Thanks for trying out Infinite 500 and posting your feedback!
Noel wrote:
With the old linear onHit formula, I could generally count on getting a hit and status effect from talents like Stunning Blow, as long as ( attack - defence ) is greater than around 20. (IIRC, it's 5% failure chance, or 1 in 20.)
With the new formula, the failure chance drops to 1:10 or 1:5 for anything with reasonable defence. If the melee misses, the talent still goes on cooldown, requiring additional contingency planning.
This is intended. The main point of the new formula to make sure that there is always a chance of success (or failure) in most attacks. It works for both the player and for NPC's; No NPC is completely unhittable, and every NPC has a chance to hit the player. Part of the point is make sure that no actors (either player or NPC) can become melee-immune, so that you can't just jump into a mob of enemies with no risk of being hit, but at the same time, you are not faced with a hopeless (and frustrating!) situation when facing a random boss with a lot of defensive skills. This works for most spell effects as well. The result is to make sure that higher accuracy (and defense) and power (and saves) are always beneficial. In other words, to make your attacks more reliable, keep investing in attack. The need for contingency planning is the hallmark of ToME's deep tactical combat system, and this builds upon and enhances that.
Noel wrote:
I just started playing with this plugin on the main campaign, and the new onHit formulas seem to nerf melee chars a bit. Not sure if this is intended or a side effect.
Overall, I'd say that this addon is a slight buff for melee in general due to other changes, like the updated evasion mechanic, and rescaling armor. The new effects can limit melee offense at the high end somewhat, but they also buff defense in the same way.
Noel wrote:
How about treating these status-causing melee talents similarly to Dirty Fighting? IOW, if the talent is used, but the hit misses, don't put the talent on cooldown (but do take a turn, unlike Dirty Fighting). Or maybe put it on a short cooldown?
What you are proposing here would be unique. (Dirty Fighting is the only talent currently that is free to use if the status effect is resisted and it still goes on cooldown AND costs a turn to use if you miss with the initial attack.) I don't think the game would be enhanced if a Boss could keep trying a killer move against the player repeatedly until it connected.