MinDam, MaxDam, and reproducing Live-like combat
 

As i've been working on my database and have started to work with the higher level monsters, i've run into a bit of confusion as to how I should be setting up the mobs.

Currently in EQEmu, there is a minimum damage and a maximum damage that can be specified for mobs. It seems like a good way of controling the damage output of mobs, but i'm not really sure how to compare this to Live.

For example, say a mob of level X hits for a maximum of 100 damage. Technically, on Live a mob can hit you anywhere from 1-100 damage, depending on the level difference between you and the player, and the players AC. Realistically however, the mob will USUALLY be hitting the player from about 50-100 damage, if the player and the mob are of similar levels. So it would seem that Live doesn't really have a minimum damage setting for mobs, only a maximum, and the rest is intelligently calculated based on levels and AC.

So now my question is - do I set up the database to make mobs hit from 1 - Max damage, or (1/2 * max) - Max damage? If i set up the database to hit from 1 - Max, will EQEmu take into account the level of the player and mob and usually hit from half max - max, or do I have to set this up manually? Because if a mob hits for a max of 200, there is a HUGE difference if its hitting players for 1-200 or 100-200. Any advice here from world builders who have dealt with this issue?

If you feel the mob should have a chance to hit for as little as 1, then you should make the mindmg 1. Some boss mobs will have a mindmg higher than that and need to be taken into consideration.

Any deviation from the damage calculation the server uses will require changes to the code on the server. If I had to bet money, I would bet that the server does not calculate damage accurately as compared to live. Players seem to report that the current combat rolls favor the player a bit, either by having them hit a little higher than live would let them, or the mob hitting for less or both. You might find that a valid reason for putting higher-level mobs on a mindmg higher than 1 even if that doesn't hold 100% true to EQLive.

So basically you're saying that I should play with the numbers until I get something that I find suitable :)

Ya, to get "live" like combat, source code changes would be needed.

Jump into the code and see if you can work something good out :D

Arglllll ! No please ! :)
There's not enough players on eqemu to make combats livelike, not much would be killable, except lowbie xp mobs :)

At some point, I looked up damage calcs, and mindamage exists and a specified variable damage will be done 1-20 times. Then armor mitigates the damage, and evasion eliminates all damage through missing/dodging.

It's a complicated setup, and I never got the formulas right for mitigation or evasion.

a_Guest ? Youre still alive and kicking !

I could say the same about you :-P