What do you use Luck for?

[ArcaneEli]

I was starting up a new project and assigning everyones Ups and Downs stat wise and for Luck I always just used the stat to show how lucky the character is... No point whatsoever but still. I wanna hear what everyone else uses luck for!

 

[Warpmind]

Mainly, it affects states, and little else, I believe - but it can always be fun to make little things out of it, like the probability of finding a few extra coins in a treasure haul, actually winning a game of chance, that sort of thing...

 

[Vinedrius]

Few ideas are; state apply/evade rates, chance to win in gambling mini games, money and/or item drop rates, contents of on-map treasures. It can also be used for characters who relies on their luck with their fighting style. For example, in Final Fantasy XI, corsair job uses AoE buffs whose potency is determined by a random draw of number from 1 to 6. Let's say there is a luck stat in the game and it adds a chance of pushing the drawn number higher.

 

[Kes]

If I have understood correctly, the engine uses LUK as part of the calculation to determine whether states will be applied/evaded and the chances of getting a critical hit.  It is, therefore, imo an important if slightly obscure stat.

In addition to the sort of things that Vinedrius mentioned, I also use it as one of the factors in some damage formulas, so that the higher the luck, the more damage is inflicted.  Seems logical to me to use it in that way

 

[kerbonklin]

One MMO that I play uses the Luck stat to determine Money Gain from mobs, and as a Critical Rate + Critical Avoid mechanic. For every 15 luck more you have than an enemy, the enemy loses 1% Crit Rate against you (30% cap, minimum 5%) and once that minimum is reached it turns into +1% Crit Rate for you against that enemy. (30% cap)

So the Luck stat is used as both a defensive stat and an offensive stat, you would want enough Luck to hit the 30%+ Crit Rate boost on all enemies/bosses, which in return makes these enemies/bosses only have a 5% chance Crit Rate against you.

 

[Matseb2611]

I use it in some skill damage formulae as well. Another good use of Luk that I tried once is in the use of combat items, where Luk is included in a damage formula of that item when it's used on an enemy.

 

[Milennin]

I have an item type that has a chance to activate every time a character that has one equipped makes a move in combat. The higher the stat, the higher the chance of activation. The item can do something like grant the wielder 2 turns of HP Regen when it activates.

 

[captainproton]

Thanks to a couple of scripts, luck affects how likely my thief is to steal from enemies and how likely artifact weapons are to unleash their special attacks.

 

[amerk]

In combat, it can be used to determine hits vs. misses, critical attacks, escape, etc. But you can also have it used for things outside of combat: Such as a thief who picks locks, maybe the higher his or her luck, the better they can unlock a door or chest. Or in gambling, the better luck somebody has, the better chances of a favorable outcome.

 

[Harmill]

I completely ditched LCK and renamed it to SKL (Skill) instead. It works like the SPD stat in Suikoden III, where as it gets higher, your characters can attack more than once per Normal Attack.

 

[Beamlight]

For those who are interested, the equation used for the luck stat affecting states is as follows:

Chance (%) = 100 + (user's luck - target's luck) ÷ 10

As you can see, it's quite minuscule. If there is a small gap it's likely not going to affect the state at all:

100 + (10 - 12) / 10 = 100 + -.2 = 99.8% Chance

Even with large numbers its not too effective.

100 + (100 - 200) / 10 = 100 + -10 = 90%

However, seeing as how many of you in the topic have been using it in conjunction with scripts and the custom battle formula, its inclusion as a parameter is most likely there to perform as a "wild card" for designers to muck around with I think one of my favorite uses of a "luck" stat was in Fallout New Vegas, where in addition to generally affecting critical strikes, it would affect the RNG in the various casino games, i.e. Poker, Slots, Blackjack.

 

[Chaos Avian]

I renamed the LUK stat to DEX (Dexterity) determine critical hits, but more recently I use it to determine the damage for ranged weapons that aren't strength related such as crossbows and guns. DEX is supposed to represent the skill or aim of the user so it would make sense for guns for example since shooting a softer or more vital spot on the enemy would yield more damage. 

 

[ArcaneEli]

They way you guys use luck is pretty cool, the favorite I read so far was this one.

One MMO that I play uses the Luck stat to determine Money Gain from mobs, and as a Critical Rate + Critical Avoid mechanic. For every 15 luck more you have than an enemy, the enemy loses 1% Crit Rate against you (30% cap, minimum 5%) and once that minimum is reached it turns into +1% Crit Rate for you against that enemy. (30% cap)

So the Luck stat is used as both a defensive stat and an offensive stat, you would want enough Luck to hit the 30%+ Crit Rate boost on all enemies/bosses, which in return makes these enemies/bosses only have a 5% chance Crit Rate against you.

That MMO kinda scares me since you can lower enemies crit rate by 30%, making me believe they can crit you ALOT.

 

[Lowell]

I renamed the LUK stat to DEX (Dexterity) determine critical hits, but more recently I use it to determine the damage for ranged weapons that aren't strength related such as crossbows and guns. DEX is supposed to represent the skill or aim of the user so it would make sense for guns for example since shooting a softer or more vital spot on the enemy would yield more damage. 

This is what I did, and I also added a few more stats to my game.

 

[Petite Elite]

I rename LUK to VIT (Vitality) and it affects the potency of healing (i.e. I use LUK in the damage formula)

 

[Probotector 200X]

I love having another stat to work with. There are scripts that add more stats, but adding just one stat in effects so many things. The status menu, the equip menu, maybe even the shop menu...it's another little hassle that makes everything take longer.

If you don't want it to be Luck, just rename it. The default effect doesn't seem to do much anyway!

I tend to use Luck as something related to like, attractiveness. Or rather, cuteness, like the fairy and talking cat have higher Luck, because they are cuter. And Luck would effect "cute" attacks...or something.

 

[Another Ned]

I demoted luck to a variable I only need for events, instead of using it for anything combat-related.

As I realized that I didn't actually need luck (agi as well), I tried and removed them from being shown in different scenes as best as I could. For me, that's two stats less to balance.

 

[OM3GA-Z3RO]

After a few configuring, I have made LUK a way to fill but the bonus gauge in my teams game, the more LUK a character has the more that character can fill up the bonus faster, oh and I use LUK to determine the chance rate in applying/evading states and shortening the duration of the state if it has a X-X turn duration.

 

[Warpmind]

They way you guys use luck is pretty cool, the favorite I read so far was this one.

That MMO kinda scares me since you can lower enemies crit rate by 30%, making me believe they can crit you ALOT.

From the description, 30 percentile points, not 30% - going from, say, a 50% crit chance to a 20% crit chance, as opposed to from a 50% crit chance to a 35% crit chance (a reduction by 30% of the 50).

The distinction can be life or death. And yes, that 30% or 30 percentile points variance implies a fairly harsh crit rate for everyone involved.

 

[TheHonorableRyu]

For my project I rewrote how status effects work and made the LUK stat drastically factor in to how well status effects are inflicted and resisted.

 

Basically, each of the main status effects has 5 stages of severity: 0, 1, 2, 3, and MAX. (Stage 0 doesn't actually inflict any ailments associated with the status effect, but it's different than not having any stage of the status effect in that it makes it easier to at least inflict stage 1 of the status effect on the target during subsequent attempts.) Furthermore, every skill that inflicts a status effect has a "Potency" rating for that status effect, the higher the Potency the better it is at inflicting the status effect. A skill that is completely dedicated to inflicting Poison might have a Potency of 100, while a melee attack that inflicts Poison as a side-effect might have a Potency of 35. 

 

If the user uses a skill with Potency 100 on a target that has roughly the same LUK as the user, the skill will have a good chance of applying stage 1 of the status effect (before resistances are calculated), with a slight chance of inflicting stage 0 or stage 2. If the user subsequently uses the same skill on a target that has stage 1, the skill will have a good chance of advancing the target to stage 2 of the status effect, and a slight chance of advancing to stage 3 or reapplying stage 1.

 

However, if the user's LUK is double that of the target, the same skill will have a good chance of inflicting stage 2 right off the bat, with a slight chance of inflicting stage 3 or 1. On subsequent attempts on a target with stage 2, the skill will have a good chance of advancing the target to stage MAX or at least stage 3.

 

And if the user's LUK is half that of the target, the skill will either only apply stage 0, or not apply any stage at all, and after two attempts user would only be able to get the stage as high as stage 1.