Concept
Interaction formula catalogue
You might say: ways to combine attack and armour
A catalogue of mitigation formulas compares how armour changes damage taken: subtractive, divisive, percentage and threshold models.
- What it does
- Makes a hidden balance choice explicit before numbers are tuned.
- Ask
- Which response curve keeps every relevant interaction playable?
Catalogue: Mitigation model
- Subtract: Damage = max(0, raw damage − armour); a high armour value can reach immunity.
- Divide / ratio (League of Legends): Damage taken = raw × 100/(100 + armour), so armour reduces damage without reaching zero. Damage taken = raw × 100/(100 + armour) defines it; League of Legends is where it ships.
- Divide / ratio (Warcraft III): Damage taken = raw/(1 + 0.06 × armour), equivalent to raw × 16.6667/(16.6667 + armour). Damage taken = raw/(1 + 0.06 × armour) defines it; Warcraft III is where it ships.
- Percentage: Damage taken = raw × max(0, 1 − 0.02 × armour); the 2% per point rate is an illustrative setting, not a universal rule.
- Threshold: Damage is 100% below armour 20 and 0% at or above armour 20; this is a hard breakpoint model.
Sources
- Ian Schreiber, Level 3: Transitive Mechanics and Cost Curves
in a transitive mechanic, everything has a set of costs and a set of benefits, and all in-game effects can be put in terms of one or the other.
- Bethesda Softworks, Fallout: New Vegas Game Manual, p. 8
Damage is calculated by subtracting the DAM rating of the weapon you are firing against the Damage Threshold of your target’s armor.
- Bethesda Softworks, Fallout 3 Game Manual, p. 11
DR – The percentage of damage resistance the item offers
- Runarcana RPG, Objects
An object with a damage threshold is immune to all types of damage unless it suffers an amount of damage from a single attack or effect that equals or exceeds the damage threshold, in which case it receives normal damage.
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