Rules - Ideas That Don’t Deserve Their Own Thread

- I am mainly utilizing elements such as: slashing, pierce and bludgeon.

- It's a fairly low 'fantasy' magic game, so things like "giant" fireballs and "massive" spikes of ice are rare if eventually included.

- However each weapon has about four basic/standard possible moves (skills): Cut (chop, slice, etc), Stab, Hit (essentially a pommel strike, or pistol whip if you want to think of it that way) and a Block (essentially your 'defend' move but, specific to the weapon equipped for it's effectiveness as compared to other weapons at said block ability).
+If you have a staff, it can't really "stab" but you get thrust instead (deals blunt damage), as well as an extra move due to the length called sweep, which has a chance of tripping the enemy (lowers their def, atk, and counter for 1 turn).
+Thrust for Spear does pierce damage (counts as the "stab" option), slightly higher damage from 2 hands. Because it's a 'polearm', it also gets sweep.
+ Dagger's Block isn't that robust. Dagger has an extra move called Parry which is an increase for counterattack as you might see with say a swashbuckler with their off-hand parry ability.
+Swords get a move called Feint where there is zero damage, but its a minor temp eva and counterstrike boost and a major temp to hit boost for the immediate next turn - to depict 'faking out' the opponent with your 'trick' attack.
.
etc.

I have all the weapons set to the different elemental damages depending on what moves the player is choosing and if the weapon would preform that sort of damage realistically in life.
All the moves have variation of damage degree in comparison to each other.
I am not running a rank system, so for instance: the spear- to compensate for a lack of rank advantage (reach) it would receive in an alternative system, increased their ability for to hit as compensation.

I am running several states/status effects. The majority of my status effects are applicable on the most iconic/rational move for each weapon type.
My sword can inflict {Bleeding} on a Cut, {Concussion} on a Hit, and {Pierced} on a Stab.
Just as the damages vary between types of similar moves across weapons, so do the chance of individual status infliction compared directly with other weapons.

Not every weapon can inflict each status/state. Some of the states/status stack into more severe versions. For example you can apply {bleeding}. It does damage over time when not corrected. It stacks. If you stack it three times it converts to {Cleave}. {Cleave} has increased damage per turn (in comparison to to {Bleeding}) over time.
I'll probably make two versions of Bleeding.. as I eventually want Pierce to have {Bleeding} -> {Internal Bleeding}.. or fit {hemorrhage} in somewhere... both of these probably would be a 'leave battle' option for treating if gone on for only a few turns.

The sword has a chance to inflict {bleeding}.
My axe, however skips this and instead has a chance to directly inflict {Cleave}. As compensation, the to hit is less as you would expect it less wieldy in real life. It also takes more energy to control in longer battles than equipping a sword or other single handed weapon.
I have to sort out a good 'stamina' system.. I probably will us TP but, I really have to sort out the balancing there.

{Cleave} also takes more effort to heal than {Bleeding}. It's more severe, simple logical math.

None of the initial infliction rates are 100 and most are down around 60. There is a slight bump for each chance after stacking, but again, nothing guaranteed straight-out.

Every Player choice available is intentional. Sure the rng for the chance of application is 'random' but, the choice of what will effect/type potentially to be applied or the skill type chosen is specifically and intentionally selected by the Player prior to attack. I don't have 'mystery box' attacks. At least there is zero planning for such at this time.

I also standard status/states as well (but more rare in game occurrences), like your typical {poison} which is sequestered to special item daggers only and poisonous animals/'monster' beasts. {Tripped}, {Exhaustion} and {Nauseous} are some of my others. I have one called {Et tu Brute} which is basically just a charisma effect that makes the target attack their comrades.

I also have my damage formulas running low RNG formulas that then have reduction from B.def .
It's essentially Driftwood's formula without the extra D&D bonus added in for stat modifiers. It's not 100% because that video is for MZ and it doesn't translate properly, as MV lacks some functionality MZ gained. Hence, why it's an altered version form the start. I might have a bug or two to work out in the future. So far, I seem to be getting the proper variance in the rng with the trimmed down formula. I might throw in some aspect of Agi to account for 'dexterity' (in some imaginary form). Haven't taken that step. Not completely sold on that addition concept.
Not all my scripts a complete, so I am still trying stuff out.

For the most part the same type weapon will be hitting with about the same consistent damage range across all characters/enemies with intentionally slight variation added in to address the user's a.atk , or if it's a 'highly crafted' weapon.
The rng works fairly balanced (for the moment) as I am keeping the majority of the power creep constrained to lower figures overall. I have skilled persons, I do not have any 'superhero' persons.

To ensure this all works together, I have my armors set to also be variances for the elements. Armor type/style is also varied to themselves. Leather has less overall protection than Chain which has less than Steel Plate, etc. Within the comparable percentages each type, each is better against one type of element than the others. I have more than 3 armors.. but, I think I'll wind down the text here.

None of these configurations possess the potential for a one-hit-kill situational ability in the weaknesses (that you might see in some pokemon games) but, it is very similar to a rock-paper-scissors-spock-lizard concept comparison.

It helps to know what for when if you want to expedite certain battles.

So, I have four status ailments, and they're linked to certain elements. This game utilizes a random loot system, sort of like the Borderlands games. All the weapons and armor you find are randomly generated, with random stats and traits based on their level. One of these traits is an element. You can find a Fire sword, or an Ice spear, for example. Elemental weapons have a chance to apply their associated status ailment on each physical hit.

Fire inflicts Burn, which deals damage over time for each stack, up to 5 stacks. Ice inflicts Freeze, which reduces DEX and DMG by 40% per stack, up to 3 stacks where the enemy is completely immobilized. Shock inflicts Seize, which prevents skill use, and any time another enemy is hit with Shock damage, all Seized enemies have a portion of the damage chained to them. And Weak inflicts... Weak. It increases all subsequent damage taken by 50%.

So those are the elements, and technically any weapon can have any element, regardless of weapon type. Standard attacks are just your simple, average attack. One hit, pits your DMG against their DEF, no frills. However, each weapon type also comes with some bonuses and penalties. For example:

Swords are pretty balanced, with no major buffs or debuffs. Spears are very accurate, but do slightly less damage than swords. Knives give a 10% DEX bonus and a 5% crit chance bonus, but deal even less damage than spears. Blunt weapons (maces, staves, rods) deal MORE damage than swords, but get a 10% DEX penalty. And Axes deal just as much damage as Blunt weapons without the DEX penalty, but instead suffer a 10% ACC penalty. So Axes are already kind of high risk/reward just by their very nature.

I could lean into this, and make them even less accurate and even more powerful for their Special attacks, but I ran into this issue when making Bloodstained Hands, where players kept complaining about the low accuracy of certain techniques, and how they kept missing, even though in reality it wasn't that often, from what I could see on their let's-plays.