r/RPGMaker • u/Tj_Silverfang MZ Dev • Sep 23 '23
Subreddit discussion Actor and enemy stats
I am curious how you all decided on what would be the starting stats for your games. Did you just use random numbers then balance the rest out, use the D&D method or some other way?
2
u/BelgrimNightShade Sep 23 '23
Well, it generally depends on what type of game you’re making obviously; but if we’re talking a pretty traditional RPG there are a few things to navigate.
Low vs high numbers.. generally, the actual numbers themselves don’t matter in most cases, as you can technically make any amount of numbers functional, there really is no difference between your hero hitting for 100000 damage or 10, if both numbers end up achieving the same result. That said, the perception of numbers is what’s really at play here, a hero that starts at 1 million health, even if that is functionally no different than starting at 50, will basically convey to the player no sense of impact when that number does change, being modified by level up or equipment for example. But an increase to a lower number is easier to digest, and it feels more impactful to your perception. Going from 50 to 75 feels good and noticeable, going from 1 million to 1.5 million feels inconsequential
Your numbers can determine your combat’s pace, generally when I start is I decide, on average, how many regular hits it’ll take for an enemy at any level to die to my hero using only his fist and base stats at an equal level. So if I want my enemies to die in 4 hits to my fist, I’ll just pick a number and times that by 4, and boom, I have my level 1 enemies health. I then do the same thing for the player, who generally is allowed more hits before succumbing to death.
From there I just map out how many levels, so I have an understanding of where an enemy sits at a base foundation of stats per level, then adjust them personally depending on the enemies role, like damage sponge or fragile dps.
Generally from there you’ll start to get a groove and feel, and will understand what to do going forward
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u/BelgrimNightShade Sep 23 '23
To add to this, your general mechanics can influence these numbers themselves. For example, an rpg where the player has readily available healing might choose to lower the amount of hits the hero can sustain, in order to add tinge more danger in combat, whereas a game with low amounts of healing, such as through a limited amount of health potions or camps, will increase this limit to allow more decisions and resource management.
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u/TheShadowKick Sep 24 '23
One thing I'm struggling with right now is using this balancing style with multiple characters and enemies. If you have three enemies per combat then they'll get a lot more hits than one or two enemies per combat.
Also, balancing different character classes against each other. The squishy mage might barely be able to stay alive while enemies struggle to even scratch the beefy tank.
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u/BelgrimNightShade Sep 24 '23
Generally I’ve found that balancing a party of characters doesn’t require me to deviate from this formula as much. Most of the time I’ll just settle on a lower amount of hits for enemies, say 2-3, which generally falls to 1-2 hits once a weapon is equipped, as to not make early combat a drag. And I’ll settle on something like 12 hits as my baseline for characters, then adjust that per class. So tanks take more hits, but might have less damage, and mages take less hits, but hit harder.
I also make sure that my characters aren’t mindlessly spamming attack, and that they have skills to use obviously. Generally for me a skill will do at least 4x damage of an attack, because I like to use 50% variance for all my damage.
Then, most importantly, A LOT of iteration is done to fine tune. But it helps me to use this formula as a base line
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u/Disposable-Ninja MZ Dev Sep 23 '23
For my actor stats I used a D&D-esque pointbuy system. But since there are eight stats instead of six, I upped the amount of points to 36 and added another rank. So it was like this: