what makes a skill OP

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

this is something i have been wondering about for a while now...... lately i have started making skills that my friends call RP due to when they become avalible and not their effect

as an exsample

my spell grand healing is avalible at the very beginning of the game, costs 90 AP and its formula is as follows
(200 + ((a.mat * 4 ) + ( a.mdf * 5)) * (1 + (lvl/100)

its avalible at the start but its balanced out by its high AP cost so i dont see the OP label

wo i was thinking what actually makes a skill OP? what are your thoughts?

 

[lolshtar]

Obviously it's a skill that is better than other skills with the same restriction as those other skills...

It can be anything really and to avoid those you just need to playtest balance as much as possible.

An example is the shotgun in Project W.I.P.E.D would be considered OP because of it's ability to knockback/pull enemies without losing damage at all when it was supposed to be a close range weapon.

 

[Fernyfer775]

Even the most "OP" abilities can be countered somehow depending on how you wish to go about it. Whether it having a really high cost, a long cooldown, limited uses, or whatever. One thing I always think to myself when creating skills is: "Is this ability too OP?" If I do, then it probably is, and find a way to make it not OP, or just scrap it all together to avoid balancing issues.

For example, a character in my current game had a multitude of self-buffs, when used separately, weren't OP at all, but when you took into account the other buffs she got and her skills, I realized she was essentially immortal and I had to tone her down big time. In essence, you need to take into account EVERYTHING else in your game that could make a non-OP skill into one that is completely broken.

PS - And I agree with what lolshtar said. Test-play, test-play, test-play!

 

[bgillisp]

I would say a skill is OP if it is so powerful that either occur:

1: It can instant kill the final boss in one move (*cough* Knights of the Round *cough*)

2: It is so powerful that the player has no reason to use any other skills.

So maybe you need to look at why the players are focusing on that skill so much. Is 90 AP really that high a cost? If you only have 100 AP and it doesn't regenerate easily, then 90 AP is a lot. But if you have say 9000 AP, the 90 AP is nothing. So the cost in proportion to how much AP they have (and how easily they get it) could be the issue.

 

[Crimson Dragon Inc.]

well ap regan is based on the character most characters have to rest to recover ap or use ap items like soda or pure water which are absorbantly expensive and rare to get from chests.......

and most characters dont reach 90 ap til about level 22-25 of the first teir........ and even then only the most powerful mages/healers have the AP to make the spell a viable healing strategy til the half way point

 

[Rayhaku808]

When one skill becomes the answer to most problems that other skills are supposed to solve, then I consider it OP. Even if it doesn't do damage.

 

[Fluffybat]

Eh, you can't call things OP just by looking at the paper.
You gonna have to see how it interacts with other stuff in game.
In fact, what may sounds Overpowered on paper might actually be useless when put to use.
Awesome but Impractical at its best.

And let's talk about Grand Healing: Would putting such awesome spell at the start of the game, where half of the cast can't use it and those who could are better off using weaker but cost effective spells, is really a good idea? I don't think so. It will simply fill a slot where another, more usable spell could be. If it's not effective until half-way through the game, then don't put it at the start of the game.