Give us back our melee breakdown! Implement basic DPS calcs in a submenu

[TheHolyDarkness]

You know, I liked the step you guys at Turbine made for to allow us to see our attack speed, double strike chance, AC defense odds, etc. It was a good move on your part.

Yet one thing strike me as missing.

A proper damage breakdown of our weapons!

Before you converted things away from dnd dice and into a damage range, it was simple to see differences in how our weapons would hit as we tinkered with our buffs and what not. Nowadays? Not so much. Not unless you are using handwraps anyway, which seems to be the only weapon to give a clue anymore.

With all the +[W] and whatnot going on with destinies, damage boosts, unique hit dice named weapons, set bonuses and other confusing stuff, why must we continue to suffer a damage breakdown that's so vague?

Its time to improve that part of the inventory screen! No more spreadsheets and advance math degrees in order to tell how hard your weapon hits, as you math and programming wizards work on an in game DPS calculator!

Now then, since I know development time has to be allocated in a sensible way let me break the project down into phases that you can implement over time.

Phase 1 - As a first step, make most weapons in the inventory display their basic information pretty much the same way Handwraps are currently doing (dice modifier)[W] + mod. Have that part of the phase ready by the next update.



Phase 2 - I then recommend that you program a sub box that opens as you move your cursor over your equipment in the "detailed" section (much as detailed breakdowns for AC, spell pwr, etc currently does on our character sheet). Have it listed in DnD dice just what your weapon is truly doing based on any current +[W] effects, the total modifier, and finally, what the average base hit should finally look like.

Take a basic greensteel quarterstaff for example (a 1.5[1d6] weapon). In the detailed sub menu, show it off as

+1.5[1d6]= ("W" average of) 5.25 + (modifiers) = (final expected base damage)

Simple. Now, as the player messes with things such as an Improved Power Attack twist (.5) while Dancing with the Flames (.75) and the Flowers (1.50...after you unbug it with Ki Weapons that is), let the detailed breakdown adjust to the new expectation off...

4.25[1d6] = ("W" average of) 14.88 + (modifiers) = (final expected base damage)


Phase 3 - As a icing on the cake, throw in how we may expect critical rolls to break down as well, right underneath the base hit breakdown, that crit modifiers via seeker, feats, destinies, may also be clearly visible alongside our current threat range and multiplier. After all the work to implement Phase 2, this should be simple enough.



Phase 3.5 - Debug all the stuff you just implemented. Address the calls of DPS breakdowns that aren't working as advertised, etc. Sigh.


Phase 4? - Do this and I'll call our GUI advanced, useful, and nigh perfect. The only thing left for you to do now is to add in how special effects contribute to the true damage of your weapon, rather than a breakdown of the base hit and crits alone. This might be excessively tricky to program into the calculator given unique abilities such as barbarian frenzies, Sense Weakness from FotW, lighting strike, etc, so I won't hold it against you if you don't go that far.

All the same, our Weapon DPS breakdown needs a much needed update in the inventory screen. A very doable, crucially needed update. Save us some time and get an in-game DPS calculator in there. Thank you.

~TheHolyDarkness Out~

[Kinerd]

The trouble with a DPS calc is that it has to assume a way you fight, which has been an exploitable mechanic for years. Perhaps an alternative:

New zone!

Target
-customizable fort, elemental resist, alignment, helpless, aggro, vulnerabilities, the whole shebang
-a lot of HP, enough for anyone to wail on for hours if they feel like

Recorder
-some NPC that lets you do all the customization to prevent clicking on the target generating menus
-can give every buff, stacking durations that dispel on exiting zone
-option to start recording: on the next damage done to the target, keeps track of all damage for a specific time limit (5 minutes, 10 minutes, whatever)

Instant DPS test, just add damage! Attack however you want, simulate being out of range or stunned or getting trash or whatever by, you know, not attacking anymore. You want to twitch-fight, twitch-fight. You want to lay to waste, lay to waste as much as you can. You want to triple stack some DoTs, go ahead!

Seems easier and more accurate to me.

[TheHolyDarkness]

It doesn't need to be a full fledged, comprehensive DPS calculator.

But it simply has to be better than the status quo we have now. At the very least, implement up to Phase 1 of my suggestion. Once upon a time you could tell what you're total modifiers and weapon damage were just by checking out the details. Since they changed it way back when, its become unneccesarially vague. When I hold a 1d6 weapon undergoing a whole bunch of +[W] effects, I want the inventory feedback to say more than just some range of 1-6 damage.

I put the phases in order of viability. At least some of them are doable. This is about improving the GUI, and I'm sure we can agree that when it comes to giving you weapon damage feedback, its far from flawless.

~TheHolyDarkness Out~

[Mastikator]

So much /signed that I'm about to explode for /signed-ness.