[RPG] Help me come up with a formula to calculate monster levels!

[Morrus]

OK, so we know the levels and rewards for monsters are a bit off. What's needed is a systematic way of determining an appropriate level based on a monster's stats. From there, a set method of assigning GP rewards can be applied.

So, any ideas? I tried to come up with a formula before, but it doesn't seem to have worked out.

A PC gains 3-15 points on each attribute with each level (starting with 100/100/30/30 at level 0). A PC also is able to buy equipment, so a monster's level should take into account that a PC has drastically boosted stats beyond that 3-15 point level progression, whereas a monster does not.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Is the 3-15 point gain a linear distribution? (ie same chance of getting 3 or 9 or 15)

 

[Morrus]

Yep, I believe so.

 

[Kalanyr]

It's almost impossible to take into account a PCs boosted stats because HP isn't boosted like Str/Def/Mana are, without this foes with balanced stats at equivalent levels will 1 hit kill because their average rolls on (own high strength - 1/3 of a roughly equal defence (opponent's defence which is /3 before randomisation)) results in complete obliteration of said opponents HP which is usually about 400 points lower. If some item boosted HP and we knew what gold value a character of every level would have and had a systematic cost for each item, it would be possible to work out the precise equivalent level (however the addition of gold from posting,jobs,loss to healing,getting drunk,upgrading equipment etc would throw this out, but you could assume those are equal), at the moment I'd say that a rough level is ((Monsters Total Points - 260)/9) * (3/5) is about right but it does tilt it fairly heavily in the monsters favour since it can deliver 1 hit kills more frequently than the player can.

Sorry for the length but I can't think of a good way to break it down.

 

[Morrus]

I just whipped together a spreadsheet based on that formula.

 

[Kalanyr]

Ah, that looks wrong, just found my mistake should be Divide by 36 not by 9 (forgot to account for 4 stats). I'll go plug in my stats and tweak the multiplying fraction until I get my level and let you know.

Edit -> Using (Total Monster Stats - 260)/36 * (3/5), nets just under my level, so its slightly in favour of the monster (using 97/160) as the fraction is pretty much exact for me. (At a glance though it makes the dragon way to low level, that thing always 1 hit killed me at Level 23, the problem is that Str>HP>Def>MP, so you can't rate them equally.

Edit2-> Just read your below post and due to my auctioning silliness I can't post a new reply. MP and Str NEED to stack, otherwise MP is utterly useless (Str is not an expended resource whereas MP is) and if they do stack both are important.

 

[Morrus]

Not sure it should be 4 stats - one uses STR OR MP, not both. There's no real advantage to having a high score in both stats.

 

[Morrus]

Perhaps the attributes can be ranked, then? We know that DEF is worth 1/3 of STR, for example.

 

[Kalanyr]

Thats not a bad idea, HP are worth a little bit under strengh probably about 9/10, MP depends if it stacks with Str its about half as much, since its expended it if replaces it its probably about 1/4 maybe less.

 

[Morrus]

Yikes, that makes the formula complicated. Anyone here a whizz with Excel?