How exactly the damage depends from attack/defend ratio?

[Handel]

For exampel what is better?
1. To have +2 defence or -2 attack on the enemies?
2. To have +2 defence or +10 resistance?
3. To have +3 attack or +1 damage?

I the russian fan-made manual there are lots of calcualtions but nothing about this ratio.

[Keneth]

Attack and defense are not static bonuses they depend on the creatures and usually don't have much impact until the numbers are very high (like having two dragonslayer's swords for +100% attack against dragons), on the other hand 10% resistance to one damage or +1 to damage are static and almost always the better choice.

[Stepsongrapes]

Originally Posted by Handel

For exampel what is better?
1. To have +2 defence or -2 attack on the enemies?
2. To have +2 defence or +10 resistance?
3. To have +3 attack or +1 damage?

I the russian fan-made manual there are lots of calcualtions but nothing about this ratio.

Here's my understanding on these issues

1. To have +2 defence or -2 attack on the enemies?

A. Each point of difference between attack and defense grants a 3.3% boost to damage (maxed at 300%). That means that for the most part, there's little difference in your two options. It might matter if the game doesn't keep track of negative values. (e.g., -10 to attack has lesser effect on a mob with only 5 attack).

2. To have +2 defence or +10 resistance?

AND 3. To have +3 attack or +1 damage?

A. As the previous post indicated, this depends on the mob's base stat. If something has only 1-2 damage (e.g., a sprite), +1 damage is HUGE (+100%-+50% damage) while +1 attack is weak (.033 to 066 damage). However, if the mob has a base damage of 200-300 (e.g., a dragon), than +1 damage is worse than +1 attack (6.6-9.9 damage boost).

[Keneth]

I don't think attack and defense are actual bonuses to damage and resistance, to my understanding they form a ratio (your creature's attack vs. the target's defense) which determines a percentile bonus (or penalty) to damage.

[Stepsongrapes]

Originally Posted by Keneth

I don't think attack and defense are actual bonuses to damage and resistance, to my understanding they form a ratio (your creature's attack vs. the target's defense) which determines a percentile bonus (or penalty) to damage.

I'm not sure if you're responding to my post, but your point is exactly what I was trying to say (with the exception that I don't think the ratio matters, per se, just the delta):

"Each point of difference between attack and defense grants a 3.3% boost to damage."

Perhaps I should have clarified that each point that attack exceeds defense grants a 3.3% damage bonus. If defense exceeds attack, then it is a 3.3% damage penalty.

[Keneth]

Yes, you're right, it's not the ratio between numbers, just the difference. I've checked the damage script just now.

Here's how it works, first the game calculates raw damage checking for any applied effects like bless that give you max damage or outputting a random number if there are no such effects and multiplying it by the crit factor if applicable. Then the damage is reduced by resistance if any (max resistance is 95% btw). Then the damage koeficient is applied which is the unit's attack * (any racial bonuses (which are all percentile hence multiplication) + holy rage bonus) - target's defense. And lastly the damage is multiplied by any damage factors of the unit. So basically the equation goes something like this:

damage = rawdamage * (1 - resistance / 100) * x * dfactor

x = (1 + k * 0.0333) if k > 0
x = 1 / (1 - k * 0.0333) if k < 0
x = 3 if k >= 60
x = 1/3 if k <= -60

[Handel]

Uhhhhh... Could you translate the last please?
I perused the russian forum (I am not russian but know the language well) and they think there are 2 different cases:
1. If the attack>defense then each point (atck-def) gives +5% damage but not more then 200% bonus including the bonus from artefacts if any.
2. But if the defence>attack then the calcualtion is much more complicated. They say the damage dealt per point depends on the difference. The more difference is the less damage per point is dealt. So if the (def-atck)=1 point then the damage is reduced with certain percentage. But if the (def-atck)=11 points then the damage reduced by much higher percentage.
This seems logical as the devs try to prevent making allmighty armies from zillions of lowly units. And obviously if the hero is a warrior with high enough attack even the lowly peasants will deal huge damage.
BTW - I killed both Kraken and the Spider Queen using (among the others) 2 stacks of lowly thorns. And 700 thorns dealt much more damage then 100 royal snakes although I am just a mage.

[Keneth]

It works exactly how I wrote it, this is not from the manual, it's from the actual script of the game's mechanism. Stepsongrapes has already put it in words, I just added the eqation and a few things that are also considered in the calculations. For every point of difference the damage is increased or decreased by 3.33% and maxed out at 300% or 33.3%.

[Stepsongrapes]

Originally Posted by Handel

Uhhhhh... Could you translate the last please?
I perused the russian forum (I am not russian but know the language well) and they think there are 2 different cases:
1. If the attack>defense then each point (atck-def) gives +5% damage but not more then 200% bonus including the bonus from artefacts if any.
2. But if the defence>attack then the calcualtion is much more complicated. They say the damage dealt per point depends on the difference. The more difference is the less damage per point is dealt. So if the (def-atck)=1 point then the damage is reduced with certain percentage. But if the (def-atck)=11 points then the damage reduced by much higher percentage.
This seems logical as the devs try to prevent making allmighty armies from zillions of lowly units. And obviously if the hero is a warrior with high enough attack even the lowly peasants will deal huge damage.
BTW - I killed both Kraken and the Spider Queen using (among the others) 2 stacks of lowly thorns. And 700 thorns dealt much more damage then 100 royal snakes although I am just a mage.

My summation above, which appears to match Kenneth's formulae, is correct IIRC.

"Perhaps I should have clarified that each point that attack exceeds defense grants a 3.3% damage bonus. If defense exceeds attack, then it is a 3.3% damage penalty."

Caps of 200% bonus (i.e., triple damage or 1/3 damage) on either side.

I far as I've seen, there is no multi-tiered complex formula for either attack or defense, beyond the cap.

[Handel]

Hmmm... May the game balance be changed in the english version?

Will read more in the russian forum... yes... it seems the english version has the above mentioned formula which starts from version 1.6.2 and above. The russian patches are using this too so both versions are the same again.

Which is good...