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View Full Version : Tool Request - New Combat System Calculator


trevius
03-18-2008, 12:08 PM
First, let me apologize if this is the incorrect forum to post this in. I didn't know if it should go here, or in the Feature Request section or maybe somewhere else.

The basic idea for this tool is that if would be able to calculate mob stats to help server admins to tune their custom content to work similar to how it was in the old system or however they want it. It would also work to help create new content and to tune zones towards players with certain levels of gear. This would make adding new tiers of end-game content considerably easier IMO. Since AC, STR and other stats actually need to be adjusted properly in the new system, it means that most high end zones have to be tuned to make everything work as it should. It is definitely more complicated than it was before.

After quite a lot of testing, I was able to figure out some good settings and get my encounters tuned back to how I want them, but not every admin has that kinda time.

This tool could be as simple as an excel spreadsheet that has calculations build into fields (for people who are excel gurus), or even a nice stand alone app with a simple GUI that has fields and a brief explanation of how to use the tool. It could be expanded on to do much more, but I will mention that later in the post.

The tool should have 3 sections for stats or 4 if the 4th one is possible. The first section would be the player stats, the second section would be NPC stats in the new combat system, the third section would be output data, and the fourth optional section would be NPC stats in the old system.

The creator of the tool would either need to get all combat equations from the Devs or directly from the source itself if they know how to do so. I may be missing some fields or ideas that could be added to this tool, but I think this should be a good start to get an idea of what it would need.

I am posting 2 different versions of the calculator fields. One is a simple version that will to tune NPC DPS and the other is a much more complex version to calculate all combat systems for both players and NPCs. The simple version should be plenty to make a huge impact on helping admins, but I put the complex version in as well incase someone feels like doing the entire system. I am sure there are things in the complex version that I am missing and am open to more suggestions.

- New Combat System Calculator (Simple NPC DPS) -


Player Stats Section:

Player Level - Level of intended Target Player

Player AC - AC of intended Target Player

Player Shielding - Shielding of intended Target Player

Player Defensive Skills - Default is max skills for "Player Level"

Player Defensive AAs - Check Boxes to set Max for each AA

Player Disciplines - Check Box for Stone Wall and maybe other Disciplines (Optional)


NPC Stats Section (New Combat Rules):

NPC Level - Level of NPC (max skills set for level of NPC)

NPC Min Dmg - Minimum enforced damage of NPC

NPC Max Dmg - Max Damage of NPC

NPC Hit Rate - Hit Rate Speed Setting of NPC

NPC STR - Strengh of NPC

NPC Special Attacks - Check Boxes for Flurry, Tripple Attack and Quad Attack


Output Data Section:

Player DPS to NPC - Average Player DPS to the NPC

Player Max dmg to NPC - Maximum player hit on NPC (non critical)

Player Min Dmg to NPC - Min player hit on NPC (probably always 1)

NPC DPS to Player - Average NPC DPS to the Player

NPC Max dmg to Player - Maximum NPC hit on Player

NPC Min Dmg to Player- Min NPC hit on Player (with enforced Min Damage rule)


NPC Stats Section (Old Combat Rules):

NPC Level - Level of NPC (Unsure how NPC Skill levels were decided in this system)

NPC Min Dmg - Minimum damage of NPC

NPC Max Dmg - Max Damage of NPC

NPC STR - Strengh of NPC (This stat may not be applicable in the old system)

NPC Special Attacks - Check Boxes for Flurry, Triple Attack and Quad Attack


How to use it:

The tool should allow for multiple combinations of calculations depending on what is being tuned. Certain fields will be required depending on what you are planning to calculate. Perhaps a way to select what is being calculated could be created so that once it is selected, the required fields will be highlighted or whatever.

Here is an example of using this tool; The player level is set to 70 and AC set to 2000 and all other fields are left blank to set as default (0 or NULL in most cases), and if the admin is wanting to calculate what their mobs should be set to in the new system so fights are similar to the old system, they will also populate all fields in the NPC Stats Section (Old Combat Rules) to match what they have that particular NPC set to. Then they hit a Calculate button and it calculates what stats the same NPC should be set to in order to give similar results in the new system.

Another example would be setting the player level to 70 and AC to 2000 again, but this time only setting the Output Data fields for NPC DPS and Min/Max damage. This time, it calculates again and will fill in NPC stats for the old and new systems to give the end result you set in the Output Data fields. You could also have specified NPC special attacks and the calculation would take those into account when it fills in the other stats.

Using the Complete version of the calculator would work similarly, but would be much more complex than the Simple version.

Here is the list I have so far for the Complete version:

- New Combat System Calculator (Complete) -


Player Stats Section:

Player Level - Level of intended Target Player

Player AC - AC of intended Target Player

Player Shielding - Shielding of intended Target Player

Player Defensive Skills - Default is max skills for "Player Level"

Player Offensive Skills - Default is max skills for "Player Level"

Player Defensive AAs - Check Boxes to set Max for each AA

Player Offensive AAs - Check Boxes to set Max for each AA

Player Disciplines - Check Box for Stone Wall and maybe other Disciplines (Optional)

Player Attack - Attack of intended Target Player

Player STR - Strength of intended Target Player. Default is max for level + AA cap increases if applicable.

Player DEX - Dexterity of intended Target Player. Default is max for level + AA cap increases if applicable

Player AGI - Agility of intended Target Player. Default is max for level + AA cap increases if applicable

Player Primary Dmg/Dly - The Damage/Delay of the Player's Primary Weapon

Player Secondary Dmg/Dly - The Damage/Delay of the Player's Secondary Weapon

Player Weapon Dmg Bonus - Damage Bonuses for the player's weapon

Player Block - Check Box if shield is in use. Default is max block skill for "Player Level"


NPC Stats Section (New Combat Rules):

NPC Level - Level of NPC (max skills set for level of NPC)

NPC AC - Armor Class of NPC

NPC Min Dmg - Minimum enforced damage of NPC

NPC Max Dmg - Max Damage of NPC

NPC Hit Rate - Hit Rate Speed Setting of NPC

NPC STR - Strengh of NPC

NPC DEX - Strengh of NPC

NPC AGI - Strengh of NPC

NPC Attack - Greyed out since it can't be set, but could be shown in end results

NPC Special Attacks - Check Boxes for Flurry, Tripple Attack and Quad Attack


Output Data Section:

Player DPS to NPC - Average Player DPS to the NPC

Player Max dmg to NPC - Maximum player hit on NPC (non critical)

Player Min Dmg to NPC - Min player hit on NPC (probably always 1)

NPC DPS to Player - Average NPC DPS to the Player

NPC Max dmg to Player - Maximum NPC hit on Player

NPC Min Dmg to Player- Min NPC hit on Player (with enforced Min Damage rule)


NPC Stats Section (Old Combat Rules):

NPC Level - Level of NPC (Unsure how NPC Skill levels were decided in this system)

NPC AC - Armor Class of NPC

NPC Min Dmg - Minimum damage of NPC

NPC Max Dmg - Max Damage of NPC

NPC STR - Strengh of NPC (This stat may not be applicable in the old system)

NPC DEX - Strengh of NPC (This stat may not be applicable in the old system)

NPC AGI - Strengh of NPC (This stat may not be applicable in the old system)

NPC Attack - Greyed out since it can't be set, but could be shown in end results

NPC Special Attacks - Check Boxes for Flurry, Triple Attack and Quad Attack



- Taking this tool even further -

Advanced Options:

To further adjust the flexibility of this tool, I thought it was be really helpful to have an advanced options window that would allow people to easily adjust every equation that the tool uses. This would make it simple to adjust this tool for future updates when equations change, and I am sure they will from time to time.

Automatic Database Updating:

This would probably take considerably more work, I am sure, but if there was a way to have this tool automatically update the Spawn_Entries table, that would be AMAZING!!! The player would select a spawn, or even an entire zone of spawns to be adjusted. They could then either just run the database updater with default settings, or they could set the Player Stats Section of the tool. The tool would pull the stats of the NPC(s) in the Spawn_Entries into the tool and maybe reference the Spawn2 table so it can do an entire zone at a time. Then, it would calculate the stat settings for the new combat system for each NPC so that encounters would be set to seem similar to how they were in the previous combat system. It would then update the database with the all new settings! Bam! A completely re-tuned zone in just seconds!

trevius
03-18-2008, 12:08 PM
- Conclusion -

While this tool would be exceptionally useful to any servers that had previously ran on the older version of the Combat System, IMO, it would still be very valuable to any servers that start off running the new system. It is much more complex to tune encounters now and this tool would make it a piece of cake. I know of a few servers that are having problems getting every encounter in their custom zones tuned to the new Combat System. This is partially because of the size and partially because of the complexity of tuning them properly. I imagine even the standard PEQ database now seems much different and that would be a huge overhaul to re-tune all of those zones manually to the new Combat System.

I think if someone has the knowledge, skill, time and dedication it would take to get a project like this working, it would be hugely appreciated by the community. Not just by server admins, but from the players on those servers.

Thanks for reading. I know that is a lot of information lol.

KLS
03-21-2008, 08:23 AM
Isn't entirely what you wanted and math's a bit off in places but here's a spreadsheet I use to see how things interact.

openoffice
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pT6BJyY8aApfmWIilDQgIWQ&output=ods
or excel
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pT6BJyY8aApfmWIilDQgIWQ&output=xls

trevius
03-23-2008, 11:22 AM
That spreadsheet is pretty awesome! Thanks KLS! It isn't exactly what I was looking for, but it will definitely help. I think any server admin could use it. And if anyone decided to expand on it or make an application version, they can get most of the equations needed directly from that spreadsheet :D

James76
09-16-2008, 12:22 PM
The attack and accuracy (180 and 0?) in that spreadsheet are far too low what it should be. I wouldn't have noticed all the misses ON EVERY SERVER unless I tested Furious Discipline..... because again, only the hits are getting riposted... When I played my warrior on live I loved this discipline because I would counterattack everything from anybody. Was great for duels, especially vs rogues with their fast dual-wields. So I thought Furious was broken, but I looked at it, and its really working, I just never get hit. So I removed all of my gear, and I'm in PoP, so I figure things would just cream me. Nope, I never get hit.

NEVER GET HIT.

I've since tried ATK=200*level and Accuracy=level*500 for every row in the database... So far I'm happy with it. Maybe its kinda insane, a level 60 mob with an Accuracy of 30000, but for whatever reason the game needs it just to be able to hit me 90% of the time with no gear to protect me.

Min/max damage is ok, its actually in the database, not calculated. That high attack rating doesn't max out damage either, we seem to get a nice spread of actual damage instead of always getting the minimum.....