Formulas & statistics

[Avin]

Hi,

I just stumbled on this site a few days ago as I'm replaying CT for the umpteenth time. I was curious on the work that has been done to discover the game mechanics and formulas for how damage is calculated, particularly techs. I think the last time I played through, maybe 4 years ago, I found some surprising combos after I had maxed ** stats on all characters - for instance, Ayla and Lucca's Fire Whirl did a lot more damage than I expected, because I realized it was based on Ayla's magic stat which is normally horribly low. I notice that the Game Mechanics FAQ on GameFAQs has some more info on it than it did back then, but it still does not cover everything. Is there anything on this site that does, or has there been any organized attempt to collect this information here? I've been looking through but it seems this site is more concerned with theorizing story related aspects of the game and has little new gameplay information content. If there are others here who are interested in collecting this information for the site, I would be willing to help in collecting data possibly, but I wouldn't be able to lead the effort due to lack of time on my part.

Avin

[Magus22]

I don't believe we have anything of the sort relating to damage calculations based on the # of the skill/stats or the maxed out ** skill/stats each character can have.

Talk to ZeaLity . . . knows all . . . sees all

[ZeaLitY]

A FAQ on Gamefaqs has the information; I just haven't asked them if I can host it yet. That version does seem somewhat incomplete.

[Avin]

Well if there's any interest, I started collecting data for all the triple techs as I'm playing through. Unfortunately since I wasn't going out of my way to avoid enemies, the lowest levels I'll have data for some of the triple techs will be in the 50s, but from a range of 50 to ** that should be enough data to come up with good formulations.

I think my primary interest is in seeing what the best party to have at any given time is for the sake of damage per turn - i.e. a triple tech is only as good as a single tech if it results in three times as much damage. I'm wondering if the best party is Crono+Lucca+Ayla casting Luminaire and the aforementioned Fire Whirl; in playing through just now (without going out of my way to encounter enemies but also not always going out of my way to avoid them) and giving all my magic tabs to Ayla, I was able to beat Giga Gaia in one combat round using that combo, and various other bosses a lot more quickly than I previously thought possible. Of couse this isn't that great against monsters that resist or counter fire or lightning, but it's not often that you encounter that and usually a physical attack will dispel it.

[Torex]

Necroing this topic, sorry. 

I was recently looking at the GameFaqs mechanics article, and then applying the formulas there to in-game damage being done.  The formulas were accurate, and the stats I had were indeed producing numbers approximate to the damage I was seeing.  However, I looked on the Compendium Enemy Stats section, and saw that they all have DEF and MDEF, but these stats seem to have little or no effect when damage is calculated.  Does anyone have any insight into how DEF and MDEF are involved with combat mechanics?  Conversely, how are they calculated on the receiving end for PCs?