Im a bit lost according to the skills as it is.. I dont have any clue on how I will balance my game. To be honest, math was my least favourite subject in school, and I have never been a bright student when it comes to formulas and such. I guess my only chance for a balance game will be to playtest alot, and to scale the skills by adding a.atk x random number - b.def or something.. Im making my own animated skills and the once I have done so far is turning out pretty ok.
If you aren't too sure what effect changing the formula will have, or don't want to go through tests to ensure balance in custom formulas, you could still make a few interesting skills that deal damage based on HP, MP or level, for example. These can be used to create skills that are a bit different, and are quite predictable on the damage they will deal.
So a skill which deals damage based directly on your current HP might look like:
#Deals 50% of current HP as damage
a.hp / 2
#or a.hp * 0.5 if you don't like divide
or maybe it deals damage based on how much HP is lost:
#Deals the difference in Max HP and current HP as damage
a.mhp - a.hp
Same could be done with MP. You'd want to set variance to 0 if you want the damage to be exact and not influenced by random modifiers. It's a shame that the quick formula thing is a little lacking and doesn't really reflect the things you can do with custom formula.
Another thing you could do, is get someone who has an idea about those things to help you out with skill design and balancing.
If you aren't too sure what effect changing the formula will have, or don't want to go through tests to ensure balance in custom formulas, you could still make a few interesting skills that deal damage based on HP, MP or level, for example. These can be used to create skills that are a bit different, and are quite predictable on the damage they will deal.
So a skill which deals damage based directly on your current HP might look like:
#Deals 50% of current HP as damage
a.hp / 2
#or a.hp * 0.5 if you don't like divide
or maybe it deals damage based on how much HP is lost:
#Deals the difference in Max HP and current HP as damage
a.mhp - a.hp
Same could be done with MP. You'd want to set variance to 0 if you want the damage to be exact and not influenced by random modifiers. It's a shame that the quick formula thing is a little lacking and doesn't really reflect the things you can do with custom formula.
Another thing you could do, is get someone who has an idea about those things to help you out with skill design and balancing.
That sounds nice, I guess Its easier to estimate how much the damage your skills will deal with that kind of system right? At the moment I think I have a bit too high numbers as it is (in skill damage), along with the stats. What is your opinion on the stat system, is it better to have weapons that will increase the stats alot, and have a lower stat progression for the characters? At the moment my stats are doubled from the default swordmaster stat retribution. I like high numbers, as you might see so I want my skills to deal lots of damage, and my enemies to have higher hp. And lastly, is that hp formula viable for enemies aswell?
I have thought about asking someone that is more experienced with balancing aswell, hopefully I might find someone that can help me out a bit on that :)
You know disturbed, I wish I could show my first couple of projects for rpg maker (*cough* 95 *cough*). Quite frankly they were terrible. From what I see of your mapping skills you have no reason to worry about creating a game you won't be proud of. And, in the end, that's the goal anyways.
I hope you are right, and Im grateful for the kind words! And you are absoluteley right, thats the goal indeed :)
As a little bit of an update:
Im working on the final parts for puting up my new project thread, just need to take some more screenshots and present some of the characters. I hope I can get some feedback on there when Its up :)