How do you use Armor Scaling?

Context: http://yanfly.moe/2015/11/28/yep-33-armor-scaling/

Short desc:
It's an armor formula to scale the damage based on your armor. So it won't reduce the damage to zero unless you have a ridiculously high defense.

Long desc:
Just read the link above.

Since the plugin is available, I'm curious if anyone actually use it.
How it turns out in your game? What kind of design you plan to use it? Are using in turn based RPG? Action RPG? Are u using it in open world RPG with many customization? Or are using it in linear RPG?

I don't use it personally, but I would think that such a system would be useful in games with built-in multiplayer. League of Legends has something like this, and that's not a game where you want the opponent's attacks to be completely negated, or it makes snowballing all too easy.

I can see this as being useful in open world games as well, since you're not quite sure where the player will go, so you need to account for a lot for different factors when balancing. Armor Scaling is great if you want to do less balance work, but with it, weaker enemies can still cause damage. If that's what you want, it's an ideal plugin.

There are pros and cons, but overall I think it's one of the better options available out there. Some people on these forums have come up with some good multiplicative formulas, but I find them difficult to balance around, and also relatively unclear to the player. The armor scaling plugin/system isn't COMPLETELY transparent, but is relatively understandable, and accomplishes a few important things in my opinion:

-attackers will always do at least SOME damage, no matter how high the target's defense. This is the main appeal for me. If the party's tank finds some really good armor, it's a big feelsbadman when a large portion of enemies (whose ATK isn't high enough) just deal 0 or 1 dmg to him.

-the party can fight weaker enemies from earlier parts of the game without it feeling too trivial - you will still have grown much stronger, but they will usually still drain SOME non-trivial amount of resources (unless your hp scaling is crazy high, or your game provides unlimited money/potions).

-even though rising defense provides diminishing returns, there is always an incentive for increasing defense through level ups, skills, or equipment....whereas a system of 4*ATK - 2*DEF provides no incentive once your defense has reached twice the amount of the enemy's attack - increasing defense past this threshold yields no benefit.

I am using it, so far I haven't had any issues. I haven't done extensive balance testing yet; just the occasional mechanical & AI controls to ensure everything is working as I am intending.

My primary project is an open world sandbox, with multiple faction campaign paths depending upon who the player decides to ally with; & what, if any, side quests they choose to undertake.

Enemies scale to player level within a range based upon their class ranking, as well as having level caps based on their respective class rankings, & their parameters are derived player character baselines altered according to class ranking.

I've no class or subclass system, all player characters are capable of using any weapon or armor piece, with a few exceptions. I.e. none of them can equip a shield while using a two handed weapon. All characters can also potentially learn any given skill.

I have a five tier weapon & armor system, along with enchantment system I am intending to implement hopefully this month to add greater customization.

Different weapons have their own unique versions of each skill, that require greater or lesser TP (Stamina) based on their respective weights. As well as altering crit potential, & injury infliction probabilities.

Armor is divided into three styles Heavy, Light, & Arcane. Each style presents different pros & cons based on their impact of TP regen (Fatigue), MP cost (Mana consumption), injury resistance, crit eva, magic eva, guard damage reduction, etcetera.

Turn based combat, with a loadout based skillset from a potential pool of about a thousand skills. Skills are acquired at one skill per level, determined by player choice, with access determined by what skills the player has learned previously.

Skills are subdivided into three types, purely magical based skills like hp restoration & multi target elemental damage, purely physical based skills like limb targeting & power strikes, & magic physical hybrids that use magical power as damage amplifiers to physical techniques.

Battle strategy is derived from a combination of skill & equipment loadout, character specialization, status effect resistance boosters, buffs, debuffs, injuries, damage resistance boosters, & damage amplifiers; versus the enemies respective skills, resistances, & unique properties.

I am also experimenting on a set of AI switches integrated into troop events, to provide a greater degree of AI enemy coordination & tactical complexity. By having the various common events in the enemy types respective troop tabs, that evaluate for various conditions at the end of each turn, & then activate switches in response. Then tying the enemy skills to high priority skills based on those switches being active.

Im not using the plugin but I do implement armor scaling. For me its easier to balance around since you dont need to worry about anyone/anything dealing 0 damage because they dont have enough atk to beat the opponents def stat. And I actually use a smaller scale than Yanfly's (0-100)

My normal formula goes like

(damage)*(1.00-(multiplier*def))

With multiplier set to 0.01 by default so that each point of def reduces damage by 1%. Then I just make sure that no one can get 100 def or close to it so that damage cant be nullified thru def. For armor piercing attacks, I just set a different multiplier value or 0 if its def ignore

I don't bother with the plugin but I use damage formula for all skills that are similar to what Yanfly's plugin attempts to do. The formula is:

(fixed skill power) * (attacker's STR or INT) divided by
10 + (defender's DEF or MDF)

The usefulness of this type of stat calculation is that each point of DEF will increase a battler's "effective HP" (how many hits they'd be able to take before dying if they had 0 DEF) by a roughly equal amount, which allows DEF to always remain useful but almost never become completely overpowered. Formulas like this allow skills to remain useful all game long if the designer desires, and ensure that the STR scaling never overpowers (nor it overpowered by) a base value.

It's basically an excuse to not need to account for the defense values in your damage calculations. Saves a lot of time if you use it that way. In games without it, attacks can do 0-1 damage if you have enough defense and it makes battles entirely stat dependent.

So I greatly enjoy it and always use it in every game.

I don't use it because I don't really see the need for what I'm making. I already use a multiplicative formula since I'm not a fan of the additive/subtractive model's wild swings. My formula is something like this:

a.atk * skillModifier / (1 + b.def * 0.01)

So while tanky characters will take less damage than squishy ones, it won't have stupid contrasts like 2 damage to the guy in full plate vs 500 damage to the guy wearing magical toilet paper.

While I considered having stuff like armor penetration, I prefer to do it on a skill-by-skill basis rather than putting it on gear or whatever. Skills ignoring X% of defense (or increased damage vs high defense) will indicate it in their skill tooltips and use a modified version of the above damage formula. The other option I'm giving players comes through "break" skills, such as Armor Break, which can be used to debuff the target's defense by X% for Y rounds. (I use states for this rather than the in-house stat debuff system, because the stacking aspect is unwanted)