Zephyrtaru
12-27-2011, 06:25 AM
TL;DR: Weapon skill modifiers and effects should grow exponentially. Details below.
This post is not about the new merit weapon skills, nor about any specific weapon skill's strength or weakness. This is about weapon skill system in general with regards to TP costs; which may have been brought up in the past, but I feel that this is something important that the Dev Team should keep in mind in either adjustment of any existing weapon skills or the development of future new ones. There are obviously other issues of weapon skills as well but that's for another discussion.
The whole system of weapon skill is based on the amount of TP accumulated over the course of battle. The way it is set up, players have two choices: 1) Use TP as soon as it reaches 100, the minimum requirement for using any weapon skill, or 2) Use TP after 100, to a maximum of 300, for an enhanced version.
As with all choices, in game or not, there are trade-offs; in order for both of the above option to have equal and valid uses, the trade-offs must be reasonable and transparent. Looking at option 1 vs 2 for players, then looking at the current modifiers - does that really make sense? Are the trade-offs equal? Let's break down what the trade-offs are for a player to select option 2 versus selecting option 1. (Assuming for calculations' sake, we use 300 TP vs 100 TP) Choosing option 2 will cause the player to give up:
-The chance to perform 2 more additional weapon skills and potentially more, as performing weapon skill would itself provide additional TP most of the time. This is a reduction of damage over all.
-The time extended to defeat a monster. In general, most weapon skills do more damage (or provides better utility) than regular melee attacks. Therefore by holding TP, the player would essentially be giving up the resource of time. This not only translates into reduction of damage over time, but also:
-The additional loss of HP (additional damage one wouldn't have taken had the monster died sooner),
-The additional need for MP (needed to cure aforementioned additional HP lost and other enfeebles/enhancements spells that need to be prolonged),
-The additional need of potentially other resources (consumables such as potions, ammo, ninja tools). And these are consumption by the whole party/alliance, not just the weapon skill user.
Therefore, in order for "use weapon skill at 100 TP" and "use weapon skill at 227 TP" to have valid reasons that directly impact game-play, the system of effect needs to be changed. I recommend the following as core requirements that can be expanded upon and balanced as necessary:
1) In terms of damage, weapon skill modifiers based on TP need to grow EXPONENTIALLY, not linearly. For example, a weapon skill performed at 200 TP needs to have its damage increased past the point where it is stronger than TWO weapon skills both performed at 100 TP COMBINED. If it's just equal to double the damage of 100 TP, then it is not properly discounting the time difference and the risk/reward trade-off of other related resource cost. For example, if a hypothetical weapon skill Moogle Smash by player A normally deals 100 damage at 100 TP, it should deal, say, 220 damage at 200 TP and 360 damage at 300 TP.
2) Weapon skill modifiers based on attributes should also adjust according to the above. For example, if the modifier for Moogle Smash is 20% CHA at 100 TP, then it would probably have, say, 45% Cha at 200 TP and 75% Cha at 300 TP. These modifiers would have been factored into the above in point 1) of course; these are inclusive, not in addition to item 1); i.e. the growth in damage already factors the growth of attribute modifiers.
3) In terms of additional effects, it should be considered the same way. Additional effects have three attributes to consider: it's accuracy (% of the time it would land), its duration, and its potency. However these can be simply linear progression, as there are three factors here, and exponential growth of all three would suddenly makes the effect too powerful. Therefore I believe it's reasonable to have just 1 or 2 of the effect grow exponentially while the other remain constant, or for all 3 to grow linearly. Continue with the above example, if Moogle Smash has "Additional effect: Paralysis", and at 100 TP it has a 10% chance to inflict light paralysis for 10 seconds, then it should, for example, give 25% chance of moderate paralysis for 10 seconds at 200 TP, and 75% chance of heavy paralysis for 10 seconds at 300 TP. In this case, the magic accuracy grows exponentially, potency grows linearly, and duration remains constant.
This post is not about the new merit weapon skills, nor about any specific weapon skill's strength or weakness. This is about weapon skill system in general with regards to TP costs; which may have been brought up in the past, but I feel that this is something important that the Dev Team should keep in mind in either adjustment of any existing weapon skills or the development of future new ones. There are obviously other issues of weapon skills as well but that's for another discussion.
The whole system of weapon skill is based on the amount of TP accumulated over the course of battle. The way it is set up, players have two choices: 1) Use TP as soon as it reaches 100, the minimum requirement for using any weapon skill, or 2) Use TP after 100, to a maximum of 300, for an enhanced version.
As with all choices, in game or not, there are trade-offs; in order for both of the above option to have equal and valid uses, the trade-offs must be reasonable and transparent. Looking at option 1 vs 2 for players, then looking at the current modifiers - does that really make sense? Are the trade-offs equal? Let's break down what the trade-offs are for a player to select option 2 versus selecting option 1. (Assuming for calculations' sake, we use 300 TP vs 100 TP) Choosing option 2 will cause the player to give up:
-The chance to perform 2 more additional weapon skills and potentially more, as performing weapon skill would itself provide additional TP most of the time. This is a reduction of damage over all.
-The time extended to defeat a monster. In general, most weapon skills do more damage (or provides better utility) than regular melee attacks. Therefore by holding TP, the player would essentially be giving up the resource of time. This not only translates into reduction of damage over time, but also:
-The additional loss of HP (additional damage one wouldn't have taken had the monster died sooner),
-The additional need for MP (needed to cure aforementioned additional HP lost and other enfeebles/enhancements spells that need to be prolonged),
-The additional need of potentially other resources (consumables such as potions, ammo, ninja tools). And these are consumption by the whole party/alliance, not just the weapon skill user.
Therefore, in order for "use weapon skill at 100 TP" and "use weapon skill at 227 TP" to have valid reasons that directly impact game-play, the system of effect needs to be changed. I recommend the following as core requirements that can be expanded upon and balanced as necessary:
1) In terms of damage, weapon skill modifiers based on TP need to grow EXPONENTIALLY, not linearly. For example, a weapon skill performed at 200 TP needs to have its damage increased past the point where it is stronger than TWO weapon skills both performed at 100 TP COMBINED. If it's just equal to double the damage of 100 TP, then it is not properly discounting the time difference and the risk/reward trade-off of other related resource cost. For example, if a hypothetical weapon skill Moogle Smash by player A normally deals 100 damage at 100 TP, it should deal, say, 220 damage at 200 TP and 360 damage at 300 TP.
2) Weapon skill modifiers based on attributes should also adjust according to the above. For example, if the modifier for Moogle Smash is 20% CHA at 100 TP, then it would probably have, say, 45% Cha at 200 TP and 75% Cha at 300 TP. These modifiers would have been factored into the above in point 1) of course; these are inclusive, not in addition to item 1); i.e. the growth in damage already factors the growth of attribute modifiers.
3) In terms of additional effects, it should be considered the same way. Additional effects have three attributes to consider: it's accuracy (% of the time it would land), its duration, and its potency. However these can be simply linear progression, as there are three factors here, and exponential growth of all three would suddenly makes the effect too powerful. Therefore I believe it's reasonable to have just 1 or 2 of the effect grow exponentially while the other remain constant, or for all 3 to grow linearly. Continue with the above example, if Moogle Smash has "Additional effect: Paralysis", and at 100 TP it has a 10% chance to inflict light paralysis for 10 seconds, then it should, for example, give 25% chance of moderate paralysis for 10 seconds at 200 TP, and 75% chance of heavy paralysis for 10 seconds at 300 TP. In this case, the magic accuracy grows exponentially, potency grows linearly, and duration remains constant.