I am designing the stat system for an RPG-solo project and I have hit a wall.
I will warn you that there is a chance this might not move past theory-crafting, but I am enjoying creating it all the same.

Deciding between giving some of my stats utilities outside of simple combat. And also different kinds of damage and ways to avoid the damage. I guess I'll just post what I have to get some feedback. Trying to balance things :D

Body
Agile - Attack Speed, Evasion
Strong - Melee Attack, Health (HP), Carry
Tough - Health (HP), Defense, Health Regen
Mind
Focused - Hit, Ranged Attack, Energy Regen
Intelligent - Energy Attack, Energy (EP)
Wise - Energy Defense, Energy (EP)
Soul
Sprited - Health/Energy/Grace Regen
Pious - Grace Attack, Grace (GP)
Graceful - Grace Defense, Grace (GP), Evasion

I was wanting to go with something simple like 12 skill points to divvy amongst the 9 stats. You could specialize and put all 12 into one skill, or balance for more hybrid builds. I haven't yet picked the classes or even decided how limited I am going to make. But I'm sort of stuck at this roadblock.

Any tips on balancing it or maybe even experience of creating stat systems of your own?

[Edited by - MrBlu on June 24, 2010 6:11:50 PM]

To clarify something. The Grace Points will be used for 'godly' acts such as healing or buffing. Energy will be for both abilities and magic.

There are two main ways of balancing this:

Give the players 4 points per type of stat (body stats, mind stats, or soul stats) which they can only spend in that type

Give more base stats, but it costs more to level something up beyond level 1 (level 2 costs 2, level 3 costs 3, etc.)

You could try a mix of the two (you have penalties when you put more than 4 points in a single type of attribute)

One thing I see already...be especially mindful with your "Tough" trait. I don't know what your defense and regen models are, but consider whether defense and health regen are also acting as "effective HP" in combat by increasing the number of hit points a character can take in damage over a given time period. Make sure you aren't creating a situation where dumping all twelve points into "Tough" results in a slow-killing but immortal character, or at the same time resulting in a character that will be killed by any hit if you don't put any points into it at all.

Some other thoughts:

-I personally would use the word "Focused" instead of "Accurate" given its presence in the Mind category.

-It appears a ranged attacker can get all the offensive stats he needs by dumping stats into the Accurate trait, whereas a melee attacker needs to split points between Accurate and Strong (for "Hit" and melee attack power). If damage is completely determined by melee or ranged "attack" values (as opposed to damage associated with a weapon), melee characters could wind up at a huge disadvantage under the current setup unless you have modifiers included in your damage and hit calculations that balance melee out. At the same time, moving "Ranged Attack" to the Agile trait, which might seem logical, couples it with attack speed, which is not necessarily desirable either, again, depending on how your hit and damage formulas are set up.

How about adding Ranged Distance to Strong. So to shoot farther they would have to put points into Body.

Changed Accurate to Focused, I like it, definitely a good change.

I guess thats the problem I have right now. How would I go about making the formulas?

You could split Ranged Attack into Agile and Focused and make the stat bonus a bit weaker than Melee Attack. Even though they could get all their offensive stats by dumping in 1 stat, they wouldn't get as much benefit as a melee from a damage perspective. It would be compensated by rate of fire or accuracy.

Not a bad balance. Thanks, going to start working on some formulas.

Hello,

I would suggest making your stat tree slightly more balanced. As you said, you have yet to pick the classes. While having options to become a hybrid is always nice, you never wanna force a player into it. I made a few possible adjustments that you may or may not like. Keep in mind I'm not sure how you want each stat to work (IE, "Carry")

Body
Agile - Attack Speed, Evasion, Energy (EP)
Strong - Melee Attack, Carry
Tough -Defense, Health Regen, Health (HP)
Mind
Focused - Hit, Ranged Attack, Health (HP)
Intelligent - Energy Attack, Carry
Wise - Energy Defense, Energy Regen, Energy (EP)
Soul
Sprited - Health/Energy/Grace Regen
Pious - Grace Attack, Grace (GP)
Graceful - Grace Defense, Grace (GP), Evasion


I basically just made it so casters/melee are not required to waste points in order to increase their HP and EP. It appears that EP is used for any special ability. which leads me to assume a "warrior" for example would need to put points into "intel" in order to boost his special attacks. Make sure you keep stats balanced thru other ways as well, for example if he has a multi-swing attack, you can simply take his Melee Attack, and multiple it. For example: let's say his normal melee attack is 100. Multi-Swing has a 1.8 coefficient on it. His melee attack would then be 180. This makes it so "Energy attack" is not needed for a warrior as much as it would be for a "mage". However EP would still be consumed to make it fair.

Now if you wanted to use a Fiery sword attack, you could make it use "Energy attack" being that he sets his sword on fire.

Again just suggestions. And best of luck, keep us posted on your progress.

-Meegs

I've balanced things a little better. The percentages that certain skills will add to other stats. Like Focus will not give you a high attack bonus, but it will give you a significant one along with enhancing other stats.

How does the stats look now?

| Body
- Agile - ASPD, Evasion, Ranged Attack
- Strong - Melee, Attack, Health (HP), Block
- Tough - Health (HP), Defense, Health Regen
| Mind
- Focused - Hit, Ranged Attack, Attack, Casting Speed
- Intelligent - Energy Power, Energy (EP), Casting Speed
- Wise - Energy Power, Energy (EP), Energy Regen
| Soul
- Spirited - Health Regen, Energy Regen, Grace Regen
- Blessed - Grace Power, Grace (GP), Hit
- Graceful - Grace Power, Grace (GP), Evasion

That does appear to be a bit more balanced then your original post. Well done.

-Meegs