Formulas are the backbone of any RPG, and while they may be of little interest to many players, their execution can have a ripple effect throughout the game that impacts player experiences (whether positively or negatively) in some pretty major ways. For Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, formulas that use agility and luck have been a long-standing mystery, and very little information exists stating what these stats do in even general terms. Based on my personal observations, for players familiar with the game, these stats don’t usually get a whole lot of love. There just doesn’t seem to be a sense of getting a good return for points dumped into these stats, while putting points in Strength, Magic, or Vitality has very real and very noticeable effects. Are players right in shunning these stats? Lets take a closer look.
Below are all formulas I’ve discovered for Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne that use Agility or Luck. I’ll also go into what I think about some of these formulas, and what I wanted to change for my Hardtype hack of this game.
Key:
DF = Demi-Fiend
PA = party average
EA = enemy average
[] = truncation
Formulas:
Player Chance to Act First: (72 + (DF_Lv + [DF_Luck/2] + DF_Agi) – (EA_Lv + EA_Agi + [EA_Luck/2])) * x
x = An enemy-encounter-specific value, can be 1.0, 0.8, 0.6, 0.4, or 0
Maximum Value = 85%
Minimum Value = 50%
Chance of Enemy Back Attack: 12 * (EA_Lv + EA_Agi + [EA_Luck/2]) / (MC_Lv + MC_Agi + [MC_Luck/2])
Physical Accuracy: Skill_Accuracy + ([Attacker_Agi/[Attacker_Lv/5 + 3]] * 6.25) – ([Defender_Agi/[Defender_Lv/5 + 3]] * 6.25)
Critical Hit Chance: Physical_Accuracy_Formula_Result / Skill_Accuracy * Skill_Crit_Rate
Magical Accuracy: Skill_Accuracy * (Attacker_Lv + Attacker_Mag*2 + [Attacker_Luck/2] + 17.5) / (Defender_Lv + [Defender_Agi*1.5] + Defender_Luck + 17.5)
Ailment and Instant Death Chance: no stats involved
Item Drop Rate: no stats involved
Escape Chance (Normal mode only): 20 + 20 * (2 + (PA_Agi + PA_Luck)/4.2) / (2 + (EA_Agi + EA_Luck)/4.2)
Observations about these Formulas:
-Luck doesn’t do much. It plays no role in critical hit chance or ailments at all, and it’s effects on acting first in combat and avoiding back attacks are eclipsed by agility.
-The Physical Accuracy and Critical Hit Chance formulas are, frankly, a trainwreck. Your character level causes you to perform worse in both accuracy and critical hit chance, and the truncation is far too extreme. To give an example, if you were level 50, then (Lv/5+3) = 13. This means that only every 13th point of Agi has any benefit to you at all. If you had 12 or 1 Agi, it would have the same effect. Same for 13 and 25 Agi. At high enough level, there’s even no difference between 1 and 40 Agi.
-The magic stat is ridiculously self-sufficient, providing magic damage, magic accuracy, and MP.
Desired Changes for my Hardtype Hack:
-Make Luck more powerful and actually play a role in the things one would expect them to.
-Fix the truncation nightmare in Phys Acc and Crit Rate, and don’t have level count against you.
-Involve stats in ailment and instant death skills.
-Divorce magic accuracy from the Mag stat (while buffing magic in the late game)
Changes that were Made:
-Luck was made the primary factor for magic accuracy
-Player chance to act first was changed to use luck and agi in a 3:4 ratio (the impact of both stats was increased)
-The chance of back attack was changed to use luck and agi in a 2:1 ratio (and the impact of both stats was increased)
-The Physical Accuracy and Crit Rate formulas were changed completely to give a both steady and consistent benefit.
-Crit Rate was changed to rely on luck and agi in a 2:1 ratio.
-Ailment and instant death rates were changed to be effected by Luck.
All-in-all, in the original version of this game, I think it’s fair to say that players are right to avoid these stats, but these Hardtype changes make Agi and (especially) Luck into much more important factors in the game, and hopefully make a wider variety of character builds more appealing and more effective!
zombero : Hacks & Hardtypes 