A few RL dev questions

[Shaggy]

[Using VB.Net 2008 Express Edition]

So Im working on programming my first ever RL. I have the basic things done - map reading, display, character movement, FOV, basic inventory display - but I have a few questions.

First off, how do you come up with your equations for different actions? For instance I have a statistic for Luck, and I want it to effect basically everything outside of just movement, but dont know how to implement it. Or having character attack be determined by a weapons attack value and quality along with the characters strength and dexterity. So how would one go about creating the algorithms or equations for these values?

Also, is anyone else using VB.net 2008 to program a RL, or know someone who is? Im having a few programming issues, but dont want to waste the time of explaining them if nobody else is using VB.net xD

[corremn]

Equations are the first part of a balance game. There are about 1million possibilities to this question.

I have used the d20 system, the fighting fantasy system, star craft system, Living rule-book 5 system (blood bowl), and currently am using my own custom d100 system.

Luck will be easy, first decide what your min and max values are, choose a random variable between that and if it is less than the players luck, then he is lucky.  Or you can use a dice system, i.e luck is between 2 and 12.  Roll 2d6, etc.

As for adding strength to attack rolls you have to decide if you want to add the entire strength score or part of it. I.e  attack strength = Weapon att + strength, or more d20 like,  attack strength = Weapon att + (strength-10)/2 I.e add a bonus toHit point for each 2 points over ten.  It is just a balance game.  Maybe look a few of the more common rule sets up.

I recommend having a very simple system first.  Only have at max two things contributing to a given value. I.e attack strengh is made up of the weapon toHit and a player strength bonus.  Size bonus, speed bonus, spell/effect bonus, weapon skill bonus etc can all come later.

[Fenrir]

This is something I'd been meaning to bring up, but I felt like I'd been leaning on the community too much.

Luck will be easy...

Really? If you permit the player to choose stats at any point in the game, luck will need to be as valuable as strength or agility or sanity or whatever, or at least you need to know how much more or less valuable it is to adjust the cost accordingly. Is the balancing of stats mostly trial and error?

[Shaggy]

I was thinking something like this maybe
Damage=Weapon.Damage*(Character.WeaponProficiency /100))*Character.Strength

so the only way a character can hit with a weapons full potential is if their weapon proficiency for that type of weapon is maxed out, maybe through dexterity in there somewhere

But yeah, I also agree with what you said, mostly just trying things out.

As far as luck, I'd have to agree with Fenrir. I have luck as one of my characters seven base stats, and plan to make luck pretty important to the game.

Then again, my RL [or at least my ideas for it ATM] are a bit more complicated than some I've seen. I have 30+ different skills that effect everything from conversations with NPCS to not burning your food, to specialized divination skills.
Although I cant say much because I could very easily become overwhelmed by this in the [near?] future. haha, we'll just have to see.

[Ex]

I use:
NeededToHit = 15.0 * ( 1.0 - (AttackPercent - DefensePercent) )
Which is a weird d20ish variation. >15 to hit, range is 0-30. As the enemy's defense approaches 1.0, needed to hit approaches 30, which is the maximum one can roll.

[Vanguard]

Personally, I'm a fan of simple, easy-to-understand formulas.

For instance, every weapon has a minimum and maximum damage value.  Say a longsword does 15-25 damage - what it does with that is multiply a number randomly chosen in that range by 1/10 of your strength, so with 20 strength you'd do 30 - 50 damage.

For hitting your target, you take your agility, and add it to your weapon's hit percent, and subtract your target's agility.  This will give you your percent chance to hit, so if you have 40 agility and a weapon with a hit rate of 80, and your target has an agility of 50, you have a 70% chance to hit.

Implementing luck would be easy enough in a system like this.  Just have the luck attribute improve the outcome of every action by some percentage based on your luck rating.  Let's say you have 100 luck, and you're making it so 1/5 of your luck stat is added to everything.  Then when you attack it adds 20% (100/5) to your damage, and if you cast poison it lasts 20% longer or does 20% more damage and so forth.  Balancing would probably, as mentioned before, involve a fair bit of guess, test, and revise work.

[Shaggy]

I like simple and easy-to-use formulas as well, but I also like trying to come up with some that are a little more complex and maybe realistic. But who knows, I may end up using simple ones.

[Etinarg]

I like simple and easy-to-use formulas as well, but I also like trying to come up with some that are a little more complex and maybe realistic.

Realistic doesn't necessarily result in interesting gameplay. A painter once said a good painting must be "better than reality". Now "better" leaves plenty of room for interpretation. It seems, exaggeration is one way, simplification or abstraction are other ways. Ivan is great in exaggerating combat, AD&D was good in abstraction (also most roguelikes do this).

Realistic combat isn't much fun in games usually.

[Shaggy]

But who knows, I may end up using simple ones.