How should "Armor" work?

[tiger_eye]

Marcotte, thanks for sparring. Your method is smooth and simple, and I would prefer it over the previous method, max(damage-armor,0). Btw, your method is equivalent to my framework with the [50% final damage] locus defined as "damage = armor". So, again, it comes down to what [50% final damage] locus makes sense? I think we'll need to throw a logarithm somewhere in there to please DarkGod

Put into lay terms, my locus "damage = alpha*armor^2" is effectively equivalent to a flat deduction followed by a percentage reduction. Done smoothly. This was discussed briefly in IRC (when I wasn't around :-/ ).

In the end, though, I'm pretty sure DarkGod has the final say . Until then, he has uttered the following words about the new armor system to guide us:

All a player needs to know is that "more is better, but the more you have the smaller the effect", if you need to know the precise formula to succeed, something else is wrong

And, so, I'm going to end with two much simpler graphs:
using alpha = 0.02 (for comparison)

tiger_eye.png (29.08 KiB) Viewed 1682 times

marcotte.png (23.76 KiB) Viewed 1682 times

As you can see, both the "tiger_eye" method and the "marcotte" method behave similarly such that the larger the input damage compared to the armor, the more % damage will be done. Conversely, if input damage is small compared to the armor, the less % damage will be done. We both seem to like this behavior . The main difference is that the "tiger_eye" method also behaves much like the current method.

Ciao!

[efr33t]

I like the tigereye proposal. Playing a wyrmic through the latest beta (level 43 now) and have been somewhat ignoring armor because its effects are much less noticeable than before. This seems like it would make armor feel more useful without overpowering it.

[marvalis]

And the method I proposed in the first post:

armor_proposed1-relative.png

First of all your graph title is inconsistent with your labels.
Second, the curve should be S-shaped.
Third, it should start higher (if something has 10 armor and you fail to do 4 damage then you should not be doing damage, should be 0 dmg at 0.4 or 0.5 dmg/armor).

[Canderel]

I got this image

2011-03-10_110442.jpg (16.72 KiB) Viewed 1623 times

Not any graph...

[marvalis]

Does not matter, the picture was crap anyway. I removed it. Besides, I don't have a better formula right now so I need to think more before I comment lol.