Post by Pie on Jan 31, 2013 1:18:13 GMT -5
One of the problems that I've seen with the way that a lot of forum designs is that they make it relatively easy to godmod, and quite hard to determine whether or not someone is doing something beyond the capabilities of their character. In a pure longhand system, that doesn't use stats, it can quite challenging for both players and staff to determine things like "is my character fast enough to dodge this attack?" or "which character can throw a stronger punch?" Because of this, we use a stat system here on Wings of Fairy Tail. The stat system serves two primary purposes. The first purpose is making it easier to answer those aforementioned questions. The second reason is that, since you can increase stats over time, it gives your character a more tangible way to measure progress. Almost all roleplayers want their character to become stronger, and the stat system lets them do that in a measurable way.
As for the nature of the stat system itself, it might appear somewhat complex at first, but it's quite simple once you get into using it. There are no dice rolls to determine things, and there are no elements of random chance in it. The stat system will always give you fixed numbers to work with, and should thus provide a definitive yes/no answer. We took a lot of things into consideration when making this system to eliminate a number of issues that are present in other systems. The following is a list of design goals we had when building this system:
- Keep it simple
- Make it integrate well with the magic and trait systems
- Prevent min/maxing
In order to keep it simple, we decided to start with a tri-stat system. These are the stats you actually allocate your characters stat points into. The three stats are Body, Mind, and Soul. Body determines how strong and fast your character is. Mind is how smart your character is, as well as how fast they can react to things in combat. Soul is your internal power, aka magic. If you want to build a successful character, you won't be able to just throw all your stats into one skill. You can definitely specialize in one stat over the others to a degree, but putting only a minimal amount into any one stat is not recommended.
The next thing that we wanted to do, was directly integrate the stats with both the magic system and the trait system. This was done to give the system as a whole a more holistic feeling. How stats integrate with the magic system is mostly explained in the magic system post. For now, just keep in mind that the power of your magic is generally determined by your soul stat. Your soul stat also determines how many spells you can know. As for traits, they are split into body traits, mind traits, and personality traits. Your body and mind stats determine how many trait points you get to have, but personality traits are always a set number. The full explanation of how this works can be found in the trait system post.
A lot of stat systems have an issue with that's known as "min-maxing." This process entails focusing on making one aspect of your character so good that nothing can overcome it, but doing so at the cost of other aspects of your character being extremely weak. While many game developers would argue that min-maxing is a problem with players, and not the system, we did our best to make sure that complete min-maxing wouldn't be perfectly effective. We did this through three different methods. First is just that someone who is lacking in any given stat will have trouble performing certain tasks. For example, if you don't have a high body stat, chances are that your character won't be effective in hand to hand combat. The second method we used was the idea of "secondary stats." These secondary stats are hitpoints, stamina, and senses. All of these values are calculated based on your three core stats, and will be explained in detail in a bit. The third method we used to deter people from min-maxing was the aforementioned trait system. With these three things factored in, completely min-maxed characters will be quite powerful in one regard, but their lack of balance will likely make them weaker than a character who has an appropriate amount in all of their stats. This isn't to say that you can't favor one stat effectively, just that it's a bad idea to go to extremes.
The speed aspect of the body stat is a bit more ambiguous. Speed determines how fast your character can move, both in terms of running speed, and attacking speed. While strength is primarily an offensive stat, speed is mostly useful for defense. Your speed determines whether or not you are physically capable of dodging projectile based attacks, and is what determines if you can even get your arms/legs/shield/weapon in the way of an attack in time. The calculations for this will be explained in detail in the combat mechanics section. For further clarification, here is a table listing common values and giving you a rough idea of who would have stats at these values. It should be noted that the comparisons will start getting a bit ridiculous beyond 100, as these are legendary values.
| Body Stat | Attack Damage | Lifting Strength | Speed Comparison | Strength Comparison |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | A rock | You are dead |
| 5 | 5 | 25 pounds | A penguin | An old man with weak bones |
| 10 | 10 | 50 pounds | Average young teen | Average young teen |
| 15 | 15 | 75 pounds | Average 18 year old | Average 18 year old |
| 20 | 20 | 100 pounds | Athletic teen | Athletic teen |
| 30 | 30 | 150 pounds | Athletic adult | Athletic adult |
| 40 | 40 | 200 pounds | Professional soccer player | Professional linebacker |
| 50 | 50 | 250 pounds | Professional sprinter | Professional bodybuilder |
| 60 | 60 | 300 pounds | Olympic gold medal sprinter | Olympic gold metal weightlifter |
| 80 | 80 | 400 pounds | Rabbit | Young Gorilla |
| 100 | 100 | 500 pounds | Greyhound | Adult Gorilla |
| 200 | 200 | 1,000 pounds | Cheetah | "The Tank" from Left 4 Dead |
| 300 | 300 | 1,500 pounds | Sonic the Hedgehog | Goku at the start of DBZ |
| 400 | 400 | 2,000 pounds | The Flash | The Hulk |
| 500 | 500 | 2,500 pounds | Speed of Sound (No, you do not cause a sonic boom) | Goku, first time he goes SSJ |
The mind stat, like the speed portion of the body stat, is slightly ambiguous. Your mind stat is used to determine two things. Your character's reaction time and analytic ability. With enough analytic ability, your character can intuitively figure out how to solve some puzzles, or get hints about what to do. Analytic ability also allows you to figure out more about how your opponent's magic and fighting style works more effectively. This is quantified in terms of hints and solutions in the table below. A hint means you can either get a hint towards solving a puzzle, or understand the general concept of a spell. A solution means you are given the DM's recommended solution to a puzzle, or understand exactly how a spell works. A solution includes strengths and weaknesses of the spell. Reaction time simply determines how quickly you react to something. It's an essential component in being able to defend yourself. There are various combat techniques that make it easier to defend yourself
| Mind Stat | Speed You Can React to easily at Point Blank | Speed You Can React to at 50 Feet Away | Analytic Ability* |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Braindead |
| 5 | 5 | 10 | Mental Retardation |
| 10 | 10 | 20 | Middle School Student |
| 15 | 15 | 30 | High School Student |
| 20 | 20 | 40 | 1 D-Rank hint per thread |
| 30 | 30 | 60 | 1 D-Rank solution per thread |
| 40 | 40 | 80 | 1 C-Rank hint per thread |
| 50 | 50 | 100 | 1 C-Rank solution per thread |
| 60 | 60 | 120 | 1 B-Rank hint per thread |
| 80 | 80 | 160 | 1 B-Rank solution per thread |
| 100 | 100 | 200 | 1 A-Rank hint per thread |
| 200 | 200 | 400 | 1 A-Rank solution per thread |
| 300 | 300 | 600 | 1 S-Rank hint per thread |
| 400 | 400 | 800 | 1 S-rank solution per thread |
| 500 | 500 | 1000 | 1 SS/SSS-rank hint per thread |
The soul stat is by far the simplest and most direct of the three core stats. The soul stat is responsible for determining how powerful your magic is. The damage potential of your magic is simply determined by your soul stat times a damage multiplier, which is determined by the rank of the spell. S-class spells have a 5x multiplier, A-class is 3x, B-class is 2x, C-class is 1x, and D-class is 0.5x. Despite the simplicity of this stat, it is still incredibly important. Because of the class-multipliers, and the direct relationship to damage potential that the soul stat has, it is still highly important despite only having a single attribute.
Now that the core stats have been explained, we can get into the secondary stats. These stats are determined by the values of your core three stats, as was explained above. The sum of your body and mind stats determine your senses. Senses determine your ability to detect things in the world around you. This is a useful stat for many reasons. If your senses are high enough, you can do things like track people by scent, notice incredibly small attacks, or hear people whispering a hundred feet away. Because senses are a fusion of body and mind, this stat also includes the ability to use your senses intelligently. The higher your senses are, the faster you will be able to get used to new levels of stimuli. Once your senses are good enough, things like flashbang grenades will simply stop being effective against you, because your mind can near-instantly adjust to the new level of light and sound.
| Senses | Distance at which you can read a book | Distance at which you can read a sign or identify a person | Smelling accuracy | Distance you can hear someone talking at a conversational level* | Resistance to attacks on your senses** |
| 0 | 0 feet | 0 feet | no sense of smell | Completely deaf | Completely Immune |
| 10 | 6 inches | 2 feet | can recognize good/bad smells | They are talking right into your ear | -200% |
| 20 | 1 foot | 10 feet | can describe the smell, but not name it | 5 feet | -100% |
| 30 | 1.5 feet | 20 feet | normal human level | 10 feet | -50% |
| 40 | 2 feet | 30 feet | you can usually identify smells if you know their name | 15 feet | -25% |
| 60 | 4 feet | 50 feet | can always identify smells if you know their name | 20 feet | Neutral |
| 80 | 6 feet | 75 feet | can sometimes identify smells without knowing their name | 25 feet | 10% |
| 100 | 8 feet | 100 feet | can always identify smells without knowing their name | 30 feet | 15% |
| 120 | 10 feet | 135 feet | can identify people you know well by their smell | 35 feet | 20% |
| 160 | 14 feet | 170 feet | can identify someone by their smell regardless of how well you know them | 50 feet | 25% |
| 200 | 18 feet | 200 feet | can tell if someone has been in a given location by the smell of it | 75 feet | 50% |
| 400 | 50 feet | 400 feet | can follow scent trails up to one hour old | 100 feet | 75% |
| 600 | 100 feet | 600 feet | can follow scent trails up to one day old | 200 feet | Completely immune |
| Stamina remaining | How fatigued your character should appear |
| 100%-75% | You are fine, perhaps sweating a little |
| 74%-50% | You have a healthy sweat going Your breathing will be quicker than normal |
| 49%-25% | You are very sweaty Breathing is quicker than normal Breathing is starting to get a bit hard |
| 24%-1% | You are drenched in sweat Breathing is coming in quick, shallow gasps You are near your limit, and every action pushes your body to its limit |
| 0% | Your character passes out and will not awaken until they reach 100% stamina from resting. |