Combat Math?

[roguelikeboy]

Hey everybody

Anyone know the math behind the combat mechanics, how is it resolved, down to the nitty gritty.

I'm asking because I play a lot of Tabletop RPGs and knowing all the mechanics and see them play out really helps me appreciate a game.

[roguedjack]

The attacker has an attack value.
The defender has a defence value.
The values are computed from various factors (weapons, skills, tired/not tired...).

Each actor roll a number between 0 and their value.
The roll distribution is not linear but bell-curved around half the value. In RPG term that would mean rolling a n-sided dice that is biased toward average values.

If the attacker roll beats the defender roll it's a hit.

Damage is then rolled within [1/2 max..max] where "max" is the attack damage value (weapon,skill etc...).
So a weapon will always do at least half its maximum damage.

[Deon]

Hm, is the distribution normal, or does it follow some different rules? It's actually interesting.

Could you also tell how do other checks work? Like, policemen checking if you're a murderer.

Are the distribution the same when it's not real, but "simulated" for other districts? Or maybe the combat is simplified there and checks are different?

[roguedjack]

Mar 2, 2011 14:05:00 GMT Deon said:

Hm, is the distribution normal, or does it follow some different rules? It's actually interesting.

Mmmh I'm not a math guy but what I do is simply this:
roll(0,max/2) + roll(0,max/2)
instead of
roll(0,max)
which gives a bell-curve thing.

Could you also tell how do other checks work? Like, policemen checking if you're a murderer.

Spotting a murderer is a sequenceof % checks and is initiated by the spotter AI. One failed check means not spotted.
1 spotter: % of chance to actually check for a murderer this turn.
2 murderer: must fail unsuspicious % roll.
3 then a final % roll, based on distance and number of murders.

Are the distribution the same when it's not real, but "simulated" for other districts? Or maybe the combat is simplified there and checks are different?

What simulation does is basically deciding some turns are "lo detail". Lo detail turns are stripped of almost all tasks that are normally performed in a normal turn (AI, scents...). Only a couple of basic tasks are performed normally. That's why simulated turns runs much faster since only a fraction of them are actually played out like normal turns.