We all know how to imitate armor with protoss shields: set them constantly to some number. Many RPGs that are in progress right now probably have different kinds of armor: gloves, helmets, torso armor, etc...

In all the RPG's I've seen that use the shield system, armor items simply add to your shields, which is not very realistic. Say equipping a metal vest adds 20 shields. So having only a leather vest means you'll always have 20 shields, without considering the 'randomness' of where the enemy actually hits you. So if you're hit in the arm that is not supposed to be protected at all, you still get the benefits of the torso protection.

Let us divide the body into segments and assign the probabilities of hits in these segments:
Head - 1/8
Torso - 3/8
Arms - 2/8
Legs - 2/8

Seems fair enough. The torso gets the most probability as it has the biggest area. You can distribute the probabilities as you feel like, this is just an example.

Now, assume we have the following items equipped, giving the corresponding protection:
Metal helmet - 10
Metal vest - 20
Leather gloves - 5
Diamond boots - 40

Since we are using probabilities based on 8 (you can use any power of 2), then let us cycle through all these armors within 8 trigger loops randomly. So out of every 8 trigger loops, we will have:
1 loop with 10 shields (metal helmet)
3 loops with 20 shields (metal vest)
2 loops with 5 shields (leather gloves)
2 loops with 40 shields (diamond boots)

in a random order.

I think this will help reflect differences of armor (having diamond boots and paper gloves) more realistically and make people actually care about the armor items they have, not just the shield number those items amount to.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 14 2009, 12:18 am by JaFF.

Well, anyone who's looking for shields might find this interesting.

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woah pigy that concept map is sweet.

Thank you. :]

I agree with Jaff, this is a really good idea.

all that does is heal you. You can't really factor in the dmg taken before you activate shields therefore it wont do you much good.


to the orignal idea yea it sounds decent for getting people to care about what they got but that also means people will be buyin/trading for or possibly picking up the ones that have more loops first rather than everything else.

I think you're misunderstanding the idea I described. Items don't have 'loops'.

fine since your not getting it Items that get hit more thats what they are going to care about. They are going to buy a leather vest that has 25 armor over a set of mithril gloves that give 50 armor be cause its more reliable. they will take 75 less dmg every 8 hits vs 50 less every 8 hits and if the monsters do smaller dmg say 40 or less it becomes even more prudent to get armor because you take 75 less vs 40.

They are going to go after the items that in the end give them the most protection. Id much rather have the above armor that cost the same or a bit more than the above gloves because it will be more useful to me.

Now that you've explained it much better, I see your point. And that is completely normal - people will first care about torso protection. If anything, it adds prioritising the armor purchases into the equation, which the previous setup did not have.

Kenoli and myself was using something like this in our RPG " Honor of the fallen " but didn't go indepth too much as your stating.

Idea would work real well in a rpg instead of using a virtual armor type of system.

You don't get it. =]

then enlighten me. After all that is what this part of sen is all about sharing ideas and concepts. Sharing means explaining also.

Pigy_G's idea was in another thread...it's how his shields will go all the way down/wait until they are turned off, then have to get back up to 50% before they can be switched back on, using EUDs. While the shield is down and the unit takes no damage, the shields regenerate, until they can be turned back on. While off, the unit [which usually doesn't have shields normally] takes regular damage.

It's very much like Halo's shield system, in that it regenerates after a small amount of time after taking damage, and it doesn't regen as you take damage.

Hopefully I explained it decently well...but if not, hopefully you can find better info in the actual thread, where it was shot down.

That was a very good description, I'm glad you're not like the rest of the idiots that posted about things they don't understand. Thank you. =]

You're not taking into account the skill of the shooter.
You'd have to assume that an expert marksman will hit more heads than legs, and that a noobish marksman will hit the ground more than a target.

I didn't even open the map, that's the sad thing. I gleaned all necessary info from the discussion, which to me means the basic description [my brain automatically ignores stuff that I don't need, or won't ever use], and that it contains EUDs, which I will most likely never deal with at all.

Dumbing down the information makes it 1--far simpler for me to explain to others, 2--easier for others to understand, and 3--easier for me to recognize basic principles and methods. Basic logic FTW



That would be extremely hard to account for, except as the RPG goes on, the ratio goes gradually from limbs & torso to head & vitals. Or, as the hero enters regions of differing skills [as in farmers being worse shots than people at, say, Area 51].

EDIT: note that the situations in the above example are extremes. I don't think--but there might be--farmers near Area 51. If it exists. According to Hollywood, it does. And we all know what's on T.V. is undoubtedly the truth

EDIT 2: why is it always assumed that "Area 51" is the supersecret military base? What happened to "Area 50"?

You're right. One simple adjustment to the basic idea will fix it: change the probabilities of hits as the game progresses. We started off with 1/8 (head), 3/8 (torso), 2/8 (arms), 2/8 (legs); as you progress through the story and the enemies get stronger, change it to 2/8 (head), 4/8 (torso), 1/8 (arms), 1/8 (legs) to represent less hits in the arms and legs and more hits in the torso and head. You can use probabilities based on 16 to be able to change the hit probabilities more smoothly if you wish.

This is really useful. Maybe the skill of the hero would be able to determine how often the enemy hit his shields rather than any other body part.

Dude, a chance to block system would be awesome.

Yeah, if you have a shield then the basic probabilities could be something like this:
Head: 1/8
Torso: 1/8
Arms: 2/8
Legs: 1/8
Shield: 3/8

The shield represents a very high amount of plasma shields, as it is supposed to totally stop an attack.

You can not only consider the hero's 'defensive' skills (HD), but also compare them to the enemie's 'attack' skills (EA). So if the probabilities describes above are true for HD = EA, then we could consider the following cases:

Case 1: HD > EA (more attacks are blocked by shield)
Head: 1/8
Torso: 1/8
Arms: 1/8
Legs: 1/8
Shield: 4/8

Case 2: HD >> EA (almost all attacks are blocked)
Head: 1/8
Torso: 0/8
Arms: 1/8
Legs: 0/8
Shield: 6/8

Case 3: HD < EA (less attacks are blocked)
Head: 1/8
Torso: 2/8
Arms: 2/8
Legs: 1/8
Shield: 2/8

Case 4: HD << EA (almost nothing is blocked, more hits to the head)
Head: 2/8
Torso: 3/8
Arms: 1/8
Legs: 1/8
Shield: 1/8

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 18 2009, 6:32 pm by JaFF.