as a new way to design skills and give the player more interesting effects. The above I show only inflicts Instinct but that won't be all of the "critical-type" skills.

 

[M.I.A.]

To me, a critical hit is indicative of an attack that hit critically.

More or less.. hero swings a sword: hit
Hero swings a sword: hit
Hero swings a sword: CRITICAL HIT!!

I always interpret that as the Hero hit an enemy weak spot (Eyes on a Gazer.. Horn on a Unicorn), or just landed a really strong hit.

Magic can Crit too. Why not? In the heat of battle, a mage who casts Fireball often is used to doing medium fire damage.. but once in a while, the mage gets angry an casts a stronger Fireball.

One thing I've been trying to figure out how to/if I could implement is a Critical Miss mechanic, where when you attack and miss, there is a chance you miss critically and the enemy has an opportunity to do greater damage. Arcanum did something similar to this.

Also in City of Heroes, the Controller archetype (Mez class) had a chance to land a Critical mez. Say a typical Hold skill had a mag (magnitude) of 3 to Hold an enemy.. once in a while.. you could Crit a Mez and the Hold would then have a Mag 6 and Hold an enemy longer, etc.

-MIA

 

[freakytapir]

The things I think of criticals are best not repeated in polite company. They change a finely tuned encounter into a ****show, and make game balance a real pain in the ***.
Boss supposed to nearly kill the players, whoops, critical, there they go, dead.

Now for players , they are fine, but the *3 multiplyer is just too much. A solid 40-80 % more damage (influenced by target and attacker luck) is what they get.

That said, the hit rate is 100% and basic evasion is 0%. The game is already random enough without those things.

 

[alberthk]

it's a battle gacha, and a free gacha is always good.