Element Base Damages?

[glennxserge]

Yeah, there are actually a ton of permutations of possible element behaviors.  It's really cool to see there are other people still thinking about this game, and trying to understand how it works.  I recall seeing a few pages on element growth patterns from you; super helpful!

I've been trying to unravel the element block design 100%, but there are quite a few different modes and depending on the mode, some bytes either don't function or do something completely different. Case in point: when byte 0x07 is 3 (healing type), the byte 0x0C acts as a percentage to recover used elements in caster's grid.  In most modes it is the random variance for damage.  There are a bunch of these little cases that make it hard to get a complete picture.

I'm keeping some documentation as I go, but it you have other info, Grobycftw, or want to share anything, I have a google doc shared publicly for reading through here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zIbRQNKfrUpU9xHtKT3wDB4Gy1SjtlaEF-Ok8g73cnA/edit?usp=sharing
(Top section is just a block table for each byte, below that a rough description, and below that a breakdown of any bitmask behaviors.  The second tab for modes is a breakdown of where bytes diverge in behavior and is incomplete)

[ZeaLitY]

Tried to update Game Mechanics somewhat with the notes. That Google sheet is pretty attractively organized.

[hexhexhex]

Tried to update Game Mechanics somewhat with the notes. That Google sheet is pretty attractively organized.

Formatted the Base Damage table a little better.


Name           Level +/-   Targets      Base Damage
AquaBeam       1      7    Single Foe   12
IceLance       2      6    Single Foe   15
AquaBall       3      5    Single Foe   20
IceBlast       4      4    Single Foe   28
Deluge         5      3    All Foes     30
Iceberg        6      2    All Foes     38
           
Name           Level +/-   Targets      Base Damage
Fireball       1      7    Single Foe   12
MagmaBomb      2      6    All Foes     10
FirePillar     3      5    Single Foe   20
MagmaBurst     4      4    Single Foe   28
Inferno        5      3    All Foes     30
Volcano        6      2    All Foes     40
           
Name           Level +/-   Targets      Base Damage
Bushwhacker    1      7    Single Foe   12
Aerosaucer     2      6    Single Foe   15
Bushbasher     3      5    Single Foe   20
Aeroblaster    4      4    Single Foe   28
Carnivore      5      3    All Foes     30
Tornado        6      2    All Foes     38
           
Name           Level +/-   Targets      Base Damage
Uplift         1      7    Single Foe   12
ElectroJolt    2      6    Single Foe   15
Upheaval       3      5    Single Foe   20
ElectroBolt    4      4    Single Foe   28
Earthquake     5      3    All Foes     30
ThundaStorm    6      2    All Foes     40
           
Name           Level +/-   Targets      Base Damage
PhotonRay      1      7    Single Foe   13
Meteorite      2      6    Single Foe   16
PhotonBeam     3      5    Single Foe   22
MeteorShower   4      4    All Foes     25
HolyLight      5      3    All Foes     32
UltraNova      6      2    All Foes     42
           
Name           Level +/-   Targets      Base Damage
GravityBlow    1      7    Single Foe   13
HellSoul       2      -    Single Foe   --
Gravitonne     3      5    All Foes     16
HellBound      4      -    Single Foe   --
FreeFall       5      3    Single Foe   36
BlackHole      6      2    All Foes     44


Instead <table> might be best.

[ZeaLitY]

Thanks; got it in: https://www.chronocompendium.com/wiki/index.php/Game_Mechanics

[glennxserge]

Thanks, ZeaLitY!  Hopefully I'll have a pretty comprehensive addition to how the 50 odd element modes work. 

Some of them are super interesting.  Blackhole for instance, uses mode 0x0F, and it's the only element that uses it.  On the surface it just looks like an element that does damage and sometimes kills (based on the stat Death, being set), which could also be done with the default mode 0x00.  So why add an entirely new element mode?  What it actually does is only apply damage if a status effect didn't land.  So for instance, if you change the stat block for blackhole to apply poison instead of death, then you'll either damage your enemy or poison them, but not both.  My guess is that the developers realized that it would be confusing to show the numerical damage simultaneously to death (it would be ambiguous at least), so they needed this mode to make it clear that non-damage killed the enemy.

There's lots of these little weird and specific modes.  More to come soon.

[hexhexhex]

I still don't get what variable "f" is in regards to the damage equation and as to the example Grobycftw gave, I think they misunderstood my original question.

I was not asking about the Element Color bits. I was asking about the variable "f" as used in this expression:

Code: [Select]

damage=((mag+3)*(100-f)*e-(mdef+2)*500)*(1000+v*125)/400000*c/1000*(100+r)/100
In the mechanics page, it says

f: Like weapon based damage, f is a semi-random value. It is 20 for most elements.

But which byte in the Element's binary corresponds to this "f" variable? This variable has to be a number between 0 and 99, so it's not the Element Color indicator.

[glennxserge]

But which byte in the Element's binary corresponds to this "f" variable? This variable has to be a number between 0 and 99, so it's not the Element Color indicator.

The 'f' variable is a placeholder for a random value returned in the range of 0 to the value set in byte 0x0C of the element block.  Take a look at the following chunk of data for aquabeam, you'll see that 0x0C is set to 0x14 or 20.  So 'f' would be a random value between 0-20:

Code: [Select]

AquaBeam
xx  00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
  -------------------------------------------------
00| 01 01 00 00 80 80 01 00 0C 00 00 00 14 00 00 00
10| 20 00 77 00 FF FF FF FF 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 20
20| 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

The value 20, means that in a damage calculation the elements power (specified in addr 0x08) has random variance between 80-100% effectiveness, since 'f' has a potential range of 0-20.  If you set 0x0C to 0, you will get no variance.

For all standard attack elements in the game (any elements with addr:0x07 set to 0; mode 0), that value is 20 (except UltraNova, which is 0).  Fun fact, SexyWink is the only non-standard element that uses mode 0 that also sets that byte (0x0A or 10). 

[hexhexhex]

We should put that on the mechanics page instead of the current blurb about "f" because it's not relevant to that section.

Instead something like:

• UltraNova: f = 0
• SexWink: f = 10
• Otherwise, attack elements: f = 20

And make a note that it corresponds to 0x0C in the element's data block.

[glennxserge]

For completeness, it's also worth noting that Blackhole (which is kind of UltraNova's complement), also has an 0x0C value of 0, but because it uses it's own special element mode, I haven't tested whether that byte functions the same.  It probably does though.  I'll check now...

EDIT: Yes, mode 0x0F for Blackhole does make use of byte 0x0C.  I think it's functionally the same as in mode 0 behavior.  So I think we can put Blackhole in the same category as UltraNova.

[Grobycftw]

 @glennxserge  That chart is pretty neat! No sadly I don't have much more doc on this matter
but most of it has been documented by now! Last thing I was trying to do is to find the cost of Armor/Weapon/Acc. Forge & Sell,  it's nice that there's a wide range of element modes!

@hexhexhex you're right my bad I didn't understood what you meant, I didn't knew about the damage equation!