The problem I have can be boiled down to normal vs heavy weapons (or one-handed vs two-handed), and how to make each of them a viable, fun, and unique option. Let's assuming the following:
- Damage Dealt = (Weapon Damage + Character Stat - Enemy Armor) * Time
- Time = 2 for normal, 1 for heavy (basically, normal attacks attack twice as much as heavy attacks)
Our unknown X variable then is Weapon Damage for each normal and heavy case. Condensed, this looks like:
Normal Damage = (Xn + St - Ar) * 2
Heavy Damage = (Xh + St - Ar) * 1
Let's balance that:
Xh + St - Ar = (Xn + St - Ar) * 2
Xh + St - Ar = 2*Xn + 2*St - 2*AR
Xh = 2*Xn + St - Ar
Xh + St - Ar = 2*Xn + 2*St - 2*AR
Xh = 2*Xn + St - Ar
With just my gut balancing these numbers, I came up with Xn as 3 and Xh as 6, because in theory the stats and armor should cancel each other out (you apply stats twice with normal, but also armor twice, to heavy weapon's once and once). Therefor, weapon damage Xh should simply be twice as much as Xn because it takes twice as much time.
The few tricks here are that a 2 handed weapon dealing +3 damage means that with that extra time it will be bypassing some of the enemy armor more often than not, where two "normal" attacks will deal more damage to lightly armored opponents. This is shown by our equation that includes variables for St and Ar.
Let's plug some numbers in, and assume:
The few tricks here are that a 2 handed weapon dealing +3 damage means that with that extra time it will be bypassing some of the enemy armor more often than not, where two "normal" attacks will deal more damage to lightly armored opponents. This is shown by our equation that includes variables for St and Ar.
Let's plug some numbers in, and assume:
- Character Stat = A number between 2 and 6
- Enemy Armor = A number between 3 and 7
If we plug in the averages for those ranges, we get:
Xh = 2*Xn + 3 - 4
Xh = 2*Xn - 1
This is good, given our numbers that Ar will be on average slightly higher than St. If they would be the same, then the math would be a simple "heavy damage should be twice as much as normal" just as my gut told me. However, because we expect armor to be slightly more, we can now have numbers such as Xn = 3, and Xh = 5.
It all depends on St and Ar values. This is fun to me because that means characters that have low St will want to use heavier weapons. Those with high St lean towards lighter weapons. Then, against enemies with low armor, lighter weapons are more useful. But go against a tank that's armored head to toe, and you'll be missing your heavy weapon.
Interestingly, if armor is high enough, we could have ended up with an equation like Xh = 2*Xn -3. But, this means that given Xn = 3, Xh would also be 3! And if it was even larger, would heavy weapons have to be weaker?! On one hand this makes sense: attacking twice means you are encountering twice the armor. Here we've found our tipping point. When armor is so large that no attack would actually deal "positive" damage, we no longer have an interesting equation.
Xh = 2*Xn + 3 - 4
Xh = 2*Xn - 1
This is good, given our numbers that Ar will be on average slightly higher than St. If they would be the same, then the math would be a simple "heavy damage should be twice as much as normal" just as my gut told me. However, because we expect armor to be slightly more, we can now have numbers such as Xn = 3, and Xh = 5.
It all depends on St and Ar values. This is fun to me because that means characters that have low St will want to use heavier weapons. Those with high St lean towards lighter weapons. Then, against enemies with low armor, lighter weapons are more useful. But go against a tank that's armored head to toe, and you'll be missing your heavy weapon.
Interestingly, if armor is high enough, we could have ended up with an equation like Xh = 2*Xn -3. But, this means that given Xn = 3, Xh would also be 3! And if it was even larger, would heavy weapons have to be weaker?! On one hand this makes sense: attacking twice means you are encountering twice the armor. Here we've found our tipping point. When armor is so large that no attack would actually deal "positive" damage, we no longer have an interesting equation.