Game Mechanics: Melee Damage (Long)

[Treats]

Most of the data is obtained from here which was originally posted on September 8, 2000:

http://www.thesteelwarrior.org/forum...ead.php?t=1541

First Graph and explanation of main hand damage from 2000:

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This is the Damage Profile of my Journeyman's Walking Stick (9/24) as wielded mostly in my Primary hand. I got this graph by logging all of my combats so far in 46th level, then going in with a text editor and removing everything but the "You crush" or "You try to crush" messages. Since my offhand weapon is a Kunzar Ku'Juch (1HSlash), this left me with a logfile of nothing but my hits with the Journeyman's Walking Stick.

You will notice that there are a few hits for Damage values from 1 to 7. These come from a few battles where I (for tactical reasons) switched hands and put the JWS in my offhand. Since the offhand doesn't get the Level Damage Bonus, my minimum damage for the JWS in the offhand is 1. There was no easy or consistent way to weed these battles out of the graph, so I just left them in. So pretend that they're not there.

The first thing to note are the two prominent peaks on the graph. The biggest peak falls at what we call the "Magic Number." The Magic Number is a Damage value that, at 28th or higher (and possibly at 20th or higher) can be calculated with the formula:

[(2 * DMG) + (Level Damage Bonus)]

The Journeyman's Walking Stick has a DMG of 9. According to this formula, my Magic Number will be [(2 * 9) + (7)] == (18 + 7) == 25.

And sure enough, the biggest peak falls on 25.

(It's called the "Magic Number" because it's the amount of damage you will hit for the most. Around 20% of your total hits will be for the Magic Number.)

The second peak falls at the Minimum Damage (aka MIN). From 28th level onward (and possibly 20th level onward), MIN can also be precisely calculated as follows:

1 + (Level Damage Bonus)

According to this, my MIN should be 1 + 7, or 8. And sure enough, the second peak on my Damage Profile is at 8.

You will notice that the majority of hits fall between these two peaks in a roughly (VERY roughly) even distribution. I say "even" because the lesser peaks between MIN and the Magic Number are almost always compensated by "valleys". In other words, there is a small peak at 12. But there's a "valley" at 9, which tends to even out the peak at 12.

Above the Magic Number, we have two types of hits. The first type are normal hits up to Max Damage (MAX).

According to the most accurate formula we have currently, your MAX can be calculated thus:

[((Weapon Skill + Strength)/100) * (DMG)) + (Level Damage Bonus)]

According to this, with my 110 STR, my max damage for the primary hand wielding a JWS should be:

[((200 + 110)/100) * (9)] + 7 == (3.1 * 9) + 7 == 27.9 + 7 == 34.9

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From Project 1999:

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Level 50 Warrior
210 Offense
185 Strength
8 Damage Bonus

This is the Damage Profile of Warrior with a Beetle Stinger (9/23) wielded in Primary hand on Project 1999 (sample is a lot smaller). On Project 1999 Offense is used instead of Weapon skill in damage calculations. Everything falls in line with the post from 2000 except for the range of damage.

Minimum hit -- Weapon Damage + 1 (8 + 1 = 9)

Maximum hit -- (Offense + Strenth) / 100 * Weapon Damage + Damage Bonus
(210 + 185) / 100 * 8 + 8 = 39.6 (Higher Values on the graph are Crits)

The problem seems to be with the range from Minimum to Maximum.

Magic Number -- Weapon Damage * 2 + Damage Bonus (8 * 2) + 8 = 24

There is no magic number. If there is it seems to be maximum damage instead. The Minimum looks fine but there should be a greater concentration of hits between 9 and 24 with the most occuring at 24. After 24 it should be gradually dropping off as you get closer to Maximum damage. Estimating the total number of hits on the graph from 2000 - 3750 total. He states about 20% of them should be for the magic number. The magic number probably went higher than 460 and all the way off the graph. 460 for magic number (12.666%), 390 for minimum (10.4%). This is just an estimate.

The incorrect RNG seems to be the problem for melee damage on P99. Huge percentage of hits for max damage, next highest at minimum, and a low percentage in between. I have parsed two hand damage and flying kick for a Monk and those damage tables look almost identical to the Warriors. Have not tested any of the other skills, assuming those graphs would look similar.

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Bash/Slam damage seems off here on P99 as well.

From 2000:

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This is a damage profile for my Bash skill. I always dual-wield, and I always ghetto-bash. So I was able to edit my log with a text editor and remove everything but the bashes.

There is a big peak at 12 and a smaller peak at 1. Since Bash is done with the offhand, it doesn't get the Level Damage Bonus. So the Magic Number should be (2 * DMG). Since (2 * DMG) appears to equal 12 in this case, I surmise that Bash is a DMG 6 "weapon." Plugging this DMG value in to the MAX formula seems to confirm this, because if Bash is a DMG 6 "weapon," my MAX Bash damage at 110 STR should be 18, which fits the graph. The hits for 20, 22, and 30 are critical hits.

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From Project 1999:

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Level 50 Warrior
210 Offense
185 Strength

According to this post Bash/Slam should be a 6 damage weapon used in the offhand. No damage bonus.

Minimum hit -- 1

Maximum hit -- (Offense + Strenth) / 100 * Weapon Damage
(210 + 185) / 100 * 6 = 23.7

Magic number -- Weapon Damage * 2
6 * 2 = 12

No hits for 1 and nothing higher than 4.