Daertalmos Online

Yo, if we want to go all out why not add a list of stats?

Strength, for example, would appear something like this:

Strength - A measurement of physical power which determines the raw physical damage the class does upon a basic attack or skill.

Then we could rank it based on our characters. For example, I would say Licht's Strength rating would be an A. The strongest base stats a player should have in this regard should be an S (Heavy Sword is an example). And bosses or whatnot could have EX.

That's actually a great idea, considering I just added stats and stuff to the items Artisans and such can craft. I guess I will create a template for that soon, though I'm probably going to use a lot of what FeyBlue used in her profile, if she doesn't mind.

I have confidence that Fey wouldn't mind. There had to be some sort of inspiration for it, I'm sure.

ayy lmao

This is why a bored Fey waiting for the next episode of an anime should never be allowed to format anything. >_>

Also, it's a mistake I encounter a great deal, but I'm not actually a girl. I just habitually use good grammar and punctuation and spam emoticons in everything I type because reasons. >_< Granted, most of my characters are female, but that's just because I find them easier to come up with, find images for, and write.

O_O I'm sooo very sorry FeyBlue!! I was just guessing and....I'm really sorry!

Ok so I'm looking at the 'inspiration'. I am not familiar with the series, so I'm having a little trouble figuring out how I can incorporate it with what I already have. I will post again (or edit this) with either options for everyone to vote on, or a template.

(PS: If anyone would like to create the template, by all means, go ahead. However, I have already started creating items that boost stats, so if we use a letter system, I'm not sure how well that will work with the number system....*Runs away to continue to work on this*)

Re-Edit-
(Thanks FeyBlue for the help on the stats and such)




*In this gaming system, the level cap (at this moment) is 100. That is not to say there wont be an upgrade to raise the level cap.
*Every level you gain 3 stat points.. The Maximum amount of skill points a skill can have is 50.
*There is a ranking system for equipping specialty and rare items. The value is the number of stat points needed for that rank, for each stat.
Rank Value
S 50
A 40
B 30
C 20
D 10
E 05

Example: A character has 24 Endurance points. That would make him have a D Rank in Endurance. This means he could equip a rare or special item that is rank D or lower.
*Increasing things like Luck and Alertness will help your character in the field. If your character is walking on an old worn out bridge, it could fall. Having a higher luck or alertness would help your character either not fall or be able to tell that they shouldn't walk on the bridge.
*Be sure to check out the different races, as some very as to which stats they are good with or are low in.

---

Ok, now that we have that cleared up, I'm going to give out some pointers.
*Sorcerers and Mages have- High: INT, and WIS. Possibly high: AGI and LCK. They will have Low: STR and probably low DEX.
*Elves will have high AGI but have pretty poor LCK and STR.
*Thieves, Dualblades, and Knucklers will have high AGI, DEX, and maybe even LCK. However, their STR will suck hard core.
LCK is based off race and the character in general. If you feel like your character has pretty decent luck, plus 1 or 2.
If you need help on setting the stats, PM me and I will help you out.

Ok, if everyone could fill this out too (sorry) and add it to their profiles, that would be great. Or, you can add it to your inventory page and I will just change the name to Inventory, Stats, and Skills. :)
Here is the code:

Code: Select all

~Stats~

[b]Class Level-[/b]
[b]Class EXP -[/b]
[b]Job Level-[/b]
[b]Job EXP -[/b]
[b]VIT -[/b]
[b]ENG[/b]
[b]STR -[/b]
[b]END -[/b]
[b]AGI -[/b]
[b]INT -[/b]
[b]WIS -[/b]
[b]DEX -[/b]
[b]AFF -[/b]
[b]LCK -[/b]

[b]Racial Skill -[/b] One personal skill based on either race.
[b]Personal Skill -[/b] One personal skill based on class. Could be attack or passive.


EDIT-EDIT: Well, looks like I was too slow creating this system. Ignore pretty much everything in this post. Sorry for the waste of space. @_@



It's no problem. Like I said, it happens all the time. :3

Anyway, as for the question of stats, I'd say that there are two options for creating a workable system to define relative character abilities.

1: We could define all stats numerically, and continue updating those stats as we level up. In this case, a hard and fast system for experience points, how many we get from any given monster, and how many we need to level up, would be necessary, as well as continuous updates to our bios so as to keep track of our current levels and stats. However, in this case, we could easily compare two characters' stats and/or do a dice roll and say "this guy can't dodge this attack" or something like that. We could also quantify values for HP and weapon damage, determining exactly how much damage somebody sustains from a given hit, and how many such attacks it takes to defeat them.

2: We forgo a numerical system in favor of listing generalized trends in our characters' specializations. For example, what I used for Aoife's "stats," giving a letter and a brief explanation of her different capabilities, thus indicating that she specializes mostly in hitting hard and fast and not tanking incoming blows or what-not. This way, we can just compare letter rankings between characters of a similar level and say, "Okay, this guy is faster than that guy," or what have you. The problem lies in determining similarities or differences between two characters of widely divergent levels. Like, would a level 20 with A+ rank agility be faster than a level 40 with D rank agility? Hard to say. On the other hand, this way would probably be easiest for everyone involve, and allow things to flow more like a fantasy story than a D&D session. Although, considering the setting is INSIDE an RPG, that sort of D&D feel might actually be a good thing.



Personally, If we went the route of a tangible stat system, I'd like to see one with a great many stats to choose from, a rather limited number of stat points obtained every level, and a fairly low level cap, so that way differences between character levels are more based on what gear they're using and less based on just "I have more XPs than you and therefore am god." That way, there would also be a whole lot of different specializations to choose from, and some stats would need to be sacrificed so that other, more useful ones could be leveled.

To give a random example, maybe a system with nine different stats.

• Vitality: Increases HP, resistance to status effects like bleeding, poison, etc.
• Energy: Increases SP, resistance to fatigue.
• Endurance: Reduces movement penalty from heavy equipment and from serious "crippling" wounds.
• Strength: Increases your physical strength. Damage is calculated partly by momentum, partly by precision. Thus, more strength = faster swings = more damage. As there are other ways to increase momentum, though, like simply moving quickly, this stat would normally be a logical choice for a dump stat, except that it also has a secondary effect of adding additional damage to your attacks based on the weight class of your weapon, meaning it scales best with two-handed swords, axes, hammers, and the like. This bonus scaling also affects unarmed combat. Some of these heavier weapons also require a certain level of strength just to wield them, like how some sets of heavier armor require a certain level of endurance just to wear.
• Dexterity: Adds aim-correction effect when you attack, ensuring bladed weapons cut as cleanly as possible, and ranged weapons have less of a chance of missing. The more accurate your attacks, the higher your chance of scoring critical hits. Since simply having a really good aim would render this stat pointless otherwise, this stat also increases your damage dealt by critical attacks. It also gives extra damage based on the sharpness or penetrative ability of your weapon, causing it to scale best with piercing or slashing type armaments such as spears, scimitars, rapiers, daggers, and the like.
• Intelligence: Required to cast any kind of magic. Higher intelligence gives access to better spells, and increases the base damage dealt by spells. Higher levels also allow you to cast multiple spells at once, with 35 allowing 2 spells to be cast simultaneously, 40 allowing for 3, 45 allowing for 4, and 50 allowing for a total of five to be cast at once. This stat also increases your RESISTANCE to magic, making it potentially useful for a swordsman who fights mages on a regular basis.
• Wisdom: Dexterity for spellcasters. Instead of increasing the raw power of your spells, this stat improves their aim, lowers the cost of casting, and increases the speed you cast at. It's the difference between firing a single, massively destructive laser and firing twenty smaller homing lasers one right after the other. Some spells have a Wisdom requirement either in place of or in addition to an intelligence requirement, forcing those in search of the most powerful forms of magic to sacrifice other stats to focus solely on nuking things with storms of arcane power.
• Affinity: An oft-overlooked stat that slightly increases the effects of runes socketed into your equipment. At lower levels, it's useless due to the weakness of runes at that rank. At higher levels, though, where runes gain "Active effects" that trigger a temporary, much more significant boost to the user's combat capabilities, it can give the user a massive boost in power. This stat also increases the duration and effects of buffs applied to the user, be it through magic, active runes, or potions. Mostly only truly useful for melee-based characters, since mages can do everything runes can and more with magic.
• Agility: Increases your movement speed, jump height, and the like. A dump stat for those wearing heavy armor, as the encumbrance involved usually means your movement would be handicapped to the point that this stat would be rendered useless.

In this system, the level cap would probably be somewhere around... say... 100. You would gain 3 stat points at every level, which you could invest in any stat you chose. The maximum points you could put into any stat would be 50. Between levels 1-10 in a given stat, bonuses would be inconsequential. Between levels 10-20, bonuses would be fairly significant, with 20 being a high enough score for most cross class abilities. I.E. A swordsman could get fairly decent magic abilities by leveling his INT to 20. Between 20-30, increases would be fairly low. After level 30, it would take 2 stat points to level a given stat any further, but levels 30-50 would provide the best possible bonuses. For example, leveling your intelligence from 20 to 30 would cause a fireball that dealt 50 damage to deal 65 damage. Leveling your intelligence from 30 to 40, however, would cause that 65 damage fireball to deal something like, say, 120 damage. From 40-50 would increase that to somewhere in the neighborhood of 200. It's much more costly to actually get those levels, making it impossible to maximize one stat without sacrificing another. However, it also allows you to specialize in a given stat beyond the point of absurdity, minimizing weaknesses while maximizing your strengths. At the same time, it also ensures that higher levels wouldn't be able to actually increase their stats very much per level, while low level players could increase their abilities rapidly to start out. So, a level 50 could fight a level 100 and, although it'd be a difficult battle, the newbie could win through sheer skill. The same rule applies to dangerous enemies, however, meaning that one never becomes so overwhelmingly tough that enemies no longer pose a threat to him or her.

Each class would start with its own unique set of stats, with their main focus stats somewhere between 10-15, their secondary stats somewhere between 6-10, and their ideal dump stats somewhere between 1-5. This way, a mage doesn't need to spend so many points leveling up his INT, and can focus on giving himself some more HP or SP with his spare points, while a swordsman has a harder time picking up magic as a secondary. Thus, each class is somewhat limited in what it can potentially do, but not so much that all Long Arms would fight exactly the same way, and all mages would end up casting the same spells. It gives the system a touch of personalization that most MMO setups don't have, and also has plenty of built in balances to ensure nobody has too much of an edge on anybody else. Like, sure, that speedy ninja with the ability to cast five fireballs in five seconds is nearly impossible to hit, but if he can't damage the guy hiding behind the tower shield wearing full granite armor for more than a 1 on each hit out of the guy's 800 HP, while he only has 100 HP himself, then neither of them's gonna be winning any time soon.

Now that I've rambled on for 1.5k or so words, I should probably shut up before you all die of boredom. Your thoughts?

EDIT: After giving it some thought, in this hypothetical system, I'd also like to add some notes on runes. Instead of increasing stats, they would grant a static boost to specific things influenced by those stats. So, physical attack instead of strength, movement speed instead of agility, etcetera. Active runes could have even more specific effects, performing certain tasks instead of influencing your parameters. For example, a rune of damage might have an active effect that creates an explosion when you swing a sword, or a rune of defense might create a magical barrier to block one incoming attack. These effects could be triggered at will, but would have a rather long cooldown afterwards. Also, although their usage doesn't take SP, it does damage the rune, meaning repeated uses without repair could permanently destroy the rune. Like spells, certain runes would also have an affinity requirement to use them.

Lol So, I was editing my post above and when I was finally done, I noticed your post. I think we had the same idea, or at least one along the same lines. I had already started to think about the Stats when Pants mentioned it, and was simply overwhelmed with real world stuff with the last post. It was a case of I was making it too complicated when it was pretty simple. *sigh*

I think I will be adding the Affinity stat to my list above though and you do make a very good point with the runes. I think I will go with that. I'll be editing it in the shop and inventory.

What does everyone else think about the system?

Also FeyBlue, if you don't mind, I think I am going to steal bits and pieces of the descriptions you used for the stats. Like the Intelligence stat, how each level effects how many spells a mage or sorcerer can use at once. I really like that idea!

XD Same here. For a minute, I was worried that I'd just wasted my time completely, and then I realized that our ideas were pretty much the same. Shouldn't be too hard to work into a cohesive system from here.

Also, I notice that you had contradictory descriptions for agility and dexterity. Namely, that they both define movement speed. Maybe base movement speed solely on AGI and change DEX to focus more on aim? I kind of liked the way I balanced it and strength, such that each could be taken as a dump stat by a player with different focuses.

I agree, and I am going to review each stat and basically blend the two descriptions together. You had a lot of good ideas in there and I want to add them.

I'm glad you noticed that. I am about to edit the character template sheet on the main page, with a description of each stat, so I'm glad you caught that (cause I missed it lol) Thanks :)

I have things to say but no time to say them atm. Expect something in a bit, hopefully.

So, wait, were we sticking with 50 as maximum level in each stat, or did that change to 100? In that case, we may want to increase the number of stat points per level, the number of points it costs to level up at higher levels, and the amount of scaling gained from levels during each tier of leveling up so that things balance out a little better, especially since now there are more stats than ever. XD

Also, having Defense as a character stat rather than being defined solely by armor seems a bit weird. Maybe that's just me, but...

EDIT: Re-read the post, I see defense is to determine what armor you can wear. Doesn't Endurance kind of already do that? Adding another stat for the same purpose seems a little redundant.

EDIT #2: Also, Alertness doesn't seem like something that could really be reliably made into a game mechanic. Using "Luck" to determine drop rates and increase critical hit chances was a good touch, but there's not really much you could do in a VR system to artificially augment a person's perceptions. It seems like something that would more vary based on the player rather than a part of the engine, since players would see things through their characters' eyes, and thus would need to actually consciously notice things based on their own personal awareness.

Plus I think we're missing a stat to increase SP now, since your original stat for that purpose was Wisdom, which I kinda hijacked...

Ya, sorry. I was thinking 50 was kinda low because I normally see it higher, but after doing the math, realizing we are doing everything ourselves, I think we can just go with your plan. And just so we are clear and I'm not mistaken, this is somewhat similar to what you are talking about.

*3 stat points per level (50 points max for each stat ; Character level cap is at 100)
*I was thinking 1 point each until a stat reaches 15, then it would cost 2 skill points to level it. At 25 it would cost 3. And at 35 it would cost 4 points to level it, or at lvl 35 we could just to 5 points, because I know games that are annoying like that. lol

I'll be honest, I was focusing too much on the fact this is a MMO and kinda forgot for a second about the VR part...*sigh* Thank you again. However, with alert I was thinking of it being more of a race thing. Elves and Duinehithes will have better hearing and sight then humans. MadraRua Duines will be able to feel the presence of magic better than Cusidheach Duines. Yes, the play will automatically feel or sense these things, however I thought it might be something important to add to the stats, since as a character levels, this stat will raise. Also, there will be events in the game that will raise or lower this stat, regardless of race.
Though if you think it is still unnecessary, I will delete it. It was just an idea I had, and you seem to know a lot more about stats and stuff then I do. Honestly, I usually have to get help or look at guides when stat building lol

As for defense, I will delete it. Though I think adding it was simply because I feel the need to put defense in there. It is in almost every game I have played that deals with stats. I always try to build it up with most of my characters, so I guess I just added it. Your right though, and thanks for pointing it out.

In regards to the SP lol I was thinking we could just move the definition of wisdom onto intelligence. Usually it is spellcrafters who use INT and WIS. Even if other places do level that stat up, almost all classes will be able to use some kind of spell (even if it is a very basic heal or something). I think making it both would work, but as I said, you are better at this then I am. With wisdom cleared up though, we could use it as a stat to build SP again.

The thing is, with level 100 as a maximum, we'd only have a total of 360 stat points. It would take about 65 on average to level a stat to 50 with just 2 stat points as the cost for levels after 30. With that much of a cost, it would be nigh impossible to level anything to 50. Ideally speaking, with this many stats, each person's build would have about two to three stats they specialize in, so they'd want to max those out. With that high a cost, it wouldn't be possible.

As for awareness, it might be interesting to have that as a potential personal skill rather than a stat. SAO had an interesting depiction of that in the form of that tracking system they used, where people's footprints appeared and ambushers and traps were highlighted. Maybe revamp the passive skills section to include one racial skill, and one appropriate to class. We could give various forms of heightened awareness and/or magical proficiency to elves and Duines, with modifications as fit for the individual species, and Humans, meanwhile, might have some physical buff type thing to compensate for their lessened magical aptitude/senses. Players could then give themselves a personal skill fit for their character build, justified in universe as just being one of many possible class skills.

On the subject of Wis vs SP, I'm not saying you should change wisdom as a stat. Having two stats for casters means that magic will have good balancing, so that powerful mages have to sacrifice things like the ability to wield melee weapons or wear heavy armor or move fast or something in order to use their abilities to the fullest. I'm just saying that we should include a stat for raising stamina, like replacing DEF with the Energy stat I had in my setup.

Admittedly, this whole thing is less me being good at stat systems and more me heavily copying the concept behind Dark Souls and just twisting it to fit a VR game, but thank you very much for your compliments regardless.

Ya, I figured that out after working it out in my head, which is why I changed it back to 50. The players will need to level up in order to figure out what is going on in the game, to help them get out of it. It's not going to be as simple as defeating floors of dungeons, though I want to keep some points of the plot as a surprise. I hope it keeps everyone on their toes and ready for anything.

Hm..Thats a good point. I guess I could add the race skill(s) under each race, and whoever can just copy it. I was thinking of something along the same lines for the Humans.

Right, energy! Ok, I'll fix that. I have been bouncing all around trying to get things ready, thinking we could start tonight. I guess we can start tomorrow since Pants and afreerobin haven't posted their inventory yet, and I don't think afreerobin is aware of the stats thing yet. Then again, I need to fill in all that information myself.

lol I haven't played the game yet, though I have heard great things about it.

Dark Souls? Great? More like the most boring game in existence, rather. Take it from me, in the time since I got it for Sexbox 360 from a friend about two months ago, I probably only have like 300 something hours into it.

So obviously boring.

I was originally going to mention a system that involved each race and class having specific stat increases per level, on top of special class/race skills that all have.

Hmmm, I'm a bit drunk so bear with me here.

Does having a one-time stat allocation at the beginning sound good? Like we could combine the Fate thing with your guys' thing at the beginng. Say something like the player is allowed to give a rank to each stat (with an average having to be met, of course) and this would determine their scaling for said stat per level. Then class/race stats are added in.

So someone could say they wanted A STR, A AGI, B DEX, C VIT, C END or something and they would obviously scale as a glass cannon as they leveled. If we want, every set level interval we can also add free points to spend, assuming we want to fine tune our character. Again I'm drunk so if this makes no sense then please forgive me I love you all don't kill me.

I like the idea Pants, but the stats thing has already set me back hours on my to-create list. Also, I'm not that great with stat building, so something that complex (at least, as complex as my brain is making it right now...it might not be that complex tomorrow after some sleep) isn't something I am ready to control.
Since we don't have a Co-GM to help right now, I am kinda bogged down with creating NPCs, fields, monsters, crafting skills and items, as well as getting the intro ready...oh and my character too. I haven't done her stats and I need to complete her profile.

Now, I'm not saying no to the idea. If everyone else gets it and wants to do that, that's fine and I'll figure it out. Also, we are almost all newbies (except the beta testers), so maybe its something we could incorporate at a certain level?

EDIT: REJOICE, YOUNG MAN. YOUR DESIRED COMBAT SYSTEM HAS FINALLY BEEN GRANTED.


Hmm... Maybe ranking things with a letter by tens would work. I.E. E = less than 10, D = 10-19, C = 20-29, B = 30-39, A = 40-49, S = 50. Then, as a means of determining the stats required to use a certain level of gear, define it by two ranks - its defense against physical and its defense against magic. The physical stat determines the weight of the armor, and thus the endurance needed to use it. Armor with a B-Ranking would take at least 30 Endurance to use, for example. Then, armor could have a certain level of effectiveness based on its ranking vs. the ranking of the weapon/spell trying to pierce it, with the attack needing a certain level of power to even pierce the armor, but the armor only applying its effects so long as it's actually what's being hit. To give an example, Aoife's bits of metal armor would probably have on their own a base level of D-Rank against physical and magic - known as D/D - Rank - but would only apply their effects if somebody actually hit her breastplate, shoulder-guards, or things like that. Her gear would probably block any E-Ranked attacks completely, while a D-Rank physical or magic attack would probably have its damage halved. Against anything above that, all it would do is prevent critical hits from being inflicted. Although, armor's defensive capability could be raised by the use of defensive runes. As she is now, with a rune applied to her cuirass, her chestplate could perhaps guard D-rank physical attacks perfectly, although it would still be unable to reduce damage from C-Rank physical attacks, and would take halved damage from D-Rank magical attacks. This could be designated "D+/D rank armor." With a better defensive rune, it might halve C-Rank physical attacks, too, earning it C/D-Rank designation, or perhaps it might block D-Rank Magic attacks, earning it D+/D+ designation. Or, with an even better one, it might block C-rank physical attacks completely, I.E. C+/D+. However, based on its weight class and rarity, armor would probably reach a maximum level of effectiveness. Say... the most common armors can't be upgraded with runes, limiting their potential to its default level. Semi-rare armors can be upgraded, but by no more than one full rank in both categories - I.E. starting at C/D rank, upgrading to B/C rank. Rare armors, like the Dame Paladin's set, could be upgraded up to the maximum potential of their weight class. Light Armor would probably reach its maximum level at C+-Rank against physical, with Medium Armor reaching its maximum level at B+ Rank against physical, and Heavy Armor tapering out at A+ Rank against physical. Against magic, the order is reversed, with Heavy Armor coming in only at C+, Medium remaining B+, and Light armor maxing out at A+ against magic. On the other hand, there IS no S-Rank in armor, thus meaning that S-Class attacks CANNOT be stopped/reduced by armor alone. Each piece of equipment also could have a set number of rune slots that varies depending on the gear. The lighter the armor, the more rune slots it might usually have. Also, the larger the area of the garment is actually "armored," the more runes it will likely possess. To give an example, the Dame Paladin's Set is divided between Medium and Light armors. The Vambraces, Dress, and Circlet are all Light, while the Armored Corset, Faulds, and Arm Guards are Medium. As a result, the Arm Guards only have one slot, while the Faulds and Corset have two. The Dress and Vambraces each also have two, due to their limited surface area. Since the Circlet is entirely made of metal and consists only of light class armor due to its lack of protectiveness, it has a whopping five rune slots. Of course, anything save Active Runes or passive buffs to stats other than defense would have any notable effect there, given how tiny the Circlet is, so this method is something of a double-edged sword.

Now that I've concluded by rant on armor, allow me to explain my reasoning for simplifying the process down to a single letter ranking vs. letter ranking basis. That way, for enemy mobs, instead of coming up with detailed stats for all of them, we can just list their attack judging by letter ranking and still know whether or we could tank/block then. Of course, there's still the question of how we'll define attack and HP... For HP, maybe each level of VIT from 1-10 gives 10 HP, each level from 10-20 gives 30, each level from 20-30 gives 10 again, each level from 30-40 gives 40, and each level from 40-50 gives 50. SP and Energy would work the same way, with a basic attack draining 1 SP and special attack skills - powerful spells, multi-hit melee attack katas - each having their own built-in cost. For attack power, I guess that means we should probably define damage and weapon rank similarly. For an E-rank weapon or spell, its base damage should be somewhere around 1/5th of max E-Rank vitality, so that'd be 18 HP of damage. The principle would be the same for other ranks, too. Then we can add to that scaling based on your relevant stat - strength for melee damage or intelligence for magic damage. If your relevant stat is E rank, you get 1 point of damage for each stat point. For D, 2. For C, 2.5. For B, you get 3.5, for A, you get 4.5, and for S, you get a whopping 5 points of extra damage for each stat point you've invested, resulting in perfect-grade scaling of 250 extra damage. Finally, critical hits are triggered whenever you land a "perfect" hit, either striking your target dead on with magic or cutting/stabbing them such that their body provides no resistance, like a guy collapsing in half after a single katana swing in a samurai movie. If blocked even partially by armor, critical hits could not occur. Critical damage multipliers could be defined by where you hit, meanwhile. A limb would be 1.1x damage, stomach would be 1.3x damage, chest and vitals would be 1.5x damage, and throat/head would be 2x damage. These rules would be different against non-humanoid enemies, of course, but the principle is the same. In the case of mobs, We can just assume that their relevant scaling stats are the median value in their letter group they fall into. A B-Rank Mage mob, for example, could be assumed to have 35 INT and WIS. A D-Rank warrior mob could be assumed to have 15 STR and DEX. Their accuracy could thus be estimated accordingly.

EDIT: Ah, right, one more thing. Weapons are ALSO capable of being enhanced with runes to increase their level. Like armor, maximum weapon effectiveness could mostly be determined by size, sharpness, etc, with light weapons like knives, clubs, and fist-weapons capping out at B-rank, medium weapons like swords, axes, hammers, maces, spears and the like capping out at A-rank, and heavy weapons like two-handed greatswords, greathammers, poleaxes and the like capping out at S-rank. However, lighter weapons cause less encumbrance to carry, can be dual wielded, and attack much faster, while heavier weapons sacrifice speed and numbers for power and reach. Also, just because you have 50 strength doesn't mean you can wield an S-Rank heavy weapon. Rather, that would also require 50 endurance, which means S-Rank attacks, in practice, only belong to those who have either devoted a large portion of their total stat points specifically to doing just that, or those who have focused largely on INT and WIS instead.

EDIT 2: Aaaaaand it turns out I completely forgot about resistance based on stats. To keep matters simple, let's calculate resistance to damage by taking the same setup we use to calculate scaling for attacks, and then halving the output. So, your physical resistance would be 1/3 of your physical damage scaling, and your magic resistance would be 1/3 of your magic damage scaling. If your resistance is higher than the damage you're taking, it's negated.

I think that should just about cover our bases, as far as the combat system goes. Although, one other thing of note is that having enough endurance to use a set of armor/strength to use a given weapon doesn't mean you can use it without encumbrance. It means you can use it with the level of encumbrance a normal person would have, wearing/wielding that item. For swords and light armor, the two are functionally the same. For heavy plate mail and great hammers, though, to give a random example, it would still mean you were slow as hell. I aim to avoid the quandary of ninja-flipping giant-dads.

So, one final issue we need to address is what stats each class should start with. I, personally, think we should probably leave that up to those who are actually playing the classes in question, since it looks like each person is playing a different class from everybody else. That way, we can all hopefully min-max our builds as we'd like to have them with a little more efficiency. That being said, I propose we all limit ourselves to 75 starting stat points to distribute roughly according to our builds' focus stats, with the additional regulation that there must be at least 4 stats equal to or less than 5, and at most 3 stats above 10, with 15 being the highest possible amount of points you can start with in any given skill. I've come up with working beginning stats for a Longarms here to demonstrate what I mean.

• Level: 1
• HP: 100
• SP: 90
• Weapon Grade: E, Physical
• Armor Grade: D/D for Medium pieces, E/C for Light.
• P. ATK: 24
• M. ATK: N/A (No Magical Weapon equipped.)
• P. RES: 2
• M. RES: 1
• VIT: 10 (E)
• ENG: 9 (E)
• END: 10 (D)
• STR: 6 (E)
• DEX: 13 (D)
• INT: 4 (E)
• WIS: 2 (E)
• AFF: 5 (E)
• AGI: 15 (D)
• LCK: 1 (E)

And now that I am done once again assaulting your eyes with an unsightly wall of text, might I once again solicit your thoughts on the matter? XD

So I don't know how much I can help with this, but I can cheer you guys on. Whooo! You can do it! I believe in you! It'll be awesome!!!!

Well, I have read the wall (lol) twice and I think I get it, however that means I'm going to have to edit the armour in the shops and that can be crafted.

As for the monsters, I was just using level as a guide. I was going to use an online dice roll to figure out the damage done, taken, how many attacks it would take to defeat said monster and such. The stats on the characters, to me, was more for PVP and guadging how your leveling compared to other players.

The plot is going to be partially character driven, but not on how many levels they can gain. That is only important because they will need to get through certain areas in order to find pertinent information to solving the mystery of what is going on. There will be dungeons, bosses, and monsters but there are also other skills characters might want to work on such as their jobs or researching in game stuff. I am in the process of expanding the lore system, building religions and such, which will be extremely important to the plot and character progress.

There is no telling how long they will be stuck there before they find out how to beat the game so I think these things will be a nicety for them to remind them of real life.

I like the idea of adding this, but I feel like this is something out of my range of abilities. And if someone needs help, it will be extremely hard for me to help them, when I myself barely understand it. Though, if you don't mind helping, I can try my best to add it. I have played a lot of games, but I am usually similar classes and have never done stat building like this before.

Also, I had in mind to leave a lot of things like this up to the player and their creativity/imagination. I mean, I wanted stats to progress the leveling, keep people from going crazy with stuff or god modding, but for the most part, I was planning on leaving a lot of this up to the player.

Though with implementing stats, I realized each characters post might need to contain some sort of banner to keep everyone straight. 'Name: Class: Level: Job: Job Level: HP: SP:' The job leveling will be important later in the story, so I think it is important to go ahead and incorporate it in this heading.

So again, if everyone else is game for this addition, I will add it. However, I would like to request some help with it for the first few monsters and if players ask questions I don't know the answer to.

I've saved some basic data on the combat system I suggested and organized it into a shorthand for convenience's sake, so I should be able to keep track of damage numbers and the like if people need a human calculator. Of course, if you'd rather not bother, then that's fine too. I think I went a little bit overboard with this one. @_@ Sorry.