Poorly explained mechanics in the Cyclopedia

[Sensuki]

Bug #1:

 

There is no entry in the Cyclopedia for Damage Reduction, or DR

 

 

Bug #2:

 

The tooltip for DR is HUGE and clips off screen when the item description page is in its normal position

 

 

Bug #3:

 

There is no entry for damage. Just Damage Types. The word damage uses the Damage Types entry, the same as Slash, Pierce, Corrode etc do.

 

There needs to be an entry to explain how damage is calculated.

 

I will provide fixes for issue #2 and #3 in the bottom post

[Sensuki]

Here is the edited Cyclopedia string with improved formatting, removed unnecessary words and including MISSING INFORMATION - such as the bit about different DR values being a percentage of the base value rather than a flat integer.

 

<Entry>

<ID>158</ID>

<DefaultText>When an attack hits, there is one primary means of mitigating damage: Damage Reduction (DR). DR is usually derived from armor, but many creatures have natural DR, and it can be raised through the use of magic, Abilities, Talents, or other equipment.

 

DR is subtracted directly from all incoming damage. E.g., an attack that initially does 20 damage to a target with 7 DR would be reduced to 13 damage.

 

Damage will never be reduced below 20% of the incoming amount. You will see a MIN message in the combat log on the attack line when this value is reached.

 

Many suits of armor and many creatures will have different DR values for different Damage Types. These values are a percentage of the base value. Lower DRs absorb less damage, making the target more vulnerable to attacks of that type.</DefaultText>

<FemaleText />

</Entry>

 

Edited March 8, 2015 by Sensuki

[Sensuki]

With that said, the game should also probably display the decimal value of the varying DR types in the item descriptions and character sheet.

[Sensuki]

I edited the Damage Types string to Damage. I think there's supposed to be one for each, but I'm not sure if that's possible. Anyway - here is my first pass at an actual Damage String.

 

 

<Entry>

<ID>194</ID>

<DefaultText>If an attack scores a graze, hit or crit and has a damage component, the attack will roll for damage.

 

Damaging attacks usually have a base damage with minimum and maximum damage values. E.g., a sword has a base damage of 11-16 and thus can roll for damage values between these numbers.

 

This value is then modified by damage multipliers. The formula for a single damage multiplier is simply base damage * damage multiplier.

 

When more than one damage multiplier is applied, the multipliers are added together. Grazes and crits are both damage multipliers, as is the bonus damage from the Might attribute, quality enchantments for weapons and damage multipliers from Abilities and Talents.

 

A character with 15 Might and a Fine Sword may roll for 14 * [1 (base) + 0.15 (Might) + 0.15 (Fine weapon) + 0.5 (crit)] = 25.2 damage.

 

After rolled damage is determined, damage is then reduced by the opposing DR type.

</DefaultText>

<FemaleText />

</Entry>

 

 

Edited March 8, 2015 by Sensuki

[Sensuki]

The eight damage types - Crush, Slash, Pierce, Corrode, Freeze, Burn, Shock and Raw should be linked to the default Damage Types string. The actual word damage should use my string, or a string similar to it.

[ushas]

"is simply base damage * damage multiplier"

 

"A character with 15 Might and a Fine Sword may roll for 14 * [1 (base) + 0.15 (Might) + 0.15 (Fine weapon) + 0.5 (crit)] = 25.2 damage."

 

 

Perhaps there is a need to assume how the damage multipliers are presented in descriptions.

 

You reported yourself the inconsistency, where sometimes the multiplier is shown as 1.15x and other times as +15%. The former one works in the first formula. But the later approach is probably better for understanding the mechanism of summation? Anyway, it would be easier to provide an explanation when only one of these options is used.

Edited March 8, 2015 by ushas

[Sensuki]

Yeah I reported that in a separate bug report. Damage multipliers should be changed to +15% from x1.15 IMO.

 

There should also be a separate label for proc damage and how that is calculated.

[Rumsteak]

Bump! As explained by the OP, the armor/defense mechanics are not well explained, so I am quite confused.

 

Say I find an armor with DR13 and one with DR14, but the DR13 one has a some possibly better defense against crush damage. Right now I am not sure about how special damages work, apparently it's percentages or something? If so percentages of what? How is it calculated? No entiendo por favor merci beaucoup.

 

I would like to be able to determine how good defenses are, so that I can make an informed decision/tradeoff.

Explain it to me like I'm 5. With nice tooltips and maybe some real-world examples.

 

Thanks!

Edited March 16, 2015 by Rumsteak

[IndiraLightfoot]

Bump again!

 

This is perhaps the most important aspect to fix before you release PoE.

 

Thx!

[Azmodiuz]

Someone should start a beer fund for Sensuki, lol.

Edited March 16, 2015 by Azmodiuz

[Bazy]

Enchanting could use and entry as well.