Do we really need Physical & Magical Damage Types? There is technically no difference between them, and there's not many effects actually making use of the fact that both of them exist. In a nutshell, it's pretty much Power & Courage based attacks are Physical Damage, and Wisdom based attacks are Magical Damage. That said, we could easily substitute any Magical Damage & Armor bonuses with bonus Wisdom, which essentially removes the Magical Type from the game.
Ultimately, what would we lose if Physical & Magical Damage were condensed to just Damage? Then that leaves one Armor type, and less confusion about what that Armor affects and what ignores it. Armor reduces Damage. Armor does not reduce losing Hearts and/or Magic.
Neutral Damage will stay as is and just ignore Armor.
The reason I bring this up is earlier, Sephiroth was very kind to write up a Status Template for anyone to use earlier to keep track of their stats and changes to said stats, as well as a damage calculator, in battle. You can see it here. However... even without Status Effects in, that's a lot of values to keep track of, some of which for the most part will never be used (there's not even such thing as Bonus Neutral Damage in the game right now) and just kinda serves to make things look more complicated. The second reason is, well... I brought in Damage Types because it's a regular thing in RPGs without even really thinking "does it actually fit ZURPG?". And right now, I'd have to say no.
But, I'm not going to just change things without consent. Although it technically isn't a large change, it's still a core mechanics change. Below, I've listed three options on the vote. Nothing will change unless either Option 1 or Option 3 has at least a 75% vote.
The way I see it, it's not dumbing the game down; we're removing unnecessary complexity that we're not making nearly enough use of to justify its existence. Anyhow, please vote, and post your opinions below!
EDIT: Darklink42 pointed out that we used to not have Damage Types. In fact, I'm not entirely sure when we added them. I wanna say it was right before hiatus, but I'm not sure.
Ultimately, what would we lose if Physical & Magical Damage were condensed to just Damage? Then that leaves one Armor type, and less confusion about what that Armor affects and what ignores it. Armor reduces Damage. Armor does not reduce losing Hearts and/or Magic.
Neutral Damage will stay as is and just ignore Armor.
The reason I bring this up is earlier, Sephiroth was very kind to write up a Status Template for anyone to use earlier to keep track of their stats and changes to said stats, as well as a damage calculator, in battle. You can see it here. However... even without Status Effects in, that's a lot of values to keep track of, some of which for the most part will never be used (there's not even such thing as Bonus Neutral Damage in the game right now) and just kinda serves to make things look more complicated. The second reason is, well... I brought in Damage Types because it's a regular thing in RPGs without even really thinking "does it actually fit ZURPG?". And right now, I'd have to say no.
But, I'm not going to just change things without consent. Although it technically isn't a large change, it's still a core mechanics change. Below, I've listed three options on the vote. Nothing will change unless either Option 1 or Option 3 has at least a 75% vote.
- Remove Damage & Armor Types:
- Physical & Magical Damage are condensed to just Damage.
- Physical & Magical Armor are condensed to just Armor.
- Neutral Damage still ignores Armor.
- Keep it as is:
- Three Damage Types - Physical, Magical & Neutral
- Physical Damage is reduced by Physical Armor
- Magical Damage is reduced by Magical Armor
- Neutral Damage ignores Physical & Magical Armor
- Other:
- Got another idea? Post it!
The way I see it, it's not dumbing the game down; we're removing unnecessary complexity that we're not making nearly enough use of to justify its existence. Anyhow, please vote, and post your opinions below!
EDIT: Darklink42 pointed out that we used to not have Damage Types. In fact, I'm not entirely sure when we added them. I wanna say it was right before hiatus, but I'm not sure.
