Simon Gust
Member
Hello fellow game designers
I have been thinking about how I could implement my Damage and Defense mechanic in one of my games.
That game being a Terraria clone, you might've seen of it:
basically a 2D random generated world with a lot of weapons, armor and different enemies.
In Terraria it's very simple, the player has 100 hp, he does about 12 damage,
has 6 defense (3 damage reduction) and enemies also do about 14 damage to the player in the early game.
The progression is very well thought out and balanced.
old mechanics:
I have been thinking about how I could implement my Damage and Defense mechanic in one of my games.
That game being a Terraria clone, you might've seen of it:
basically a 2D random generated world with a lot of weapons, armor and different enemies.
In Terraria it's very simple, the player has 100 hp, he does about 12 damage,
has 6 defense (3 damage reduction) and enemies also do about 14 damage to the player in the early game.
The progression is very well thought out and balanced.
old mechanics:
I kinda want to try something new:
I want to make the player only have 10 hp at the start, 1 attack power and 0 defense.
While enemies also only have like 5 hp, 1 damage and no defense.
The numbers are more like a paper mario style game.
The problem arises when you look at the variety of gear in Terraria.
There are like 8 main armor sets in pre-hardmode.
When you look at their stats you can see and feel the progression (before 1.2 at least) in them.
What I want to do is making use of smaller numbers like said before.
Now, if I have ~4 to 5 armor sets that all give 1 defense, it's pretty much pointless.
Why would you ever make one armor over the other?
A solution would be to give different bonuses for armor,
but even then it may be very obnoxious for the player.
The solution I wanted to try is "decimal defense is chance".
Armor now gives a decimal amount of defense:
Helmet: 0.10
Chest: 0.25
Extremes: 0.15
Total: 0.50
And instead of reducing damage by 0.5 (which doesn't make sense),
I make the fraction of the total defense the chance to increase damage reduced by 1.
Copper armor would have no defense but a 60% chance to have 1 defense.
While better armor may have a guarantee to reduce damage by 1.
And if I still get into a "armor with similar defense" I can apply the set bonus.
Whether this will work out I don't know.
Until then, I want you to judge the system, call out flaws and logic errors,
so I can make it better.
Here's my current armor table
EDIT: decimal armor is no longer a chance to increase defense by one but instead a build-up.
Example:
With 50%, every second hit would grant additional defense against it.
With 33%, every third hit and so on.
EDIT: The armor build-up mechanic is now semi-random.
There is always the base chance to increase defense by one but if you miss that chance it adds to it the next time. It resets if you do get the defense proc though.
I want to make the player only have 10 hp at the start, 1 attack power and 0 defense.
While enemies also only have like 5 hp, 1 damage and no defense.
The numbers are more like a paper mario style game.
The problem arises when you look at the variety of gear in Terraria.
There are like 8 main armor sets in pre-hardmode.
When you look at their stats you can see and feel the progression (before 1.2 at least) in them.
copper armor: 6 defense
iron armor: 9 defense
silver armor: 13 defense
gold armor 16 defense
shadow armor: 19 defense
jungle / meteor / necro armor: 16-17 defense
molten armor: 25 defense
iron armor: 9 defense
silver armor: 13 defense
gold armor 16 defense
shadow armor: 19 defense
jungle / meteor / necro armor: 16-17 defense
molten armor: 25 defense
Now, if I have ~4 to 5 armor sets that all give 1 defense, it's pretty much pointless.
Why would you ever make one armor over the other?
A solution would be to give different bonuses for armor,
but even then it may be very obnoxious for the player.
The solution I wanted to try is "decimal defense is chance".
Armor now gives a decimal amount of defense:
Helmet: 0.10
Chest: 0.25
Extremes: 0.15
Total: 0.50
And instead of reducing damage by 0.5 (which doesn't make sense),
I make the fraction of the total defense the chance to increase damage reduced by 1.
Copper armor would have no defense but a 60% chance to have 1 defense.
While better armor may have a guarantee to reduce damage by 1.
And if I still get into a "armor with similar defense" I can apply the set bonus.
Whether this will work out I don't know.
Until then, I want you to judge the system, call out flaws and logic errors,
so I can make it better.
Here's my current armor table
EDIT: decimal armor is no longer a chance to increase defense by one but instead a build-up.
Example:
With 50%, every second hit would grant additional defense against it.
With 33%, every third hit and so on.
EDIT: The armor build-up mechanic is now semi-random.
There is always the base chance to increase defense by one but if you miss that chance it adds to it the next time. It resets if you do get the defense proc though.
Last edited: