The numbers game

After recently doing some investigation to find the critical strike chance formula, I soon realised that the same formula was used for a number of stats:

Chance to Crit = Critical Rating / ( Critical Rating + ( Character Level * 50 ) )

Damage Reduction = Armour Rating / ( Armour Rating + ( Character Level * 50 ) )

Chance to Evade = Evasion Rating / ( Evasion Rating + ( Character Level * 50 ) )
For this one, Character level * 50 is used for the character sheet display, but in actual combat, the attacker's accuracy is used instead.

Chance to hit uses Character Level * 5 instead of * 50
Chance to Hit = Accuracy Rating / ( Accuracy Rating + ( Character Level * 5 ) )
Similarly as for the evasion formula, Character level * 5 is used for the character sheet display, but in actual combat, the defender's evasion is used.


A while ago I suggested adding armour penetration to the game, in response to some of the discontent about the evasion mechanic. It would mean that damage on monsters could be lower, without making the game easier, but reducing one-shot deaths for evasion users.

So, I was surprised to see that armour penetration is already in the game! It's just not listed anywhere, and is always equal to Level * 50 (or is it?).

What's more, there is another hidden stat in the game: Critical Strike Defense. It too is equal to Level * 50 (or is it? lol).


tpapp had this to say about armour penetration:

"

tpapp157 wrote:

I like this concept in theory but I don't think it's quite where it needs to be yet.

The first issue I see with the introduction of AP is you've created a duality between two of the attributes and it creates a nice tradeoff but it leaves out the third attribute. Ideally, all three attributes should have similar mechanics that trade off with each other.

Well, there you have it, a third trade-off mechanic, in the form of Crit rating vs. Crit defense. It's already in the game!


So, why not make use of these numbers? Critical defense would be a much more meaningful stat to go for than some of the current passives like burn and freeze avoidance, while having the same effect. I feel like there is a lot of potential depth here that is not being utilised, and that would go a long way towards addressing certain balance issues.

While you're on that topic, I never did the math:

If someone has X% chance to crit (or hit, or whatever), and they then level up but fight the same level (1 level lower than before now) monsters, will their overall crit (or hit, or whatever) rate be lower than before, higher than before, or the same?

This is a really lazy question, because it wouldn't be hard for me to figure out, but I presume you may already know this.

Also in this equations, I notice you didn't include the entirety of it, where it compares with the monster level to see if it should be higher or lower chance to crit/hit.

"

Xapti wrote:

If someone has X% chance to crit (or hit, or whatever), and they then level up but fight the same level (1 level lower than before now) monsters, will their overall crit (or hit, or whatever) rate be lower than before, higher than before, or the same?

Can't actually say this for certain, but I imagine Defender Level * 50 is used, or each monster has it's own crit defense rating.
It just appears to be character level * 50 in the character sheet, because it's showing your average chance to crit against monsters of your level.
So, it would always be higher. (again, this is just an educated guess/inference)

"

Xapti wrote:

Also in this equations, I notice you didn't include the entirety of it, where it compares with the monster level to see if it should be higher or lower chance to crit/hit.

Well, that's whole other topic really. And it's impossible to know which things it is applied to - all those formulas are based off what the character sheet tells us.

Thinking about this a little further - there is a certain amount of symmetry in the current setup, but there is something missing. Each attribute has a defense mechanism and an appropriate counter:

STR: Armour vs Armour Penetration
DEX: Evasion vs Accuracy
INT: Crit vs Crit Defense


But there is something DEX lacks. STR and INT both have a way of increasing HP, avoiding stun, and increasing life flask efficiency:

STR: +life. both increases HP and increases stun resistance. Damage reduction further increases stun resistance (vs physical at least), and increases life flask efficiency.

INT: Energy shield. Increases HP and grants stun immunity. Increases flask efficiency indirectly because it recharges by itself.

DEX: Nothing! Except a few awkwardly placed % avoid stun passives. You might count run speed as reducing stun and increasing flask efficiency (by allowing you to take less hits). But sooner or later you will get hit.


So DEX needs some way of reliably increasing HP, reducing stun, and increasing flask efficiency to complete the symmetry.
Any one got any ideas?