The itemization presented here has been posted at the old forums in the past, but without the min/max game, which I decided to code recently.
You can play the game from here:
http://rankings.byethost33.com/game.php
Or you can load it (copy the source to an .html file) yourself:
https://pastebin.com/gvfuvhUD
The goal of the browser game is to show the strength behind the philosophy of the itemization:
- Newcomers friendly
- Easy to read and understand
- Simple Math
- Power creep resistant
- Complex min/maxing
- Tactical game
The min/max browser game could be adapted to any existing or theoretical aRPG itemization.
You can play the min/max game without reading any of the stuff below (yes, the itemization is that friendly) or you can carefully make yourself familiar with the concepts on paper first.
Character Attributes:
Damage - the hardness of one’s hits
vs.
Toughness - the damage resistance one has
Accuracy - the ability to execute precise hits on a target
vs.
Defence - the ability to protect from hits
Attack speed - how fast one attempts to hit a target
Movement speed - how fast one is going
Status Effects and their Resistances:
Burn - lowers Damage
vs
Fire resistance
Poison - lowers Toughness
vs
Acid resistance
Blind - lowers Accuracy
vs
Light resistance
Shock - lowers Defence
vs
Electric resistance
Freeze - lowers Attack speed
vs
Cold resistance
Immobilize - lowers Movement speed
vs
Trap resistance
Item Slots:
Boots, Pants, Belt, Chest armor, Helm, Gloves, Shoulders, Bracers, Amulet, Ring, Weapon, Weapon/Offhand
Item Types:
Standard (blue color) - rolls with 1 to 6 common properties
Rare (yellow color) - rolls with 1 main and 1 to 4 common properties
Legendary (red color) - rolls with 1 special, 1 main and 2 common properties
Properties Types:
Common - contains buffs to attributes, status effects and/or resistances ranks versus a monster family
Main - defines one attribute or resistance rank (for all monster families)
Special - changes a gameplay/skill mechanic
Monster Families and Maps:
Every creature one could encounter in the world belongs to a monster family - for example skeleton, abomination, harpy, etc… There are 20 monster families total. Each of these has its default stat ranks (aka strengths and weaknesses), which are influenced by other families in the map, map modifiers and difficulty.
Each map always consists of 3 different monster families serving for total of 1140 different maps (or combinations of families). All monsters in each map have the same ranks.
Ranks:
The strength of each of the character attributes, status effects and resistances is defined by the respective rank. A newly created character in the game starts with rank 0 on all stats (Damage R0, Cold resistance R0, etc), which is the minimum rank in the game. There is no cap on any rank.
Equipping items may improve one’s ranks. For example, a standard item dropped by a monster in the very beginning of the game may roll with: “Damage R+1 vs Skeletons /common/”, while a rare item may roll with: “Damage R3 /main/, Acid resistance R+1 vs Hag /common/”. The standard item will change the damage rank of the hero from 0 to 1 versus skeletons when equipped, while the rare item will change the damage rank to 3 against all monster families and acid resistance to 1 only versus Hag. When a character has equipped more than one item with main property defining the same stat only the highest rank is taken into consideration.
Combat System:
The whole combat system is based on ranks - higher ranks mean one’s character (or enemy monster) will perform better in battle. This makes it extremely easy for the players who don’t handle Math good to enjoy the itemization - anyone can compare simple ranks and see what he needs to change/improve in order to perform better in battle.
Formulas:
Movement speed Rank R = 5 + (R / 5) km/h
Attack speed Rank R = 0.75 + (0.05 * R) hits per second
Accuracy Rank R vs Defence Rank R’ = 75 + R - R’ percent chance to hit [Minimum value is 0; Maximum value is 100]
Damage Rank R vs Toughness Rank R’ = (2 * R’) - R hits needed for a kill [Minimum value is 1]
Status effect Rank R vs Resistance Rank R’ = R - (2 * R’) rank reduction [Minimum value is 0; Maximum value is 100% of rank]
Examples:
Player’s Movement speed R5 means the player moves with 6 km/h or 1.7 meters per second or our in-game distance equivalent to 1.7 meters per second.
Player’s Attack speed R10 means the player can execute 1.25 hits per second.
Player’s Accuracy R7 vs Monster’s Defence R4 means the player will successfully hit the monster 78% of the time.
Player’s Damage R5 vs Monster’s Toughness R5 means the player will have to make 5 successful hits in order to kill the monster.
Player’s Poison R11 vs Monster’s Acid resistance R4 means the monster toughness rank will be reduced by 3 (when successfully hit by the player) for the whole duration of the battle.
Important Notes:
-
Player and Monster could be switched/replaced with one another in the above examples. Nothing changes. The combat system is the same for PvE and PvP.
-
Such combat system is power creep resistant since allowing items to roll with stupidly high ranks will create extremely long battles and while this could be fun with certain boss encounters for example, in the general aRPG case it is a bad practice.
-
The only way in the game to take life/health is through a successful hit. Status effects influence the character stats, but do NOT take life by themselves. Any creature/machine in the game capable of doing damage will have its Damage Rank declared, so the players will know exactly how much health they will lose on a potential hit.
-
Status effects are applied/calculated on each successful hit and last for the whole duration of the battle (if not declared otherwise by a special item property).
-
Each player skill (be it in the offensive, defensive, movement or minions category) has its own modifiers to the stat ranks - for example fast attacking offensive skills may buff the player’s attack speed rank and lower his damage rank.
Items Examples:
Gloves /rare/
Accuracy R5 /main/
Damage R+3 vs Troll /common/
Fire resistance R+2 vs Goblin /common/
Fingers of Khar’Adul /legendary gloves/
Shock R30 while a mace is equipped and a wolf minion is near you /special/
Toughness R7 /main/
Immobilize R+8 vs Satyr /common/
Shock R+6 vs Dryad /common/
Boots /standard/
Defence R+7 vs Abomination /common/
Attack speed R+5 vs Giant /common/
Movement speed R+9 vs Harpy /common/
Freeze R+8 vs Giant /common/
Cold resistance R+6 vs Dragon /common/
Fire resistance R+5 vs Harpy /common/
Ishnu’s Heritage /legendary hammer/
Ground Slam (barbarian skill) third wave inflicts Freeze R35 /special/
Fire resistance R7 /main/
Light resistance R+10 vs Efreet /common/
Trap resistance R+10 vs Revenant /common/
Eyes of the Blind /legendary amulet/
Ray of Frost (wizard skill) applies Blind R40 on hit as long as your Electric resistance is R0 /special/
Movement speed R7 /main/
Damage R+9 vs Werewolf /common/
Poison R+8 vs Werewolf /common/
The Curse of Kings /legendary bracers/
The duration of your defensive skills (skill category) is doubled as long as your Acid and Fire resistances are R0 /special/
Attack speed R7 /main/
Burn R+10 vs Orc /common/
Freeze R+10 vs Gorgon /common/
Skill Example:
Poison cloud
requires a wand
An acid cloud is formed in radius X around the hero for duration Y.
Rank modifiers (applied when the skill is used):
Poison R*15 (buffs the Poison rank with 15%)
Damage R*-50 (reduces the Damage rank with 50%)
Attack speed R*-15
If the player enjoys the poison cloud skill he can stack legendary items granting bonuses to its X radius, Y duration and/or its 3 rank modifiers. Or spice it a bit by making it a burning cloud or a freezing one, or whatever our item design team has in mind for a special legendary property.
Conclusion:
The itemization presented here tries to move away from Math as much as possible, while leaving enough freedom for the players to min/max in a very newcomer friendly way (even if you read the above examples without the stuff before that, you will get a general idea about what each item influences).
Such itemization focuses not only on the skills themselves, but also on the monster families and the maps occupied by these. This serves for a more tactical approach as the player will have to prepare the right items for each map. Of course item drop filters and armory will be there to make such gameplay fun.
Infinity multipliers are not good in such system thus ones such itemization is in place we would expect to see as little as possible power creep.