Hello everyone,
I open this topic to share the list of changes made to the fight mechanics and skills in the game overall and then give an opportunity to everyone to share their perspective and comment. Not all changes are recent. Recent changes will be highlighted with the 📰 emoji. This is a living post and it will be amended whenever new balance changes are shipped.
🇬🇧 The description will be in English for convenience. Please use a text translator if you need it in your own language.
🇫🇷 La description est rédigée en anglais par souci de commodité. Veuillez utiliser un outil de traduction si vous en avez besoin dans votre propre langue.
🇪🇸 La descripción estará en inglés por comodidad. Por favor, utilice un traductor de texto si la necesita en su propio idioma.
🇩🇪 Die Beschreibung ist der Einfachheit halber auf Englisch verfasst. Bitte nutzen Sie ein Übersetzungstool, falls Sie sie in Ihrer eigenen Sprache benötigen.
The list below will be updated regularly as more balance patches are shipped. All changes described below are in effect, unless stroke-through.
Nothing here is definitive, but just saying "it was better before" is not considered an argument but a conservative stance and not useful to the discussion. The scope here is to look at all game mechanics and all skills until level 50, excluding Invocations and Double skills.
The principle is that: future changes are not a reason do anything in the present, rather as a reason to make the present better and readier for the future changes (read skills) to come.
Trying to do everything at the same time is notoriously more difficult than handling a smaller sample size.
If balancing is correctly done, we should be able to take away or add skills and not break the balance as well.
Part 1 - Fight Mechanics
Energy Recovery Formula
The energy recovery formula has been adjusted to address a flaw in the original system.
The original concept was as follows: a combatant regains energy each turn in proportion to the time elapsed, except for the combatant whose turn it currently is. This seems logical at first glance.
However, this logic has a flaw, illustrated by the following example:
- Let's take Dinoz A and B. Both start with the same time value (t0) and have the same speed.
- Since their time values are equal, the combatant whose turn it is is chosen randomly. Dinoz A goes first and spends its energy.
- It is now Dinoz B's turn; the elapsed time is 0, so A does not regain energy. B takes its turn and spends energy.
- A and B once again have the same time value (because they have the same speed). A is once again chosen at random. B regains energy in proportion to the time elapsed. A does not regain energy because it is its turn.
- etc.
The example thus illustrates that although B took a turn between A's turns, A did not regain energy. This can result in Dinoz failing to regain energy for several turns, particularly in 1v1 battles.
The energy recovery logic has therefore been changed as follows:
A fighter regains energy each turn in proportion to the time elapsed, unless the previous turn was played by the same fighter whose turn it currently is.
Explanation:
This change was very noticeable in 1v1 Dojo qualifying challenges, though less pronounced in group battles. It frequently created situations where a Dinoz would run out of energy and lose one or more turns, potentially costing them the victory.
This change allows for more frequent energy recovery. It paves the way for increasing the energy cost of certain skills and removing the combo limit (see below).
Armor & Piercing
Armor has been *changed* to work as follows:
* It is now expressed as a percentage and stacks, just like dodge, multi-hit, and counter-attack stats.
* It is applied before defense, using the following formula:
damage = attack power * ( 1 - armor ) - defense
* The maximum value is 90%.
* By default, a fighter has 0% armor.
A *new* complementary mechanic has been added to "ignore" a fighter's armor: piercing.
* It is now expressed as a percentage and stacks, just like dodge, multi-hit, and counter-attack stats. * It applies before defense, using the following formula:
damage = attack power * ( 1 - Max(0, armor - piercing) ) - defense
* The maximum value is 90%; the minimum is 0%.
* By default, a fighter has 0% piercing.
The result of the armor - piercing calculation cannot be negative; i.e., if a fighter has more piercing than their target's armor, it does not increase the damage.
Note that piercing is not yet accessible, as no skills or items currently provide it.
Explanation:
Armor, while scarce, was near to useless in fights. The goal is to make it relevant again and provide more interesting choices when building a Dinoz.
Critical Hits
Critical hits are a *new* mechanic. They work as follows:
* They apply only to assaults. For each hit within an assault, the fighter has a chance to land a critical hit, increasing the assault's power by a factor equal to the fighter's critical hit bonus.
* First, there is the critical hit chance. By default, a fighter has a 0% critical hit chance. The maximum is 90% and the minimum is 0%.
* Second, there is the critical hit bonus. By default, a fighter has a 50% critical hit bonus. The minimum is 0%.
Explanation:
This new mechanic should allow for more varied strategies, offer new balancing perspectives, and make assaults more engaging.
Dodge
Dodge mechanics have been changed as follows:
1. The maximum is 90%; the minimum is 0%.
2. A fighter cannot dodge if incapacitated (asleep, petrified, or stunned).
3. A fighter with the "Intangible" status no longer loses that status when dodging an attack that would have otherwise removed it.
Explanation:
1 is a guardrail for future changes.
2 was almost already the case (asleep and stunned fighters were able to evade in the past).
3 was a bug in MT's code.
Counter
The counter mechanic has been changed as follows:
1. The maximum is 90%; the minimum is 0%.
2. A fighter cannot counter if incapacitated (asleep, petrified, or stunned).
3. A fighter must be alive to counter.
4. A fighter must have enough energy to execute a counter-attack.
Explanation:
1 is a guardrail for future changes.
2 , 3 & 4 are measures to avoid counters from incompatible scenarios.
Multi-Hits
The multi-hit mechanic has been changed as follows:
1. The maximum rate is 90%; the minimum is 0%.
2. A fighter cannot perform a multi-hit if incapacitated (asleep, petrified, or stunned).
3. A fighter must be alive to perform a multi-hit.
4. The chance of a multi-hit decreases by 50% for each consecutive multi-hit.
5. The fighter must have enough energy to execute a multi-hit.
(Note: the cost of a multi-hit increases with each hit and that is the original logic)
Explanation:
1 is a guardrail for future changes.
2 & 3 are measures to avoid multi-hits from incompatible scenarios.
4 & 5 are 2 measures to prevent OP high multi-hit stats. They come from two assessments: first during late game OG DinoRPG, Dinoz with high multi-hit stat could do crazy uninterrupted multi-hit streaks, combined with high counter rates, this Dinoz could just counter and multi-hit without interruption; second during 2025's experiment, high multi-hit could be achieved and it was clearly OP too.
Trigger Conditions
Although never explicitly stated in the original game, certain skills did indeed have trigger conditions. For example: *Airtight Aura* does not activate if the fighter already has the associated status effect; *Detonation* does not activate if it would kill the fighter; and each summon can only be used once.
However, the original logic (per the code archive from MT) had a significant flaw; when conditions weren't met, the skill selection process went like this:
- select skill
- process skill
- check trigger conditions
- cancel skill choice
- no skill chosen; default to standard attack
In other words, the logic implemented by MT (and initially carried over) meant that these conditions could prevent a skill from being chosen, forcing a standard attack instead.
The new logic integrates the trigger condition check directly into the skill selection process. A skill that cannot be cast cannot be selected.
Explanation:
The new logic fixes an obscure, hard-to-explain issue that caused unintended negative effects, while also offering ways to balance certain skills.
Combo Limit
The combo limit is an artifact from the source code released by Motion-Twin; it artificially limits the number of consecutive actions a fighter can perform.
This limit has simply been removed.
Explanation:
The limitation has flaws, and its origins are not well understood. It seems to predate energy and stamina.
Energy and stamina seem much better suited to achieve the desired effect without awkward situations.
Part 2 - Updated Skills
A few more notes regarding skill balancing. The current approach is as follows:
- preserve the uniqueness of each element skill tree
- preserve skill "lore" as possible (i.e keep the effect as close as possible to the skill name)
Then the methodology consists in:
- Understand what is the goal of the skill?
- Why is it strong/weak?
- How to change it?
Technical note:
The mathematical formula x^0.6 is widely used to smooth out results in fights. By extension, the term "Power of N" refers to the formula (N*x)^0.6, where N is the power value and x is the value within a specific element.
Armor related changes
- Carapace: 5% armor passive (originally +1 armor)
- Faroe Heritage: 10% armor passive (originally +1 armor)
- Glowing Scales (Quetzu): 10% armor passive (originally +2 armor)
- Shell (Wink): 5% armor passive (originally +1 armor)
- 📰 Hermetic Aura: Shield status (gives 20% armor) for a long duration (originally +5 armor)
- The status used to be infinite.
- Petrification: Petrified status (gives 50% armor) (originally +5 armor)
- 📰 SOS Helmet: Aura shield status (gives 20% armor) for a medium duration (originally stackable +1 armor)
- It used to give stackable 5% armor which proved to be too good during the Clan war tests.
- This prevents stacking helmets and stacking with Hermetic Aura as well.
General Fire Skill Changes
- Brave: speed buff replaced with initiative buff based on Fire power of 2
General Wood Skill Changes
- Vines: flat initiative debuff replaced with initiative debuff based on Wood power of 2
- Note: One gets the same initiative debuff starting at 46 of Wood.
- Explanation: Vines is ony of the best utility skill in the game given its flat effect. Any Dinoz can use it and, if lucky, fully stall an opponent. The reasons for this change are multiple:
- Give an edge to Wood specialists with an extra skill that scales on their Wood element.
- Force players to consider other skills in the Wood tree for utility or support.
.... That's a wrap. More balances change to come soon to the game!
Hello everyone,
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