M DEF answered

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

I've had a hunch for a long time, but I just confirmed it. The M DEF stat (which we already know affects resistance to bad status attacks) acts as a percentage. In other words, if it's set to 1294, that's really only 12.94% resistance. But each type of bad status attack has their own resistance on top of that. I let myself get afflicted by these a few hundred times, and though there might've been some anomolies, I assume these are pretty close.

Decrease Attack/Guard/Speed - 100% success rate.
Poison - 100% success rate.
Silence - 95% success rate.
Confuse - 80% success rate.
Sleep - 80% success rate.
Paralyze - 50% success rate.
Petrify - 50% success rate.
Death - 40% success rate.

Those are the success rates if you have M DEF turned off or set to 0. When M DEF is higher than 0, it takes off a percentage of the existing success rate. So if a character's M DEF is 5000 (50%), Poison drops to 50% success rate, Sleep drops to 40% success rate, Petrify drops to 25% success rate, and you get the idea.

In other words, if you want your party's M DEF stats to have any effect at all, you'll want it increasing at a rate of at least 50 per level. 99 per level wouldn't hurt, either.

Definately a bit of a bummer, though. It means that if you want a boss weak to poison but not to paralyze, the best you can do is set the M DEF stat just high enough that the player won't feel it's worth trying to paralyze yet just low enough that trying to poison it is.

[orius]

Re: M DEF answered

I'm going to have to copy this down. Good find.

In other words, if you want your party's M DEF stats to have any effect at all, you'll want it increasing at a rate of at least 50 per level. 99 per level wouldn't hurt, either.

That's a HUGE boost though, especially if you're going by the 35-point rule. If something like attack or defense got a 50-100 point boost every level, then the party would very quickly overpower enemies. In return, enemies designed for higher levels would be ungodly powerful for an underpowered party. However, it's something that should probably be kept in mind for equipment, a big boost on accessories could go a long way.

That or take a new approach to the 35-point rule and have most of the stats follow that curve, and have a different curve for M Def. Or just keep the 35-point rule and multiply the M Def by 10. In fact, I might take a closer look at this and adjust the score in the game I'm working on.

I hope Valk makes sure this gets put in this week's news.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: M DEF answered

Um, yeah, I didn't say 50 points for ALL stats. Just the M DEF stat. :P

If you're increasing it by 10 points each level, that's essentially an increase of 0.1%. It'd take ten whole levels just for poison to have a chance at missing against you.

[orius]

Re: M DEF answered

Um, yeah, I didn't say 50 points for ALL stats. Just the M DEF stat. :P

If you're increasing it by 10 points each level, that's essentially an increase of 0.1%. It'd take ten whole levels just for poison to have a chance at missing against you.

No what I mean is still use the 35-point rule, but then multiply M DEF by 10. So assuming a spread of 5 for all stats, M DEF is 50 instead of 5. That sounds like a decent balance.

And again, I'd put the really big boosts on accessories rather than rely on leveling to boost it. Status effects should be kind of a threat, and that threat goes away if the PC gets too much of a boost from leveling, unless that's supposed to be the character's strength.

[Wavelength]

Re: M DEF answered

You could either set the MDEF to a high fixed amount for each character and have it increase by 0 (or a small amount) each level, unless I'm mistaken.

You could also decide that each 100 points in MDEF is worth 3 points in some other stat, and "stick to" the 35-point rule that way. So, if MDEF would take up 6 of the 35 points, have it increase by 200 points each level.

Very nice find, Draygone!!

[Health and Honor]

Re: M DEF answered

This is very useful info Draygone! Thanks!

I was trying to figure ou the details to these other two stats.

Luck affects the characters likely-hood of scoring a critical hit and dodging an enemies attack as I understand it.

Agility decides who goes first, running from battles, and hit percentage.

The only thing I can come to for sure is who is going first.
Do we know exact numbers for these abilities and how they relate to one another?

If a character's Luck is really high, but the attacker's Agility is too, how does that equal out for determing a hit rate?

I haven't found an answer to this in any FAQ's or walkthroughs.
(This is in regards to RPGM1 in case anyone was uncertain.)

Thanks in advance for any light anyone can shine on this.

[Alutra]

Re: M DEF answered

You could also decide that each 100 points in MDEF is worth 3 points in some other stat, and "stick to" the 35-point rule that way.

could someone direct me to what the "35-point rule" is please?

[Karr Lord of Chaos]

Re: M DEF answered

This is very useful info Draygone! Thanks!

I was trying to figure ou the details to these other two stats.

Luck affects the characters likely-hood of scoring a critical hit and dodging an enemies attack as I understand it.

Agility decides who goes first, running from battles, and hit percentage.

The only thing I can come to for sure is who is going first.
Do we know exact numbers for these abilities and how they relate to one another?

If a character's Luck is really high, but the attacker's Agility is too, how does that equal out for determing a hit rate?

I haven't found an answer to this in any FAQ's or walkthroughs.
(This is in regards to RPGM1 in case anyone was uncertain.)

Thanks in advance for any light anyone can shine on this.

http://www.pavilionboards.com/forum/...ad.php?t=12831

posted by dray

"Admittedly, yes, some stats could've used better clarification. So allow me to clarify.

STR (strength): Attack power. Pretty obvious.
DEF (defense): Defense power. Again, pretty obvious.

One thing to keep in mind is the formula for physical damage: Half the attack power minus half the defense power. I think some people aren't aware of this, because occasionally I come across this piece of equipment with a defense of 2 and I'm like... Okay, so I lose one less HP when I get hit. So what?

Naturally, there's a slight randomizer, so damage is never exactly the same. Even when you're hitting for 0 damage, the randomizer might bless you with 1 or 2 damage.

Also, unless you do change otherwise, character (not monster) STR and DEF already start off at 10 points each, so whatever stats you add are on top of that base power.

STA (stamina) / HP (hit points): This is kinda confusing, because at first glance, they're the same thing. But STA is your max HP, and HP is your current amount. And like STR and DEF, character HP already starts off at 30 points.

INT (intelligence) / MP (magic points): INT is your max MP, and MP is your current amount.

AGI (agility): This is your "speed", or rather, this stat determines turn order. Basically it counts down from the highest character's/monster's speed to the lowest. If your speed is 50 and the monster's is 25, you're probably going to go first. Useful information, when you need to determine who's more likely to get a potion in before the enemy attacks.

Strangely, this is also affected by a randomizer. There have been times where a monster attacked first when my speed was slightly higher than the monster's.

Luck (um... luck): Like I said, this determines your evasion, and works in conjunction with AGI. If your Luck is higher than your attacker's AGI, the attack is more likely to miss. Interestingly, enemies don't have a Luck stat. Personally, I think this was a smart move on Enterbrain's part. I mean, do we really want to play a game somebody made play out like RPG Maker 3?

M.DEF (magic defense): Has nothing to do with damage from magic attacks. Rather, it affects your resistance to status attacks, like poison and silence. Not sure if it affects status drainers. Not sure how much it affects. Obviously, 9999 pretty much would mean total immunity. But where 50% immunity falls in, not entirely sure. Never really tested it. I do know that, on their own, certain status attacks are only sometimes effective, like I think death has a 30% chance of working (or was it failing) while poison works just about all the time.

R Attack / L Attack: the combined attack power of your base stats and equipment on whichever hand your weapon is. Status boosting spells and accessories affect both hands, weapons affect whatever hand is equipped. Only time both hands attack is if both hands hold a weapon.

Guard: the combined defense power of your base stats and equipment.

There's another stat that sometimes pops up underneath your HP and MP, called "CRS" or something like that. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it isn't. I'm not entirely sure what the stat does.

Magic GRD: This is the actual stat that determines defense against magic damage, based on a percentage (maxes out at 100%, so sorry, no elemental obsorbing). It's only affected by equipment that raises guard against the magic elements. Depending on whether you have elements turned on or off, it'll either be one stat, or a stat for every element.

EXP (experience) / Next Level: I hope I don't have to explain these. I could give an EXP chart, but there's other places you can find them. Just know that after level 22, all levels take the same amount of EXP to level up. "

could someone direct me to what the "35-point rule" is please?

this is very simple. between all of your stats you should have a maximum of 35 points for the whole character. i start with 5 points in every stat and i add to one stat and take away from another so it equals 35 total. this is the best way to balance characters so they dont break the game. since that rule was made we have made many discoveries so id stick to a 30 point rule for every stat except the magic grd/m def and put a high number in that last stat so you can gain a noticeable blocking chance of status effects. 5 points in that stat will mean its unlikely anyone would ever notice a difference even after 20 levels.

[Alutra]

Re: M DEF answered

Thanks for the great info Dray and Karr! helpful posting!

[url]
One thing to keep in mind is the formula for physical damage: Half the attack power minus half the defense power.

I would like to add to this; while the above is mostly true, I think it might me more streamlined to say;

Attack(100%) minus Defence(100%) then Divided by 2 equals Standard damage. Critical hits do not divide by 2.

Example;

Bobs attack is 20. Slimes Def is 0. Ants Def is 14.

{Bob attacks Slime} (20- 0) /2= 10 Damage (or 20 for Critical)
{Bob attacks Ant} (20-14) /2= 3 Damage (or 6 for Critical)

This might make more sence when trying to account for critical hits from Karrs explination.

I believe this is the classic Dragon Quest base damage system that RPGM1 borrowed.

[url]
There's another stat that sometimes pops up underneath your HP and MP, called "CRS" or something like that. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it isn't. I'm not entirely sure what the stat does.

I think this means that the character is cursed, from equiping a cursed item.

[Karr Lord of Chaos]

Re: M DEF answered

I think this means that the character is cursed, from equiping a cursed item.

that is right. it took some of us a while to figure it out and then facepalmed for not discovering it earlier.

[orius]

Re: M DEF answered

One of the older incarnations of the Pavilion had a set of articles about balancing stats in the game, they included things like the 35 point rule, the damage formula, and balancing equipment and spells. Unfortunately, some of that stuff is lost which won't help people who are new to the game.

[Health and Honor]

Re: M DEF answered

Thank you, Karr (and Draygone for the OP).

The game easily could have allowed a little more flexibility with it's battle system. Not being able to have equipment that protects against only poison or choosing how many HP to revive a character with kills a lot of it. And the magic spell damage being set at a certain number instead of in relation to a magic strength type stat, making early game spells pathetically weak later on.

Sometimes I wonder why even stick with RPGM1, but here I am anyway.

*Didn't realize I was in the RPGM1 subforum with the comment in my previous post.